

they do have nice swag, t-shirts and belgian tulip glasses with the logo on em. You can get growlers tho I didn't ask if there were any restricted beers. Service was attentive and asked and answered questions. On the second visit in the same weekend it was much less and better getting around making it a more relaxed experience. if this place was 3/4ths full it would be comfortable, full up was the situation on my first visit. from the bottle displays up high, to the tap dispensers along the bar, it's a really good place to get a drink. The bar itself is prolly 30 stools and is really nice to just sit and study with it's detail. large main room to the right of the entry way with booth seating along the left wall and high chair seating in the back with an upstairs smoking section. The bar itself is a saloon type seating sideways. before you open to door to go back, check out john ritter. pinup girls as you stand at the pisser and rock stars and icons as you leave. Most of their taps are safe, but there are some really outstanding and less seen around the state taps here too. I would have liked to see more Dark horse on tap that wasn't the amber. It was nice having 4 shorts taps and 2 livery taps to choose from. The beer selection is a good 50% michigan beer, 30% other american craft beer, and 20% other drafts from europe and canada. I was eager to go visit a place with 48 taps, a firkin and a whole buncha bottles, just to see what's what. This place had been hyped up a bit for me. Hugbee (75) Monday 25th of February 2008 12:47:14 AM link Unfortunately, it is very close to one of my all time favorites, Founders, so if I am making the trip to Grand Rapids, that is where you will find me. If it was in my beer desert of a neighborhood, I would be raving about it. I cannot remember what else I ate, but I remember liking the food. They were pretty good, but I am not addicted. They were french fries covered in a mix of herbs and spices I guess. I of course had to try the often mentioned "crack fries". Never fear, I did manage to find several beers to satisfy me. Perhaps they were playing it safe and I tend to like the more unusual beers. I liked the concentration on the Michigan craft brewers but they somehow didn't seem to have a lot of my favorites. Well, except for the IPA, which they were out of at the time. But a closer inspection revealed that they were styles that I wasn't really interested in. I didn't realize they brewed their own in addition to the many others on tap.

I was surprised to find that they had some Hopcat beers. The beer selection is certainly respectable. Unfortunately, it was very busy on the Tuesday evening that I visited and I was not able to get a spot at the bar. There is plenty of wood, a large bar, and it wasn't covered in TVs. I had heard about Hopcat from people I met at Founders, so I had to try it.
