Bootlegger’s

Tried out this place the other day while visiting Traverse City. The place smelled like they mopped the floors with beer and they played music from one album. Yeah The Weeknd is great but if I wanted to listen to his entire album I could have stayed home. Two stars because the bartender was friendly and there is potential if they clean the bar better and play a better variety of music.

Sarah and Chicken are extremely personable bartenders. That’s saying a lot seeing as though it’s tourist season and I’m just another asshole tourist. I feel like this place is a good local bar just looking to serve drinks and have good times!

The food is great! Except for the crappy chips and overly salty au ju for the french dip. The cooks, wait staff and bartenders are awesome! Im a regular here. The prices are fair for the area. They have keno which helps with the boredom. The only critisism i have is with the owners, they care nothing about their customers. The reserve seating for themselves and make patrons move to suit themselves. The tile and the bathrooms in this place are hideous. The stench coming from the bathrooms is horrendous. The owners only come here to party, and when they show up, no matter how hot it is inside (or even outside) turn off the air conditioning. After reading my own review im surprised to give this place 4 stars but despite the owners high and mighty attitude and lack of care for the décor i highly recommend coming to this place to give it a try.

so many things. first off, none of the cooks wear hair nets, beard nets or gloves.
other employees walk in and out of the kitchen, which isn’t closed off from the rest of everything. to let waitresses know an order is up the cooks literally yell.
Food took forever to come out, and 2 orders that came with fries, both were burnt.
kinda friendly staff but very unclean and poor food

Ehhh trust me with so many other good spots go elsewhere. 7 monks is literally right across the street and ten times better, maybe a hundred times.
Only got the 2^nd star because it was cheap. Happy hour was $ 8.50 for 3 beers so bonus on that.
Not worth it in my opinion.

Went to Dillinger’s and the food was reasonably priced, delicious, and served in a generous portion!

Went here based on Unilocal reviews. Good call! Many locals here at 6pm. Had the fried mushroom (huge, delicious) and chicken basket (fresh cut fries). Waitress was nice and laughed at my jokes. Very cheap for Traverse City. Great bar and bar food, highly recommend.

First time to the Bootlegger, New Year’s Day to watch the Michigan State game and have a few beers. Nice 18 tap micro brew selection. If your looking for an all around Bar. Bootleggers is the place. Great at atmosphere great place to watch football and through down a few brews. Then to our surprise the wife and I ordered perch dinner. Holy cow there is some thing to say about the flavor of fresh cut and deep fried french fries outstanding, then the perch was outstanding also. Sweet dry battered not greasy loved every bite of it. We will be back the next time we’re in town

Stopped here inadvertently after stopping at Harvest and deciding it was too pretentious. Bartender was straightforward and nice. Ordered the all you can eat fish and chips! Let me say it was amazing!!! Lightly battered, flaky and delicious!!! The fries are handcut and the portions are large. My friend ordered a burger that was equally delicious. The meat was seasoned and hot! One of the best dive burgers we’ve EVER eaten. The bill was light on the pockets too. I plan on returning next time I’m in TC.

Great Bar atmosphere with excellent food. Staff is friendly. We had the Sunday «Bloody Mary Bar» which was great. Bloody Mary made to taste… Your own taste. Fried mushrooms are homemade and excellent. The burger was excellent as well as the Reuben. Stop and eat here.

Very popular, once 9 – 10 pm hits, bar gets packed quickly.
The food is great, homemade fried mushrooms to die for! Also hand-​cut fries, amazing.
Their Friday fish fry is wonderful!
Great drink specials during games and happy hour. Prices on drinks normally without specialists very reasonably priced.
Servers are always so friendly and attentive, always a joy coming here!
Always playing Boston, Journey, and other 80’s-90’s music, love it!

The music that was playing here sucked. If I wanted to hear drakes annoying voice, I’d watch a goddamn degrassi marathon.
The bartender was nice.
I got pretty drunk here. So that’s cool.

A hidden gem in Traverse City. The food was surprisingly amazing. I ordered the burger and it was perfectly cooked. we also had the fried cheese and I tried my friend’s white fish… probably the best fish I have had in a long time! The drink prices were dirt cheap and four of us had dinner, drinks and shots for under $ 80. The service was excellent also!

This place was on a street with about 4 other bars. Really cool atmosphere, tons of ladies came in. A good amount of high top tables to sit at. They didn’t have the best selection of beers compared to the other bars next to it. The food was pretty solid!
Good times!

Pretty good hummus n pita bread. Cold brew. Waiting for the 4^th of July parade. It was packed. Quick service. Wifi KICKS ASS. Best in the city. Seriously. I was happy. Loving life!

Great perch baskets. Cheap. Cheap.

I wanted to hit some dive bars and get some cheep drinks before dinner. We went down to union street because someone told us that there would be three bars in a row. They all pretty much fit the description of what I was anticipating.
This bar in particular I chose to stay the longest since they had a sunday bloody mary bar at my disposal which was nice. The bloody bar wasn’t any thing special. The bar contained a few bottles of mary mix, spices, peppers and pickels. The best part the price was only $ 3.50 a drink. All the drinks for that matter were fairly priced for all night drinking binge.
The place had abundance of flat screens for the sports enthusiast. The place seemed to be more of younger college crowd looking to drink and of course the few older regulars. The place was your typical shot and beer ambiance. The place and patrons seemed a little edgy for my taste.
The service was a little awkward. The server/​bartender was eating when we arrived and didn’t seem bothered by the fact that we sat down. I felt like we were intruding on her dinner. The staff should never eat at the bar in front of patrons. It was a little disgusting but she acted like it was perfectly normal. This leads me to believe that other bad habits might be acceptable as well. I wouldn’t say that this is a reason to stay away, just something they should be aware of when customers are present.
Luckily, I didn’t stay long because of a reservation at another restaurant. There are many options to choose around the downtown area and I believe your wise to spend your money elsewhere.

Bootlegger’s is attached to Dillingers, both located on Union Street in downtown Traverse City. The bar itself is bright, with a neat tin roof ceiling. Sadly, that ends my pro’s list. The atmosphere is stuck somewhere in 1998, with music from said year, stale decorations and staff that is typically cynical and slow.
The only reasons I show up here:
a) I’m being dragged by someone else
b) I feel like seeing akward high school aquaintances whom I haven’t spoken to since, well… high school
c) There is an air raid and I need to down my last beer, eat stale popcorn and listen to some KHQ.
But I keep going back! Something’s got me hooked. With new pubs poping up downtown, however (see my 7 monks review coming soon!) Bootlegger’s may be scramblin’ to stay relevent. Til then, I’ll be at the back, near the bathrooms snapping my fingers to Blind Melon.

Bootleggers, part of the notorious «doublewide», along with Dillingers, is the best place to go if you want to deal with bad noise, popped-​collar and/​or amateur MMA dudes, aggressive/​rude bartenders (literally every time i’ve been there), and a general ambiance that seems to incubate hostility. As a local, i only go here if someone else drags me there, and i’ll admit, if you have a big enough group, it’s tolerable. but if you intend on going solo or with one or two other people, i’ve never felt less welcome in a bar. oh yeah, if you feel like seeing a fight, this place is your best bet.

Bootleggers.
Sigh.
One of those places that, despite prior knowledge, one (me) keeps going back to with the thought that it couldn’t be any worse than the last voyage.
And I am wrong… as usual.
Granted, July 4^th is NOT the night to head to Union Street. I blame my younger brother. The crowd was «post-​fireworks» and «pre-​Cherry Fest,» which is a dastardly combination of fudgies, dynamite, alcohol and sweat.
All joined together at this very overcrowded bar. I’m sure on a different night it would’ve been better, but this is not the place to be if you want 1. fast drinks 2. a seat 3. to leave with a shred of dignity.
I asked my cousin (age 27) how she felt…
Me: So, hmmm, this is all sorts of awful, eh?
Her: Yes, I am disenchanted.
Me: Well said.
Her: Time to go.
Yep. The second star is for the staff, as I truly think they were bustin’ ass to get people drinks.