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1005 Wealthy St SE


twoshort

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Review from last night:

First and foremost they have cans of Black Label beer for $1.25 all the time. That is awesome. The interior is very well done, flat red and black everywhere with nice new high top tables and retro stools. The booths are plenty comfy. The juke box was not my taste at all. I'm not even sure how to categorize the music in it. I would call it punk, but I'd probably be wrong. It was diverse I'm sure, just not up my alley. It's a bit disappointing that there is NO food. No chips, pretzels, popcorn, peanuts, anything. Someone did order pizza, which could be sweet. The beers on tap looked great (although i stuck to black label). Pints were three bucks I think, a dollar off regular price. Not bad at all. There was a pretty good mix of people in the bar, though the majority seemed like more of a punk/emo/goth/whateveryoucallit crowd rather than, say, a JCrew crowd. That's a generalization I know, but I don't know how else to categorize it. Think more mulligans and less Monte's.

Anyways, I loved it. It turned out REALLY nice inside. I'm glad it's one block from my house. I'm glad it has cheap beer. I can't wait to try the drafts (it looked like the PBR was gone last night). I will be there a lot.

Question for the owners:

Can we bring our own food? Happy hour would be great with a sandwich from Cherry Deli and a Founders draft.

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Review from last night:

First and foremost they have cans of Black Label beer for $1.25 all the time. That is awesome. The interior is very well done, flat red and black everywhere with nice new high top tables and retro stools. The booths are plenty comfy. The juke box was not my taste at all. I'm not even sure how to categorize the music in it. I would call it punk, but I'd probably be wrong. It was diverse I'm sure, just not up my alley. It's a bit disappointing that there is NO food. No chips, pretzels, popcorn, peanuts, anything. Someone did order pizza, which could be sweet. The beers on tap looked great (although i stuck to black label). Pints were three bucks I think, a dollar off regular price. Not bad at all. There was a pretty good mix of people in the bar, though the majority seemed like more of a punk/emo/goth/whateveryoucallit crowd rather than, say, a JCrew crowd. That's a generalization I know, but I don't know how else to categorize it. Think more mulligans and less Monte's.

Anyways, I loved it. It turned out REALLY nice inside. I'm glad it's one block from my house. I'm glad it has cheap beer. I can't wait to try the drafts (it looked like the PBR was gone last night). I will be there a lot.

Question for the owners:

Can we bring our own food? Happy hour would be great with a sandwich from Cherry Deli and a Founders draft.

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I think you were sitting just down from my girlfriend, Guy Bazzani and myself. Yeah it was rocking last night...! Here is my .02 worth. Turn the music down a tid-bit and work on clearing the air of smoke... Other than that---we really enjoyed ourselves last night. Well done to all who helped bring this bar to life!!
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Whoa, I just thought of something...

Black Label beer can --> flat red and black

Meanwhile interior --> flat red and black

What a masterful exploitation of a visual theme! BRILLIANT!!!

Congratulations on a great opening, all involved. Saturday was great - looking forward to visiting again.

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have had the pleasure to stop in a few times now. It was packed on Tuesday night! Amazing. The crowd is great, a really wide spectrum of creative types that really reflect our neighborhood, fairly multi-generational as well. It is the first GR bar that I have been to that has the Brooklyn-Hipster-Hangout feel, of course with a certain Midwest flair. I am really happy that it is in our neighborhood. It is also great that there has been great attention paid to details such as focusing on Michigan products! I was really happy not to see TVs or to see Bud, Bud Light, Miller or Miller Light on the menu. The Meanwhile rocks.

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  • 3 weeks later...
A lot of bars talk about installing the best smoke-sucking equipment and how they won't stink thanks to their great smoke-eating boxes. While I'm sure the boxes do some good they never really live up to the marketing hype.

It seems odd that GR has so few smoke-free bars. I was hoping The Meanwhile would recognize there are far more non-smokers than smokers and open up with a clean-air policy indoors.

Being smoke free is a major draw for people like me in a town where so few bars can say they are.

This should be a separate list, but here are a few I know of:

Founders (new location when it opens Saturday)

Hopcat (when opened in January/Feb.)

Big Bob's (EGR)

Green Well (Cherry St.)

six.one.six (JW Marriott)

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I'm working with a small sample size, but I didn't find it overwhelmingly smoky on either of my visits. I went on a Friday night and they looked to be at full capacity (police officer peaked in to do a quick head count). It might not be saying much, but I'd say the smoke is no worse than somewhere like Mulligan's, and the crowd is much more pleasant at the Meanwhile.

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I'm working with a small sample size, but I didn't find it overwhelmingly smoky on either of my visits. I went on a Friday night and they looked to be at full capacity (police officer peaked in to do a quick head count). It might not be saying much, but I'd say the smoke is no worse than somewhere like Mulligan's, and the crowd is much more pleasant at the Meanwhile.
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I probably did a disservice to The Meanwhile by bringing up Mulligan's. It's just the first bar that popped into my head when the smoke issue was raised.

With regards to The Meanwhile, it's loud, it's smoky enough that you'll want to wash your clothes before wearing them to work, but the staff and patrons are friendly, the bathrooms are clean, and the prices are low. Add it up, and it's a pretty good corner bar in my mind.

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I have stopped into the Meanwhile a few times at different hours of operation and will say that the smoke issue is pretty bad. The prices are unbelievable, which makes it difficult not to stop in, but I have walked in and left within a 1/2 hour and reeked of smoke. Cambridge has it with the grease, as another person has posted, and Mulligans is pretty smokey as well. Smoke Eaters, those rectangular boxes you see hanging from the ceiling, in my opinion generally do not work well.

The best system for smoke, while much more expensive, is going to be a good HVAC system, like a forced air ventilation type system. In a nutshell, it's sucking out all the bad interior air and replacing it with clean outdoor air. Some systems will heat or cool the air being returned into the building which helps to control the climate. Bull's Head, Monte's, Bar Divani (but I believe it's more to do with the height of the ceiling) are excellent examples of places that have such systems in place.

If you ever want to be alarmed at just how bad air quality is inside a place, stop by a place as the weather gets cooler. You're generally not going to have any open windows or doors to help vent in fresh air. Stand ouside a place like O'Toole's or Mulligan's and watch the smoke billow out as the door opens for entering or leaving patrons. It's alarming for patrons, but think about the employees working 4 or 5 days/nights a week.

I would love if all establishments went smoke free. It's the case in many states and cities, including the majors like New York City, Chicago (08), Los Angelas, Denver, and a movement that's gaining speed. And I definitely do not have a secret agenda since I am a "social" smoker. I love me a smoke with a drink or after a huge meal.

I really like the Green Well, especially since I can walk there from my place as I did last night. But let's not forget to add Churchills to the smoke free list. The food is not the best, but hopefully it's a new place working out the kinks, but the bar is definitely becoming my favorite chill out bar in downtown GR.

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