Mid-Michigan Dining

• 3004 W. Main Street
• Lansing, MI 48917
• (517) 484-7940
• No Known Website
• Menu

The Dispatch Sports Pub & Grill on Main Street in Lansing.

Saturday nights are usually relaxed nights for us.  After being lazy all afternoon and watching the NASCAR truck race, we decided to go out for dinner again.  We still  haven’t been to the grocery store since getting back to Michigan so there’s not a lot of food in the house yet and since shopping hungry is a bad idea, we just found a bar.  Quite a while ago, someone suggested the Dispatch Sports Pub & Grill.

The Dispatch Sports Pub & Grill is on Main Street near I-496.  It’s kind of out there by itself.  There’s not a whole lot in the area yet the parking lot was packed even though it was a crappy, snowy night.  We trekked through the snow only to be confused again.  There were two doors.  Neither were marked.  Neither gave any indication that it was the entrance. One of them was a little fancier than the other so that’s the one I chose.  I peeked in through the window and it looked right so we went in.  Good thing I chose that one.  The other one would have led to the kitchen.

The inside is a typical sports pub.  There are at least three pretty good size dining areas.  The bar is the first thing you run into.  From there, there are two dining areas off to the side.  I took a second to look around and didn’t really see anything other than tables for large groups.  Then I noticed some booths at the far end of the bar.  The decor is all beer company freebies.  It’s a comfortable, familiar setting.

The Dispatch near I-496 on Main Street in Lansing

A waitress noticed us right away and told us she would be right with us.  A few minutes later, she came back with menus and took drink orders.  J got a Bacardi and Diet Coke and I got a mug of Bud.  The menu is dominated by sandwiches, but it was an appetizer that caught J’s eye.

Instead of getting a chicken sandwich like she usually would at a bar, J ordered the Crispy Chicken Salad and an order of pretzel bites.  The pretzel bites were intended to be an appetizer, but they never came.  The waitress brought our meals but we still didn’t have the pretzels.  J eventually asked the waitress and she went back and got them right away, so it’s not like she forgot to put the order in.  She just forgot to bring them to us.  J loved the pretzels.  They were little, soft pretzels filled with cheese.  The order came with a honey mustard dipping sauce, but I don’t think either of us used it.  I thought they were good, but I’m not a huge pretzel fan.  J seemed to really like them.  Her salad wasn’t much.  It was just a bowl of iceburg lettuce with cherry tomatoes and cucumbers with some deep fried chicken sticks on top.  She said the chicken was really good, but didn’t finish the salad.  She was a little preoccupied with the pretzel bites.

I had a burger for lunch so I went with something different.  I ordered a french dip.  Yeah, I know.  It’s still beef, but at least it’s a different part of the cow.  My sandwich was some shaved roast beef on a sub bun with swiss cheese.  There was a large cup of au jus on the side.  I added fries for another buck fifty.  The sandwich was good, but it was little more than a cold meat sandwich on a toasted bun.  Still, I enjoyed it and wolfed it down.  The fries were out of the bag, but they were crispy and golden brown.

Our bill was just under thirty bucks but that included three drinks.  My eyes got a little wide when I saw that then I remembered that was a Budweiser in my hand and not a Coke.  The Dispatch was a pretty good sports bar.  It wasn’t anything unique, but it was a nice neighborhood sports bar.  It’s definitely not a place we would have found on our own.