The Ridge Microbrewery & Restaurant

This was stop #3 on a 6-day pub crawl that would take my wife and me to the Brewers Guild UP Beer Fest and back. This pub is actually not yet brewing their own beers while they await their license to brew, and for now Elk Brewing's beers on tap until Elk delivers new beers that are brewed using The Ridge's recipes within a few weeks. So this review is mainly informational at this time as to the status of the brewery, and the beer portion of the review is based on 4 of the Elk beers that we sampled.

The brewery is located in the building on the hilltop behind the casino that fronts the highway, and is about 3 miles north of Suttons Bay. Parking is at the rear of the brewery's building. Being on the hilltop, there is an excellent view of Grand Traverse Bay from inside the restaurant. This pub is mainly a restaurant that will be brewing their own beers. The brewing equipment is behind a window wall that is behind the bar, but the vibe here is mainly that of a nice restaurant, although being able to see the equipment adds to the pub feeling.

The beers that we sampled were brewed very well to style, so an overall score is being given for these beers until a return visit, at which time the score will be replaced with whatever the in-house beers are graded at that time. The food menu is extensive and is loaded with entrees that are typical of a very nice restaurant. We each had a bowl of soup and shared some truffle fries, and this light lunch was excellent, but not enough food to provide a rating for this review. There is no doubt that the food here will probably excel over the beers once they brew their own, but I hope it is a close competition once their brewer has tweaked their recipes to their final level. We hope to stop back here again when we travel through this area.