Creston Brewery
1504 Plainfield Avenue NEQuick trips to Grand Rapids become family affairs just so we can find a new place to eat. I needed to run to Founders Brewing to pick up my two bottles of Canadian Breakfast Stout. I figured I would just go by myself and come right back home but J wanted to go too. We didn’t have plans, we just wanted to go out to lunch.
We got to Founders just before 11:00 when they started bottle distribution for the day. The family waited in the car while I went to pick it up. It was a quick stop and we were back in the car by 11:15. I had scouted out a few different breweries for lunch but several didn’t open until noon.
The one that I found open at 11:00 was Creston Brewing on Plainfield Avenue NE in the Creston Neighborhood. The brewery opened in early 2016 taking over an old furniture building dating back to the 1920’s.
We parked long the street and walked in right around 11:30 on a Saturday morning. The space is quite large with a big, open floor plan. There are tables spread throughout the space which incorporated a lot of the buildings original Art Deco features shine through with floor to ceiling windows and large pillars that hold up a stamped tin ceiling.
The space keeps a cozy feel with warm, dark wood features on tables and flooring with chair and table accents in dark green.
There is a large bar that is the focal point of the brewery. A large logo mirror behind the bar reflects a lot of the light coming from the windows and the white paint on the front side of the bar and the large pillars brightens the place up.
The sign said to wait to be seated but the bartender told us to sit where we’d like. We chose a booth along the wall that looks out on to Plainfield. The bartender was right behind us with drink and food menus.
They had a couple of really good cider choices on tap so that’s what J started with. She picked the Apple Cherry Cider. This dry cider is made from 100% Michigan Apples and Cherries.
I chose to do a flight. Creston’s flights are four beers and they’re served on a Lazy Susan made out of vinyl records.
I started my flight with the Blueberry Sweet Street. This one is an American Wheat Pale Ale conditioned with Michigan blueberries. It’s not quite as sweet as I was expecting but still very tasty.
The next beer was the Kent County IPA. The thing that makes this unique is that it’s made entirely with ingredients from Kent County. The beer is a dry hopped West Coast IPA made with eight hop varieties….all grown somewhere in Kent County. It’s a pretty light, easy drinking IPA.
The third beer I picked was GRale. This is Creston’s flagship beer. It’s an American IPA made with Tropical Hops. Again, a very easy drinking beer but pretty middle of the road as far as IPA’s go.
My final was The Prototype. If you know me, you know I always end my flights with an Imperial IPA. This beer is dry hopped with Citra hops. It’s got that nice tropical finish that I love in a good DIPA.
So, I had looked at the menu ahead of time and found something that everyone would eat. I was thrown for a little bit of a curve when we got there and the bartender said they only do Brunch on Saturday and Sunday mornings. That was a little disappointing but fortunately, we were able to find something that everyone would be happy with on that menu as well.
I picked the Traditional Benedict. This delicious plate is seared ham steak on toasted English Muffins topped with poached eggs and a Hollandaise sauce. The Benedict was fantastic. The plate doesn’t look that big. There’s more bread than toppings but the ham is so good that you don’t even realize that most of your bite is English muffin. There is so much flavor in every bite.
J ordered the Brew City Burrito. This thing was huge. It’s a tortilla wrapped around breakfast potatoes, black beans, pico, eggs, chorizo, and white cheddar. She cut in to the burrito and realized there was no way she was going to be able to eat it all. The tortilla is very tightly packed with the ingredients that burst out when she cut in to it. She ate about half the way it’s meant to be eaten then opened up the second half and picked out the good stuff.
J also did a side order of the Spicy Breakfast Tots. The tots themselves are just regular tater tots, but they come with a caddy full of honey bears filled with different home made hot sauces. They weren’t labeled so it was hard to tell what is what but the two I picked up were super hot. I was still feeling it for quite some time after just taking a little drop to taste.
There is a kids menu for breakfast as well as for their regular menu. We ordered B some Chocolate Chunk Pancakes. These two pancakes come with Callebaut dark chocolate chunks in the batter, topped with powdered sugar, and maple syrup on the side. B ate maybe half of one and we passed the rest around the table. We all had a little of these sweet and savory pancakes since he always decides not to eat at a restaurant.
L just wanted to keep things simple. She ordered a bagel and cream cheese plus a side of bacon off the sides menu. The bagel was simple. It was slightly toasted and served with cream cheese on the side. L tore through this eating the whole thing rather quickly.
The bacon was a little different though. This stuff was thick cut, house made bacon and while I thought it was insanely delicious, L wasn’t a fan. She’s used to thin sliced, crispy bacon. I grabbed the plate from her when she said she didn’t want it. The bacon was almost a bacon steak. It is cut pretty thick and griddled up very crispy. The bacon was sooooo good. It’s definitely unique and not something you see very many places.
Our bill for brunch was just under $60 before tip. Creston Brewery is another great brewery amongst the great places in Beer City USA. We were a little bummed that we walked in to brunch unknowingly but in the end, we were all very happy with our meals. All of the food shows what a little effort to make things from scratch and source locally can do to take a simple meal and make it extraordinary.
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