Metro Detroit: Northville’s Granite City

This week we are enjoying happy hour at Granite City, in Northville Township, at 7 Mile and Haggerty. If you are not familiar with Granite City, let me start by saying it is NOT a place to go shopping for kitchen countertops. That’s Granite Planet. It is actually a Restaurant and Brewery, that makes all their beers in house. Granite City was founded by Steve Wagenheim, in 1999, in St Cloud Minnesota. He chose the name Granite City as homage to the city of St Cloud, which was given the name Granite City in the late 1800’s due to all of the granite quarries that had opened in the area.

Wagenheim, who was a former executive with the Champps restaurant group, opened the first location in 1999 along with brewmaster Bill Burdick. At the time, craft beers were just starting to take off. Their original intention was to create a microbrewery in the old Lahr Building on Germain St and resurrect the St Cloud Brewing company name. Well, plans changed and they ended up building a restaurant as part of a development off Minnesota Highway 15 and named it Granite City. Over the next 14 years they grew to over 50 restaurants throughout the Midwest. This was thanks, in part, to the craft beer boom that took over the beer industry. However, in 2019 they filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and were eventually purchased by BBQ holdings, which is the parent company to Famous Dave’s, in 2020.

Granite City has 2 Michigan locations: the one in Northville Twp and one in Troy. There are currently 16 in operation, throughout the Midwest, in 8 different states. They are widely popular and can get crowded during peak hours and on the weekends. We came for Happy Hour, on a weekday, so it was no problem getting in and finding room in the bar area. They make all their beers in house and usually feature 4 signature brews, 3 to 5 seasonal brews and a seltzer.

The restaurant itself is pretty large, with the front half being built around the bar area. The bar area is pretty big, and there is also a front enclosed patio area which would be perfect for a large group.

The main dining area is open and spacious with a view of the kitchen, like most modern restaurants are set up.

Their menu has something for everyone’s tastes with a variety of starters, flatbreads, burgers, sandwiches and entrees.

DINNER MENU:

They also have their “Lawless Brunch” on Sundays with a great selection of brunch items including Infinite Mimosa’s and the create your own Bloody Mary with over 70 different combinations to concoct.

We were here for happy hour, which runs 3-6 Mon – Fri. You can get

$4 pint drafts
$5 well drinks
$5 house wines
$5 signature cocktails
$6-$7-$8 appetisers

We ordered the chicken tenders and fries, pretzels with beer cheese and mustard, Idaho nachos and the Buffalo shrimp. We thought the prices we pretty reasonable for what you got, the Buffalo Shrimp were really good, 8 for $8 and I really enjoyed the Idaho Nachos, things like that are right up my alley. The pretzel sticks were also good, the beer cheese and mustard were both very delicious. It also happened to be Tuesday which is Taco Tuesday so we were able to get some Crispy Asian Shrimp Tacos and Baha Chicken Tacos. We enjoyed everything we had but I would pass on the chicken tenders next time.

On top of their happy hour they offer daily specials throughout the week.

Burger Mondays - $8 burgers and chicken sandwiches, $10 specialty burgers and $10 pitchers of beer.
Taco Tuesdays - $10 signature tacos (3 to an order) served with chips and salsa, $5 Margaritas
Pasta Wednesdays - $11.99 Pasta Entrees with salad and garlic bread. ½ off bottles of wine. Plus any flatbread and a bottle of wine for $25.
App Thursdays - $6 select apps, $4 pints of beer and $6 growlers of their house brews.
Fish Fry Fridays - $14.99 beer battered fish dinner with fries and slaw

Here is a way to make sure you get an additional 20% discount off the already discounted happy hour food. Go to Costco, which is right down the street, and get gift cards. They sell 2 - $50 gift Cards $80. You can also join their loyalty club and get a $10 dining credit for every $100 you spend, which is not hard to do these days.