If you Google "HopCat opening" you will find pictures of people lined up outside the restaurant and craft beer bar in just about any weather. It happened in Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Louisville.
Our guess is that it has something to do with what Food Network Magazine rates as among the 10 Best French Fries in the Nation.
When HopCat opens its doors in Kalamazoo on Oct. 8 the first 200 guests will receive a card that can be redeemed for a free order of HopCat’s famous Crack Fries every week for a year. And everyone who visits on opening day will get a free order of Crack Fries.
HopCat’s menu includes half-pound burgers, Detroit-style pizza, homemade soups and salads, a variety of homemade shareables and entrees like customizable Killer Mac & Cheese. The company says this is "food your mom would make if she loved craft beer."
The restaurant will have 100 Michigan-made craft beers on tap.
HopCat announced earlier this year that it would be locating at 300 E. Water Street in a restored train depot.
Features of the restored site are a custom-designed, arch-shaped wooden bar, a four-season beer garden with fire features and heaters complete with an outdoor bar made from a repurposed Airstream camper.
There also will be an installation of Heritage guitars paying tribute to the city’s guitar-making history.
Mark Sellers, founder of HopCat and its parent company,
BarFly Ventures was born in Kalamazoo and spent the first year of his life in the city before his parents relocated to Grand Rapids. In his 20s he was in a band that played at Club Soda and once opened at the State Theater for Blue Oyster Cult.
"I've wanted to do a location in Kalamazoo for years," Sellers says, "but never found just the right space until now."
HopCat has locations in Ann Arbor, Detroit, East Lansing and Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Ind., Lexington and Louisville, Ky., Lincoln, Neb. and Madison, Wis.
Source: Barfly Ventures
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