The Detroit Beer Company
Detroit, MI
Whether having some grub before watching the Lions lose or guzzling down a beer before a ballet, the DBC is the perfect place to start your Detroit adventure. The DBC has a great location with ample (and relatively cheap) parking less than one block away.
Get Sauced: 4 out of 4
The DBC offers a wide variety of creative, tasty and uniquely different taps brewed in house. They boast 3 beers that have won awards at the Great American Beer Festival. Their brewer (Kevin Rodger) also experiments with “seasonal taps” ensuring frequent guests or “mug clubbers” will have a beer variety every time they walk-in (even Norm would be proud!). They have an impressive wine list for those weirdos who would go to a brewery and actually order wine, alongside a creative martini list boasting top shelf products. My favorite beer is also their most decorated beer, The Detroit Dwarf. Getting its name from a spooky Detroit legend, the Dwarf offers a distinct balance between hops and malt, with a rich texture and earthy aftertaste.
The Sauce: 2 out of 4
In the spirit of the great American spaghetti Western, this portion of the review is a case of the good, the bad and THE UGLY!
The Good; the BBQ sauce! More tang than sweet, with a great vinegar bite and a peppery, spicy finish. I could drink a bucket of this stuff.
The Bad; not enough BBQ sauce! I sampled two dishes, one of them was the meatloaf sandwich with the amazing sauce. The problem was that I would have never found out how good the sauce was if I hadn’t specifically ordered a side of it. The sauce was so engulfed by the onions, meat and bread, it barely contributed to the flavor of the sandwich 
I’m not sure if this is a case of the chef trying to save $$$ or just a poorly portioned plate, but the sauce was almost non-existent. If it were me serving this dish, I would include a side of BBQ sauce as standard on the plate. It’s SO GOOD!
The UGLY; the Farfalle Caprese! Do not order this dish!I was expecting a hot take on one of my favorite cold summertime snacks, the Caprese salad. Instead, I received warm pasta soup with mushy tomatoes and random half-melted parmesan blobs! A cold Caprese salad consists of fresh basil, crisp tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, balsamic vinaigrette, olive oil, salt and pepper. This warm pasta version didn’t come anywhere close to the mark. This dish was wrong on so many levels! Firstly, why put parmesan cheese in this? It vastly overpowered the wee bit of basil in the dish and eliminated any flavor subtlety. Secondly, why not dice the tomatoes to hide their mushiness? The cherry tomatoes were just cut in half. Warm and mushy tomatoes cut in half don’t offer flavor to the sauce and provide an unappetizing mouthfeel. Finally, the SAUCE! It literally looked liked some weird version of chicken noodle soup! It was that watery! Why not blend in some light cream with the mozzarella and thicken it? If it was high noon, I’d shoot this pasta right in its mushy balls!
The Reduction: +/- Customer Service and + 1/2 Ambiance for 6 1/2 out of 10
The customer service was not great but it wasn’t terrible either. I asked the server if the pasta was normally this watery (in a nice way, of course!) and she adamantly told me “yes”. I wondered if she would get the hint from my couched inference. She didn’t.
The ambiance is aesthetically cool! Two stories with a decent view of downtown Detroit. The really annoying thing that I couldn’t get over is that one of the seemingly new flat-screen TV’s (there are many, btw) was broken. The feed for the football game keep on choppily jumping around, along with the sound. This TV just so happened to be right smack-dab in my line of vision. It was like a train-wreck, I couldn’t look away.
Overall, I think it was a case of bad luck. Watching the other dishes come out, they looked much better than the pasta dish. I think I may have ordered the worst thing on the menu. The TV thing was annoying, but I’m sure that will be fixed or is already fixed. I’d go there again just for the wonderful beer!
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