Ghost Isle Brewery
17684 US-12Holy crap I turned 40 this year.
My birthday was in the middle of the week and my parents wanted to meet for lunch. I had plans the weekend after so I asked if they could do the weekend before.
We typically meet in the New Buffalo/Michigan City area. I usually find a place to eat we haven’t been to and hope it works out alright. That’s kind of how I roll.
Both my parents and I noticed a new brewery on the north side of New Buffalo on separate trips to the border town. I’m always open for a new brewery so I asked if they’d like to meet us there at noon when it opened.
Ghost Isle Brewery is fairly close to the I-94 exit on the north side of New Buffalo. The new construction restaurant sits off US-12 about half a mile from the Red Arrow Highway intersection.
There is a great patio along the side of the building but this mid-October afternoon was a little too chilly to take advantage of that. We headed inside where we weren’t really sure of what to do. There is a host stand but a couple of people just looked at us and went about doing their thing. Finally a woman asked if all six of us were together. When we said yes, she just turned around and started putting tables together…when she was done, she just walked away. We assumed that was for us so we sat down. She came back a few minutes later with menus.
The dining room is a nice, big open area with wood slat walls and huge windows that let in a lot of natural light. When the sun goes down, there are chandeliers that provide most of the lighting.
The bar is sort of near the back. It’s a big rectangle with seating all around it. TV’s hanging on the back wall give the space a little bit of a sports bar feel while still keeping the cozy, hometown brewery vibe.
I haven’t really been drinking much lately and I don’t know why. It’s not been a concious effort but I typically only drink when we go out to eat. I wasn’t really in a flight type of mood so I just ordered a pint. I picked the Stoner’s Paradise because even though beer hasn’t been a favorite of mine lately, I always like a good Hazy Pale Ale.
J didn’t do a beer at all. She ordered the Hallow Ghost Rider. This drink served in a martini glass is Apple Cider, Champagne, simple syrup, and a cinnamon stick. The drink was super sweet…just the way she likes it.
They didn’t have either Coke or Pepsi but I didn’t hear what brand of craft soda they had. That’s almost always a turn off for my parents so they just got water. The kids got frozen lemonade’s. One guy a regular lemonade while the other got a raspberry.
The menu at Ghost Isle is pub food. I ordered the Ghost Isle Burger with bacon and cheddar cheese….both are add-ons and cost extra. The sandwich comes with just the traditional fix-ins on a brioche bun. The burger was just slightly pink and very juicy. I have become a big fan of brioche when it’s used with burgers and it did well with this burger. The sandwich came with a lot of thin cut, crispy french fries. They were good on their own but a little mustard never hurts.
My Mom, Dad, and J all ordered Easy Pickin’. The sandwich is slow roasted pork shoulder with BBQ sauce on a brioche roll. It comes with a house made slaw on the side. This sandwich shouldn’t be confused as a pulled pork sandwich. It’s not. The sandwich was big chunks of pork which was fine for my mom and dad but J doesn’t like big meaty bites. The meat had a good flavor. I ended up having some the biggeer chunks of pork that J picked off her sandwich as she made it smaller. Her sandwich also came with a lot of this crispy fries.
The kids both went different directions. J picked the Macaroni on the Rise which is their macaroni and cheese. The pasta dish is a home made version with a creamy cheese sauce. L typically only eats Kraft and we warned her this was home made. She ate about three bites and asked to be done….so I ate a lot of her meal as well. The Mac and Cheese was really good and I really wish L would be more open to different kinds of food.
B’s choice was the Ghost of Chicken Tender. He got three big, juicy chicken tenders and a plate of fries. We forgot to ask for ranch dressing and he refused to try one without the ranch. Once we got it, he actually ate pretty well leaving just one tender and a handful of fries on his plate.
I didn’t get a chance to see what our total bill was since my mom grabbed it.
The meal was a little bit of hit and a little bit of miss. I enjoyed my sandwich while J wasn’t a huge fan. The awkwardness at the beginning with being seated just kind of got us off on the wrong foot but once that was taken care of, the meal moved along just fine.
SW Michigan Dining 
Been there…they need a more professional attitude at the door…first impressions carry into the whole experience…….
Thanks grreat blog