February 2021, Weekdays after restaurants and bars reopened at 25% capacity
We tend to go out on less busy days, and finding open locations during the pandemic has proven to be a challenge. Even with the allowed opening, some places have opted for much shorter hours and/or fewer open days. We found several places that are only opening a few days a week, and many have not been opening until 3PM or later. I am sharing information about some of the places we looked into or visited shortly after inside seating reopened.
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| Salt Spring Brewery in Saline, MI |
Ann Arbor/Saline
Most of the breweries in this area were not open in the afternoons and/or on weekdays. We had hoped to visit Mothfire Brewery Company, since it was only two miles from our hotel; however, their current temporary hours are Thursday - Saturday from 5PM to 8PM. Townies Brewery, and most of the locations downtown had similar hours. The only downtown brewery that we found with weekday afternoon hours was Grizzly Peak Brewing Company, and we did not end up making it downtown.
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| Salt Spring Brewery in Saline, MI |
We visited two locations that were open on weekday afternoons: Salt Springs Brewery and Wolverine State Brewing. Although Salt Springs Brewery has a Saline address, it is only five miles from south Ann Arbor. This is a location we would visit again. It is in a beautiful old church with inside and outside seating. The beers were good, the service was good, and they have a fabulous Happy Hour starting at 3PM; specials on appetizers and beers. I wish we had been hungry when we visited, because the food smelled fabulous. Wolverine State Brewing also had inside and outside seating, along with food and beer. Plexiglass barriers were installed at the bar for bar seating.
Neither location was very busy during our afternoon visits. I had been wondering if we would run into wait times with only 25% capacity, and we have not experienced this yet.
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| Grand River Brewing in Jackson, MI |
Jackson
We found two breweries in Jackson that were open in the afternoon. Grand River Brewing opens at 11AM, and they were quite busy when we arrived during lunchtime. We were seated right away, and we did not observe anyone waiting to be seated during our visit. The inside area is more spacious than we expected. We were somewhat confused about where to park at this location. We ended up parking in what looked like a city market lot next to the brewery. Some of the spaces had permit parking signs, and some did not, so we chose a spot that did not have a sign. Ironbark Brewery opens at 1PM. There was one patron there when we arrived shortly after they opened. The service was good, as was their Shorty's DIPA.
Lansing
Again, most of the breweries in this area were not open on weekday afternoons. We visited Midtown Brewery Company downtown. We like this brewery, although we were disappointed to receive our beers in plastic cups inside. Workers were building outside shelters for additional seating while we were there. Another brewery we liked last time we visited Lansing is Ozone's Brewhouse; however, their website says they are temporarily closed.
Misc. and overall
There are a couple of other breweries near Lansing that we like. We would have visited one of them on our way home; however, they did not open until 4PM: Confluxity Brewing Company and Looking Glass Brewing Company.
We felt safe visiting all of these locations. Businesses had different ways of collecting contact tracing info, and for providing menus and service. All were equally effective. They were following capacity, social distancing, and mask guidelines.
All of the breweries listed in this post have promotions in either HopPassport or Reel Craft Pass. Some of them are in both books. We usually purchase brewery and winery booklets like these, as they make us aware of locations we otherwise may not have known about. It would be nice if we could find a similar product for Michigan restaurants.
Travel safe, all ~ Let me know if you have any questions!
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