Salt and Pepper Savory Grill & Pub
11539 E. Lakewood Blvd. #50We weren’t planning on going to Holland for the day….but we did. We weren’t planning on spending the morning at Nelis’ Dutch Village….but we did. J kind of hooked me with, “we can go to New Holland for lunch,” but I wasn’t really in a drinking mood at 11:00 AM. I mean, one sounded alright, but if we were going to New Holland, I would have wanted to do a flight.
As usual, I have a bank of places in Holland I want to try. Some are just not quick enough for me to try at work, so on the rare occasion we go over there, I pull one out and run it by J. The one I pulled out on this day, she seemed excited to try.
Salt and Pepper Savory Grill and Pub is on Lakewood Boulevard just east of 112th Avenue. It turned out to only be a couple minutes from Dutch Village. I knew it was close, but I wasn’t aware of how close it was until I put it in the GPS.
The restaurant is in The Crossings Mall, but once you walk inside, you don’t get that feeling. The vibe of that place is more upscale with dimmed lighting and darker woods. There’s also a pretty large patio out back that most of the lunch patrons were taking advantage of.
A hostess showed us to a booth in a small dining room off the main bar area. The drink menu was already on the table, so I grabbed it right away. I confused the hell out of our server when I asked for a Damn Dirty Ape. She looked at me completely unaware of what I wanted. I showed her the tap list and she said, “Oh, #1.” Sure. A #1.
The beer is a “banana porter.” I used quotations because it’s really neither. The banana flavor comes from the hefeweizen yeast. There’s a whole lot of angry people on the interwebs about this being called a banana porter, but that’s all technical stuff. From my standpoint, the beer was alright. I didn’t really like the banana taste to it, but I don’t like bananas. That said, I do enjoy many beers made with fruits I don’t like, so that’s what I wanted to give this one a try. I finished it all as there is no reason to let a beer go to waste, but I don’t think I would order it again.
J and her mom both ordered the Cider Boys Peach Country Cider. They both LOVED this one. It’s very crisp and refreshing with a slight peach taste to it. They went looking for bottles of this stuff once we got home and were told it’s actually pretty hard to get it as it’s Cider Boys best selling cider.
The lunch menu at Salt and Pepper is pretty amazing. We all easily found something that sounded delicious. I, of course, found a great burger. I ordered the Rise & Shine Steakburger. The burgers are all Angus chuck and this one is topped with a fried egg, applewood smoked bacon, and American cheese. The burger is what I look for in burgers. It was very juicy, slightly pink and it gets so much flavor from the salty, smoky bacon and the slightly runny egg yolk. The sandwich comes standard with Kettle Chips, but I upgraded to fries. The fries seemed to be a little bit of a thicker frozen fry, but they were very crispy and a good compliment to the sandwich.
J and her mom both ordered the same salad. They chose the Heights Vineyard Salad. The large plate of spring greens is topped with dried cherries, Gorgonzola, red onion, candied nuts, and a balsamic vinaigrette. It comes with grilled chicken, but J opted to leave it off while her mom left it on. Both of them were very happy with this choice. The salad had that freshness that you really want in a salad. The plates were both too much for them, so a pretty large portion came home with us for a later meal.
L got the Rubberband Sandwich because she had been eating chicken at a lot of meals. She seemed to really like this one leaving nothing but crusts in her wake.
Our bill for the four of us was right around $40 and the food was pretty damn good. Salt & Pepper is more than just bar food as the name implies. They have a great menu and an enjoyable atmosphere to dine. We saw what looked like a lot of business meeting lunches so it must be a pretty popular place. Even on a Monday afternoon the place was pretty full.
Salt and Pepper has been on my list of places to try for some time. I’m glad we finally made it.
Damn Dirty Ape
Cider Boys Peach Country Cider
Rise & Shine Steakburger w/French Fries
The Heights Vineyard Salad
SW Michigan Dining 