Metro Detroit: Royal Oak Brewery
Every now and then we are reminded that a place, that we have known for years, has really good food and a fun lively atmosphere. The Royal Oak Brewery is one of those places. We have known of their existence since they opened in 1995 but we rarely ever eat there, at least not in the past 10 years…until recently. Royal Oak Brewery was the first micro-brewery in Oakland County making it the oldest in the county. Drew Cora opened The Royal Oak Brewery in 1995 and still owns it today. A few of his other venture are the Detroit Brewing Co downtown, Lockhart’s BBQ in Royal Oak, 313 Pizza Bar in Lake Orion as well as a Brewery and BBQ restaurant in California.
Usually when you go to a microbrewery, the main focus is on their beers . . . since it is what they are know for. Since we don’t drink beer as much as we did in our younger days, we tend to shy away from breweries since they only tend to sell beer, wine and ciders and offer limited food menu choices if they offer food at all. Royal Oak Brewery not only sells their own beer, which is brewed in house, but they also offer a full bar selection as well as some food from their full service kitchen. They usually offer a variety of 7-10 of their own brews, with names like Forth Street wheat and Royal Oak Red, as well as a few guest brews from other breweries. They typically offer a new seasonal beer every month or two as well.
Their food menu has a lot of variety as well. They have pizza cooked in their wood fired oven, and a variety of burgers and sandwiches. Our favorites are the Nashville Hot Chicken and Smoked Corned Beef Rueben. All their sandwiches are served with fries, which is something a lot of places have started charging extra for. They also have a nice selection of entrees like Grilled Salmon, Sheppard’s Pie, Jambalaya, Fish & Chips. We have had many items on their menu and always enjoy them.
They are right around the corner from Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle. The night we went there, we were seeing our favorite comedian and South Lyon native, John Heffron. He used to do the morning show on the radio back in the mid 90’s with Danny Bonaduce. This was when we were first getting married and having children, so we feel like he’s our own personal comedian. He gets us! Everything he says we can relate to. If you haven’t seen him, you should put it on your radar . . . or go see ANY comedian. We don’t laugh enough! John was winner of the Last Comedian Standing in 2011 and he does many stand up gigs in his home state of Michigan. We highly recommend him. As we said, he’s literally our favorite comedian.
We hope you have a chance to check out Royal Oak Brewery soon. Until next time, live well, eat well and enjoy life!
- Keith & Teresa Becker