Old Skool Bar
125 S. Kalamazoo MallA lot of times when J travels with the kids, I’m home alone. That usually gives me opportunities to check out new places (mostly bars) that I wouldn’t necessarily eat at with the family.
J only to B to Boston as he was the only one competing and plane tickets are expensive. We’re actually traveling as a family next week to Lake Placid, NY for another competition so we had to kind of watch what we were spending on this trip.
My mother-in-law usually takes the kid that doesn’t go to her house while J is gone but L had some early morning practices. I told her to just stay at home and I would drop her off on my way to work.
There was one night that L went home with her Nana. She had early morning practice on Wednesday but then didn’t skate again to later in the afternoon on Thursday.
That meant, I had one night to seek out a new place.
I have a couple of newish bars that I haven’t been to yet but I decided to stay downtown after work.
I headed over to The Kalamazoo Mall to find Old Skool Bar. It’s in the spot The Union used to be in the old Gilmore Brother’s Department store just south of Michigan Avenue. Old Skool takes up the same space The Union did and shares an entrance with Rocket Fizz. To the right, you get candy. To the left, you get food and beer.
As soon as you walk in the door, you see a sign. No cell phones. No politics. No outside noise. It’s not a requirement. It’s a suggestion. They don’t take your phone away but the idea is that this is an old school bar that you go to and just hang out. You don’t fight about politics. You don’t spend the whole time staring at your phone. You be present in the moment.
The building has sat empty since The Union closed in 2020 during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic. The new space will feel somewhat familiar for those that used to go to The Union. The stage is gone but the floor plan is pretty much the same.
There’s is a small dining room with some kind of classic…or again, to be cliche, old school, restaurant chairs. There aren’t any waitresses though. You’ll have to go to the bar for service.
The space where the stage used to be now has a couple of pool tables. There’s also a DJ booth along the back wall for live entertainment. The pool tables can be moved and this area can turn in to a dance floor.
The space also has some other kind of retro bar games like skee-ball.
Pinball machines
Foosball and a classic CD jukebox.
The bar is in the same spot and it has the same design as it did when this place was The Union. It’s kind of a arch shape. There is a line of TV’s above the draft taps that were tuned in to the World Cup the evening I was in there. Beyond that, the bar kind of looks back out on to the floor where the pool tables are. This was an intentional design choice by The Union because you would have been able to see the stage. Old Skool didn’t change this because it’s a really nice bar and there was no reason to tear it out.
I had no idea when I sat down but there were a lot of good happy hour specials happening.
The first one was two dollars off drafts. They didn’t have Two Hearted but they did have an Oberon so I just went with that. Hell, for two dollars off, I would have drank pretty much anything they had on tap.
Monday through Thursday they also have a buy one get one anything on the menu. That didn’t really effect my choice for food but it did help when the bill came.
The menu is almost kind of lighter snacking menu that it is full on entree’s. It’s kind of sliders an appetizers but they have a pretty good variety of things to pick from and I actually had a fairly hard time deciding on what I wanted to eat.
I ended up picking the Chicken Strips and an order for fries. It was kind of the cheapest combo on the menu but the chicken strips drew me in with the “buttermilk battered.” I assumed that meant they were made in house.
I was really happy when the plate of food was set down in front of me. The tenders looked made in house and they looked delicious. The chicken strips were very juicy and tender but had a delicious crispy, flaky exterior. I always kind of feel like a child when I order chicken tenders but these are the kind of chicken tenders an adult can feel good about ordering. They’re not frozen flat strips from a food service truck. They’re delicious crispy, juicy pieces of chicken.
The fires are skin on double fried French fries cooked in beef tallow. They’re also dusted with popcorn salt which is unique plus they come with a house made ketchup The fries were tasty and there was a lot of them. I didn’t have to worry about leaving hungry.
I’m not gonna lie. I was a little shocked when the bartender set down my bill and it was $16. I haven’t paid that for this kind of a meal in a really long time.
Old Skool Bar is an interesting place. Being an old guy, I can totally feel the kind of place they’re going for. It’s the kind of bars I went to in the early aughts before everyone had a cell phone. There’s pool, there’s a juke box, there’s good food and cold beer. They have a really unique concept and it’s a really chill place to hang out after work or with a group of friends on a weekend.
SW Michigan Dining 