The People’s Cider Co.

• 539 Leonard Street NW
• Grand Rapids, MI 49504
• (616) 322-7805
• Website

Several month ago, a co-worker told me about a cider place in Grand Rapids he really likes.  I didn’t pay much attention because we don’t go to Grand Rapids often and they don’t have food so we’d never take the kids there without something to eat.

We were in Grand Rapids for a concert at Van Andel Arena last week and chose Long Road Distillers as a place to grab a drink and something to eat before the show.  The parking lot for Long Road is a few storefronts down so we had to walk about a block.  That walk was a blessing in disguise as one of the places we had to walk by was the cider place my co-worker told me about that I didn’t think we’d ever get to.

The People’s Cider Company is on Leonard Street near Gezon Avenue.  It’s sandwiched between Long Road Distillers and Chicago Style Gyro.  In the past, this part of the building had been bundled together with the space the gyro place now occupies.  It was a pizza joint before become Chicago Style Gyro about ten years ago.  

There’s not a lot of space in this small tasting room. There is a large bar at the back of the space and this is where most people were standing at the bar talking to the lone bartender when we walked in but they made some room so we could get to the area where cash register is to get something to drink.

The is a small seating are with less than half a dozen tables.  The floors are weathered and there’s local art for sale on the walls.  The atmosphere of this small tasting room really has the “craft feel.”  We ordered our drinks then grabbed one of the four tops to sit and enjoy them before we had to head downtown.

The available ciders are listed on a chalkboard on the wall as you walk in.  There were five listed but they had just blown the keg on one not long before we came in.  There were still four to choose from and the one I was really interested in trying was still there.

I picked the Johnny Three Landlords (I need the story behind that name BTW).  This is a barrel aged cider that’s light and slightly sweet.  I don’t like ciders nearly as much as J does but when I find one I do like, I want to keep drinking it.  This is one I would pick over and over and over again.

J saw the opportunity to do a flight and did just that.  She picked all four of the ciders that were on tap.  They don’t have flight boards and all the ciders look the same so we had trouble figuring out what was what after we got them back to the table.  She likes to hop around and sip a little of each whereas I like to drink one until it’s finished and move on so we spent a little bit of time guessing what was what after she would put them down and not remember what she put where.  She loved all four of the offerings she tried and had we had more time, she likely would have done a second round of tasters of all four of them.

The cost was under $20 for our round of drinks.  The People’s Cider Co. is in a great spot on Grand Rapids northwest side.  There’s a line of businesses that include a brewery, a distillery, a cider room, and a greasy hot dog joint….everything you need for a great night out.