Grand River Brewery (Jackson)
117 W. Louis Glick HighwayOn the road again for work.
I’m not too far away this time. Just about an hour to the east in the Jackson area. It’s close enough that I could have driven home each night but I do have a couple of early, early mornings so the company put me up in a hotel.
A co-worker and I were spending two nights in the Jackson area working three days. I drove over on Wednesday and the drive home is Friday.
Our days were long but not as long as they usually are when we’re on the road. I was still doing 10-11 hour days but that’s significantly shorter than the 15-16 hour days I do a lot of times when I travel.
Our first night after work, we had about a half hour drive back to the hotel from Lenawee County. I didn’t know what co-worker’s plan was. Sometimes the people I travel with prefer to do their own thing or meet up with friends or family.
As soon as we got in the car, he asked me where we were going to eat.
Good thing I had an idea.
We headed towards downtown Jackson to find Grand River Brewery.
The Grand River Brewery in Jackson is the original location of what is now a chain of four breweries around Michigan. I wrote a blog about the Marshall location when they opened in 2018. The other two locations are in Brighton and Clawson.
The brewery gets it’s name from it’s location. It sits right on a very narrow, very small portion of the Grand River running through downtown. The building’s address is on Louis Glick Highway (BL I-91) but it shares a parking lot with the Grand River Farmer’s Market which is right on the corner of Glick Highway and Merchant Street. The business, which started out this new life as Grand River Marketplace before morphing in to Grand River Brewery, has been in this historic building a little over 10 years. The building was home to Kuhl’s Bell Tower Market for close to a quarter decade before it closed in 2011.
We walked in to the brewery about 6:30 on a Wednesday night. There were a few people in front of that were part of a much larger party so the hostess took them back to one of the private rooms before getting to us.
The hostess took us to a table in the bar area. This is a pretty large dining space with an industrial look to it. The floors are unfinished, the HVAC system is exposed, and the furniture is dark stained solid wood. There’s some great natural light let in through some windows that run the length of the building just below the roof.
This area is where the bar is at. The glass block bar has the same solid wood pub chairs and is the resting place of only part of the collection of mug club mugs. There are also windows that give you a peak in to the brewing option on the other side of the bar.
I grabbed the tap list when we sat down. I was hungry, tired, and thirsty. Not a super great combination but I knew Grand River Brewing would take care of two of those three problems.
I ended up starting with the Monkey Mouth IPA. It was the simplest looking IPA on the menu and I was looking for something simple and refreshing. I got that with this beer.
When it came time for the second beer, I thought I had saw a Hazy IPA on the monitor above the bar displaying the beers but the bartender, who was our waitress, said they were out of that one. I didn’t feel like reading again, so I ordered another Monkey Mouth IPA.
When we ate at the Marshall location several years ago, we went on a weekend so we were given the brunch menu. I was excited to be able to grab a burger off the regular menu this time.
I picked the Black & Bleu Burger. This sandwich is a 6 oz. burger patty, which comes from Noggle Farms and butchered by the brewery’s Grand River Butchery in Manchester, MI, topped with apple wood smoked bacon, Roth bleu cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onion. It’s put together with brioche bun made fresh by the brewery’s Grand River Bakery. The quality of everything on this sandwich is amazing. You can really taste the difference in the meat and the bread. It’s not something that’s just pulled off the shelf from the restaurant supply truck that comes once a week. The meat is so tender, so juicy and full of flavor. The bacon was gave each bite a little bit of crunch and a little bit of saltiness. When looking for the perfect burger, the search begins with the ingredients. This is one of those rare burgers you don’t want to ruin with sauce because you want to be able to taste each piece of the main ingredients.
The sandwich came with hand cut Kennebec fries that are fried in a combination of beef tallow from the butchery and soybean oil. Again, don’t dip these things in ketchup. Just eat them. That sounds weird to a lot of people but these are fries that should be enjoyed as they come out on your plate.
My bill for the burger and two beers was right around $35.
I don’t get to Jackson very often so this is a place that has been on my to-do list for a while. We loved the Grand River Brewery in Marshall and I really wanted to get over to the original. I was going to come here with or without my colleague on this trip but I think he felt pretty good with my dinner choice and was glad he came along.
SW Michigan Dining 