The Blind Squirrel Tavern
I don’t get to the City of Fremont all that often. In fact, I’ve only been there twice…and both times, I’ve been with the same co-worker who has talked me in to dinner.
Last time, we stopped at a little sandwich shop called The Lunch Pail. Unfortunately, they have gone out of business since last winter, so we had to find something new. As we were driving through downtown, we passed a little bar that actually triggered something with my co-worker, so we turned around and headed back to find something eat.
The Blind Squirrel is on West Main Street in downtown Fremont. There is an entrance off the street side, but it seems like most people used a parking lot in the back. We didn’t know any better and found street parking, so we went in through the front.
The dining room and bar area is all the way to the back of the building. I’m not exactly sure what the front of the building is used for as it’s really just a big empty room. We just made our way down the hallway past the kitchen to the bar area. We were looking to do carry-out, so we actually grabbed a couple of seats at the bar while looking over the menu.
The menu is nothing at all like what I was expecting. They have a really great line up of specialty burgers, sandwiches, and dinner entrees. I had a really hard time deciding on just one thing. I’m pretty sure I could have thrown a dart at the menu to pick what I was going to eat and I would have been happy no matter where it landed.
C.W. took her selection off the Entree section of the menu. She chose the Chicken Kebobs and would not stop talking about how delicious they were. The broiled skewers contained thick chunks of chicken breast that had been marinated with spices, olive oil and garlic. She was able to eat while we were driving and literally would not stop talking about how good they were.
I scanned the Specialty Burger section of the menu many, many times before actually settling on something. Everything looked delicious including a burger called The Artery Clogger. This truth-in-advertising burger came with a grilled hot dog, ham, bacon, caramelized onions, Monterrey jack, American, and Swiss cheeses, plus ranch and kebob sauce. Very, very tempting…but I ordered the Grilled Cheese Burger instead.
This thing is pretty much what is sounds like. The half -pound burger is put between two grilled cheese sandwiches. One of the sandwiches is the standard American cheese grilled cheese with tomato while the other is a Swiss cheese with a pickle. The sandwiches are smashed down pretty thin once they’re grilled, so the overall sandwich isn’t a monstrosity that you can’t get in your mouth. Everything about this sandwich made my mouth water and it lived up to those expectations. The two grilled cheese sandwiches were a perfect golden brown and the burger patty in the middle was slightly pink and very juicy.
The sandwich came with homemade chips. Fries are usually an option, but they were out of them on the night we were there. The chips were delicious so there are no complaints from me about that. They are thin little wafers that are fried up to a really nice golden brown.
Our to-go order took quite a while to come out, but that could probably have something to do with my sandwich actually being three sandwiches in. That, and they were pretty busy. C.W. had heard about this place from another one of our colleagues who made a special trip up to Fremont from Grand Rapids just to eat there.
The Blind Squirrel is a gem in this little town. If it wasn’t for work, I would never have any reason to go to Fremont and that’s too bad really. The city is just kind of out there away from Grand Rapids and Muskegon, but if you are in the area for any reason, stop at The Blind Squirrel. You won’t regret it.
Grilled Cheese Burger w/Homemade Chips
SW Michigan Dining 