When a brewery’s maximum occupancy caps at eight, it doesn’t take a mathematician to calculate that said brewery can’t sell a lot of pints. Since opening in 2017, Arvon Brewing Co. has occupied a hidey-hole in Grandville roughly the size of a storage locker. Like playing pool while your cue bangs against the wall, I can only imagine the frustrations owners Jake Stanko and Brett Bristol have experienced while raking spent grain from their fermenters.
You might notice that new breweries aren’t arriving at quite the same rate as they used to. Does that mean that the infamous Beer Bubble has finally “popped?” We don’t think so — West Michigan still has far more breweries opening than closing. If you take a look at our brewery guide, you’ll notice quite a few breweries that expanded in a major way.
The hype surrounding Grand Rapids casts a length that stretches counties long. It is the Cool City. It has the Hot Eats. And have you heard? It has Beer. I read so on a billboard.
Being entrusted with a legacy is no small weight. When Joel Wabeke and Sarah Wepman bought Marie Catrib’s from the late owner’s son, they knew they were entering a sacred space.
Consciously or not, diners can sense thoughtfulness. It’s a sixth sense that plays a huge part in whether we decide to return.
Of all the towns that speckle West Michigan’s coast, Muskegon has perhaps struggled the most with cohesion. Its beaches and state parks are world-class but distanced from the city proper. Moreover, some could argue that a city proper has been lacking for a while. I remember a visit to Unruly Brewing Company a few years ago: loved it, but noticed a scarcity of surrounding places to be. While rounding the main drag’s cul-de-sac, it seemed like the city was still loading.
In a growing region like West Michigan, the food scene will always be in flux.
In the days of yore, a pint of lager and a couple fingers of whiskey were enough to whet a drinker’s appetite. No more. With a zillion liquids to choose from, it’s exhausting just deciding what to put in your mouth. Even our rhymes are changing. Once liquor before beer, you’re in the clear, now negroni before stout, lights out. Gin before mead, yes indeed? Mix and match drinks from this list and send us your rhymes for which pairs spared a bellyache.
Now here’s a category for the masses. Nightlife, maybe not so much, but activities? You can’t deny we all do stuff from time to time.
Women’s suffrage superstar Susan B. Anthony famously called the bicycle a “freedom machine,” an “emancipator,” and “the all powerful whirligig of the future.”
OK, maybe not that last part, but don’t discredit the bike’s magic — it takes us to and fro with nothing but a pair of legs and the will to zoom. It so happens that we’re blessed with a string of breweries to zoom between along Grand Rapids’ White Pine Trail. Revue plotted some coordinates and dropped in on breweries that share a passion for good beer and a good ride.
