Brass Rail Pizza Bar
18 W. Adams Street Our kids definitely get the theater/performing thing from their mom. I was a jock in high school so I couldn’t really tell anyone that I liked musical theater (hey, it was the 90’s). Mom, on the other hand, was in every play her high school did.
Last month, we too the kids to see Six: The Musical at DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids. That was L’s birthday present.
Around the same time we bought those tickets, I had seen that Beetlejuice: The Musical was closing on Broadway and going out on their first tour. There were two Michigan stops. One in Detroit and on in East Lansing.
The Detroit date worked better for our schedule so we decided to surprise L with tickets to that as well.
The show was this past Saturday at 2 PM and since we were driving to Detroit, you knew we were going to make a day out of it.
First stop, lunch.
We left Kalamazoo around 9:00 AM so we could get to Detroit, get parked, and walk to lunch without having to rush. I was eyeing Detroit Beer Company right across the street from the Detroit Opera House but I didn’t see much on the menu for J or the kids. If you know me, you know I always have a back up.
We ended up walking to Brass Rail Pizza Bar on Adams Street. The restaurant is just to the west of the intersection with Woodward Avenue across from Grand Circus Park. Brass Rail has been around since about 2017. Before that, the space was Rub BBQ Pub which was owned by the same people who turned the space in to Brass Rail.
The restaurant is divided in to two space. When you walk in, there is a host stand and a small dining room up a set of stairs.
There was a Red Wings game that was just getting underway when we walked in so the restaurant was fairly empty. There was another group sitting near us and a few groups in the bar.
The dining room area is pretty simple. There is one long bench seat on either side of the space with tables and chairs spaced out. There are also a few tables going down the middle and historical photos from nearby Grand Circus Park and downtown Detroit hanging on the walls. The hostess sat us at one of the four tops in the middle and set down menus and a drink list while our waitress was taking the order of the table next to us.
The other space is the bar area. This area screams sports bar and it should. Brass Rail is within walking distance from all three downtown sports arenas and is a great place to hang out before a game. There are several TV’s hanging above the bar and there’s a pretty solid draft selection. There is another dining area above part of the bar but it was closed off when we were there.
J and I both started with drinks while the kids got a Sprite and a Lemonade.
I picked Atwater Brewing’s Detroit City Juice. This is a Hazy IPA. There were several of my regular beers on the tap list but I went with something I haven’t seen anywhere else before and it was delicious. I don’t drink nearly as much beer as I used to but I still like a good Hazy IPA every now and then. J got a Blake’s hard cider but I don’t remember which one right now.
The main event at Brass Rail is obviously the pizza but I was going to let someone else order that. I was in a burger mood….like I usually am..and ordered the Classic Burger. This sandwich is two burger patties with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onion. It’s a simple burger but it was surprisingly good. The burger patties were a little salty and had little crispy bits around the edges from the griddle. It was the kind of burger that just melts when you take a bite of it. Classic burger is such a simple description but it’s also a perfect description. It’s not anything out of the ordinary but it’s done real well. I picked the fries as my side adn they were also quite simple. They were simple frozen restaurant fries but I grabbed the queso my daughter wasn’t using for her tots and dipped them in that. There was also mustard on the table and these are perfect mustard dipping fries.
As for those tots, L ordered the Brick O Tots from the appetizer menu. These crispy tater tots are topped with bacon, queso, and pico. She asked for the pico and the queso on the side because she really just wanted tots and bacon. She said the tots were some of the best she’s ever had. They were really tightly packed and fried crispy. She ate about 3/4 of the plate that is meant for sharing and we took the rest home.
J was the one that went for a pizza. She picked the Margherita. The crust on the pizzas is soooo good on it’s own. This one is topped with fresh mozzeralla, tomatoes, and basil. For an extra $.75, she added a balsamic glaze. She loved this pizza. It came with a dusting of fresh parmesan on top after it came out of the oven. She ate about half then felt a little guilty about not being able to take it home but we had plenty of time before the show and our car was only about a half mile away so I suggested we box up her pizza and L’s tots and head back to the car before going to the show. The pizza was too good to not take leftovers.
B also got a pizza. He picked the cheese pizza off the kids’ menu. This pizza is that same delicious crust with a red sauce and mozzarella cheese. He had issues biting through the cheese and kept getting frustrated because he was pulling off the cheese in one bite. We tried cutting it up more for him in to bite size pieces and that seemed to work better. The pizza was really good anchored by that delicious crust. He ate two slices…which is pretty typical for him..then I finished it. I didn’t order my own pizza because I figured I would be finishing his..and I gladly did.
Our cost for lunch before tip was about $75. That seems to be becoming pretty typical for a full service restaurant.
We all really liked Brass Rail Pizza Bar. My family doesn’t do sports for the most part. We’re not going to baseball or football games. Our days out are going to the theater. I kinda like that because there’s not thousands of people trying to get in to a restaurant near the venue. We had a great lunch, took a walk along Woodward and did some shopping, then saw a fantastic show. It was a great day in downtown Detroit.
SW Michigan Dining 