[Edible Wow] Pierogi in Metro Detroit

When the Dodge brothers opened their Dodge Main automotive assembly plant in Hamtramck Township in 1914, the area was little more than a sleepy community of French and German farmers. When the call for work went out at the plant, Polish immigrants descended upon this tiny township (and later fought for it to be recognized as its own city). This two-square-mile area was built to accommodate tens of thousands of immigrant factory workers, resulting in densely packed housing with family homes crammed into 30-foot lots. At its peak in 1930, the city had 56,000 people in it, 83% of which were Polish.

The Polish immigrants brought with them their own cultural traditions, and soon Hamtramck was filled with hundreds of bars, beer gardens, Polish restaurants, Old-World bakeries and sausage shops.

Polish cuisine is rooted in the rich farming fields of Poland where potatoes, cabbage and beets thrived. Thus much of what we know as traditional Polish food is heavy with these ingredients: golabki (stuffed cabbage), cabbage soup and stew, sauerkraut (pickled cabbage), beet soups, potato dumplings, potato pancakes, and potato and cheese pierogi are all staples of a traditional Polish diet.

[HOT LIST] Pancakes

Red Velvet Pancakes from Hudson Cafe. Photo by Alyse Hinton.

Today is National Pancake Day! So it seems only fitting for a Pancake Hot List. For most people pancakes might come out of a box with instructions reading "just add water," but these pancake places make everything from scratch using fresh butter, cream and fruit ... and they also get a bit creative in their toppings. From the griddle to your gullet, here are the places that treat pancakes as more than just a simple starch.

The Dutch Treat. Photo by Eat 

#1 Original Pancake House (Birmingham, Grosse Pointe Woods, Southfield)
Any place with that kind of name simply has to top any good "best pancake" list, lest it fail to live up to its own moniker. That smell you smell? It's the smell of baking eggs. Despite having over 100 franchised locations of this very traditional pancake house throughout the country, this third-generation family-owned chain is still just as committed to using the highest-quality ingredients and making everything from scratch in each kitchen - no dry mixes, nothing frozen. The Original House of Pancakes is known for their signature baked pancakes - the Apple Pancake (baked with Granny Smith apple slices and cinnamon glaze), the German Pancake, the Dutch Baby (a smaller version of the bowl-shaped German pancake), and specialities like the Dutch Treat - a Dutch Baby filled with macerated strawberries and sliced bananas. They also serve a variety of other forms of pancake, from Swedish to buckwheat to sourdough.

#2 Cafe Muse (Royal Oak)
First things first: THEY SERVE DINNER. And have, for like two years now. You should totally check it out sometime, it's all the reasons you love their breakfast/lunch only better because it's dinner and there's wine and a more diverse selection of tasty animals. That being said, not a whole lot has changed on the breakfast menu over the past several years (going back to the time when it was located in half of the space What Crepe now resides in), and it hasn't needed to. These are certainly "fancy pancakes," but they're also some of the best. The Wholewheat Pancakes topped with house-made granola are terrif, but it's the Ricotta and Lemon Pancakes with house-made blueberry maple syrup that's the real knock-out.

Coffee Cake Pancakes at Mae's. Photo by Eat It Detroit.

#3 Mae's (Pleasant Ridge)
The place is as adorable as the couple that owns it, but a top-notch breakfast joint can't be all curb appeal. Mae's backs up its pinch-its-cheekiness with killer (no but seriously, pretty much every dish has a stick of butter in it) breakfast and lunch items made from scratch every single day in their tiny kitchen. Wife-owner Jessica McCarthy is particularly hardcore about her buttermilk pancake batter (she's hardcore about all of her food, but even more especially the pancake batter): made daily from scratch, her batter is thick like cement. (Once one of her cooks tried to thin it out and she made him throw it away and start over.) The result? Thick, fluffy, hearty, flavorful pancakes that don't even qualify as being in the same food group as the wibbly-wobbly rubbery discs you get at a coney island.

#4 Hudson Cafe (Detroit)
Still the new kid on the breakfast block, the Hudson Cafe on Woodward in downtown Detroit made a fast name for itself with their Red Velvet Pancakes - a huge stack of fluffy, ruby red pancakes flavored with rich cocoa and then drizzled with absolutely decadent cream cheese icing. They make everything from scratch and the in-house bakery always has some tasty temptation in the display case at the grab-and-go coffee bar (liiiiiiike Red Velvet Cupcakes), but for those of you who prefer the savory over the sweet they have a fantastic selection of Variations on a Theme by Eggs Benedict (that incorporate things like smoked ham, pulled pork and chorizo).

#5 The Pantry (Sterling Heights)
The Pantry is a long-time breakfast staple of the East Side. Like so many other favorite breakfast haunts, this place will have a line out the door on weekends of people anxiously awaiting one of their massive cream cheese-stuffed and fruit-covered crepes (the Apple Crepe is one of their most popular items, but they also serve Sour Cream Crepes and Cheesecake Crepes), or one of 12 different varieties of pancake which includes Potato, Buckwheat and Buttermilk, but also Sweet Potato and Fresh Georgia Pecan. They also serve house specialties like the German Pancake and the Banana Nut Surprise (a baked pancake stuffed with sautéed bananas and pecan pieces caramelized with brown sugar).

Bubbling under The Breakfast Club (Farmington), Clawson Grill (Clawson), Toast (Ferndale, Birmingham), The Breakfast Club (Madison Heights - no affiliation with Farmington), Gramma's House of Pancakes (Eastpointe), Whistle Stop Restaurant (Birmigham), Recipes (Troy), D'Amato's (Royal Oak), Star Diner (Allen Park)

[EID Preview] John D

Adis Celic and Eddie Farah of John D Bistro. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

If you thought last year was a big year for Ferndale, this year is ... well, it's also going to be big, anyway. Progress and development continues to barrel forward with the recently-opened One-Eyed Betty's, and will continue strong over the next few months with Woodward Imperial, Local Kitchen + Bar, and John D Bistro.

First things first: let's escort the white elephant out of the room in the interest of moving up and on. Yes, this is the former location of Club Bart. Yes, it was sad to see this longtime Ferndale staple shutter - there I will agree. But here's what failed to get reported in the scant local media coverage of the closure (or was just conveniently overlooked in all the outrage over the bar being sold): Bart Starks, the owner of Club Bart, wanted to retire. He wanted to retire! This was no nefarious overtaking; it was just a dude who had served his time and made something cool who decided it was time for him to move on and leave the place in the hands of a new generation of owners who would honor the same spirit and make something equally cool. Cool? Moving on.

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

The spirit of Club Bart is alive in John D. From the elevated stage above the bar (which doubles as a lounge space when there's no live entertainment) to the long ramp walkway leading to the back entrance, the skeleton of the space is very much the same - just updated. Owner Eddie Farah hired on architectural and interior design wundermensch Ron Rae to give the place a whole new look. It now has an understated industrial appeal but with plush tactile details like fuzzy booths ("Like Get Him to the Greek!" Eddie jokes) with a splash of leopard print, velvet drapes at both entrances, and a massive antique velvet Victorian headboard from a 19th-century bed. They ripped down the stodgy old wood paneling to reveal the exposed brick walls. The front windows are actually garage doors that will be opened to Woodward Ave. during the summer months. "JD" is carved on the outer door handles, paying homage to the "JOHN D" carved in Copperplate Gothic on the building - which is how the place got its name. (The carving, which dates back to the 1920s or '30s, was previously hidden by Club Bart's awning.)

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

Eddie will also stay true to what made Club Bart, for all it's shabby chic-ness, such a popular place to begin with: a wide variety of high-caliber live entertainment. "I plan on everything from jazz to blues to rock to crooners to dancers," he says. "I'm not going to label the entertainment because I want to be able to bring everything." The mentality at John D, much like the rest of Ferndale (and maybe that's why it all works so well) is "Come one, come all, and come as you are."

Eddie's whole family is a family of restaurateurs (his cousins own Anita's Kitchen just on the other side of Woodward from John D), but when Eddie decided to open John D, he wanted to do something a little different. "I come from a restaurant family so the next logical step was to own my own restaurant," he explains. "I didn't want to do what my family has always done, the Lebanese. I wanted more of a loungey kind of place. I didn't know what direction to go with the menu until I got Adis."

Executive Chef Adis Celic was the piece that was missing from John D. Most of you don't know his name yet, but you should learn it - this guy is a genius and he plays in the big leagues. He'll take John D from being "just another contemporary American bistro" and make into one of the most exceptional restaurants in metro Detroit, one that stands out heads above its competition. "This place incorporates all of my favorite places," Eddie says, listing off Ronin and Cafe Muse among them. "I hired the best team possible from design architecture to the chef. Now it's time to put up or shut up!"

If you're wondering why you've never heard the name Adis Celic before, he's relatively new to metro Detroit's dining scene. He's been cooking since 1996. His grandfather was a butcher and his father was a chef. He came to America as a Bosnian refugee in 1995 and "started working my butt off, and here I am."

John D PB+J; photo courtesy of Adis Celic.

He attended Le Cordon Bleu in Los Angeles and graduated at the top of his class. "My mom was very proud of that!" he smiles, then hesitates ... "I think it was top of my class. Maybe second. I had all the pretty colors on my robes, anyway." Tomayto, tomahto - the guy knows his food. After that he continued working in California, doing catering at the Langham Huntington hotel/spa in Pasadena, as the "omelette guy" for the UCLA football team, then as the Sous Chef at Aimee's Bistro in Redondo Beach. He then came to Detroit for his externship and worked with Eddie's father and brother at Alia's Catering. Considering the number of new restaurants scheduled to open in metro Detroit this year and how much in demand talented chefs are at the moment, Eddie is very much aware of how lucky he is to have snatched up Adis.

Adis's culinary training started in Italian then moved into French, and obviously there is his own family background that also informs his style. "My family is all about food," he says. "My background is about as rustic as rustic gets. My family invented rustic!" His parents still have lamb roasts in the backyard with a whole lamb on spit every two weeks; his mom still makes her own sausage. Adis would love to push some boundaries later down the line at John D: "Wouldn't it be cool to do something old school on butcher paper and sell it by the pound?" he asks excitedly ... Eddie just smiles. When writing the menu, Adis says he had "free rein but a lot of interesting judges." He teases Eddie by saying, "Some have a handicap on their palates! Just because you like it spicy doesn't mean everything has to be!" (For all the friendly ribbing, these two obviously have a great camaraderie.) Eddie admits, "When I finally trusted him my life became so much easier!"

Lamb sliders; photo courtesy of Adis Celic.

Everything at John D is made from scratch, right down to the mayonnaise. "If I have four hours of prep time I’m not going to spend it opening cans," Adis states. He wanted to construct a menu that speaks to Ferndale but is "just forward enough" - there is no molecular gastronomy here, no fumes or hydrogen. Adis describes it as being "a year or two into the future, not 20," bringing a little L.A. flare to Ferndale but in a non-pretentious, home-cooked way. "That's how I was brought up: on home-cooked food," Adis says. "We didn't ever eat out except for on special occasions. This menu is a total reflection of what I like to eat and what [Eddie] likes to eat."

They make the kind of food they want to eat when they go out, and put their own spin on it, but don't expect the same-old, same-old. Between Adis's and Eddie's cultural and culinary backgrounds alone, this place takes the concept of "fusion" to a whole new level. At 33 items, it is a relatively small menu with a lot of different influences - French, Asian, Italian, Bosnian, Mediterranean ... even Hungarian desserts. Items include a Chicken Oscar with lump crab meat and béarnaise, a vegetable Napoleon tower, lamb sliders served with pickled cherry peppers stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella, duck confit in a puff pastry, and the John D PB+J - foie gras with truffles, dalmation fig spread and an edible flower. Down the line, Adis would love to incorporate monkfish and elk onto the menu and focus even more on Michigan's indigenous wild game (elk, deer). There will also be weekly specials (including vegetarian specials) where Adis can get really creative.

Elk carpaccio; photo courtesy of Adis Celic.

Small bites are styled after Asian cuisine and geisha style like Umami Burger in L.A. "There is not a lot of vegetation and if so it is specific to the flavor," Adis explains. Think about it: if you're a woman (or with a female companion) who got all 'did up' to go out, the last thing you want to do is make a sloppy mess of yourself trying to eat an oversized burger. Thank Adis and Eddie for keeping that in mind.

They're using Zingerman's breads and cheeses and will eventually be serving Sunday brunch. The wine list will also be relatively small, with 15 wines by the glass and an additional 10 by the bottle, but will highlight unique, interesting and affordable wines. Four beer taps will pour craft and local beers that will be updated seasonally along with the menu. The one major departure from the old Club Bart is the completely revamped kitchen with all-new equipment. "I'm so excited!" Adis beams. "I feel like a 15-year-old kid getting a new Ferrari!"

There have been a lot of new restaurants that have opened in Ferndale recently and several more to come. But Eddie isn't worried. He has found that the community spirit of Ferndale trumps all aspects of competition, and the businesses all work together towards a common goal. "We’re all going to bring different people into the city," he says. "We all want people to come into the city."

John D opens to the public March 10, 2012.

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.

[HOT LIST] Fish fry

Photo by Chris Jones (stopherjones) on Flickr.

"You buy we fry." You'll see this sign posted in big block lettering on white cardboard or all lit up in red and blue neon everywhere you go in the city outside of the trendy central MidCorkDown districts. I love coffeehouses, creperies and craft beer bars as much as the next hipster (hey, I'll cop to wearing skinny jeans), but these places still don't represent the majority of the businesses and consumers in the other 100-and-some square miles of the city.

Take a drive down 8, 7 or 6 Mile. The Davison. Livernois. Grand River. You know what you see? Fish markets. An endless parade of fish markets. They aren't in the prettiest neighborhoods and they might not be in the prettiest buildings, but these neighborhood joints take the concept of the fish fry VERY seriously. Many are carry-out only, a lot of them also serve barbecue or chicken, and the "You buy we fry" means you can either buy the fish there and take it home to cook yourself or they'll fry it up for you while you wait. They might not be glamorous, but these places represent one of Detroit's unique regional specialties. (And a moment of silence for the old Dot and Etta's Shrimp Hut, a Detroit staple for decades.)

#1 Mr C Fish Market (Detroit)
Order a sandwich (which includes three pieces of boneless fish) or a dinner (five pieces with two sides) from their huge menu which includes whiting fillets, pickerel, orange perch fillets, crappie, crab claws, cod and smelt. They also serve fish-and-shrimp combos and sell shrimp, scallops and oysters by the pound. For those who don't like critters that swim, they have chicken wings and wing dings. For a great snack try their house specialty: perfectly breaded and seasoned catfish nuggets (and add some hush puppies).

Photo by Hane C. Lee (calamity_hane) on Flickr

#2 Scotty Simpson's Fish and Chips (Detroit)
Scotty Simpson's has been in NW Detroit's Brightmoor neighborhood for over 60 years. It is a Detroit classic, frozen in time with its old-school wood paneling and carved wooden fish hanging on the walls. It's not a market but a dine-in and carry-out restaurant, and they specialize in one thing in particular. If you guessed that thing is fish and chips, you are exceedingly astute. Flaky snow-white cod fried up to crispy, golden brown perfection - and to be clear, the difference between carry-out and dine-in is the difference between soggy (if flavorful) batter and hot, crispy-crunchy batter fresh out of the fryer. It's worth popping a squat and soaking in the ambiance of crusty Americana.

#3 Fresh Fish House (Southfield, Highland Park, Redford)
They pride themselves on carrying fresh fish from around the world (availability may change with seasons), but the local favorites are the catfish, cod and tilapia. Get your fish as a sandwich served simply on wheat bread with plenty of Frank's Red Hot, or get a whole dinner with tasty fries and slaw. Also try their house "Gumbolaya" (a Creole/Cajun hybrid of gumbo and jambalaya, just like it sounds) and don't miss out on their okra.

#4 Detroit Shrimp and Fish (Southfield, Clinton Twp., Pontiac)
The specialty at Detroit Shrimp and Fish is their tilapia, which is responsibly-raised and sourced from Regal Springs aqua farm. They also serve non-American and genuine American Southern-raised catfish, walleye, white bass, yellow perch, and truly JUMBO shrimp. Order a sandwich or lunch special, a half-pound dinner, giant one-pound dinner, or take home the fish only. The beer-battered cod served with steak fries (aka fish and chips) and slaw is another favorite, and don't miss their thick, indulgent banana pudding (made with Nilla wafers!) or the 7UP pound cake. 

#5 Lenten Fish Frys (Detroit, Hamtramck)
Okay, so not a market or restaurant but it is appropriate to the season. You don't have to be a Christian fasting for Lent to enjoy some good fried fish, but if you are, several local churches and community organization centers host weekly Friday fish frys. In Hamtramck, check out the Moose Lodge and the P.L.A.V. Post #10 (which is taking up the mantel of the old Hamtramck Knights of Columbus Friday fish frys after the building was sold to a Bengali group). Many other local Knights of Columbus chapters host a weekly Friday fish fry; call yours to check. Detroit's St. Francis D'Assisi will have a fish fry every Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. for only $8 (and that includes the fish, fries, slaw, fruit, a roll with butter, cake AND beverage). The Polish ethnic Sweetest Heart of Mary Church in Detroit always hosts a Friday fish fry during Lent which includes fried fish, baked fish, mac and cheese, pierogi and more. For more area listings, check the Archdiocese of Detroit's website (they assured the complete listings will be posted this week).

Bubbling under Mr. Fish (Detroit), Nu Wave Fish and Chicken (Detroit, Southfield, Ypsilanti), Bet and Jessie's Fish and Chips (Redford), The Original Redford Fish and Seafood Market (Redford), Miley and Miley Shrimp Shack (Highland Park), Vergotes (Detroit), O'quin's Shrimp House (Detroit), Detroit Shrimp and Fish (Detroit - separate ownership from #4)

[Metromix] Tallulah Wine Bar and Bistro

Photo by VATO for Metromix.

Mindy VanHellemont opened Tallulah Wine Bar and Bistro in Birmingham in February 2010 – not exactly the most reassuring time in recent memory for a first-time restaurateur to be opening a brand-new business.

“It was a rough time to open,” she agrees. “But I really wasn’t terrified because I really felt I had something that was unique enough and special enough that people would want to come.” Tallulah is finally the restaurant she had always envisioned it to be. “I wasn’t worried about failing so much as I was worried about getting it right,” she says. “That took a year and a half and now it’s really becoming the program I wanted to see.”

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Note: Be sure to click through the image gallery for the full descriptions of each dish.

[Oakland County Prosper] Nothing Small About Peteet's Famous Cheesecakes

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

Peteet’s Famous Cheesecakes in Oak Park offers 30 different flavors of two-layer cheesecake daily (they make a total of 90 different varieties) whole or by the slice. But this isn’t just cheesecake: this is probably the best cheesecake you have ever had in your life – even the top chefs in metro Detroit think so.

“I remember I met with a Master Chef before I ever knew what a Master Chef was or that such a thing even existed,” says Patrick Peteet, owner and baker of Peteet’s Famous Cheesecakes. “So I met with [Master] Chef Kevin Gawronski at Schoolcraft College … I let him try out some of the plain cheesecake and he said, ‘This is very good,’ then I had him try the sweet potato cheesecake and he said, ‘This is the best cheesecake I’ve ever had in my life.’ Then Chef Sean Loving came in – and you know, he’s the sweet potato king – and he said, ‘This is beyond good.’”

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[EID Preview] Clubhouse BFD: It's a BFD

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

There are beer bars. And then there are beer shrines. Clubhouse BFD in Rochester is not just a beer bar; it is a juried gallery exhibit of the brewing arts.

Owner Scott LePage grew up in the restaurant industry. His parents are long-time area restaurateurs, at one point operating over two dozen different restaurants. (Currently they own Big Rock Chophouse in Birmingham, and will be opening a brewpub called Griffin Claw Brewing Company later this year ... Scott jokes it was all his mom's ploy to keep his dad, a 74-year-old with the energy of a hyperactive teenager, occupied and out of trouble.) Scott currently owns East Side Mario's, a chain of hearty Italian-American restaurants with locations in Rochester Hills and Livonia.

Next to the Rochester Hills location, a building sat empty for a long time. Scott owned the land but after he lost his previous tenant, every prospective tenant wanted half a million dollars for a build-out before signing a lease. "If I'm going to spend that kind of money, we might as well do it ourselves," Scott says. Thus the seed of Clubhouse BFD - which, to be clear, stands for "Beer Food Drink" - was planted.

The concept evolved from a sports bar to brewery (they considered moving Big Rock's brewing operations over) and then ultimately landed on craft beer bar. But not just any beer bar. "I don't want to have the same shit everyone else has," Scott states. The thing is, if you want to have a robust beer list it's pretty easy to come by. Most of the big-name local breweries have a handful of year-round beers in wide distribution so right there you can easily get a list of 50 pretty quickly, then pad it with the usual Belgian, English and French imports. And yes, an awesome beer list it makes, enough to keep even the most discriminating of connoisseurs happy (even if they've had the majority of beers on that list before).

But Clubhouse aims to be competitive not just with the best beer bars in Michigan, but the best beer bars in the country - the kind of places that get ranked by DRAFT Magazine and RateBeer in the top 100 across the nation. So Scott brought local beer guru Jason Peltier on board.

This is a beer nerd's beer bar; where most places carry Founders Porter, they carry Founders Imperial Stout. They've got the sole Michigan allotments of extremely limited releases, like Mikkeller/Three Flloyds Boogoop (they've got the only kegs in the state) and bottles of Goose Island's Kind Henry (they got four of eight available in Michigan). As a beer nerd myself, I was reduced to the vocabulary of a four-year-old watching Cars as I perused their tap handles, coolers and back inventory (there are 40 taps and over 150 bottles, plus a few off-list "goodies" for the really good customers). All I could utter was a breathless "Oh WOW!" repeatedly. After years in the industry, Jason and his team (who have worked together at places like Big Rock and Kuhnhenn) know how to properly court their distributors to get the best products. "Every night in here with the beer distributors was like the Last Supper," Scott jokes, miming them all sitting in a line at the bar studiously sampling beer. "One night we tried 97 beers!"



When Scott decided to move forward full-force with this concept, he put together a team of the area's best to make it happen. For the design, he hired Ron and Roman, a Birmingham-based design firm that has recently become the darlings of Detroit's architectural and interior design after some of Ron Rea's recent work has made him the new restaurant "It" guy (including Joe Meur Seafood in Detroit, Luxe in Birmingham, and a handful of other spots about to open including John D in Ferndale and Roadside Bar and Grill in Bloomfield Hills). Rea gave Clubhouse an open feel, incorporating design elements - and items of interest - that would be befitting of an adult man's ideal clubhouse. Stuffed deer, Rock-em Sock-em Robots, airline seats, mounted Cadillac seats, genuine WWI silk parachutes ... the kind of things a guy might want to have in his home if his wife would ever let him (but she won't). You could look around for hours and still catch new details you missed before, but at the same time it still manages to be a relatively minimalist, rustic design - sturdy wood tables, exposed brick. The sound design, with the speakers in the ceiling tiles, is equally as impressive though less likely to get noticed.

The concept of the Clubhouse evolved over the year and a half that they worked on it; in fact, that wasn't even going to be the name but as people kept calling it that, ultimately it just seemed to fit. And that is exactly what it is: a clubhouse for beer lovers. Like, REAL beer lovers. The kind who need a clubhouse. But if you're concerned that there may be too much beer snobbery, don't be - they'll have your Bud and Miller et.al. available in 16-oz. cans ... served in a brown paper bag.

There will be buckets of Little Kings bottles (a cream ale so named because the bottles are indeed little) for $9, and you can also mix your own six pack to go. There is also a small but excellent wine list with some eclectic labels (Michigan's own Left Foot Charley; Kung Fu Girl) as well as a respectable selection of brown liquors for serious consumption.

The menu at Clubhouse is going through its final adjustments, but will be a casual menu of polished bar food. Because of Scott's long background in restaurants, he is extremely particular when it comes to the food he serves and will just as soon test out 15 different versions of a dish and still not include it until he feels it's perfect. They'll have a simply Ploughman's platter (meat, cheese, bread: good), giant buffalo shrimp, mussels, Greek wings (in a lemon oregano marinade), burgers, shaved prime rib sandwiches, grilled cheese, fish and chips, etc. They'll also have something called "The Jersey Shore," modeled after the New Jersey-based Taylor Pork Roll which Scott describes as "the equal to our Coney" and "the ultimate late-night belly bomb and hangover cure." This pork roll is covered in American cheese and served with a fried egg on toasted brioche.

The same exceptionally high standards applied to the concept, design and product were also applied to the service staff. "They're all very polished servers," Jason says. "I'd say 15-25% of them were bar managers before this, but came here because they love craft beer and they love the concept." Upon hiring they were all given copies of the book Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher, and are required to have completed the Master Brewer's Association Beer 101 course within 90 days of hire; already four of them have gone the extra step by becoming Certified Beer Servers (a step below Cicerone). 

Clubhouse BFD is now open Tuesday through Thursday 3 p.m. to 12 a.m., Friday 3 p.m. to 2 a.m., Saturday 12 p.m. to 2 a.m., and Sunday 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. They also have free WiFi.

Want to see more? Check out the Flickr set here.