Red Dog Saloon

If you only have time for one drink in Milford, make it at the Red Dog — the town’s beloved neighborhood saloon and, at nearly ninety years old, one of its great living institutions. It opened as a sandwich shop in the Fitzgerald Hotel during Prohibition and got its first liquor license in 1933 as Timm’s Tavern (you’ll still hear old-timers call it ‘Timm’s’), and it’s been the place where generations of Milford kids had their first legal drink ever since. Today ‘the Dog’ is a genuinely great time: world-famous burgers made with meat from Milford’s own Village Butcher, cold and reasonably-priced beer, pool and darts and a wall of TVs for Detroit sports, and live music every Friday and Saturday on a stage that’s hosted everyone from Martha Reeves & the Vandellas to Tone-Lōc. The crowd is pure small-town-bar magic — a three-piece suit next to a pair of Carhartts, everyone welcome. On our list as the most soulful, no-pretense watering hole in Milford — history, burgers, and a band, all under one very good roof.