Grand Rapids, MI

[PseudoChef]

Thanks, all.

We're staying right downtown at Amway - Vivant, GR Brewing, Founders, and Hopcat are hopefully all on the agenda.

[Ozwald]

Thanks, all.

We're staying right downtown at Amway - Vivant, GR Brewing, Founders, and Hopcat are hopefully all on the agenda.

GR Brewing Co. on 28th? Save yourself the time & trip. That place has been a joke ever since it opened. Founders & Hopcat are both a nice short stroll from the hotel though.

[dannypo]

Grand Rapids was pretty bad before but they just reopened in a new location with new owners, new equipment and a new concept. I haven't been there yet but I am going to give them a chance.

[Ozwald]

Grand Rapids was pretty bad before but they just reopened in a new location with new owners, new equipment and a new concept. I haven't been there yet but I am going to give them a chance.

Yeah, they went through several ownership changes over the years. After the 2nd or 3rd one I realized that every time it just got worse & gave up completely on them. Hopefully this time it's different, but if I still lived there I wouldn't go back again. Good luck, you may need it

[Effingbeer]

Haven't been to the new place, but anything could be an improvement. The beer wasn't nearly as bad as the terrible, highly priced food.
I have heard that the beer has been fixed, but still...

[Ozwald]

Haven't been to the new place, but anything could be an improvement. The beer wasn't nearly as bad as the terrible, highly priced food.
I have heard that the beer has been fixed, but still...

That's the problem, every single time they got new ownership, they used that exact same line... 'new owners, new equipment, beer's soooo much better, blah blah blah'. Then I got lured in to go down there, find out they still wouldn't do samplers & suckered out of $10-20 to find out that it sucked worse than the last time I had been there. I only had food once that I can remember & the side order of fries wasn't all that bad I'd heard that their regular menu items were pretty bad though.

I figure if anyone was really serious about rescuing that place, they'd just start from scratch with their own name that didn't carry decades of bad rep. There's nothing all that special about the name in the first place.

[bee]

Haven't been to the new place, but anything could be an improvement. The beer wasn't nearly as bad as the terrible, highly priced food.
I have heard that the beer has been fixed, but still...

That's the problem, every single time they got new ownership, they used that exact same line... 'new owners, new equipment, beer's soooo much better, blah blah blah'. Then I got lured in to go down there, find out they still wouldn't do samplers & suckered out of $10-20 to find out that it sucked worse than the last time I had been there. I only had food once that I can remember & the side order of fries wasn't all that bad I'd heard that their regular menu items were pretty bad though.

I figure if anyone was really serious about rescuing that place, they'd just start from scratch with their own name that didn't carry decades of bad rep. There's nothing all that special about the name in the first place.

Grand Rapids Brewing Company is much better now and good happy hour specials, although I'm not sure if those apply to weekends. Beyond what was already mentioned I also suggest Harmony Brewing Company in Eastown. They have good beer/cider and pizza. Founders is expanding again, but open during construction. I live in GR, so if you want any other info hit me up.

[Ozwald]

Founders is expanding again, but open during construction. I live in GR, so if you want any other info hit me up.

Expanding on the new building? Well, it was the 'new' building when I was still there anyhow. If so, in which direction? I don't seem to remember there being much open space around them. They definitely needed a bigger parking lot.