The Best Bars in Ypsilanti
From a crooked building on Cross Street to a bourbon lounge inside a Civil War barracks. Where to drink in Ypsi.
Ypsilanti's bar scene doesn't try to impress you. The rooms are honest. The prices don't punish you for ordering a second round. The crowds are mixed enough that you can't tell who's a regular and who stumbled in off the street, which is usually a sign that the bar is doing something right.
There's also real range here. A taproom built by hometown graduates. A bourbon bar inside a Civil War barracks. A patio where you can hear the Huron River on a still July night. None of them are trying to be Ann Arbor. That's the point.
Sidetrack Bar & Grill
56 E Cross St, Depot Town
Sidetrack has been running out of an 1850s building on East Cross Street since the early 1980s. The building leans, as the bar tells it, because a freight train jumped the tracks near the depot in 1929 and hit the side of the structure. Nobody fixed the lean. Forty-plus years later, the building is still standing and Linda French is still running the bar.
GQ put the burger on its must-eat list. Sidetrack didn't change a thing afterward. The patty is thick, loosely packed, flat-grilled with a solid char, on a bun that holds together. Under $15. It has been essentially the same for decades. The wings have regulars with strong opinions about the sauce. The Reuben is stacked high, corned beef sliced thick.
The beer list runs twenty-plus taps, leaning Michigan craft. It rotates. The bourbon list is longer than most bars in Ann Arbor bother with. The patio behind the building, shaded by old trees with string lights and a mix of picnic and regular tables, is open May through October and is among the best outdoor tables in Washtenaw County.
This is the bar that was here before Depot Town was a food destination. Every food corridor needs one of those.
734 Brewing Company
15 E Cross St, Depot Town
734 is the area code. The founders are Ypsilanti High School graduates who came back to build something in the city that raised them, and they named the brewery after the three digits that show up when someone local is calling. That is not an incidental detail. It is the whole posture of the place.
The taproom is straightforward: a bar, tables, room to move without bumping into strangers. The tap list rotates through ales, lagers, hard seltzers, and house spirits. The Ypsi Blonde is the clean, approachable entry point. The 734 IPA has balance without being aggressive about its hops. Seasonal and experimental batches come through regularly.
734 doesn't have a kitchen, which is a deliberate choice. Food trucks park outside on a rotating schedule. You're welcome to bring food from anywhere on the block. Order tacos from MAIZ across the street and carry them over. The Cross Street corridor makes this work because everything is within two minutes of everything else. 734 is where a Depot Town evening tends to end up.
Mash at Thompson & Co.
400 N River St, Depot Town
Thompson & Co. at the north end of River Street is a Southern comfort restaurant inside a building that has been a hotel, a Civil War barracks, a warehouse, and a ruin. Jon Carlson and Greg Lobdell of Mission Restaurant Group put $10 million into the renovation. The tabletops are made from an oak tree that grew through the collapsed roof while the building sat empty for a decade.
The drink program in the main dining room is cocktail-forward, with bourbon-based builds and a draft list that leans on Jolly Pumpkin and North Peak alongside rotating Michigan selections. The reason to come specifically for drinks is Mash, adjacent to the dining room: a bourbon and whiskey bar with oversized leather chairs, a shorter version of the kitchen's Southern comfort menu, and live music from local acts on Friday and Saturday nights.
Mash has a different energy than the dining room. It's the place you end up after dinner, or come to first when you want a drink without a full meal commitment. The bourbon list is the longest in Depot Town by some distance, and the room takes the selection seriously enough to make choosing from it worth the time. If the Cross Street end of Depot Town is the social hour, Mash is where the evening gets quieter and the pours get more deliberate.
Bellflower
209 Pearl St, Depot Town
Bellflower is a restaurant first, and the best one in Ypsilanti. But the bar program deserves a mention in any guide to drinking in this city. The room is a converted Michigan Bell telephone exchange that owners Mark Maynard and Jesse Kranyak spent four years rebuilding after a fire. Chef Dan Klenotic earned a James Beard semifinalist nod for Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2024.
The bar at Bellflower focuses on natural wine and considered cocktails, not the same register as the other bars on this list. A glass of something from a small producer, the right cocktail while you're deciding what to order, the bar seats on a slow Tuesday night when the dining room is quiet. This is the option when the drink should match the food rather than compete with it.
Walk-ins can sometimes get bar seats when the dining room is full. That is the best seat in the house on a weekday evening.
Bona Sera
West Michigan Ave, downtown Ypsilanti
Bona Sera is an Italian kitchen with a wood-fired menu and a wine list that takes Italy seriously. The patio draws crowds in warmer months. The bar program reflects the kitchen's priorities: wine over cocktails, Italian producers, pours by the glass and bottle that match what's coming out of the oven.
This is not the bar you come to for craft beer or a bourbon-heavy evening. It's the one for a glass of Barolo with wood-fired pizza, or a Negroni before a table that requires a reservation on weekends. The patio is specifically the reason to go in late spring and summer. The wood fire is the reason to go when it's cold.
How These Places Connect
Depot Town makes a bar evening easy. Sidetrack, 734 Brewing, and Thompson & Co. (with Mash) are all within a few blocks of each other on Cross Street and River Street. Start at Sidetrack for the burger and the patio, move to 734 for a pint, end at Mash if the night goes long and you want live music and a serious bourbon.
Bellflower is its own destination on Pearl Street, a few blocks from the corridor but worth the walk when the occasion calls for something quieter and better matched to a bottle of wine.
Bona Sera is the West Michigan Avenue stop, a different neighborhood than Depot Town, and serves a different purpose in the evening.
None of these bars need the Ann Arbor comparison. They are worth the drive on their own.
This guide reflects what was open as of April 2026. Addresses, hours, and kitchen schedules change; confirm before making specific plans.