If you see what’s happened here with some of the bigger chains in particular, they’ve been less successful here, whereas some of the local restaurants have had staying power.”Īs part of the new location’s grand opening on Saturday, the company devoted all 80 taps to beers from Grand Rapids-area breweries, part of its broader emphasis on helping to shine a spotlight on the local beer scene and serve as a “referral source” for nascent breweries, Knape said. “If you look around this area, there’s a ton of residential that’s been pretty underserved by unique restaurants. “We don’t view this area as a typical shopping mall or suburban area,” Knape said. “It’s certainly more suburban, but it still checks a lot of the boxes that we look for in terms of community and complementary activity,” said Chris Knape, vice president of marketing and communications for BarFly Ventures. The new location - located within the Celebration Village area and in close proximity to a mix of local and chain restaurants, as well as attractions like Celebration Cinema! and the Frederik Meijer Gardens - marks somewhat of a departure from the locally-grown chain’s philosophy of having its restaurants in urban areas, often in rehabilitated buildings.
With the new site, the company also offers an option to guests who don’t frequent the chain’s original downtown bar on Ionia Avenue SW across from the Van Andel Arena. Owned and operated by BarFly Ventures LLC, the East Beltline Avenue HopCat location aims to put a spotlight on smaller local breweries. GRAND RAPIDS - HopCat’s 17th location overall - and its second in Grand Rapids - comes as an “experiment” of sorts for the growing chain of craft beer-focused restaurants.