Brewster’s Fine Foods & Spirits (Portage)
It’s been a relaxed couple of weeks. No figure skating competitions.
But, here we go again. It’s time for the Margaret Faulkner Springtime Invitational at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube – Ann Arbor.
J and the kids loaded up Wednesday night to head over for competition early Thursday morning. I don’t have enough days off to go to every day of every competition so just like Ladybug a few weeks ago in Orland Park, IL, I stayed home for the first day and will head over to Ann Arbor for the second day (Friday) of competition.
The kids still had their usual Wednesday practices at Wings Event Center before heading over to Ann Arbor. L had forgot to pack something and asked if J or I would run home and get it. I had time on my lunch break so I ran home to get it then met them at WEC after I got off work.
I watched the end of their practice, said good luck, then we parted ways. J and the kids headed east. I headed for dinner.
I had an idea in mind as soon as I realized I was going to be on my own for dinner and I was going to be out near Wings Event Center.
I headed straight for the new Brewster’s Fine Foods & Spirits on Portage Road and Fairfield Road just south of the I-94 interchange. The building has been so many restaurants jus since I’ve been in the Kalamazoo area writing this blog. The first time I went there it was Fat Tony’s Grill & Sports Bar. Then it became Lindberg’s Landing. After that, it was Zoo City Beastro’s turn. When that closed, Long Island Cafe gave it a go as a breakfast and lunch spot. And now, here we our, a revitalization of Brewster’s which had a long time home just across the street in an old Bill Knapp’s location that has since been torn down.
I walked in to the restaurant around 7:30 on Wednesday night. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot but I keep forgetting how big this place is. There are three dining areas plus the bar.
The first dining room has really nice high back, black leather booths. There are a couple of windows that let in a lot of natural light which really give the dark wood from the tables a nice sheen.
The middle dining room is more a bar area with pub tables and TV’s hanging from the brick walls.
The third dining space is a bit closed off with a full wall separating it from the middle dining room. There is a mixture of pub tables and four tops. While the layout of these dining rooms are all pretty much the same over every iteration of this space, Brewster’s darkened up some of the wood and paint to give this a higher end pub feel with a touch of sports bar.
I was really happy to see several seats open at the bar when I walked in the door. Again, not much has changed with the location or design of the bar. It’s right as you walk in the door and runs the length of the middle dining space along the back all. I grabbed a chair near the end of the bar right in front of the bartender who was cleaning some glasses. She grabbed a menu and asked me what I was drinking.
I didn’t even really look at the rest of the taps. I saw the Bell’s taps right in front of me and ordered a short Two Hearted. I’m such a creature of habit.
The menu is pretty large and there are a lot of options. At some point over the years, they added smoked meats and that’s actually the focus of their Otsego location which is billed as Brewster’s Smokehouse. I still wanted a burger though. Lucky for me, I could get both.
I picked the Triple B! Burger. This thing is a mess…in a good way. The half pound burger patty is topped with Applewood Smoked Brisket, bacon, BBQ sauce and cheddar cheese. This thing was a beast. there was way more brisket on there than I was expecting. It was thinly sliced, tender, salty and most importantly, delicious. The burger patty was almost hiding under all that brisket meat but it jumped out at me once I took a bite. You would think the brisket would outshine everything else on that burger but that was not the case. I got a little bit of each of the B’s (burger, brisket and bacon) in each bite. The BBQ sauce added to the mess of the burger but also provided a bit of sweetness to counter the saltiness of the meat. This was one of those burgers that was hard to put down….both because it was going to be hard to pick back up and it was really tasty.
The sandwich came with fries on the side. They were the frozen food service battered fries. I noticed a bottle of mustard sitting pretty close to me so I reached over and grabbed it. These aren’t really my favorite fries but any fry can be my favorite fry when I’m dipping it in yellow mustard.
The cost for my meal, before tip, was right around $25.
The two guys that were sitting next to me at the bar kept saying they miss the old place across the street but places are just buildings to me. It’s what’s inside them that really counts. Whether it’s the original Portage Road location, the Smokehouse in Otsego, a now closed location in Three Rivers, or at the Dyckman in Paw Paw, I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad meal from a Brewster’s. It’s definitely one of those places that just do solid pub food. They did it for 25 years at the other location but road construction on I-94 for two years really sunk them. This building hasn’t had much luck over the year’s. Here’s hoping Brewster’s Fine Food & Spirits can break that streak and do another 25 years here.
SW Michigan Dining 