GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — Gathered underneath one tent Saturday, local restaurants and breweries faced off during the annual Grub and Brew Fest.
This year, the festival was held at Old Boys Brewhouse in Spring Lake.
Chilly temperatures along the channel didn't stop people from coming out to the area to enjoy the food and drinks.
"We've got some smaller restaurants and catering businesses really hoping to get their names out and bring more of a name to some of the Michigan beers," said Mary Sherman with the Grand Haven Chamber of Commerce.
Ten local restaurants and 10 local breweries took part in the competition.
Once centered around pizza, the Grub and Beer Fest is now known for much more. Each year the competition involves a key ingredient entrants must use in their dishes and drinks. This year's entries had to include bacon.
"Why not? Everyone loves bacon and everyone loves beer and it pairs together well," Sherman said.
Many businesses got creative with their entries including businesses like The Toasted Pickle.
"We have an egg roll wrapper, a dill pickle spear, a house made cheese sauce, and a strip of bacon," said Stephanie Bethke. "It gets wrapped up and then we make our kickin' pickle sauce with fresh dill, mayonnaise, chipotle peppers, and salt."
The decision was an easy one for the competition.
"We serve pickle poppers at our restaurant and so we thought if we added bacon in, we'd just make it a little better," Bethke said.
The "Grub and Brew Fest" also helps raise money for the Grand Haven Chamber of Commerce.
"I enjoyed experiencing the different foods from this area because I’m not from here," said Linda Talmadge, an attendee. "Some of the local brews that are from Muskegon are here, I also enjoyed those and experiencing other brews."
"We had about 100 tickets bought ahead of time. In the past we had about 300 attendees. I think we’d expect about 400-500 tonight if not more," Sherman said.
For more information on the festival, visit the Grand Haven Chamber of Commerce's website.
Visit Old Boys Brewhouse on Facebookand Twitter.
The Old Boys Brewhouse is located at 971 Savidge Street in Spring Lake.
