Ferndale Bar Opens This Weekend With Remodeled Taproom

FERNDALE, MI — The Ferndale Project will open its doors with a "remodeled and revisioned" taproom at 567 Livernois Ave in Ferndale this weekend, according to a news release.

The bar, which is the experimental sister brewery of Eastern Market Brewing Co. that's known for its juicy, flavorful, New England-styled IPAs, will be open both indoors and outdoors, from 8 a.m. to midnight Saturday.

The brewery initially opened just days before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and became an instant hit with the community, serving up flavorful IPAs, sours and occasional stouts.

However, like numerous bars and other indoor businesses, the Ferndale Project faced many challenges in keeping their business a float. During that time, they offered curbside pickup to customers and kept its outdoor patio open for much of the pandemic. They also released and experimented with several new beers, in which the Almond Crunch Barrel-Aged Bourbon Stout was named one of Michigan's best craft beers.

"I keep telling the team, this is a grand opening and not a grand re-opening," Managing partner of Eastern Market Brewing Co. Dayne Bartscht said. "Over the last two years, we were put to the test and this Saturday is as much a celebration of our opening, as it is of our survival."

The brewery brought in Danny Jacobs to join their team as a Creative Director and oversaw a refresh of the Ferndale brand, according to the news release. After partnering with a local Ferndale architecture firm, Jacobs said the remodeled taproom now reflects the "uniqueness of the community it serves."

As well as remodeling the taproom, the brewery also added an ASHE Coffee shop with a walk-up window and an extended outdoor patio.

"We opened as an ‘experimental brewery’, but little did we know how much that phrase would be tested," Bartscht said. "We learned a lot about ourselves over the past two years, and this weekend is a culmination of all that self-discovery."