Grand Rapids Trip

I always like a trip to Vivant when I'm in the area. Good beer, food, and nice location to chill at.

 

Vivant makes well respected Beligian style beers in an amazing space, and has an excellent food menu

ELK Brewing is a small place, also near Vivant. I was very impressed by the quality they are putting out from such a small system (I think they are on a 3 bbl)

Both of those are about 1.5 miles north of the downtown area, so walking distance if you like walking

Downtown I will add that Grand Rapids Brewing company does some interesting but unspectacular stuff, and is a block away from Hopcat. If you are in the area and ticking locations, it is worth the stop. But I wouldn't go out of my way to go there

 

Perrin, Gravel Bottom, Rockford Brewing, Cedar Springs Brewing. All worth a look. Vander Mill GR just opened last week if you like Ciders.

 

Harmony has very good wood fire pizzas and their beer was really good also. The space is kind of small unless they've expanded recently.

If you are going to founders, go to the pyramid scheme down the road. It's a music venue but they tend to have some awesome stuff, at least when I was there about 2 years ago.

 

ftfy

I'll second Vivant and add Pike 51 in Hudsonville. I believe Pike 51 is having a party on Saturday with live music and some special taps.

 

If you are looking for places with bigger tap lists, check out Monelli's (sports bar), Gravity (restaurant) and The Score (lower end sports bar). All their web sites should be up to date with tap list. They all rival Hopcat for tap lists but are not downtown. The Score's food is very mediocre.

 

The food at vivant is freakin awesome

 

Vivant has awesome Belgian's true to style and an awesome tap room and atmosphere. Harmony has great pizza but there beer is fairly forgettable. I was not super impressed with Mitten Brewing Company's beer but enjoyed their pizza. Pike 51 and White Flame have better beer than Harmony or Mitten in my opinion and are like a mile down the road from one another. Perrin makes some very solid brews and have a nice tap room although it is a little like a warehouse in that it gets pretty loud. Have not been to Grand Rapids Brewing Company or ELK but have heard great things and both are on my list for that area. If your looking to drive a little out of the way Oddside is around 30 minutes or so outside of Grand Rapids and rarely disappoints.

 

Vivant, Elk, and Harmony are all near downtown and very close to each other. Make sure you grab a beer city passport, there is a lot of good information and if you get 8 stamps you get a free t shirt. Beer City runner is a bus that goes to 7 different breweries so you might want to check that out. I actually work at Elk, I'll be there at 5 on Saturday if you stop in say hi, my name is Kevin, cheers!

 

Perrin for good priced, GREAT food. You could start at Perrin early in the day for lunch and a bit smaller crowd. They have good burgers and THE BEST chefs salad you will find anywhere. Sweet potatoe fries with the garlic aioli....

They are located north of town but a pretty quick and easy drive.

 

This might be a stupid question, but does Perrin have a liquor license (for cocktails)? My gf doesn't drink beer

 

Not that I'm aware of.

 

Perrin. Get the globe.

 

Your Google Fu is weak. Vivant is one mile east (walked that many times). ELK is down a smidge south east on Wealthy St.

 

More the odd way the geography got stuck in my head. For some (quite obviously incorrect) reason, I think of the river as running east-west, which put that area "north" in my mind. I've also walked it several times

But I was wrong, that is for certain

 

Skip the B.O.B. Brewery and skip Grand Rapids Brewing.

And if you dont want to walk to all the breweries (weather depending), use Uber~

 

No liquor license but they generally have some sort of fruit or sour beer on tap that may even appeal to a non-beer drinker. That is the way I got my wife started. Pike 51 in Hudsonville also has a winery, and a large variety of local wine.

 

Understood. There is a certain town in Germany that I have east and west confused.