Crafted Copper
4520 Stadium DriveDate night. That never happens.
I don’t have any family in the area and J’s parents spend winters in Florida. Getting a night where just J and I can go out is incredibly rare.
L was invited to her first sleepover this past weekend. We figured we would still have B at home but J’s parents just got back from Florida and offered to take him for the night. We were picking L up from here sleepover on Sunday and heading to East Lansing to see Hamilton for the third time. B was going to stay with Nana and Grandpa on Sunday anyway so they offered to just take him for the night.
What the heck are J and I going to do with a Saturday night with no kids?
We’ve been wanting to go to Brick and Brine downtown but didn’t want to deal with a wait. J asked me to make a reservation. The only reservation they had left was 9:00. That’s late for us. I assumed we’d be asleep by 9:00.
J told me to just make it and we’d find some place for drinks beforehand.
J’s suggestion was a couple of places downtown but then I threw out something a little closer to home. Some place we drive by pretty much every day
Crafted Copper opened up at the end of last year on Stadium Drive at Drake Road in the University Commons shopping center. The small space has been a couple of bars in it’s recent history. Mallory’s Irish Pub was the most recent occupant. Before that, Craft Draft 2 Go…which had some problems. Prior to that, this was a RadioShack location.
I had never been in either of the previous iterations of this bar. I wasn’t surprised to see how small it was though based on the location between Cartridge World and Super Cuts. It’s a really intimate setting with reclaimed wood used throughout the space. Accents are all done in Copper. You can find many examples from mirrors, to light fixtures to accents along the bar.
There were a couple of open tables when we walked in but only the pub style tables. J and I took a seat at one of them. The chairs look really cool but are a little uncomfortable. That was our only real complaint.
The menu is on the table for the cocktails but the beer menu is on the TV monitors above the taps at the bar. A little hard to see but there was a QR code to scan so I could get it on my phone.
I thought about getting a cocktail, but Crafted Copper actually has a really great beer list.
I picked Captain Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch Ale from Kuhnhenn Brewing. The waiter told me it was a great choice as it smelled like Saturday morning cartoons…and he was totally right. The beer is a brown ale and it really smells like Captain Crunch. There is a pretty strong Peanut Butter taste right up front but it’s not something that’s overwhelming. It’s a pretty solid, smooth drinking beer that really hits your right in the nose in a good way.
J went the cocktail route for her first drink. She picked the Blackberry Bramble. This drink is made with Bourbon, blackberries, fresh mint, a housemade simple syrup, and fresh lemon. The menu doesn’t say which bourbon the drink is made with but J said it definitely wasn’t something cheap. The drink was smooth and a little sweet from the blackberry’s.
The second drink I thought for sure I’d get a cocktail, but no, stuck with beer. This time I picked Gitche Gumee from Middlecoast Brewing Company. This beer is a New England Hazy IPA from a brewery in Traverse City that I have never heard of. I like pretty much any beer that uses Citra Hops so this one was right up my alley.
J ended up getting the cocktail I would have ordered for her second drink. We’ve both become pretty big fans of the Old Fashioned.
Crafted Copper’s Old Fashioned is pretty simple It’s made with bourbon (again, doesn’t say what kind), bitters, the housemade simple syrup, and an orange swab. The drink was so smooth and so delicious. This is the kind of drink that is dangerously good because both of us could just sit there all night sipping one of these.
We had a pretty late dinner reservation so we needed a little bit of food. The food menu is pretty simple and limited to snacking items. We could have got the custom charcuterie board but we opted for the Bruschetta.
J looked at me like, “you like bruschetta?” I mean, I don’t love tomatoes, but in small quantities and when they’re fresh, yes, I kinda do.
The Bruschetta is made with fresh tomatoes, onions, basil and balsamic vinegar. It’s served alongside toasted crostini and pita bread. The Bruschetta was the perfect snack to go with our drinks. It was light and delicious. The veggies had a super fresh taste and the balsamic just makes everything better.
Our bill for two drinks each and the Bruschetta was a little over $50 before tip.
Crafted Copper is really a great place to relax and have a couple of drinks. You forget as soon as you walk in the door you’re in a generic strip mall. The hard thing about this strip mall is it’s distance from the road. I had no idea a new place went in to this spot. J pointed it out one night. More people need to know about Crafted Copper.
SW Michigan Dining 