Dave’s Bar
6225 D AvenueOn my own for the weekend.
I could be good knowing my family is going to be eating out a lot while they’re in Dallas for a figure skating competition but being home alone means I have some opportunities to eat out at places my family wouldn’t really be interested in going to.
I got off work Thursday night after a long day. I was up at 4:15 AM to get my family to the airport in Grand Rapids. I then worked a full day, most of it outside and without a lunch break. By the time I clocked out, I was hungry and kind of wanted a beer.
I headed north of Kalamazoo to Dave’s Bar in Alamo Township. The restaurant is attached to the former Club Car Grille on D Avenue east of Owen Drive. That restaurant closed in early 2024 but Dave’s Bar lives on at the back end of the property. You can’t see it from the road but there is a Dave’s Bar sign covering the old Club Car Grilled sign along D Avenue and there’s a large sign next to the drive that leads you to the parking lot in the back where the bar is.
You go down that driveway and you’ll find a large parking lot. It was pretty full at 6:30 on a Thursday night. I was a little worried about getting a spot at the bar where I prefer to sit when I’m alone. The entrance is through a patio area where several people were hanging out right outside having a smoke.
I’ve actually been in this space once before. Way back in 2011 when this same space was known as Fast Trax Bar & Grill. I actually don’t remember a ton about how the place looked but I’ve found a few on Google and Yelp that show the layout for the restaurant is pretty much the same. They just have things set up a little differently.
The bar is in the back. It’s a pretty large L-shaped bar with corrugated metal paneling on the front of it, TV’s hanging behind, and liquor bottles on display behind the row of beer taps. I headed there but couldn’t find an open seat that didn’t make everyone around me uncomfortable.
I went to a high top near the bar that no one was using. The dining room is more of a bar than a restaurant. There are cheap bar tables scattered throughout the space. There are two pools tables back by the doors and some video games along the walls. It must have been a pool league night or something because the tables near the pool tables were full and those player looked much more intense than a typical after work bar crowd.
I sat down and realized ordering is done at the bar. There a spot at the end of the L on the bar for ordering. There’s a sign overhead and a chalkboard on the wall with the day’s specials. There are menus on the table to look so I knew what I was going to order when I walked up but there are a couple of laminated menus sitting by the cash register as well.
I said I wanted a beer and a burger when I started this post and that’s exactly what I ordered. The bartender started a tab for me because I assumed I’d want a second beer then she handed me a buzzer with instructions to push the button when it went off to silence it.
I sat down and started working on my first beer. I can’t believe it’s July and I’m just having my first Oberon of the year. They had it on tap and didn’t have Two Hearted (they had Two Hearted in bottles). I figured I was pretty past due for an Oberon.
When the buzzer went off, she instructed me to go the pick up window at the kitchen to grab my food. The buzzer went off pretty quickly after I settled down which was kind of a surprise. The food came out really quick.
I ordered The Bar Burger. The sandwich is two smash patties, American cheese, “Fancy Sauce,’ lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles. I also added on bacon for an extra $2. The reason I chose Dave’s Bar is because I keep seeing their Facebook posts and the food always looks so good. When I got back to my tables I couldn’t wait to pick this up. The two patties had those really awesome crispy bits around the edges from the smashing and the American cheese just melted in to all of the crevices. The “Fancy Sauce” is a pretty typical ketchup/mayo combo. It wasn’t put on too heavily which is the way I tend to like sauces on burgers. The stacking on the sandwich made it huge. I’m not a huge tomato or onion guy so I took those off leaving the pickles and lettuce which gave the sandwich a bit of that freshness and crunch. The bacon almost got lost in the mess of food. I was a couple bites in before I remembered, oh yeah, there’s bacon on this thing. All in all, this was a really tasty burger.
The sandwich came with fries. Nothing really special here. Just some frozen food service fries. They did have a hearty dusting of salt and pepper which made them better than plain boring fries.
I actually ate the fries first before digging in to the burger. I was almost done with my beer and wanted to grab another so I finished it off while eating the fries. Beer number two was my second Oberon of the year.
The cost for the burger and two beers was a little under $30.
I kind of wish I had the whole family with me so I could have tried more of the menu. Everything I saw coming out of the kitchen looked really good. One of the specials this week Hot Dips. I don’t know if you remember Shifter’s Bar & Grill or Kansas City Dip ‘n Grill but that’s kind of what the Dips are. The table next to me had the Buffalo Chicken one and I damn near went and ordered myself one. The pizzas that were coming out also looked really good. I’m sure one of the kids would have gotten one and I would have tried it.
Like I said, their Facebook page makes all of the food look fantastic and that’s really what drove me to Dave’s Bar. The burger I had was really good and the atmosphere is kind of a mix between a dive bar and a neighborhood pub. The location is odd but once you find it, you’ll realize you’ve found something really cool.
SW Michigan Dining 
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