The Journal · The Brantford Club
The Keg Brantford vs The Brantford Club: Two Kinds of Evening
The Keg Brantford is a steakhouse at 61 Lynden Road, open to anyone from four in the afternoon, built for a good steak and a table for two. The Brantford Club is a private club, its door at 98 George Street, kept since 1898, built for an evening that is yours: a room of the house, a menu planned with the kitchen, and your guests at your side.
Most people who search for The Keg in Brantford want its particulars, so here they are: 61 Lynden Road, across from Lynden Park Mall, open from four on weekdays and three on the weekend, reservations online or at 519-757-0024. Some of the same searchers have a dinner to host, a client to feed, or a retirement to mark, and want to know whether the steakhouse on Lynden Road or the old house on George Street is the right room for it. This entry answers both, and it says plainly when the answer is The Keg.
What is the difference between The Keg Brantford and The Brantford Club?
The Keg Brantford is a restaurant, and The Brantford Club is a club, and the whole difference sits inside those two nouns. A restaurant serves the public one table at a time: you arrive, you are seated, the room belongs to whoever walked in tonight. A club keeps one table for the same people, year after year, and a member brings guests to it. The Keg’s Brantford location, by the chain’s own page, has a dining room, a lounge, a bar with televisions, a heated patio, free parking, and a happy hour; the chain traces itself to 1971, when George Tidball opened the first Keg n’ Cleaver in North Vancouver, and it now counts more than a hundred restaurants across Canada and the United States. The Brantford Club was formed in May 1898, opened on the last night of that year, and has kept its dining rooms at 98 George Street ever since, in an Italianate house of about 1855 that was already old when the City incorporated. Executive chef Eric Wasylenky runs the kitchen from a working lunch to full evening service, and the rooms that dine are named: the dining room; the Waterous Family Dining Room, named for the Charter family; the 98 George Room; the Bateson Lounge.
When The Keg Is the Right Answer
Friday at seven, two of you, a steak and a Caesar and no arranging: that is The Keg’s evening, and it does it well, which is why the Brantford location carries more than two thousand Google reviews at the time of writing. A birthday of six who want the life of the bar around them belongs there too, and so does a table on the heated patio in October, and so does the office group of twelve, which The Keg takes through its group-dining request for parties of ten or more, with a prix fixe menu on offer and a representative calling back to confirm the details. Nothing about a good steakhouse needs a house on George Street to improve it. If the evening is a meal, go and have the meal.
When the House on George Street Is
The Brantford Club’s evening begins when the dinner has a purpose beyond the plate. A room of the house closes around your party, with no walk-through traffic and no second seating waiting for the table. The menu is settled with the kitchen beforehand, with the table’s preferences and any dietary needs taken at booking, so the first plate arrives already right. Speeches survive here, because the person running the room knows to pause the service through them. A board dinner, a client lunch on a Tuesday, an anniversary with three generations at one table, a retirement with the whole office and a gift to hand over: these are the dinners the house was built for, and private dining at The Brantford Club is arranged by email or a phone call rather than by a form. There is one more thing a restaurant cannot do and a club exists to do, which is keep the same table for the same six people every Thursday. A member’s standing table is the oldest product in the house, and it has been on offer since 1898.
The Keg Brantford vs The Brantford Club, Side by Side
The Keg Brantford vs The Brantford Club is a comparison of a steakhouse and a private club, and the table below sets the two out on the points a host asks about first: where each is, what each is, how a table is arranged, what happens with a larger party, what to wear, and when the door is open.
| The particulars | The Keg Brantford | The Brantford Club |
|---|---|---|
| Where it stands | 61 Lynden Road, across from Lynden Park Mall | 98 George Street, downtown, in the Court House’s shadow |
| What it is | A steakhouse and bar, one of more than a hundred Kegs | A private members’ club with its own dining rooms |
| Since | The chain dates itself to 1971 | Since 1898, in a house built around 1855 |
| Where you sit | Any table, walk-in or reserved | A room of the house, held for one party |
| Larger parties | Group dining for ten or more by request, prix fixe menus | The Waterous Family Dining Room, the 98 George Room, the dining room, the Bateson Lounge |
| What to wear | None published on its Brantford page | Pub casual; dining room smart casual |
| Hours | From 4 p.m. weekdays and 3 p.m. weekends, by its own listing | None published; a private club arranges its evenings |
| Arranging it | Reserve online or call 519-757-0024 | Email manager@thebrantfordclub.com with the occasion, a date, and a guest count |
What to Wear at Either
The question people ask about The Keg most often is whether jeans are fine, and at a steakhouse in Brantford they are; The Keg’s Brantford page publishes hours, parking, and the patio, and no dress code at all. The Brantford Club publishes its code, and it is shorter than the reputation of private clubs suggests: the pub is casual, with ripped jeans and hats not permitted, and the dining room is smart casual, with collarless t-shirts, shorts, ripped jeans, and hats not permitted. There is no jacket rule and no tie rule. A collared shirt and trousers in good repair will carry you through every room at 98 George Street, and the longer version of that answer is in the Journal’s entry on club dress codes.
One room on Lynden Road seats the city by the table. One room on George Street has kept the same table since 1898.
The Steak at Both Addresses
The Keg describes its own dining as accessible, upscale, and consistent, and that is a fair description of a house whose menu is the same in Brantford as in Burlington. The kitchen at The Brantford Club follows the season under Chef Eric Wasylenky, and its signature is a pork chop rather than a striploin: the Churchill Pork Chops carry the name of the house’s most famous guest, who signed the Visitors’ Register on January 3, 1901, per the Club’s centennial history. Nobody here will rank one grill against the other. The distinction is that The Keg cooks the same good dinner for everyone who walks in, and the Club cooks the dinner you planned with it for the people you brought. For the working version of that, the corporate events page covers the board dinner and the client lunch.
Questions from the doorway
Is The Brantford Club a restaurant?
No. The Brantford Club is a private business and social club at 98 George Street, kept since 1898, with its own dining rooms and a kitchen under executive chef Eric Wasylenky. Its dinners are a member’s evening in a room of the house, arranged in advance, rather than a public floor with a queue at the door.
Does The Keg Brantford take large groups?
Yes, through the chain’s group-dining request for parties of ten or more, with prix fixe group menus on offer. The Keg notes on its own page that submitting a request does not confirm a reservation; a representative calls back to settle the details, and some locations do not offer large-group bookings at all.
Can I hold a private dinner at The Brantford Club?
Send an email with the occasion, a preferred date, and roughly how many chairs, and a person answers how a private dinner at the house works. The room, the courses, and the hour are settled in conversation with the kitchen and your event coordinator, and no dollar figure is quoted on the page because every table is priced by its menu.
What is the dress code at The Keg and at The Brantford Club?
The Keg’s Brantford page publishes no dress code, and jeans are the ordinary answer at a steakhouse. The Brantford Club’s published code is casual in the pub and smart casual in the dining room, where collarless t-shirts, shorts, ripped jeans, and hats are not permitted. A collared shirt settles it.
Is The Keg fine dining?
The Keg describes its own dining as accessible, upscale, and consistent, and that description, in its own words, is the one to go by. Brantford’s fine-dining question is usually a different search with different answers. The Brantford Club is neither a steakhouse nor a restaurant; it is a private club with a seasonal kitchen.
Sources: The Keg’s own Brantford location page, group dining page, and company history; The Brantford Club’s published policies and dining pages; the Club’s centennial history for the Register. The wider field of rooms for hire in the city is in the register of Brantford event venues. There is a register of every comparison, for the reader with a different pairing in mind.
The Brantford Club, 98 George Street, Brantford, Ontario N3T 2Y4 · Open in Google Maps
If the evening has a purpose
A steak on Lynden Road needs no help from us. A dinner with a room to close, a menu to plan, and people to bring starts with one email, and a person answers.
manager@thebrantfordclub.com · 519-752-0931 · Book the Club
