Mid-Michigan Dining

• 141 E. Grand River Ave.
• Fowlerville, MI 48836
• (517) 223-8413
• No Known Website
• No Online Menu

The sign hanging from the Bloated Goat Saloon in downtown Fowlerville

The Bloated Goat Saloon is my kind of bar.  Not only is the name awesome, but the inside is the typical small town, turn of the century saloon with above average food. 

J and I were heading out to Howell to do some Christmas shopping.  Might as well get it out of the way early.  I hate people and you can’t have a crowd without people and you can’t Christmas shop in December without crowds, so we went to the Tanger Outlets the week before Thanksgiving instead of the week after.   We’re always on the lookout for new places and when I was searching for restaurants in and around Howell, I came upon a place called the Bloated Goat Saloon.  There were a couple reviews that said the place was really neat and the food was good, so we decided to give it a try.

The Bloated Goat Saloon is in downtown Fowlerville.  It’s not hard to find.  There’s a huge sign hangining on the side of the building.  The inside is dark, long, and narrow.  There isn’t much width to the place.  There’s a really neat bar running along one wall in the front of the space and tables along the other.  The back of the room is filled with more tables and the usual pub games.  Back to the bar for a second, it’s a really interesting design.  There’s the bar, but there’s also a boxed in shelf a few feet above the bar.  The whole thing is supported with steel pipe, so it looks like there are a bunch of “windows” when you’re sitting there.  About half of the bar stools are attached to the bar itself and then there’s a couple of the more traditional free standing stools.

We walked in about 1:00 on a Saturday.  Not just any Saturday, but the day of the Michigan/OSU football game.  There were quite a few people already enjoying a few beers and some food while watching the Wolverines complete their miserable season.  We took a table in the front and waited for the bartender to come over.  She asked for drinks.  When we ordered Pepsi’s, she assumed we were there for lunch and asked if we wanted menus. 

The Bloated Goat Saloon in Fowlerville

There’s not a lot on the menu.  It’s dominated by sandwiches, burgers, and appetizers.  The two features on the burger side are “Goat Burgers.”  Neither are actual goat.  They’re just burgers, but they’re the house specialty, so they added the name of the bar to them.  I went with the Bacon Cheeseburger.  I was given the option of American, Cheddar, or Swiss. I chose cheddar.  The burger also came with chips and a pickle.  I opted not to upgrade to fries because I knew J would and I would take a few off her plate.  She chose an interesting sandwich.  It was called the “Ragin’ Cajun Chicken Sandwich.”  Instead of a regular chicken breast sandwich, this one took deep fried chicken tenders and covered them in hot sauce.  The two chicken tenders were then put on a bun alongside cheese and bacon. 

It took quite a while for our food to come up, but they were doing more cooking than it sounds like they usually do on a Saturday afternoon.  The “kitchen” is located behind the bar.  There’s not much room for anything other than a deep fryer and a cook top.  When the bartender took our order back, she was giving the cook a hard time and said she was going to be busy for a while.  When our order was turned in, there were four other orders turned in at the same time.

Right before our food came out, the bartender came over with a tray of pickles and onions.  That’s not something I’m accustomed to seeing at a bar.  Our sandwiches were set on the bar when they were done and the bartender delivered them.  Both sandwiches came on Styrofoam plates.  The bartender asked if we needed silverware, but it wasn’t necessary for sandwiches.

My burger was pretty good.  There was a lot of bacon piled on top of the burger.  My only complaint was that there was so much bread.  The bun was about twice the size of the burger.  If they had flattened the burger a little more, the meat may have fit, but the way it was served left a lot of extra bread.  The chips were pretty much out of the bag Lays, but there was quite a pile of them

J’s sandwich was incredible.  It was definitely not like anything we’ve ever had.  Like my sandwich though, there was too much bread.  There were only two chicken strips on the, but the combination of the hot sauce, cheese, and bacon was delicious.  I almost thought she wasn’t going to let me try it, but when she got down to the last bite, she made my day by giving me the last bite.  The fries were out of the bag, but there was a lot of them too.  Neither of us left hungry.

Our bill was just over $15, but the real charm to the Bloated Goat Saloon was the atmosphere.  There was everything from Senior Citizens to grade schoolers, but they were all watching the football game and cheering along.  The drink of choice for most patrons was Pabst Blue Ribbon which makes me feel right at home.  The Bloated Goat Saloon isn’t fine dining, but it is pub food and small town atmosphere at it’s best.