Foundry Craft Grillery — Restaurant in Elk Rapids Township

I was really excited about trying this place. I absolutely loved it when it was Siren Hall and was hoping for a great experience with the new management.

Unfortunately, they missed on all accounts.

Not knowing if they accepted reservations, I called ahead. The hostess said that there was plenty of availability and that she'd get a table ready. We'd be there in 20 mins. Upon arriving, she did not have a table. After waiting ~10mins, she said the only table available was in the bar. Ok?

The bar wasn't busy & the bartenders were leaning back chatting with one another. We waited for another 5-10 mins until I walked up to the bar and asked for a drink & told them we'd like to order food.

We were seated next to the garage door and there was a really cold breeze coming in. I noticed that the bottom was open about 2' so I closed it. A couple of minutes later the male bartender came over and told me that it needed to remain open because HE was too hot. As I looked around the bar, people were wearing their jackets. But OK, as long as the one bartender is comfortable, I guess that is all that matters?

Had we not already ordered drinks, we would have left right then.

Instead, we saw another table in the bar with a serving tray on it and it was dirty, but regardless we cleared it ourselves and moved as far away from the open garage door as possible...still keeping our jackets on. The other customers in the bar kept their jackets on too.

Again, the bartenders weren't too busy. They were standing chatting with one another, but they didn't have time to clear dirty tables?

It didn't get better.

My food arrived cold. When I called the server over and said that my food was cold she replied ...no it isn't.

I've worked in food service & her comment shocked me. Then, I literally picked up a piece of my meal and touched her hand demonstrating how cold it actually was. THEN she argued...it's warm. 🤦

The waitress was very snippy and said, "What do you want? A new meal will take a really long time to get ready for you or we can reheat your meal?" I said, reheating it is fine.

This place could be really nice, but they need to hire people who actually care about the customers & their experience.

I'm a local, and I hope they get their act...

Review from a local. We've given this place so many tries - dining in, taking out, just ordering drinks - at least a dozen times since The Foundry has been open. Every experience gets worse from the previous.

The service is so slow, no matter if the place is packed or just has a handful of tables. In fact, it's telling to me that we've never had or even seen the same server twice. Staffing is clearly an issue.

The food is absolutely not worth the cost. The quality has gone downhill from day one. Food comes out cold or just warm. You can tell when something has been sitting under the warming lamp. The presentation is often sloppy. I've had salads that were so wilted and slimy it's embarrassing that they would let them leave the kitchen. Overcooked burgers, soggy fries, soupy Mac n cheese, mushy, inedible vegetables; this food is mediocre at best. Even the drinks are lacking, at least twice I've been served $12+ cocktails that clearly were sitting at the bar too long because the ice is half melted and watered down.

As other reviews mentioned, the restaurant had a major fruit fly issue late summer, early fall. It made our meal so unpleasant, it was the last time we set foot in there. And we don't plan to come back.

I recently read a post by The Foundry asking for Facebook/Google reviews because "we are a tourist based community, we need all the help we can get". Most locals that live here don't consider this place to be a tourist based community. If your restaurant is only seeing tourists it's because the locals know...

UPDATE: Unfortunately, need to edit my review and drop a star now a year later. They recently changed up their menu over the winter. They made burgers smaller and the patties are not as great, took away fries with them, yet is the same price or more expensive. They are now really too pricey to go to regularly. 2 orders of burgers, fries, and cokes came out to just shy of $50. Woof. And their draft beers are also more pricey. Do appreciate their locals night through the off season though! ‐------------------------------- Happy to have the Foundry join elk rapids, where we really needed more food options especially year round and open late for the people who work long hours. We've been there many times now since they first opened. Food is great, especially the sandwiches and fries (fish sandwich pic included). Flatbread was just okay though (could benefit from homemade dough). But service has been good and efficient everytime. We were really surprised how quickly they seemed to get everything together here, including staffing since everywhere else has had a hard time finding employees.

Sorry to see the way some rude people have been treating them though with unrealistic expectations, for example we witnessed someone demanding the manager to complain about having to wait 40 min for a table at peak dinner time in the summer for a table of 17. Like what do you expect? Keep up the good...