St. Ambrose Cellars
841 S. Pioneer RoadUsually it’s me, when we travel, finding places to eat…especially when it comes to breweries. This trip was different though. It was J who had a place we had to stop at before heading back home.
We checked out of our AirBnB in Thompsonville around 10 AM then headed to Empire to do a little more sightseeing at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
We had some friends that were coming up for a little vacation of their own. It worked out better for them to do a weekday getaway while we needed to do the weekend. We were going to overlap on Sunday afternoon so J wanted to meet up with them for lunch before we headed south.
J really wanted to go to St. Ambrose Cellars in Beulah. We left the Dune Climb area about 12:30 and headed back towards Beulah.
St. Ambrose Cellars is on Pioneer Road quite a ways east of Beulah near the intersection with Homestead Road in Homestead Township. The winery/brewery has a farm vibe going…which makes sense since it is a working farm.
There was a sign at the entrance to stop inside the taproom first. There are no seats inside but a waiter was standing there with menus. He explained that we could sit anywhere outside but don’t move the furniture. Inside this small taproom was the gift shop. They had to-go beer, honey produced on site (I’ll get to that in a few), and merchandise.
Our friends had already been at St. Ambrose for a little bit…we were running behind. We joined them at a picnic table as far away from others was we could. Our kids haven’t seen each other in a while so we figured they were going to be loud and run around. Most of the seating is spread out over the huge lawn right outside the farmhouse. There are some covered pub tables on the porch but if you really want to feel comfortable being at a bar right now, this is the way to do it.
This was J’s stop and she was super excited to try the Ciders. She did a flight which consisted of four choices. Cider flights are usually pretty limited but St. Ambrose has a huge list. She had a hard time picking just four. The Royal Reserve was by far her favorite of this group. It’s a dessert made aged in Bourbon barrels and comes in at a whopping 19% ABV. She liked this one so much she got a bottle to take home.
I don’t mind cider but St. Ambrose is also a brewery. They brew under the Brose Brewing label. It was hot and I knew we had a three hour drive so I only did one beer. I picked the Double Punk Monk IPA. Pretty solid Double IPA. I would have liked to try more but just wasn’t feeling it. I’m sure we’ll go back if we’re ever in the area again.
Food is done out of a food truck. You place the order at the truck then get a buzzer that will go off when it’s ready.
We had looked at the menu before arriving and I was really looking forward to a burger. I was super bummed when I actually looked at the menu and saw this.
That’s ok though….turns out, they had some amazing pizza.
We actually started with an order of fries. I thought about the Poutine but just did the Truffle Fries instead. They were delicious. The fries are tossed in truffle oil and garlic salt then just smothered in Parmesan cheese. The fries were super crispy on the outside but light and airy in the middle. There was so much cheese we saved some for our pizzas.
The plan was to order two pizzas when I went to order…..but a special board caught my eye and I ordered three.
Yeah, I ordered that one. The Brewer. Mainly because I wanted jalapeno. I didn’t actually the pineapple on there when I ordered but it was fine. They were large chunks of pineapple that came off pretty easily…and others at our table snatched them up as soon as I took them off and put them on their own pizza so they didn’t go to waste.
J chose the Margherita pizza. This delicious fire baked pizza is topped with a fresh house made tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, olive oil, cracked black pepper, and fresh basil. The great thing about this pizza was the large slices of fresh mozzarella. J said she wouldn’t have ordered it if she knew I was getting three but I know she was glad she got it. Margherita’s are simple pizzas but when they’re done with the right ingredients, they’re amazing…..and this one was done right.
For the kids, we just got a simple Pepperoni pizza. House tomato sauce, pepperoni, mozzarella, and oregano make up the topping on this pizza. The kids were running around and playing with their friends so they weren’t totally in to eating lunch but both kids came back for seconds. Yes, we had three pizzas for four people but we were fine with taking them home. In fact, the leftovers became our dinner once we got back to Kalamazoo so nothing was wasted.
J wasn’t quite read to stop trying things on the menu yet so she ordered another drink. This time she did a Cider Slush. Don’t remember what the flavor was and I didn’t try it…but she liked it and found it an interesting take on cider.
I’ve alluded to the kids playing a few times in this blog and there is a lot of room for them to run around. They spent a lot of time by the bees. Yes….the bees.
There are bee hives right behind the farmhouse that are used to pollinate plants and to make local honey. It’s crazy…my kids are afraid of bees and actually freaked out when “not one of our bees” kept flying around us while eating but they were fascinated by the hives and would walk right up to get a look at what was going on.
There are also games. There’s a bocce ball court…where we had to lay down some ground rules so no one got hurt, some cornhole games, and even a 9 hole disc golf course that’s free to play.
We spent quite a bit of money at St. Ambrose. It was easily over $100 between food, drinks, and a to-go bottle of cider, but it was all worth it.
I wish St. Ambrose was closer to home. This place is great. The food is fantastic. The drinks are great. The atmosphere is amazing. If it was up to me, I would have picked a nearby brewery for lunch but J really wanted to go to St. Ambrose…and she was right. This should be a stop on everyone’s trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes.
SW Michigan Dining 