ROYAL OAK, MICHIGAN
The newest of three Royal Oak brewpubs, 4th and Main restaurant, BASTONE (opened ’02), offered French-styled Belgian food on ground level and former head brewer Sean Brennan’s Belgian-styled ales at downstairs European Industrial setting, August 04.
Exposed pipes, cinderblock walls, widescreen TV’s, and fittingly lounge-y exotic music complemented gently spiced warmth of wispy cherry-fronted orange-peach-pear-aided Cognac-like Dubbel Ale, prominent orange-bruised quince-grapefruit-dried Summer Ale, seductive coriander-spiced orange peel-embittered grape-tannic Wit, prickly-hopped lemony mandarin orange-embittered Belgian Pale Ale, and buttery yellow-fruited wheat-honeyed Continental-styled Pilsner.
By 2005, former Dragonmead brewer Kim Schneider had come aboard. In ’06, quaffed creamy banana split-like Hefeweizen, with its mild vanilla-dipped peach-mango tang opposing hop-embittered bite.