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| Beaver's Pub: Cannabis is next door |
Not to be outdone by all the beers made these days with odd ingredients, a distillery in New Hampshire makes a bourbon called Eau De Musc, which includes oil from the castor gland of beavers. In a moment of post-pandemic giddiness, it sounded intriguing. And if it was to be found anywhere in town, Beaver's Pub downtown would be the obvious place.
No luck. Beaver's has plenty of bourbons, but not that one.
And with a marijuana outlet recently opened next door, Beaver's might be the place for a cannabis cocktail. Nope, can't get that either; the state prohibits them.
We didn't even find any live beavers, though a pair of stuffed ones are above the bar, posed as if they're gnawing on wood.
Beaver's opened in late 2019 in the space formerly occupied by the Asian Noodle restaurant downtown on Center. The noodle joint felt cavernous and loud, but Beaver's added lots of wood on the walls and turned it into a comparatively warm and inviting place with a bit of lumbering decor.
Plenty of big-screen TVs show sports. There are no pool tables or other games. And no happy hour. But besides the tables inside and outdoors, there are two bars to sit at (though they lack foot rails). The owners also operate Castaways, up on the Kawkawlin River.
The full menu includes appetizers, assorted sandwiches, burgers (the basic burger -- and it's a good one -- is $10), salads and whole dinners (topping out with sea scallops at $27).
In keeping with the rodent theme, you can get your fill of Beaver Bites (a $12 plateful of breaded deep-fried fish nuggets with a spicy dipping sauce), Beaver Tails (kebabs of shrimp and kielbasa, $14) and Woodchips (the house version of fries, sort of thick curled potato slices). Loaded Woodchips ($8) are the spuds mixed with bacon bits, chives and a maple sauce; it's oddly sweet for potatoes, but you may like it. (We earlier encountered Beaver Bites at Castaways, but they're no longer on the menu there.)
There are eight beer taps and lots of other things (beers, hard seltzers, etc.) in cans and bottles. A pint of Two Hearted Ale from Bell's was $6. A bottle of Busch Light was $4.
And Beaver's bills itself as a bourbon bar. So we figured they'd have bourbon from Third Wind, the local distillery that began selling its bourbon last year. Sure, Beaver's had that one.
The Third Wind folks don't actually originate their own bourbon. One of the early bottles says it was "distilled in Tullahoma, Tenn." The bottle at Beaver's just said "bottled in Bay City."
So it's a distillery that doesn't distill its own stuff? Responding to an Instagram query awhile back, Third Wind said: "Each batch consists of multiple hand-picked straight bourbons which are then blended, proofed and bottled here in Bay City. We will begin incorporating our own distilled whiskey once it is of age! Cheers!"
"Proofing," it turns out, is a booze world term for carefully adding water to lower a product's alcohol content. Third Wind's website says: "With water from Lake Huron used in the proofing process, you can quite literally taste the Great Lakes in every sip." We deduce that means the finished product includes plain Bay City tap water (because if they were filtering the water, you quite literally wouldn't taste it at all).
The Third Wind folks also trademark their product as "the official spirit of the Great Lakes." It sounds sort of like Coke being licensed as "the official drink of Major League Baseball," though we wonder how lakes can bestow "official" status on anything. And we don't know why a perfectly good bourbon has to be overhyped.
But back to Beaver's.
On a Monday afternoon, the place was surprisingly packed at 1:30 p.m., with people sitting outside at sidewalk tables and in the blocked-off street as well as inside. By an hour later, things had calmed down.
The Monday lunch special was a $5 coney, or two for $7, with the Woodchips. Our comrade the G-man, who considers himself a coney dog aficionado and appreciates a good bargain, described the coneys as "better than OK, pretty darn good" and later called the $7 deal "pretty awesome," perhaps the most enthusiastic description we've ever heard from him about anything.
Regardless of its provenance, the Third Wind bourbon made for a good Manhattan ($8).
And then our bartender Tiffany mentioned that any drink can be smoked -- for free. That required asking for another Manhattan.
Plenty of big-screen TVs show sports. There are no pool tables or other games. And no happy hour. But besides the tables inside and outdoors, there are two bars to sit at (though they lack foot rails). The owners also operate Castaways, up on the Kawkawlin River.
The full menu includes appetizers, assorted sandwiches, burgers (the basic burger -- and it's a good one -- is $10), salads and whole dinners (topping out with sea scallops at $27).
In keeping with the rodent theme, you can get your fill of Beaver Bites (a $12 plateful of breaded deep-fried fish nuggets with a spicy dipping sauce), Beaver Tails (kebabs of shrimp and kielbasa, $14) and Woodchips (the house version of fries, sort of thick curled potato slices). Loaded Woodchips ($8) are the spuds mixed with bacon bits, chives and a maple sauce; it's oddly sweet for potatoes, but you may like it. (We earlier encountered Beaver Bites at Castaways, but they're no longer on the menu there.)
There are eight beer taps and lots of other things (beers, hard seltzers, etc.) in cans and bottles. A pint of Two Hearted Ale from Bell's was $6. A bottle of Busch Light was $4.
And Beaver's bills itself as a bourbon bar. So we figured they'd have bourbon from Third Wind, the local distillery that began selling its bourbon last year. Sure, Beaver's had that one.
The Third Wind folks don't actually originate their own bourbon. One of the early bottles says it was "distilled in Tullahoma, Tenn." The bottle at Beaver's just said "bottled in Bay City."
So it's a distillery that doesn't distill its own stuff? Responding to an Instagram query awhile back, Third Wind said: "Each batch consists of multiple hand-picked straight bourbons which are then blended, proofed and bottled here in Bay City. We will begin incorporating our own distilled whiskey once it is of age! Cheers!"
"Proofing," it turns out, is a booze world term for carefully adding water to lower a product's alcohol content. Third Wind's website says: "With water from Lake Huron used in the proofing process, you can quite literally taste the Great Lakes in every sip." We deduce that means the finished product includes plain Bay City tap water (because if they were filtering the water, you quite literally wouldn't taste it at all).
The Third Wind folks also trademark their product as "the official spirit of the Great Lakes." It sounds sort of like Coke being licensed as "the official drink of Major League Baseball," though we wonder how lakes can bestow "official" status on anything. And we don't know why a perfectly good bourbon has to be overhyped.
But back to Beaver's.
On a Monday afternoon, the place was surprisingly packed at 1:30 p.m., with people sitting outside at sidewalk tables and in the blocked-off street as well as inside. By an hour later, things had calmed down.
The Monday lunch special was a $5 coney, or two for $7, with the Woodchips. Our comrade the G-man, who considers himself a coney dog aficionado and appreciates a good bargain, described the coneys as "better than OK, pretty darn good" and later called the $7 deal "pretty awesome," perhaps the most enthusiastic description we've ever heard from him about anything.
Regardless of its provenance, the Third Wind bourbon made for a good Manhattan ($8).
And then our bartender Tiffany mentioned that any drink can be smoked -- for free. That required asking for another Manhattan.
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| Tiffany lighting the drink smoker |
The drink ended up smelling like a campfire for the first couple sips. The effect didn't seem to last, but the association with camping was pleasant.
Tiffany, by the way, said she's really a server, not a bartender. But she did fine by us. (We've seen people who work as bartenders have to check how to make a Manhattan; she knew.) Mojitos and Moscow Mules are popular mixed drinks, she said.
Beaver's current posted hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
Its association with beavers (though apparently due to an owner named Beaver) is reminiscent of the Rathskeller on Midland Street calling itself "the Rat" (and offering a dessert called Rat Tails). Perhaps a Squirrel Saloon is next.
Wikipedia's entry for rodent notes a potential appeal: "Mating among rodents can vary from monogamy, to polygyny, to promiscuity." Sounds perfect for a singles bar.
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See Doc's report on Beaver's Pub: A downtown bar in need of a drink named for a beaver
The particulars:
Beaver's Pub
200 Center
989-778-3600
1 comment:
Nice job guy! I love your story telling. Always an enjoyable read. Thanks, Jan
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