MBC on Washington Square in downtown Lansing.
The wait is over. The Michigan Brewing Company put the “Coming Soon” sign on their building in downtown Lansing over a year ago. I would drive by every now and then to see if there was any progress. I would periodically send e-mails to the marketing department in Webberville to see if they would give me anything, but never could get a solid answer. All of a sudden, a few weeks ago, I saw a Tweet from Lansing PSD that MBC was opening.
The plan all along was to run some errands this morning then head downtown for lunch. Of course, City Pulse beat me to the punch with an article in this week’s edition.
MBC is near the corner of Washington Square and Kalamazoo Street. The parking available is in front of the building in angled street parking. There are a few spaces directly in front of the building, but more than likely, you’ll have to park and walk. Not a big deal as there is plenty of parking spaces along Washington Square.
The building is dominated by windows that let in a lot of natural light. When you first walk in, there’s a little lounge area off to the left with comfy red chairs and some bar stools. Right in front of you is a hostess station that divides the remaining space into two distinct areas. On the left is the bar area. They have a beautiful bar along the far left wall as well as a couple pub tables. The chairs at these pub tables are made of wood and have a ring around the bottom that looks like it was once part of a wooden barrel. The rest of the bar area is filled in with regular tables that run along a half wall that separates the bar from the dining room. The whole space has a somewhat industrial feel to it with high ceilings and low ambient lighting. A majority of the light comes from the natural light that floods in through the large windows that make up the facade.
We were seated in the bar area at one of the regular four tops. The hostess dropped off menus for us to look over. This wasn’t our first experience with the Michigan Brewing Company. One of our first weekends in Mid-Michigan, we found the Webberville pub on a trip to Howell. The thing that really stuck out to J from that trip was the pretzel roll her sandwich was served on. I wasn’t as impressed with my meal that time, but the menu at MBC had more options including burgers.
Michigan Brewing Company's newest pub, MBC, in downtown Lansing.
I ordered the Bobby’s Brew House BBQ Burger. The fresh 8 oz Angus burger came topped with cheddar cheese, BBQ sauce, and bacon. It was served on a pretzel bun with choice of fries. I took the pub fries which seemed to be lightly battered then fried. They were nice and crispy. The burger was delicious. The cheese was sprinkle cheese, but it had melted into the burger. The BBQ sauce was sweet, but I could have used a little more. I still made a mess and felt like I was spending more time wiping my mouth than eating, but I’m just a slob. I wasn’t wild about the pretzel bun, but it was still good. I notice some of the other sandwiches come on a Ciabatta bun. I would have preferred that, but even with the pretzel bun, it was a good sammich.
J ordered the same sandwich she ordered when we stopped in Webberville. The Twisted Turkey which is composed of smoked turkey breast, bacon, mild cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and mayo. It’s served on the pretzel bun which is the main reason she ordered it. She also left the tomato, onion, and mayo off. She loved the sandwich. Really, she could just eat the bun by itself and be happy, but the turkey was delicious and she was really happy with her sandwich again. She also got choice of fries and went with sweet potato fries. They were crinkle cut and a little soggy. They weren’t quite as crisp as they could have been.
Our bill was just under $20 and we were out of there in less than a half hour. I was really surprised at how quickly we got our sandwiches. It couldn’t have been more than five or ten minutes. We were both really happy with lunch and loved the atmosphere of the place. The pub in Webberville seems thrown together and it’s a little confusing. We didn’t do beer today because it was a lunch date and J still had to go to work, but they do have Bad Ass Beer on tap and had I seen that, I probably would have tried it. Unlike the Webberville pub, they do have Pepsi products, so even if you’re just going for lunch and not for beer, you have options.
MBC is a great addition to Downtown Lansing. I really hope they use this store as a concept and look to franchise or at least expand. Good food, good beer, good atmosphere. You can’t ask for anything else from a brew pub.
Mid-Michigan Dining 
This place rules, really hoping it takes off. I’ve been their twice and both times had great experiences. Their food menu is unique, fairly-priced, and the sandwiches are amazing (the pretzel buns are mostly to thank for that). The beer selection and quality is top-notch.
It reminds me of a lively coffee shop, except instead of overpriced lattes you know have delicious beer…………………………genius.
I stopped in for lunch one day as its right next door to my favorite cigar store in Lansing. GREAT place.
Love this place…I also just happened to stop by after picking up a cigar from the store next door.
Love the sampler for the food and beer.
You can get 7 different beers on this sampler try…loved it because I couldn’t just choose one beer out of all the ones they have.
Also the sampler platter for the food…WONDERFUL!…couldn’t make up my mind so I got the sampler and the whole sampler was gone…all of it great food. FAST SERVICE as well.
[…] talking about the Midtown Brewing Company which used to be MBC…which stood for Michigan Brewing Company ….before the parent brewery went bankrupt. The brewery and the restaurant were separate […]