It sits in a building that used to be a forge on the Upper Peninsula, and it's been doing three things at once since 2011: neighborhood bar, restaurant, and intimate live music venue, in that order. The room is a dive bar - stained glass, string lights, a "No PBR, don't even ask" sign on the bar - but the food is clearly a step up from normal dive fare, and the kitchen runs until 1 a.m. every night, which is the kind of policy a restaurant without a real kitchen would never attempt. The punch buckets are thirty-two ounces, the baked potatoes are colossal, and the menu rotates with "Red Plate Specials" and staff-meal dishes that are fun without being sloppy.
The live music is the real reason to come on a weekend: original bands, local and regional and national, in a room small enough that you can actually see them. It's the place people go to escape King Street and the fraternity-and-sorority crowd without having to drive anywhere. The crowd is young locals and the kind of people who like to be in the right room before it gets famous.