The Bar Towel

Belgian wrote: Interesting that Buffalo and Detroit are featured in today's GRID magazine as 'rust belt road trip'destinations.

I agree about Buffalo's Elmwood/Albright area, but I always thought I'd stay far, far away from Detroit. Though with common sense it's probably OK.

I have a beer geek friend who lives in Detroit and works at Wayne State. We met shortly after I visited the city in late 2011. According to him downtown (including Greektown), the Eastern Market area, Midtown (including the university campus), Belle Isle, much of the riverfront (Atwater), and parts of Corktown are walkable and safe, and luckily that's where most of the beer spots are located. We took the same precautions that you would take in any city and had a lot of fun there, to the point where I'm aiming to visit my buddy for a Midtown pub crawl before year's end. If you haven't been yet, Roast and Slow's are reason enough to drive down.

Thanks to everyone who offered advice re the Tigers and Comerica. This was not a beer trip per se (I was probably the only beer geek on board), but I did manage to get in the following. First, at Fishbones, a large, generic restaurant a few blocks from the stadium, Motor City Ghettoblaster Mild (bottle) and Bell's Oberon (tap). Then, at the stadium, Bell's Two Hearted on tap (can't complain about that!) and Atwater Decadent Dark Chocolate Ale on cask (yes, I said cask at a baseball game). In point of fact, the cask was in pretty poor shape, but how could I resist my first ever cask ale at an MLB game? It was on stillage in a very warm, crowded bar area. Also, the one and only stand that had these beers, called the Michigan Craft Beer stand, was rammed the entire night. You pretty much had to invest an entire inning in line to get a Two Hearted. Needless to say, I didn't see all of the game.

p.s. the commonly available beer throughout the stadium was none other than Labatt Blue, though it is just called "Labatt's" in the US context. You see this in Buffalo from time to time too. Never ceases to amaze. I mean, I'd rather drink a genuine American Bud or a Miller High Life than a freaking Blue.

Any tips for finding a decent shop in downtown Detroit? Staying near Ford Field and planning to tailgate before a game. Not sure my friends are up for the detour out to the burbs for the better shops.

I'll be in Michigan for my son's hockey tournament at New Year's. Can anyone compare Merchant's on Michigan Ave and the Beer Baron on Middlebelt Rd?

Just curious. I'm sure either will do for my purposes. Where do you park at Merchant's? Out behind the store?

S. St. Jeb wrote:I'll be in Michigan for my son's hockey tournament at New Year's. Can anyone compare Merchant's on Michigan Ave and the Beer Baron on Middlebelt Rd?

Just curious. I'm sure either will do for my purposes. Where do you park at Merchant's? Out behind the store?

I can't speak to Beer Baron, but Merchants has the best selection in the area AFAIK. Their prices are sometimes a little higher, but the selection is great. Champagnes in warren has cheaper prices but I don't find their selection is quite as great - the bonus being they're usually less crazy about bottle limits. If I've got lots of time I'll hit Champagnes, grab a beer at Kuhnhenn, then swing over to Merchants for anything I didn't find at champagnes.

and yeah, parking in a big lot behind Merchants and they validate parking so it's free. They're also my source of craft kegs too (but you need to email to set that up ahead of time).

In Michigan right now, staying in Warren. I don't see this place mentioned, but One-Eyed Betty's in Ferndale has become my favourite place close to Detroit. Cab ride from Warren was about $25.

The place was ridiculously busy, but the food was great, and the tap list was fantastic. The only downside was that the 2 taps I wanted most were killed before we got there. The bottle list was also pretty good, but pricey. They also have a great selection of Scotch/Whisky, and Bourbon.

Service was a bit hit and miss. After being seated our waiter was a bit clueless, asking if we were ready to order within a minute of receiving the menu, and later on taking a drink order and coming back a few minutes later to take our drink order again before realising we had already ordered. However, I don't fully blame him as it was really busy.

Another observation was that even though it was an hour wait for tables, I didn't see one person leave to go elsewhere.

This is definitely a place that I'll be visiting again. Possibly for breakfast tomorrow as the menu looked awesome.

Yeah, OEB's is pretty good for beer and food.
In Birmingham there is a place called TOAST that is a gastopub and always jammed if you are looking for some great food.

As for bars, Clubhouse BFD is out in Troy and have a really good taplist.
And if anyone is in the Ann Arbor area I can't recommend Ashley's enough when it comes to beer.

So many tap takeovers in the area. So little time.

Some really exciting news! HopCat in Detroit.

Kish84 wrote:Some really exciting news! HopCat in Detroit.

That is great news. For those of you who know the city: is it a safe neighbourhood?

TheSevenDuffs wrote:

Kish84 wrote:Some really exciting news! HopCat in Detroit.

That is great news. For those of you who know the city: is it a safe neighbourhood?

Going to say that if they're spending $3.3M to open up 130 taps, they're probably not too worried about what you might be getting at?

Also, from the article:

The new venture adds another spark to an arts, dining and entertainment strip that includes the Majestic Cafe, Union Street and the Whitney restaurants, with TechTown and Wayne State University and MOCAD (Museum of Contemporary Art), nearby.

Sounds like it's as good a spot to open as any.

It's not too far from the Whole Foods, and Wayne State University. I was in that area a couple weeks ago, seemed fine. Also not too far from Comerica Park.

I'll second Whole Foods. Was able to have a pint while walking around to grocery shop/buy more beer.

For anyone interested, I've made a map. Feel free to put down more info and I'll add to it.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid= ... sp=sharing

Had a very quick trip in the area - between Holiday Market in Royal Oak and Ryan's in Port Huron I was well taken care of for bottles.

DeMarco wrote:I'll second Whole Foods. Was able to have a pint while walking around to grocery shop/buy more beer.

For anyone interested, I've made a map. Feel free to put down more info and I'll add to it.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid= ... sp=sharing

Map is great and you got all the relevant spots as far as Metro Detroit goes.
If its not on there, its not worth spending time or money.

Haven't been to the Whole Foods in midtown, but they have taps? Damn.
I know the one in Troy doesn't which bums me out every time I'm in there. Good to know.
And I should be ashamed that I haven't hit HopCat OR Jolly Pumpkin yet. I've made great efforts to get to GR HopCat and the AA JP in the past so I guess I feel no urgency to hit em in my backyard.

FEUO wrote:

DeMarco wrote:I'll second Whole Foods. Was able to have a pint while walking around to grocery shop/buy more beer.

For anyone interested, I've made a map. Feel free to put down more info and I'll add to it.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid= ... sp=sharing

Map is great and you got all the relevant spots as far as Metro Detroit goes.
If its not on there, its not worth spending time or money.

Haven't been to the Whole Foods in midtown, but they have taps? Damn.
I know the one in Troy doesn't which bums me out every time I'm in there. Good to know.
And I should be ashamed that I haven't hit HopCat OR Jolly Pumpkin yet. I've made great efforts to get to GR HopCat and the AA JP in the past so I guess I feel no urgency to hit em in my backyard.

Yeah they had 3 taps, which was decent enough! Are you located in Windsor? I grew up in that area. Heading down for July 4th weekend and hopefully going to check out B Nektar and Hopcat this time around.