Local Watering Holes

We've driven past this Westside place so many times and finally visited it this month. Their website provides some great historic information. It was established in the 1940s as El Dorado. Father and son, Marvin and Ed Sienkiewicz, bought it in 1970. They changed its name to Eldo, Nite Cap, and finally settled on the current one. In 2004, they built a new building behind it, demolished the original structure, and used the old space for an outdoor patio. The new building included a full kitchen. The building is divided into two spaces, the second being reserved for karaoke nights (happening every Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays nights for 20 years). We sat near the long bar, next to the pinball machines. Here's the second section of the place. And take your best guess when choosing a restroom 😕 We started with a Three Floyd's Gumball head and Northern Hawk Owl Ambers. According to old reviews, before 2022 the menu included lots of vegan choices which vegans loved, obviously...

Would you walk into this place based on the outside and with no previous knowledge about it? That would be a 'no' but that would also be a mistake. The building was built in 1920 (according to Zillow) and it looks its age. This is the front entrance but you need to enter and exit on the side. This is the back. The interior though has such a cool, retro vibe that we really appreciated. The walls are covered with period artwork and concert posters. This bench and those booths are awesome. The old tin ceiling. The Beers on Tap list is up at the mahogany bar. We had an Oberon, Miller High Life, Blood Orange Honey, and a Ginger Ale, which turned out to be Vernors - only in Michigan 😉 Neither the online menu or the printed menu turned out to be accurate. Sandwiches are gone and the burgers are available only on weekends. So, that left us with the fried appetizers, which were actually quite good. Sourced from Van Eerden Food Service, the food was above average for fried bar food. We ...

We tried to get in this place once before but people were waiting out the door so we tried again tonight, with a little better luck. We took the one open table and ended up sharing it. It's a cute bar with lots and lots of decor 😀 We started with a Manhattan, Vodka on the rocks, Sam Adams Cherry Wheat and a Saugatuck Brewing Neopolitan Stout. Traditionally, we like to start with some loaded tots but they were not on the menu, although tots were. We asked our server if the chef could throw together some loaded tots, and he did so willingly and successfully! Cheese, jalapenos, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and chili with beans. Salsa and sour cream were brought out separately. When one of us asked for chives, our server said, "Look where you're at. You're drinking out of a B-Dubs glass." Haha, so we did without the chives. Here is the 2 page menu: Our main selections were a Mushroom Swiss Burger, a Pulaski Burger with horse radish on the side, a Classic Dog, and Chica...