Urbanrest Brewing

We were leaving an art fair, already headed somewhere else, when we drove past this place and executed a fairly undignified U-turn. Gorgeous Saturday. An afternoon drink on a patio turned out to be the plan we didn’t know we’d made.

Here’s why it works for us specifically: Urbanrest doesn’t only make beer. This is a standing negotiation in our house — Mike drinks beer, Andrea sticks to cocktails and bubbles — and a brewery that also pours its own sparkling wine, cider, kombucha and mead settles it before it starts. Mike had Kyodai, a Japanese-style rice lager brewed in collaboration with Mabel Gray, and observed that since we can’t get a reservation there yet, at least he could taste what their beer tastes like. Andrea had the sparkling rosé. Both of us got exactly what we came for, which almost never happens at a brewery.

Inside is a big cavernous warehouse room — pool table, board games, an old bicycle hung from the ceiling by the bathroom sign, and a hallway lined with mug club mugs that is honestly impressive to walk past. Vendors were set up selling things the day we went; the bartender said they do it monthly, though we didn’t catch the schedule. If a room full of makers is the draw, The Rust Belt Market does that every weekend.

The patio wraps two sides of the building. We landed at an uncovered picnic table and started melting almost immediately, which only made the drinks go down smoother. Dogs, kids and adults all over it, a food truck setting up as we arrived. An easy way to lose an afternoon in Ferndale.