Paul and Chad Clark, brothers and owners of Alt City Beverage Company, announced today they will open their first retail location inside the Downtown Market, marking their successful graduation from the Downtown Market Incubator Kitchen. Alt City Beverage Company will offer a premium beverage selection including zero-proof cocktails, unique smoothies, healthy juice combinations, and a variety of coffees and espresso-based beverages.
Drawing inspiration from Grand Rapids’ beer related nickname, Alt City Beverage Company’s name is derived from their mission to provide alternative beverage options in “Beer City.” Their beverages will be created in-house utilizing high quality and ethically sourced ingredients, offering thoughtful and creative non-alcoholic substitutes to classic and contemporary cocktails with a seasonally rotating menu. Zero-proof cocktail options for this summer will include the French 75 made with ginspice, lemon sherbet, verjus blanc and a splash of “champagne” acid that gives the drink the familiar dry bite of champagne.
Alt City Beverage Company began production in the Incubator Kitchen in May 2019, where they further developed their signature nitro cold brew coffees, Hello Darkness, a naturally sweet, yet complex coffee with an exceptionally smooth finish; and Get Rowdy!, a subtly rootbeer-flavored coffee. Their business grew quickly as they provided these kegged nitro coffees and other teas to restaurants and events around Grand Rapids, and the need for commercial kitchen space became evident.
Owner Paul Clark was familiar with the Incubator Kitchen program, having previously utilized it for his food truck business, Do Your Wurst. “Using the Incubator Kitchen is an affordable way to launch a new food business,” said Paul. “But it’s the resources, connections, and opportunities provided by the Downtown Market that have helped us break through and prepared us to take this step of opening a brick-and-mortar location.”
In addition to zero-proof cocktails and Alt City’s signature nitro coffees, healthy smoothies, fresh squeezed juices, and espresso spritzers will be available at the retail location. “Alt City was born out of a desire to provide fun, interesting beverages that aren’t sugary sodas,” said owner Chad Clark. “There’s a niche for good quality, interesting, creative beverages, and we are committed to offering fun and health-conscious options.”
The espresso spritizers, uniquely dubbed ‘Espresstzers’, are the embodiment of the creativity that is at the core of Alt City. The Vanilla Creme Espresstzer is a play on classic cream soda with the added bonus of espresso, and the Espresso Lemon Spritzer makes use of a sherbet to give the beverage a fresh lemon taste without the added acidity of pure lemon.
“Not only are we excited to celebrate Alt City as they graduate from the Market's Incubator Kitchen, we are even more excited regarding their decision to become a part of the Market experience on an even larger scale as a Market Hall tenant,” said Mimi Fritz, Downtown Market president and CEO. “With Paul and Chad having a combined 40 years of restaurant experience, we know they’re the right people to bring this concept to the Market.”
Alt City Beverage Company expects to open for business in mid-August.
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