New brewery, restaurant poised to open in century-old Lansing building near the Capitol

LANSING — A new brewery and restaurant is poised to open in a century-old property blocks from the State Capitol.

SaltRock Brewing CO. will open Friday at 519 W. Ionia St., a space once home to Belen's Flowers. The property, which dates back to the 1920s, underwent a $1.4 million renovation about five years ago.

SaltRock Brewing CO. owner Steve Kelly, who has been brewing beer since he was a teenager, spotted the building over three years ago, leasing it during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He's spent the last several years getting ready to open the brewery and restaurant, which will serve steaks, burgers, chicken and sandwiches.

"I started during COVID, which wasn't a great idea, but we got it done," Kelly said last week. "My brewer's making beer right now in the back brew house."

Craft beers, ciders, seltzers on tap

The Ionia Street property "was just a shell," when Kelly leased it in 2020.

"The developer had it up to the point where it was all gutted out and it was just ready to start finishing off the inside," he said, adding that pandemic-related supply issues presented a challenge.

Kelly's leasing four of the five suites at the Ionia Street property, with room for a brew space, restaurant dining space and event and meeting space customers can rent.

"We turned the old driveway that went into the back of the property into our outdoor patio space, and we can seat about 50 to 60 out there," Kelly said.

Customers will be able to order from a variety of craft beers.

"We make our own beer, ciders and our own seltzers," he said. That will include a dozen different beers, two nitro beers, seltzers and ciders on tap. Four of the beers will be seasonal selections that vary throughout the year, Kelly said.

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An upscale menu

SaltRock Brewing CO.'s menu offers appetizers, including smoked wings and pulled pork nachos, and handheld sandwiches and burgers, including a French dip and walleye sandwich. Entrees include a tomahawk ribeye steak for $85, fish and chips for $28 and carbonara for $24.

"The menu evolved to what it is now with that kind of mentality," he said. "Everything we're doing is made from scratch in-house. We're not bringing anything else in pre-made, so it's going to be prep-heavy, but it's going to be much better quality and much better flavor."

"I frequent brewpubs all over the country," said Kelly, who worked for several years as a private chef. "And one of the problems I had when I would go there is I really could only get fried food or just really simple dishes, pizzas, burgers, stuff like that. I wanted to bring a better menu in."

He aimed to create a menu that would tempt customers at dinner time, he said.

SaltRock Brewing CO. opens at 11 a.m. on Friday, with hours every week Wednesday through Sunday.

Kelly said it will employ between 15 and 20 people to start, though he may hire more staff in the future.

Learn more about the business on Facebook at "SaltRock Brewing CO." and online at www.saltrockbrewingco.com .

Contact Reporter Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on X @GrecoatLSJ .

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: New brewery, restaurant poised to open in century-old Lansing building near the Capitol