After dragging my teen-aged son to a great vendor exhibit at the Rustic Rouge Barn in Coopersville I had to make it up to him by helping him with his quest to find the best burger in Michigan (he is still 'collecting data'). So I used my trusty Yelp app and found that there was this fabled place called the Conklin Bar just a few short steps away. Now I have said this more than once, but I will repeat myself yet again; if you have green olives or an olive burger on the menu you have my interest. So with haste I took my 'starving' son just a few short miles to the quiet little town of Conklin. Now I have never been to Cheers, we all know of the show, but even my hometown of Freeland had a place where (as the song says) you could go that everybody knows your name. Conklin's place is the Conklin Bar, oddly enough. It stands out right on the main street of this peaceful little farming town with its bright yellow brick and green trim exterior. This is the place where the locals go to get away from it all, if for a few drinks, without having to make a long trip to the 'big city'. In fact, if you are not a local you have everyone's attention just walking in the door. Once you walk in, though, you are made to feel as though you have lived there your entire life; the staff is that friendly and nice! Both of us had the olive burger and were not disappointed in the least. Just like my hometown used to be, it was a great burger without having to pay the 'Five Guy' price. The burger was freshly made after we ordered it, it had plenty of green olives and was full of flavor, to say the least. I hope to go back and try their other menu items and a great day to do that is coming up when they have the world's shortest St.Patrick's Day parade. If you like to people watch you can find yourself quite entertained there, but on certain nights they do have live entertainment, as I'm sure they will after the parade on the 17th of March. So if you can't make it to Chicago to see the river turn green like lake Erie, you might want to take a jaunt, jig, reel, set, or ceili over to the Conklin Bar where a lot of good pints of Guinness can be had along with traditional Celtic music and great brats from Sobie Meats, as well as their green olive burger! read more