Atlas Restaurant
Back-to-back trips out of town for work.
I had a short trip last week. Just Thursday evening in to Friday afternoon but it did include a hotel stay.
A co-worker and I ended up in Brooklyn on the Thursday night before the NASCAR race at Michigan International Speedway. We somehow lucked out and got a room at the Super 8 in Brooklyn. It was a much nicer hotel than we expected and it was super cheap.
We both had some things to do on Thursday night on our own when we got to town but decided to meet up at the hotel for dinner. We’ve been doing this trip for a couple years and we usually stay in Jackson. Brooklyn was a new town to both of us so we wanted to do a bit of exploring.
We had no idea where to go for dinner. I hadn’t done my typical research yet when my colleague threw out a restaurant. I looked it up and it’s 100% the place I would have picked.
Atlas Restaurant is on Main Street north of Monroe Street in what can be described as downtown Brooklyn. The building really stands out with it’s dark walls and orange lettering amongst the row of buildings with shades of brown that look like a more traditional downtown. Our waitress told us that the restaurant opened in 2024 after the owners spent some time in Chicago and moved back to the area. They wanted to bring the feel of a Chicago restaurant to the Irish Hills. The building was the longtime home of Columbia Interiors, a flooring company, before it was converted into a restaurant.
The restaurant has a big city feel as soon as you walk in the door. Just past the host stand is a large u-shaped bar. There is a very modern design to the space with teal recessed panels framed by white beams. The chairs at the bar are leather barstools with a bucket style back. There is a wall of liquor that separates the bar the bar from the main dining room and a series of taps in the middle with a decent selection of craft beers.
The main dining area is behind the bar. I was kind of shocked to see how packed it was on a Thursday night at dinner time. All of the four top tables were full. Each were surrounded by the same style of chair that was in the bar area but with green upholstery instead of the tan. The room was a little loud but not so bad you couldn’t carry on a conversation.
My co-worker and I were actually seated in the bar area at a two top pub table that shares a bench seat with the tables around it. I took the bench but had to push the table out a bit to get in. The problem with sharing a bench like this is the foot rail that runs the length of the bench. The guy sitting next to me couldn’t sit still and kept kicking the rail and it vibrated the whole thing. I finally just took my feet off and let them hang until they finished up and the kicking stopped.
I was really looking forward to a drink when we walked in. The first thing I saw on the beer menu was Two Hearted Ale…so of course, that’s what I ordered without even looking at anything else. My colleague got a root beer which was also pulled from a tap but I didn’t see what kind it was.
The dinner menu ranges from fancy to sandwiches inspired by Mediterranean, South and Central America and Indian cusines. We both went the sandwich route and neither of us left hungry.
I ordered the Cubano Sandwich. The sandwich is a pretty traditional Cuban served on pressed Cuban bread that is stuffed with roasted pork, Dearborn ham, Swiss cheese, mustard, and dill pickles. The sandwich was fantastic. I called an audible at the last minute and ordered this instead of the burger. I think I made the right choice. There was a large pile of roasted pork underneath several layers of folded ham. I love a good Cuban sandwich and this was a good one.
The surprise to both of us was the amount of fries that came with the sandwich. We both upgraded to the Parmesan fries and there were so many on the plate, they literally covered the sandwich. The crispy skin on thinly cut fries were covered in flaky salt, Parmesan cheese and Parsley. There was a cup of what I assume is homemade ketchup served with them but it wasn’t at all necessary. These fries were so good on their own and worth the upgrade.
The cost for my meal, before tip, was around $27.
Atlas Restaurant is one of those places that doesn’t feel like it should be in a small town like it is. The food was amazingly good and the portion size put both of us in to food comas. I’m the kind of person that likes to check out as many different restaurants as I can when I travel but I ‘m going to have a hard time convincing my colleague to go somewhere different if we end up in Brooklyn again next year. This is definitely one of those destination places. While you may not have many reasons to drive through Brooklyn on M-50 unless it’s NASCAR weekend, Atlas is a reason to make that drive.
SW Michigan Dining 