Johnny Blacks Whiskey Park

Whiskey Park is the newest concept from the Johnny Black’s Public House gastropub family, and it leans right into its name: an extensive whiskey list and a genuinely creative cocktail program, poured in a handsome, modern room built around a big central bar with sports on the screens. But it’s not just a drinker’s bar — the kitchen is ambitious, running from renowned birria tacos to properly cooked ribeyes and prime sirloin, Detroit zip-sauce tenderloin tips, flash-fried perch, and pan-seared salmon, with a kid-friendly menu and an Impossible burger for the table’s outliers.

The result is that useful hybrid: refined enough for a real dinner, relaxed enough to just post up at the bar with a good pour. It runs late, too, which makes it one of downtown Auburn Hills’s more grown-up nightcap options. We’ve got it on our list as a versatile date-night or whiskey-nerd destination in Auburn Hills.