A rustic and eccentric hole in the wall, providing a welcoming atmosphere and community is a quality whose appeal will never die. And that is exactly what you find on the east side of Ypsilanti at Maniacal Mead.
“There are not as many meaderies in Michigan as there once were, and this is a very high-quality mead house. To me it’s worth the trip,” Amy Olsen said. She drove all the way from Sterling Heights to get ahold of Maniacal Mead because “they don’t skimp on quality ingredients, and lots of fruit. It’s a very expensive product to make and a lot of other meaderies have cheaped out a bit, and have gone with meads that don’t take as long to make. These guys will take all the time that they need, even when its more expensive to do so, and you can taste that.”
The main tasting room is limited to 15 people at a time, though its intimacy is part of the charm, as is its dark, moody atmosphere.
It is perfect for Vikings. Which is fitting since they hold a Thorsday every month.
Mead is often called honeywine because of its root taste, but you can make mead taste like almost anything you want. It is also one of the oldest alcohols we have – at least older than wine. It might be considered highly niche, now – but it is a nearly universal drink, produced from cultures ranging as far from Africa, to China, to the British Isles.
Food is not on the menu, but outside snacks are welcome. There are 19 drinks on offer, ten of which are carbonated draft meads and nine are still mead. Prices range $4.50 to $15.
The difference between them, according to one staff member is that draft meads are carbonated like pop while still mead is “more like a wine.”
The idea for Maniacal Mead goes back almost a decade to 2017. It took a while to open due to the long time it takes for mead to be produced, searching for a location and the pandemic – but here they are at 1497 Ecorse Road.
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The picnic tables out front provide views of Ecorse Road, should the interior get crowded enough to attract the displeasure of the fire marshal. Owners are on the lookout for a food truck to partner with, but no such deal is currently in the works.
“I like it quite a bit. I think the atmosphere speaks for itself. The staff so far has been very charismatic. I like the lighting in here,” Joseph Stone, of Canton, said when he visited for the first time and having tried the whiskey-inspired Pecan Daddy. “I was a little surprised coming here, because it just looks like a hole in the wall from the street, but inside its quite nice. It weird being next to a car wash, but I’m very happy I came in.”
Maniacal Mead is well served by their Ypsi Township location, but the owner said they could move sometime soon. No new location has been selected, but they are looking to stay in Ypsi if and when they do move.
Drew Saunders is a freelance business and environmental journalist who grew up just outside of Ann Arbor. He covers local business developments, embraces his foodie side with reviews restaurants, obsesses over Michigan's environmental state, loves movies, and feels spoiled by the music he gets to review for Ann Arbor!
