Timeout Tavern — Restaurant in Clare

Went for lunch with five other friends while they were having clear music fest with live musics in many of the bars/restaurants. It was pretty busy, but the whole town was busy because of the fast. Service was excellent in fact better than excellent. Lisa was astounding. She was personable and was very helpful with any questions you may have had. The prices were competitive, but the food was excellent. I got the dill pickle fries, which are not dill pickle spears. They are much thinner than that and actually the breading stayed very crispy (served with ranch). Two of the other people had the berry salad which they both said was delicious. I ordered a chef salad, which was really good but needed to be served in a bowl. I think it would’ve been a lot easier to eat from a bowl since you couldn’t really toss it up on a plate once you put the salad dressing on and there was more lettuce than was needed. One guest had the chili and Caesar salad and enjoyed. My husband had two orders of the Mexican street corn dip and liked it. After living in Mount Pleasant for years, and the food quality going way down with prices going way up in that city this was so refreshing! I may have to choose to drive to Clare...

Maybe I'm spoiled living in a big city and having the ability to visit fantastic examples of a bars modeled after speak easies. The blind tiger misses the mark by attempting to be a "speak easy". The atmosphere isn't even close to that of any other establishment I have visited that claimed the title of speak easy. There are silly rules listed on the tables that just made me cringe.

The bar only has 4 beers on tap but a decent assortment of bottles available. When we asked for a beer list, the bar tender could not furnish one and we were told to "go look in the cooler and get whatever we want". There were no prices listed on any of the bottles so we had to keep asking the bartender for each bottle we were interested in. There were no bottle openers available so we had to take our beers to the bartender (who was almost always busy talking to other customers) to open the beers for us.

The bar closed at 9pm on a Saturday which was quite surprising.

If the blind tiger ditched their attempted persona as a "speak easy", got a few more taps with some real craft beer, they have potential of being a decent bar. For now, they are a...

First a word about Clare,MI: What a lovely town! About halfway between any decent drive "up north". Shops bars restaurants and a famous Cops n Donuts shop for excellent pastries. I happen to know the summertime night life in this town pops! Regarding Timeout Tavern. I was there for lunch. Menu has basic American choices with some interesting Mexican and vegetarian choices. I went for the spicy black bean burger substituting side salad for fries. The salad was fresh and just the right size. The BBQ burger was in a ridiculously huge pretzel bun which means more bread than patty. All said it was tasty though I left most the bun on the plate (hint hint kitchen!). Staff were friendly. Our waitress wasn't particularly skilled (sandwich first, salad after we had to flag her down apparently she forgot) and she didn't pay attention to the drink refills. (Yes I left a tip! Not her fault she's new or not managed well). The interior is cool restored pressed ceiling tiles, refinished hardwood floors. Exposed brick walls. Taxidermy on the walls. Clean bathroom. They serve beer and I'll bet its s...