Metro Detroit: Schoolcraft College’s Craft Grille & Main Street Café

This week we are at Schoolcraft College in their Vista Tech Center. This is the home of their prestigious Culinary Arts Department. This place is near and dear to us, having been a graduate myself, in the late 1980’s, and our son Dylan in 2019.

We have talked in the past about Schoolcraft’s American Harvest Restaurant. It is open to the public when school is in session, offering gourmet a la carte lunches by day and international dinner buffets in the evening. Today, however, we are diving into their other 2 Culinary Arts projects: The Main Street Café and The Craft Grille. Both are located inside the north entrance of the Vista Tech Center.

This is the entrance closest to Nino Salvaggio’s. Both are pretty easy to find since they are located just inside the north entrance across from one another.

Between 2022 and 2023, Schoolcraft College renovated the Vista Tech Center. They added a new instructional test kitchen, renovated the American Harvest Restaurant and added The Main Street Café and The Craft Grille Brewpub. Both opened in Fall of 2023. Here is the announcement.

We will start with the Main Street Café, not to be mistaken for “Henry’s”, the school’s cafeteria, which is in the same building. This is a gourmet grab-n-go café that features fresh made sandwiches, pastries, soups, salads and a variety of other delicious selections.

They even have a Starbucks!

It is a great place to grab a quick breakfast or lunch sandwich to go . . . usually for around $6-$12.

They have a refrigerator filled with delicious soups.

Spectacular Salads . . .

Or grab one of these amazing entrées to take home and heat up for dinner!

The Craft Grille is something you would not expect to find in your local community college. I mean, it’s an actual pub selling beer, wine and mocktails. But it is more than that. It is a pub with an upscale food menu, made by the culinary program students, inspired by the chefs (of which 3 are certified master chefs and one is a master pastry chef) who are instructors at the school.

As previously mentioned, they are part of the schools Brewing and Distillation class and all the beers sold are made in house.

They usually have 8 or so to choose from with seasonal selections as well as their 3 flagship beers you will find all the time - 275 Kolsch-Style, Haggerty IPA and College Pale Ale. All can be purchased to go, in 4 packs of 16 oz. cans as well as growler, howlers and crowlers, from the Craft Grille.

You can also find the cans available at The Main Street Café.

The food at the Craft Grille is everything you would expect from a school known for their culinary program. There are choices for nearly everyone’s taste, offering soups, salads, a nice variety of wings, burgers, sandwiches, pizza and dessert. We have gone a number of times in the past few years, so we have tried many of the items on their menu. Nothing we have tried has disappointed us. It is right next to the American Harvest Restaurant. There is a bar that seats around 10, as well as a dining area with tables for those who do not like sitting at the bar. It is a great place to meet up with friends after work.

The Porto In Paradise Burger (in my opinion, Teresa may not agree) is the star of their menu. An 8oz. steak burger with a grilled portobello mushroom, Boursin cheese, provolone cheese, and pesto mayo served on a brioche bun. It is cooked perfectly to order, we like ours medium rare. Like most of their sandwiches it is served with their roasted garlic & sage fries which are the star of the show…SO GOOD!!!!

Teresa will steer toward a lighter, more healthier option, like the chicken sandwich or the BLT served on house made multi-grain bread. You can add chicken or salmon, if you like.

They recently added a turkey bacon sandwich, an Italian beef sandwich and Falafel Pita as a vegetarian and vegan option and have so many great options.

Take a moment to check these places out if you live in the area. They are worth the trip. OR call us and we will meet you there!

There are also 3 other markets outside of the Vista Tech Center all ran by the Culinary Arts Dept. The Elite Market located in the St. Joe’s Sports Center, The Ocelot Market located in the St. Joe’s Sports Dome and the Ocelot Market Express in the schools Phys Ed building.