Long Road Distillers

We introduced you to Cam, now meet his feature cocktail: It Starts Now! This tropical cocktail features pink peppercorn coconut rum, pineapple sour, cacao tincture, and our house Caribbean bitters!

An ode to a classic summer staple, this week we’re serving a Jalapeño Cream Cheese Burger for Burger Night! A Sobie smash patty, zesty ranch onion tanglers, bacon strips, and house-made jalapeno cream cheese spread on a Nantucket pretzel roll!

Let us introduce you to one of the most integral parts of our bar program, the "man behind the curtain" so to speak...our Bar Prep Manager, Cam! Every expertly crafted cocktail that your bartender creates for you got its start in our Bar Prep kitchen with Cam! Learn more about him below 👇

Q: Where are you from?
A: The Caribbean - St. Thomas.

Q: Walk me through what you do here?
A: I make all of the ingredients needed to make our cocktails in our bar prep kitchen. From juices, syrups and purees, to tinctures, liqueurs and bitters. I also prepare all of the recipes for our draft cocktails and make sure the bartenders at each location are beyond ready for their evening.

Q: What’s your favorite part about your job?
A: The creativity.

Q: What kind of music do you like?
A: I don’t have a preference really but my go-tos are dance hall and reggae.

Q: What are you watching right now?
A: House (which has me scared to go to the doctor), anime, and I just started the Bear season 2 as well.

Q: If you could drink one drink for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A: Rum. I don’t need anything else. Rum on ice.

Q: How is this bar prep program different than other jobs you’ve had in the past?
A: I was mostly a chef at other jobs. This is my first front of house job. I like it better.

Q: What is your favorite cocktail on the menu right now?
A: Bare in Puerto Rico. This is going to seem simple - but because it has rum in it. Other than that, it goes down smooth. There’s a lot of intricate notes and flavors I can pull out of it. The Falernum adds a lot of complexity that I like.

Q: Where do you see yourself in five years?
A: Owning my own restaurant - hopefully on my way to a Michelin star.

Q: What is the most interesting ingredient you’ve made in your time here?
A: The Caribbean Bitters. It has passion fruit powder, goji berries, sarsaparilla, dried black limes, hibiscus, and some other secret ingredients. 😉

A colorful and flavor packed special, the July Harvest Salad! With arugula mix, grilled Michigan peaches, pickled beets, blistered heirloom cherry tomato and asparagus, basil, toasted pepitas, goat cheese, and a cherry-balsamic reduction 🍅🥬🍑

🚨LIMITED RELEASE ALERT 🚨 We just rolled out one of our favorite projects, MICHIGIN & Soda! Adding to our stacked lineup of Ready to Drink Cocktails, this new release features just MICHIGIN, soda & a splash of lime! Our 100% Michigan made gin, with juniper sourced by our own staff on Beaver Island! Snag it while you can, we only made 300 cases!

The Burger Feature this week is a banger! May we present: the Oklahoma! A double patty with thinly sliced onions smashed right in, American cheese, pickles, fancy sauce, and an inside out brioche bun! 🍔

Happy Monday! This time for Q&A we wandered down to the distillery, where we met up with Karl, one of our talented and knowledgeable distillers! Check out what he had to say! 👇🏼

Q: How did you end up being a distiller? What about it interested you?
A: To be honest, I kinda just stumbled into being a distiller. I went to Michigan State University for Chemical Engineering. One of the main processes that we learned about that I found very interesting was distilling. While I was in my last year, I had a friend that was getting a Food Science degree pass me a job opportunity to work at a distillery. I applied and when I went to the interview, I saw my professor, Kris Bergland, sitting at the table for the interview. Come to find out that it was the distillery that he owned that I was applying to. I thought it would be a great way to work on the process that I enjoyed and to keep learning from the professor that taught me.

Q: What kinds of things do you like to do in your free time?
A: In my free time, I spend a lot of time with my family and friends. My own hobbies include playing video games, cooking, and going for drives and seeing where I get to.

Q: If you had an animal form, what would it be?
A: White Tiger or Cheetah

Q: What actor would you like to play you in a biopic?
A: Adam Sandler

Q: What is your favorite part of the distilling process?
A: I just find it really fascinating that we learned to exploit the boiling points of different chemicals in order to separate them

Q: What is your favorite long road spirit?
A: Sovereign Gin

Q: If you could only watch one movie or show for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A: Scrubs, no question

Q: If you woke up tomorrow and won the lottery, what's the first thing you’re buying?
A: I will probably get a house, otherwise I would just invest it to earn more.

This one is for fans of a decadent, sweet brunch! Enjoy our house made rum coffee liquor french toast, made with Nantucket's cinnamon raisin pecan loaf, maple mascarpone creme, bourbon candied pecans! We serve brunch from 12-4p EVERY Saturday!

We are rolling out a fantastic special sandwich this week dubbed Stay Gold! Featuring chicken schnitzel tossed in our very own Carolina gold bbq sauce, with house made pickles, red onion, and house made coleslaw on a Nantucket pretzel roll!

Burger Night is BACK this week! Our burger mastermind Jerry put together The QP this week, inspired by a Flint Classic! We'll be serving a quarter pound sobie smash patty, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and our house made olive sauce all on a Nantucket brioche bun! 🫒🍔

We ❤️ Tini Tuesday! See you tonight for our standing Tuesday date 😉🍸

It’s time for brunch! Every Saturday from 12-4p (that’s right, late brunch!) you can enjoy one of our passionate kitchen staff’s specialty brunch items like the LRD B&G! With a buttermilk drop biscuit, housemade sausage gravy with Sobie Meats breakfast sausage, 1 over easy egg, hot honey drizzle, chile de arbol and microgreen garnish 🍳

Happy 4th of July! We will be closed tonight in Grand Rapids and Burger Night will resume next week! We will reopen tomorrow like usual, and you can join us at 7:30p with Josh Garvelink Music for our Long Road Live! Summer Music Series! 🎆

In addition to our $6 Espresso Martinis, tonight we're rolling out a brand new Summer Cocktail Menu! With favorites from last summer like the Oh Brother! With Roasted Banana Straight Bourbon, Banana Almond Milk, Malt, and Vanilla Cacao Nib. 🍌

This week we've serving up a brand new Havana Burger! With a smash patty, Swiss cheese, Apple Brandy mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, pulled pork, grilled ham, and house made sauerkraut on a brioche bun!

✨ It's gin season ✨ Make sure to grab a bottle of MICHIGIN Batch 8 or Sovereign Gin for your boat days coming up! Ask your favorite local retailer or use the Spirit Finder on our website to find out where you can get it!

Our new feature this week is Creole Calamari!
Crispy Calamari seasoned with housemade Cajun seasoning, candied lemon peel and parsley. Served with our housemade Remoulade and a lemon wedge!

Happy Friday! It's time for another Q&A with one of our employees! This week, meet Christopher: a bartender with us here on Leonard!

Q: What do you enjoy most about cocktail creation?
A: God there’s so many things to say. I love being able to provide delicious drinks that are made by our products here in house. I think guests really appreciate that our drinks reflect our hard work, the seasonality, and local ingredients.

Q: What do you like to do for fun on your days off?
A: I love thrift store shopping, digging through vinyl records, spontaneous road trips, bowling, canoeing, and going to the movies.

Q: Do you think you could survive a zombie apocalypse?
A: Probably not because I can’t run very fast.

Q: What is your favorite Long Road spirit?
A: I really love Sovereign Gin. It’s really versatile.

Q: What is your favorite piece of art that you’ve created?
A: It’s got to be last year's Art Prize winner, Technophobia. It was probably the strangest thing I’ve made and people were really engaged in it because it was more of a universal subject matter than a personal one.

Q: What are some of your proudest accomplishments?
A: I guess being able to juggle really different careers and being able to say that I love all the work I do. Being able to go to work when you love your job doesn’t make it feel like a job.

Q: What fictional character do you have beef with?
A: They aren’t fictional but the hosts of Flip or Flop. I called out how toxic that relationship was. I used to sometimes watch it just because I find them so annoying lol.

This we're bringing back a "smash" hit 😉, the Peanut Butter Falcon! A smash burger with bacon, peanut butter, house-made pepper jam, and white cheddar on a brioche bun!

Our $6 Slushies have been a hit because there’s something for everyone! Want something more refreshing and light? Order a Scandinavian Daquiri and let the Aquavit, coconut, lime and pineapple cool off this heat wave tomorrow! Enjoy one on our patio (yes, on Leonard!) Wednesdays starting at 4p!

Bring on brunch! We’ve added some special items to our menu to curb that brunch craving! Starting today you can order the LRD Chicken and Waffles or the Breakfast Hash! 🍳🧇 Ask about making the Breakfast Hash vegan!

Happy Friday! Join us for a little Q&A with one of our assistant general managers and bartender, Aubrey! Aubrey loves creating cocktails behind the bar and is a great leader on the floor! If you see her around, say hi!

Q: What is your favorite way to spend your free time?
A: If I’m not here I’m usually working my Real Estate job, but if I truly have time off I’ll probably be wandering around a forest somewhere or laying on the beach.

Q: What is your favorite part about working at Long Road?
A: I love how passionate everyone is about their specific roles. The kitchen kitchens hard & the bartenders are all amazing at creating delicious concoctions. There’s a lot of brainstorming, trial-and-error, and of course taste-testing.

Q: What is your dream location for a vacation?
A: I’d love to go to Glacier National Park. I’ve never been before but I love hiking and I think I’d fall in love with it there. I might not come home.

Q: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
A: Grand Rapids, MI, of course. In all seriousness I don’t really think there’s a better spot for me to be. I love how close we are to some bigger cities, up north, the lake, etc. Grand Rapids is pretty dope.

Q: What is your favorite LRD spirit and what cocktail with that spirit is your favorite?
A: Sovereign Gin for sure. I love a floral gin & the purple color is a huge bonus. It’s delicious but also a show-stopper. My favorite cocktail that showcases it would be the Royal Velvet. It was on a past menu, but we can still pretty closely recreate it. It’s a citrusy-foamy masterpiece.

Q: If you woke up tomorrow and could be fluent in any language, which would it be and why?
A: Spanish, because it would be the most useful for being in Real Estate in this area.

Burger Night Feature this week is a twist on a classic black & blue burger! Meet the Blue Velvet, with a Cajun smash patty, rosemary garlic mayo, bacon, lettuce, tomato and a velvety blue cheese sauce!

A burger so good we decided to do it twice! For Burger Night this week we’re bringing back the Save My Seoul burger, with a Swiss cheese topped smash patty, gochujang aioli, scallions, house made kimchi, and an over easy egg!

Join us for a little Q&A with our friend in the kitchen, Jerry! He is one of the masterminds behind some of our hot new dishes & the hit's that have graced the feature sheets on burger night!

Q:How did you get into cooking?
A: I got into cooking because I didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere else. When I got into my first kitchen, I was surrounded by like-minded misfits and I felt like I belonged somewhere.

Q: What’s your favorite part about working at Long Road?
A: I guess that would be the artistic and creative freedom to put out food that I enjoy and I think others would enjoy.

Q: What’s your favorite song right now?
A: Holy War by King 810.

Q: Who’s your biggest culinary inspiration?
A: Sean Brock. He’s one of the top chefs in the world specializing in southern food. If I can find a way to put out southern food as good as he does, I’ll feel like I’ve made it.

Q: What is your favorite dish to make your daughter when you’re at home?
A: My kid likes steak cooked medium rare. She’ll eat steak any time of the day and I specifically have to make it for her.

Q: Where’s your favorite place to visit on vacation, and why?
A: Austin, Texas. Anywhere you go in Austin you can spit and it’ll land on an amazing taco truck.

Pair your $6 Espresso Martinis with an appetizer full of flavor like our Sticky Shrimp; panko crusted deep fried shrimp with sticky sweet gochujang sauce, sprinkled with chiffonade scallions + sesame seeds!

Happy Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈 Perfect for the warm weather, we've brought back our popular Friend of Dorothy, with Original Vodka, watermelon, mint and lime. In addition to selling it in our tasting rooms, we're also releasing these Ready-to-Drink cans at stores near you or at any of our locations! A portion of proceeds from every can and cocktail purchased will benefit a handful of LGBTQ+ organizations including the AYA Youth Collective. Grab a glass, or a can, all month long!

Long Road Distillers Grand Rapids' first craft distillery.
Cocktails, farm-fresh food, and bottles-to-go, proudly served

We've got two fantastic features ready to serve up for you this weekend! Grab a crispy and flavorful Honey Boy Chicken Sandwich, with chicken schnitzel coated in hot honey sauce topped with house made bar cheese and a hot honey drizzle on a brioche bun. Or opt for a light and tart appetizer with the Eddie Feddar Dip! A creamy whipped feta dip with a hot honey drizzle, pepper flakes and parsley. Served with warm pita, and mustered olives and tomatoes!

This week we've got a flavorful Burger Night feature with the Save My Seoul Burger! With melted Swiss cheese, gochujang aioli, fried egg, scallion, house made Kimchi on a Village Baker brioche bun!