Valhalla
3408 Miller RoadWhen it’s J’s birthday, we do what J wants.
J wanted to go to a meadery she heard about a while ago. They don’t have food, which is usually a turn off for us because we need something to keep the kids busy, but she really wanted to go so we found a way.
Valhalla is the tasting room for Norse Nectar Meadery. It’s a on Miller Road near Milcork Street but it can be a little hard to find if you’re not looking for it. The meadery is in the back part of the building that has Alliance Home Health Services and Acclaim Home Care near the front. There is a large yellow banner hanging out by the road to grab your attention, but the entrance is actually near the garage doors on the green metal part of the building in the back of the parking lot.
Valhalla isn’t fancy. The space is really just a large, open metal building with tables spread around the concrete floor and a black curtain separating the production area from the retail area.
They do a lot of open mic nights and trivia nights so there is a space near the front with sound equipment and a giant dragon. Funny story about that dragon. J posted a picture on Facebook and one of her friends immediately recognized it. It was actually a puppet that was used as Smaug in a production of The Hobbit at The Civic Theatre which you can see very clearly in a gallery of pictures on The Civic’s website.
There are menu books on each of the table but ordering is done at a counter in the back of the space. They have a number of different meads both on tap and in bottles. There is also a cocktail menu using the meads and, at least according to the menu, beers from City Union Brews…but you need to ask what they have on tap. I didn’t even ask about beers. I figured if we’re at a meadery, I should drink a mead or two.
J has been wanting to come to this place for quite a while. She actually learned about last fall when the Kalamazoo Gazette did a story about them moving downtown. Rumors are that’s not happening anymore but it did get them some pretty good publicity…that’s how we found out about the place.
J wanted to try as much as she could. She started with a flight which is the 4 oz pours. Her picks were Holy Grail (Raspberry), Skadi (Blueberry Apple), Idunn (Apple Cinnamon), and Dark Angel (Blackberry Ginger). She actually asked for Loki which is a Blueberry Cherry Mead but they were out.
I did not do a flight. I kept it simple by ordering Tyr….a Mango Habenro Mead. It’s not quite as peppery or as hot as I would have liked but it was still sweetly delicious. The regular pours are 5 oz, so it’s not a huge drink. You just kind of sip it.
I actually went back for a second while J was working on her flight. This time I picked Krampus. This was an apple cinnamon mulled mead and it was delicious. It had a real apple pie thing going.
J was going through her meads pretty slowly as she was just trying to enjoy them but she was getting anxious and wanted to try one of the frozen drinks. I helped out with her flight and took the Holy Grail off her hands. This mead is the Raspberry mead and it’s kind of their signature. It’s barrel aged so there’s a little bit of smokiness to it as well…..really delicious.
There are a couple of frozen slushies and seriously, who can pass up a slushie. J got the Strawberry Peach Cider slushie. It was actually pretty large and much bigger than any of the meads. I don’t like strawberry’s so I wasn’t super impressed with the drink I took but she loved it.
Valhalla doesn’t have food which is kind of a bummer and really the reason it took us so long to get there. They do encourage you to bring food with you and that’s exactly what we did. We picked up a pizza and some garlic monkey bread from Godfather’s Pizza over on Cork Street on our way. Valhalla has some sort of delivery deal with them where you get 10% off if you have it delivered but we just picked it up on our way so we’d have it when we walked in. They also have menus from Pizza King and Jimmy Johns in their menu binders. And, because it was J’s birthday, we had cupcakes from The Victorian Bakery to celebrate. The one thing Valhalla did have was popcorn. There was none made when we walked in but eventually the bartender made a batch so I got up and got some for B.
Valhalla is a great place. It’s not fancy but they do something most of the breweries in Kalamazoo don’t do. They make delicious mead. J is already planning a return trip. The fact we can bring in food helps with the kids. We let both of them bring devices (Valhalla has free wi-fi) and they were actually really good. This was the thing that J wanted to do for her birthday and we were able to do it.
SW Michigan Dining 