B.O.B.'s Brewery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a visit to the brewery to have lunch and try their beers, but we discovered that the pub does not open until late afternoon. Fortunately we also discovered that the other restaurants in the building also serve BOB's beers, so we ended up at Bobarino's. This is a Big Old Building that has been re-purposed into an entertainment venue with restaurants and a comedy club in addition to the brewpub. The interior is cleaned-up industrial-grade wood beams, floors, and rafters. It's a cool place throughout the building.

There were 8 beers available so we ordered two 4-glass samplers ($7 each) with 4 oz. glasses. I've read a number of reviews of the beers here that made them seem marginal in quality, but I'll take exception and say that we enjoyed all of the beers that we sampled. None of them knocked our socks off, but every one was brewed to style with a little extra touch. The only minor issue that I had was that the stout was a bit more hoppy than most any other stout that I've experienced so that this one could have been classed as a roasty black IPA. Our scoring for the beers came up with a solid C+ grade overall, with all of the beers ranging from 3.25-3.75. The Crimson King Amber was the one that I felt was above the others in comparison to the style characteristics.

The Bobarino's food menu was quite diverse with pizza, deli sandwiches, salads and various dinner entrées. The meals that we had were very good, so that we scored them a little higher than the beers, but not by much. Really, the beers are a good reason to make a stop here, and the food is reason #2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the recent NHC in Grand Rapids, three of us headed across the street to have lunch at The Bob. An acronym for Big Old Building, this is a large 1903 grocery warehouse turned into a strange collection of venues. A small brewery lurks in the basement, Bobarino's pizza place is upstairs, a comedy club, dueling pianos, a steak house, and more! The brewery was closed (they should have opened up for NHC!) so we went to Bobarino's instead. We shared a sampler of their beers and those were all across the board: a nasty diacetyl IPA, but Crimson King Amber and Spaceboy Stout were both decent. The food was also decent but not special.

 

Another stop in during NHC and just a few blocks away from the convention center, B.O.B.'s House of Brews is in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids on the second floor of a 5? story building.

The bar was mostly empty except for a few handful of folks at the bar so I pulled up a seat. The waitress, while cute, was one of those that feels obligated to call every person of the opposite sex, hun, babes, darlin', <fill in the blank> which got old quick but I ordered the IPA per her recommendation out of the 7 beers on tap from the brewery. Nothing really that out of the ordinary, pretty typical line-up. (IPA, stout, brown ale, amber, blonde ale, etc). The IPA was fresh and had a nice hop flavor to it but nothing ground breaking.The interior was kind of generic, pool table, beer signs, it reminded me of a college-y spot. The sandwhich I ordered however was very tasty, pork belly.

In all I'd say if you're in GR for a decent amount of time check it out, but if your time is limited, there are so many other great places in the area - Don't bother.

 

 

 

 

Wasn't too impressed with this place. Seems more like a typical bar/night club trying to jump on the craft beer bandwagon. Their beer is decent/good, however not nearly as good as other breweries within walking distance. The majority of the patrons seemed more interested in Miller lite or Bud Light.