Detroit – While now they serve everything from mouth-watering nachos to pizzas, sandwiches, and more, Motor City Brewing Works got their start with a cold pint of beer. The Ghettoblaster to be exact.
This English-Style mild ale, fondly called a Detroit-Style mild was created to deliver lots of flavor while still being a light beer. John Linardos, the Owner, CEO, and Founder of Motor City Brewing Works said he first came up with the beer in 1994, started putting it on the market in ‘95, and in ‘97 paired it with his love of music, marketing it with a compilation CD of Detroit artists making it “the beer you can hear.”
This beer and the start of Motor City Brewing Works was at the very beginning of the craft beer industry in Michigan. While Bell’s started making beer in the 80s, the craft beer industry hadn’t really taken off quite yet. Linardos got involved in the industry when he began working with Ben Edwards, the original owner of Traffic Jam and Snug, a popular restaurant in the Cass Corridor. Edwards wanted to brew and sell his own beer, something that would require what we now call a brewpub license. Edwards, Linardos, and others worked to get new legislation pushed through to allow brewpubs, and finally succeeded in 1992. This opened the doors for businesses to get brewing.
“I was there at the ground floor,” said Linardos. “What interested me was the beginning of a new industry in the state.
As times changed and palates became more sophisticated, so did Motor City Brewing Works offerings. At the beginning, they were just a brewery. Then in 2001, they added a taproom so people could come in and try their beers. As the Cass Corridor continued to flourish and more people were in the area they added food to their menu as well; namely, pizza.
“We ended up with pizza because an acquaintance of mine’s restaurant had closed and he had a pizza oven available,” explained Linardos.
Then, just this past summer, they opened a second location on the Avenue of Fashion (Livernois Ave, in Detroit). This new spot will function much more like a restaurant with more seating and an expanded menu. They still serve up their now famous pizzas, but now offer many sandwiches, burgers, nachos, and more. They will be doing some small-batch brewing there as well.
For a more detailed look at the menu, watch the video above.
Motor City Brewing Works has two locations in Detroit, one in the Cass Corridor at 470 W Canfield St, and the other on the Avenue of Fashion at 19350 Livernois.