Richland Pub
8253 N. 32nd StreetWings West closing has had a pretty big impact on our routine. We’ve mostly adjusted to practices at Wings Event Center every night. The kids seem to like those rinks better but it’s farther from home for us.
One of the things that hasn’t adjusted to WEC though is Athletic Mentors. L loves those classes and was taking them three nights a week when practices were at West. There’s no space for Mentors at Wings Event Center so they’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the figure skaters since West closed.
After a few months, the only viable option was to move training to their gym in Richland. That’s even farther from home and a really complicated issue when B still needs to be at WEC the same time L needs to be in Richland. She was begging to do it though. The strength and conditioning she gets there has helped her skating so much.
She only goes two nights to Richland instead of the three they used to do at Wings West. J has a system worked out on Monday nights where L gets a ride with one of the other skaters then J picks her up while B is in lessons at WEC.
Thursday nights, I’m usually off in time to at least get to Wings Event Center to pick B up so J can take L to Richland.
This past Thursday night, I got to the rink with enough time to take L out to Richland. Since J has to do it most weeks, I offered to drive her.
It’s not worth going home as the class is only an hour long. There a few restaurants in Richland I either haven’t been to or haven’t been to in a long time. If I’m going to drive L to Richland and have to wait around, I’m going to check out some of these restaurants.
I decided on this trip to go to a restaurant I haven’t been to in a really long time. The last time I ate a meal at The Richland Pub was back in 2010 not long after J and I had moved to Kalamazoo. We had heard good things about the food at Richland Pub and that was when we were still adventurous, kidless, and would go out to dinner a few times a week.
The Richland Pub is pretty easy to spot on North 32nd Street/M-89 on the north side of Richland. There’s a large neon sign out front that draws your attention right away. The building itself is kind of oddly shaped and kind of has a barn motif to the side of the building that faces M-89. I pulled in to the parking lot around 6:30 on a Thursday night and it was pretty full.
The entrance is pretty easy to spot. The door kind of juts out from the rest of the building and it’s just oddly shaped. The rest of the building is essentially a pole barn but there was some thought put in to the design you would see from the road.
My plan was to just sit at the bar and eat real quick but when I walked in, the bar was full and I didn’t immediately see a pub table near the bar open. My anxiety kicked in and I just walked right back out. I eat at bars by myself all the time but I usually sit at the bar. When I couldn’t do that, I kind of froze so I bailed. I gave it a few minutes and went back in. I walked through the dining room this time and found a pub table along the back the wall. I did feel kind of bad taking up a four top but it was the only option. There were still other tables open so I wasn’t taking a spot from a larger group and the dining room did start to clear out not long after I got there.
The dining room at The Richland Pub is very small town hangout. The tables are packed in to the space so they can get as many people as possible in there. The bar is at the front and it kind of wraps around the corner. There are Christmas lights that I’m assuming hang from the ceiling all year long to add some ambiance to the place. There are nice wooden floors throughout the space and solid wood furniture. The drop ceiling adds some sound diffusion to what would otherwise be a pretty loud bar.
The waitress came over with menus assuming I was meeting some people. I told her it was just me and I’d be quick so she could have the table back. She asked about drinks and while I couldn’t see the taps from where I was sitting, I did see a sign that said they had Yuengling on draft. I’m not a huge Yuengling drinker but it is new to Michigan so I ordered my first Michigan Yunegling to go with my meal.
I had a real hard time reading in the menu. I guess I’m getting old. The white lettering was fine but the blue lettering on a dark background was really hard to read in the low light. I did everything I could to not be that old dude who turns on his phone camera light to read the menu. I found something that I thought sounded good and squinted really hard to make sure I knew what was on it.
Last time I ate at The Richland Pub, 15 years ago, I ordered The Ultimate Burger. I don’t remember anything about that burger and if it wasn’t for the blog, I wouldn’t have even remembered that I ordered it. I almost ordered it this time (before reading the old blog) but I thought bleu cheese sounded better. I ordered The Bleu Devil instead.
The Blue Devil starts with a handmade 1/3 lb burger patty and is topped with Cajun seasoning, bacon, and bleu cheese crumbles. I remember many years ago, when this restaurant was first recommended to us, that it was the burgers that people were raving about. I love a good pub burger and this one is a good pub burger. The burger patty is super juicy and tender. It’s the type of burger you can only get from forming the patty yourself. I love the combination of bacon and bleu cheese on a burger and this sandwich had super crispy bacon and a huge mound of tangy bleu cheese. This is a perfect pub burger in my view. Every part of the sandwich was was delicious so when you stack it up and put it all together, it’s just layers of deliciousness in every bite.
The sandwich came with fries. They’re of the frozen battered variety. The waitress left me a bottle of ketchup on the table but I would have rather had mustard with these. There’s nothing wrong with this kind of fry. It’s just not super interesting. They’re a good filler to go with the sandwich and there was a lot of them in the basket.
The cost of my meal, with the beer, was right around $18 which I thought was really cheap. In 2010, J and I ate at The Richland Pub for a combined total of $22 but things have changed so much in 15 years. If I can get a burger and a beer for under $25, that sounds like a deal. Doing it for under $20 is almost unheard of nowadays.
The Richland Pub is one of those quintessential small town pubs that I love. I grew up in places like this and I love finding them as an adult. We have almost no reason to go to Richland so I haven’t been back since that first time all those years ago. When J asked if I’d take L to her class, I didn’t hesitate because I was eager to stop in for dinner. I hope at some point, Athletic Mentors can move back to Kalamazoo but for now, I won’t complain about having to kill an hour when The Richland Pub is just down the street.
SW Michigan Dining 