Have you ever wanted to check out what Detroit has to offer in terms of nightlife downtown? Ever wanted to check out more than one location in a single night? Ever wanted to check out nearly all of them in a single night? This is all possible, as well as cheap and extremely convenient thanks to the Detroit Bus Company and their monthly DBC Last Saturdays Bar Crawl.
Andy Didorosi, a Detroit native, is the president and founder of The Detroit Bus Company. He started The Detroit Bus Company, aka The DBC, as an alternative transit system serving downtown Detroit and its surrounding areas. The DBC features daily routes, has buses that can be secured for private use and, such as the topic of this article, holds special events in and around Detroit.
Having just started with its first event in January of 2013 and continuing as part of an ongoing monthly event, this mostly little known activity has a legend that is rapidly growing as reports are coming back from past participants singing praises of legendary good times. The DBC Last Saturdays Bar Crawl takes place on, as the name suggests, the last Saturday of each month. Two buses, one able to seat 42 and the other seating 27, travel along a pre-determined loop, stopping at 7 different bars located in Downtown Detroit, Corktown and Midtown. The first stop of the night to start the crawl is at The Bronx Bar in Midtown at 8 pm sharp. The buses will run from 8 pm to 2:30 am and participants will be allowed to carry and consume alcoholic drinks on board. The DBC asks that if coolers are to be brought on board that they be no larger than a shoulder cooler as room is limited. Also, feel free to leave your cooler on the bus as you can retrieve it and its contents when you hop back on later in the evening. Buses usually arrive at each location in 15 to 20 minute intervals, but if you need a better estimate on when they'll be arriving, you can text the conductor at 313-444-2871 and he'll text you back a time.
There are two types of tickets you can buy to be a passenger on the bus. Each ticket allows for all-you-can-ride usage. The first type of ticket is the standard all-you-can-ride ticket that can be pre-purchased online or can be purchased the night of the event from either of the buses at any point in the evening. The price for pre-purchased is the same as the price at the bus, but availability of tickets the night of the event is limited if not unavailable due to the event often selling out with the pre-purchased tickets. The cost for the standard all-you-car-ride ticket is $10.
The other type of ticket is the Iron Man all-you-can-ride ticket which is ONLY available for pre-purchase online. This ticket essentially allows those that live in the suburbs the chance to join in on the fun by offering a pickup at Gusoline Alley in Royal Oak at 7:15 pm and at Imperial in Ferndale at 7:25 pm. Once picked up, those attending this event are taken downtown and have the same all-you-can-ride privileges as the standard ticket gives. Though, to get back to either Royal Oak or Ferndale at the end of the night, all Iron Man riders will need to be at The Bronx Bar at 2 am to hitch the bus back to the suburbs. The cost of the Iron Man all-you-can-ride ticket is $15.
The list of bars along the route is a diverse group, offering a different scene and unique experiences at each. While each bar itself is deserving of a visit, it's really just as important, if not more important to pay attention to the bars in the nearby area. Some riders may even want to forgo the scheduled stops entirely in place of visiting the neighboring bars, which is fine so long as you get back to those on the route to catch the bus again. The following is the list (provided by The DBC) of stops with the nearby bars and attractions in parenthesis:
The Bronx Bar (nearby: Motor City Brewing Works, Traffic Jam & Snug, Cass Café, The Old Miami, Honest John’s)
Mercury Burger Bar (nearby: Slows, The Sugar House, LJ’s Lounge, The Gaelic League)
PJ’s Lager House (nearby: Nemo’s, McShane’s Irish Pub, St. Cece’s Pub)
Grand Trunk Pub (nearby: Motor City Wine Bar, Fountain Bistro, Hard Rock Cafe, Sky Bar)
Buffalo Wild Wings (nearby: The Well, Delux Lounge, Old Shillelagh, The Baltimore, The Detroit Pub, Pizzapapalis, Detroiter Bar, Flood’s Bar & Grille, Fishbone’s, Greektown Casino, Jacoby’s, St. Andrew’s Hall, Red Smoke)
Rub Pub BBQ (nearby: Bleu, Cheli’s Chili Bar, The Dirty Trick, Park Bar, Cliff Bell’s, The Fillmore, State Bar, Centaur, The Town Pump, Bookies and D’Mongo’s)
The Majestic Complex (nearby: The Magic Stick, The Garden Bowl, The Majestic Café, Union Street, Great Lakes Coffee Roasters)
For ticket information or other general questions, The Detroit Bus Company can be reached by phone at: 313-444-BUS1 (2871), by email at: hello@thedetroitbus.com or by visiting them at their offices at: 2350 Burdette Rd. Ferndale, Michigan 48220.
To learn more about The Detroit Bus Company visit their website at: thedetroitbus.com.
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