In a city that is bursting at the seams with great food options, claiming to have “the best bar food in town” is a gutsy move. My interest was piqued, so I grabbed a friend and headed to Birch Lodge to test the accuracy of the declaration.
The parking lot at Birch Lodge is small, and by small, I mean tiny. Unless you feel like crossing your fingers and hoping for a space, your best bet is to park on Michigan Street.
The interior of the bar/restaurant is a typical setting. There’s a large bar, several high-top pub tables and an arrangement of smaller tables off to the side. The seating is self-serve, so we found a table and were promptly greeted by our server. She took our drink order right away and got us started with menus.
The array of appetizers was impressive. There are three entire menu pages dedicated to salads, Birch Lodge’s award winning chili, dips, a variety of sliders and the bar staples of fried stuff with cheese. We just missed out on the happy hour special of $1.99 drinks and appetizers that runs from 3-6 p.m. on weeknights.
Since it was another scorcher of a day, I just couldn’t bring myself to eat a hot appetizer without feeling like I would melt into a puddle in my chair, so we settled on the Garlic Hummus ($6.99), served with toasted garlic pita wedges, cucumbers and carrots. The hummus itself was quite good and the garlic pita was excellent. The carrots were chopped into little discs, which was a bit awkward for dipping. I would have preferred them to be in stick form, but it didn’t take away from the dish as a whole.
Once you get past the appetizers, the menu consists mainly of burgers and sandwiches. My ideal bar food takes the shape of a cheesy, bacon-y burger, so I was delighted to see that the Lodge Burger ($6.99) looked like it would fit the bill perfectly. It’s a 1/3 lb. burger on a toasted bun with bacon, cheese and sautéed onions. It comes with fries on the side. Laura went for the BLT ($5.99), which came with salt and pepper kettle chips.
BLTs and burgers are tricky things. Something so simple should always be a knockout, but there are a lot of ways to botch it up. Luckily, Birch Lodge committed none of those errors — both of our sandwiches were outstanding. Laura’s BLT had a lot of bacon and the tomatoes were very fresh and ripe. She said it was one of the better ones she’s had. The Lodge Burger was one of the best burgers I’ve eaten in Grand Rapids. The cheese was melty and gooey, the bacon was perfectly crisp and the sautéed onions added just the right amount of sweetness. Neither of us were able to finish our meals, but our server helpfully provided us with take-out boxes.
Birch Lodge definitely feels like a neighborhood hangout. The crowd had college students, softball teams and professionals scattered throughout. It got a bit loud at times, but if you can’t handle that, you probably wouldn’t choose a bar in the first place. They definitely lived up to their claim — the food was great, the prices were good and the staff was very friendly and attentive. I’ll definitely go back to check out the daily specials and put some of their other appetizers to the test. Birch Lodge also offers take out service, plus a free taco bar and self-serve Bloody Mary bar on Sundays.
