Tucked away next to the Horseshoe Lounge on South Lamar is Barley Swine, a new restaurant from chef Bryce Gilmore of Odd Duck Farm to Trailer. Both establishments share a commitment to locally sourced ingredients and small-plate offerings, but Barley Swine’s larger menu and extensive beer list put it squarely in the portmanteaustic category of gastropub.

The biggest difference between the two establishments, of course, is that Barley Swine is in an actual building, albeit a tiny one with only a few parking spaces out in front. Inside, the room is packed with tall chairs and dark wooden tables arranged close together. An open kitchen lines one wall so you can watch the chefs work their magic on your crispy stuffed pig’s foot or foie gras with duck sausage.

Take note: this is an establishment for carnivores. Nothing on the menu is vegan, very little is vegetarian and substitutions are “politely declined.” As long as you like meat, everything about Barley Swine invites communal eating–the layout of the restaurant, the presentation of the dishes and the tiny portions, which endeavor to turn a group meal into a tasting menu.

The appetizers and desserts–the smallest of the small plates–are indisputable winners. It is easy to see why the deep brown fried brussel sprouts are one of the restaurant’s most popular items. Their salty, crispy outer leaves and meaty centers are perfectly accented by capers and lemon. The potato fritters with goat cheese were just as good—crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside, dotted with bits of leek and accompanied by a lemon-garlic sauce.

For dessert, a thick, dark chocolate custard with a consistency closer to ice cream than pudding was sweetened by whipped cream and a crunchy almond cookie. The cheese plate, which changes daily, included slices of apple pressed with cold beets. The beets took on some of the tartness of the apple, the apple took the sweetness of the beets and the end result completely stole the cheese’s thunder.

The entrees included a lot of seafood, but the tender scallops in a cauliflower and pancetta curry stood out, as did the barely cooked fresh pasta stuffed with potato and smoked trout, dressed with an egg and butter sauce that somehow managed to avoid being cloying.

The clam chowder had a similar character. It was full of butter, slab bacon and fresh clams still in their shells. The dish’s relatively thin texture and streak of lemon kept it from being too heavy. The lack of vegetables, however, made it a bit bland, especially in contrast with the other dishes. The only real disappointment was the over-salty grilled baby octopus with chorizo.

Even though all the portions were small, the food was so rich that larger portions might have been overwhelming. Prices for each dish range from $5-18, with most of the entrée-type dishes around $10-15. That doesn’t sound like much, but when it takes three or four small plates to make a full meal for one person (or the whole menu to make a meal for four), it adds up to a lot.

Another downside to this style of communal eating is that sometimes you just don’t want to be communing with the people who happen to be sitting next to you at a restaurant. During my visit, the room was nearly empty, but it does get very crowded late in the evening and on weekends. Yes, the food is good, but college students on a budget, especially those not old enough to sample the beer list, would do better to head half a mile north and have dinner at Odd Duck instead.