The GIRT – Gull Road Tavern
5031 Gull RoadI didn’t get to go to Lake Placid.
There’s a big ice dance competition every year at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, NY. We were planning on this being a trip we made next year but L was getting nervous about her scores and begged to go.
J is off of work the whole month of July and they drove so it wasn’t a huge expense. The unfortunate thing was I couldn’t take that much time off on short notice.
B didn’t go either. He’s not really in the running for a spot at nationals this year and J and L kind of wanted one more girls trip before B starts joining them on all their travels.
So, B had to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s for the week. I dropped him off Sunday. They still brought him back to Kalamazoo a couple of days for figure skating practice but he’d go back to the lake near Sturgis with them afterwards.
Tuesday night, B skates pretty late in to the evening. I got off work a little early and headed over to Wings Event Center to watch him for a little bit. He got done around 6:00 and headed home with Grandma and Grandpa.
I was hungry and decided I was just going to eat the bowling alley next door….except their closed on Tuesday’s in the summer. I was still hungry and, of course, I had a backup.
I headed up Sprinkle Road to a Tavern that just recently reopened after being closed for over a decade.
The GIRT – Gull Road Tavern reopened recently on Gull Road and Rockingham Avenue across the street from Kazoopy’s. The pub had a long life dating back to the 1930’s but closed in 2013. A new family bought the property in 2014 and have slowly been renovating the place. They opened up an updated Gull Road Tavern or, as it’s known now, The GIRT (how you would pronounce the GRT initials).
I was never in the original iteration of the Gull Road Tavern so I have no recollection of what this place used to look like. I don’t even know if they had food. I know over the past decades they’ve made wholesale changes to the space though. The go in to pretty good detail in the MLive article from last week about what they did and why they did.
The space is much smaller than I was expecting. There’s a bar at the back of the room that oddly has a sheet metal top to it instead of being made of wood. This is definitely a new construction thing and very unique. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a bar like this. There are also some tables that are packed in to the remaining space. The thing that jumps out right away is the newness of the space and how everything just looks clean. There’s a lot of tile used in the decor and the light wood used for the ceiling and pillars really brightens everything up.
The theme for the pub is movie nostalgia. There are two large TV screens that play old movies. Murder, She Wrote was on one of them the night I was in there. There are also framed movie posters used a decor on the walls. Some of them are even signed.
There was room at the bar so that’s where I sat down. I couldn’t see the draft taps very well from the side but it looked they had Two Hearted so I ordered that. I got the large and I’m pretty sure the price was under $5 which is rare for a Bell’s beer.
The menu is interesting. The bartender pointed out right away they’re a “cold kitchen.” The food options are all sub sandwiches. The only thing that is warm is the only thing on the “appetizer” menu. That’s a Jumbo Pretzel. Everything else is cold cut sandwiches.
I ordered the Yo! Adrian! The sandwich is a 9″ hearth bread sub bun stuffed with salami, ham, pepperoni, capacola, provolone, lettuce, tomato, banana peppers and Italian dressing. The sandwich comes with chips, a pickle spear, and a drink. Yes, a drink. I’ll get to that in a minute.
This sandwich is STACKED with meat. It’s funny to think about going to a bar and getting a sub sandwich but this sandwich is so good that you forget you’re at a bar. There is so much meat on the sandwich that it actually gets it’s height from the meat and not a mountain of veggies. There is one layer of lettuce on top and a layer of banana peppers plus a pretty healthy drizzling of Italian dressing. I’m a sucker for a sub sandwich with Italian dressing anyway but this thing was really tasty. I was kind of in a burger mood when I started my evening but one bit quickly turned that in to a sandwich mood.
I really thought I misheard the bartender when she told me the sandwiches come with a drink. I asked for my check and she asked if I wanted the drink that came with the sandwich. I did not mishear her. You get a 12 oz. domestic draft, an 8 oz. house cocktail or a pop with each sandwich. That’s wild to me. Not that they include a drink but they include a drink and the sandwich is still under $15. I don’t normally drink domestics but since it was included, I took the 12 oz. Miller Lite as I was paying my tab.
The cost for this meal, which had two beers, was right around $20. It honestly shocked me how cheap it was and how delicious it was. The GIRT is actually a place I would order a sandwich from for lunch. It was really good. This place is just a really fun, chill neighborhood type bar. The menu makes them really unique as well. I’m not sure I’ve ever ordered a deli sandwich while drinking a beer but it works really well and it’s really well done.
SW Michigan Dining 