The best way to think about Alley Bar is “dive bar with options.” There are plenty of options at Alley Bar – from bottled beer to glasses of wine to craft cocktails. The space, on Liberty between Main and Ashley (yes, right next to an alley), has been through many name changes and owners through the years. People have been drinking there since at least the 1880s when it was Binders Saloon. The most recent incarnation of Alley Bar opened in 2010 when co-owner Robben Schulz and his partners “wanted to create a place where they would want to drink.” These days, manager and creative force Allyssa Bostick and bartender Phil Attee are familiar faces to the bar’s many regulars.
The Alley’s clientele is a mix of young professionals, graduate students and industry people. Staff from the new up and coming cocktail bars gather here after their shifts are done, sitting alongside folks getting a beer and shot. Or, if you prefer, you can get the Pickleback – a shot of Irish whiskey followed by a shot pickle brine.
Even bartenders who can drink for free at their own bars come to the Alley for the Pickleback. The pickle brine comes from The Brinery. This is not your Vlassic stork’s pickle juice. Made without vinegar and using the “old school” fermentation process of lactobacterial fermentation, the pickle brine presents a light and tangy drink. Garlic tingles in your throat as it brings out the lingering taste of whiskey while killing the burn. I’m not sure that I can ever drink a plain shot of whiskey again. (If you are familiar with the “lick it, slam it, suck it” tequila shots, think of the pickle juice as taking the place of the salt and lime.) Phil says that the bar didn’t make up the Pickleback, but “we made it the best.”
If pickle brine isn’t your thing, you can choose from wine, beer or cocktails. All of the draft beer is from Michigan and currently includes Right Brain’s Amber Ale, Greenbush’s Anger, Bell’s Lager of the Lakes and Arcadia’s Whitsun. The cocktails are many and varied, including a personal favorite of Patti’s called the Cucumber Melon. Other cocktails include the classic Sazerac, the Kentucky Mule (bourbon, mint, lemon, ginger beer) and the regularly changing Noble Experiment.
Alley Bar tends to fill up late as downtown restaurants close. If you want some quality hang out time to sit and chill with your friends, get there at 7 p.m. when they open. In the summer, that means you can get first dibs on the comfy couches in the front window and enjoy some people watching as Ann Arbor walks by. Grab a game of pinball in the back or check out the local art on the otherwise non-descript walls. Or just settle into the bar and drink really good drinks served by a bartender who’ll remember you next time you come in. Truly, the Alley has something for everyone.