Saugatuck Brewing Company (Kalamazoo)
200 E. Michigan AvenueSo..this is the week I was pretty much home alone all week. J and L were in Wisconsin for a figure skating camp. B was at J’s parents because I can’t get off work in time to pick him up from a daycare. Since they live in St. Joseph County, it doesn’t make sense for me to go pick him up and bring him home just to sleep then have to take him back down there in the morning.
You knew I was going to take advantage of being home alone and go out to eat pretty much every night….right?
J and L left Monday night but I work nights on Monday and we had leftovers from the weekend. I just heated those up.
Tuesday night was my first night alone where I could go out for dinner. And I went to a brewery.
Saugatuck Brewing Company has been around in Kalamazoo for a while now but they’ve moved. The moved out of the old Gonzo’s BiggDogg Brewing a while ago and moved in to the former Olde Peninsula Brewing space on the corner of East Michigan Avenue and Portage Street in downtown Kalamazoo.
I’ve written about this building a couple of times. It was actually the first restaurant I ever ate at in Kalamazoo. We were living in Lansing at the time and J had to work in Kalamazoo. I dropped her off on our way back to Lansing from a weekend in Chicago and before work, this was the restaurant we chose to eat at. The building is historic originally opening in the 1870’s as a restaurant. It had many uses over the years before Olde Peninsula Brewing opened up after the building was rehabbed following some devastating damage after the 1980 tornado.
I didn’t really feel like paying for parking and drove around the block to find a space on Portage Street just past the parking ramp. There is a back entrance to the restaurant on Bates Alley as well as a patio but I went to the front door.
The restaurant hasn’t changed a lot from Olde Peninsula. The set up is the same and it looks really familiar. I somehow managed to just beat the rush. The bar was empty when I sat down so I took a seat near the end. About 10 minutes later, every seat at the bar was full. There was some kind of bar crawl going on or something but I’m happy I got there when I did.
There are three seating areas in the restaurant. There are tables in the front facing out over Michigan Avenue and there are tables in the bar area looking to the fermenters in Olde Peninsula’s old production area. No clue if Saugatuck uses these for anything. There was nothing special marked on the menu as being “brewed on site.”
The other room is the main dining room. It’s away from the bar and has much more restaurant feel to it. There is a lot of natural light coming in to this room from large windows looking out on to Portage Street to highlight the old wood floors and other original parts of the building.
I started with a beer while I looked over the menu. I started with an IPA called The Haig. I don’t drink nearly as much as I used to so I’m not as familiar with Saugatuck’s beers as I would have been 10 years ago. It’s a pretty simple IPA but it’s made with Citra hops which is always a favorite for me.
The waitress pointed out the Tuesday deal is a Smash Burger plus a beer for $14. That’s good timing on my part. I was going to order the Smash Burger anyway.
The Double Smash Burger is two patties topped with American cheese, pickles, shredded lettuce, and “Secret Sauce.” I added on bacon for an extra $2 and upgraded my chips to Parmeasan fries….so the meal wasn’t quite $14 with the add ons.
The burger was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It had all those crispy bits from the smashing of the meat on the patty and the crunchiness from the bacon. The secret sauce was kind of tangy and there was just enough of it to get the flavor but not overwhelm the sandwich. I’ve written many times about how I’m not a sauce guy but I’ve been trying lately and while I still don’t love it, I can appreciate the effort put in to making a unique burger.
The fries were skin on that were pretty heavinly salted and dusted with Parmesan cheese..which is also going to add to the saltiness. I like salty fries so to me, these were delicious. I know not everyone is on the same page with me on that, but I like fries over shttps://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ll157/midmichigandining/saugatuckbrewingkzoo5.jpgeasoned as opposed to under.
Had to get one more beer before leaving. The best thing Gonzo’s BiggDogg Brewing made was their Vanilla Porter. It’s one of the recipe’s Saugatuck Brewing has kept so I had to get one before I left. I remember Gonzo’s as being really heavy on the vanilla..like you could taste it just by smelling the beer. It’s not as strong anymore but it’s still a silky smooth beer with a slick vanilla taste.
The bill for my dinner was right around $25.
I feel like Saugatuck Brewing has just gotten better every time I’ve been there. I’ve always enjoyed the beer. The food has always been good but the menu hasn’t really been pub food. This menu is all pretty high end pub fare. There was more than just the burger that looked good to me.
The pub feels really full familiar and it’s kind of a full circle moment for Olde Peninsula. The two guys that started Gonzo’s helped launch Olde Peninsula then broke off on their own after several years. Saugatuck Brewing merged with Gonzo’s and took over their space on Westnedge. Now, Saugatuck, with the lineage of Olde Penn and Gozno’s, moves in to the space occupied by Olde Peninsula for many years. Olde Peninsula was downtown’s first modern brew pub and it’s legacy kind of lives on through Gonzo’s and now Saugatuck Brewing.
SW Michigan Dining 