Rocky’s Bar and Grill

Rude barstaff. I commented on the price of a drink (cheap, yet absolutely delicious), commented the bartender on it, tipped him 45% of the bill, yet he acted like I offended his mother. Would rather give 2.5 stars, but that’s not an option.

Friday night is always Rocky’s night! The dancing becomes a lot of fun around midnight and the people here are always super cool. Two floors, the downstairs being relaxed, and the upstairs being a chaotic dance floor makes this the perfect atmosphere. When you need to escape from air and sweaty dancing bodies on the upstairs you can head right out to the huge balcony and socialize or have a smoke break. The djs always play great music that is not just your typical top 40. You’ll always find a deal on drinks, and there’s a good selection as well. I always have fun when I come here on a Friday night!
The bar is a little hard to find for newcomers though. It is on Ottawa towards the Boardwalk Condos. Make sure you give this dive bar a chance and get crazy dancing!

Great place to go, true hole in the wall bar that’s a bit off the beaten path but still downtown.
Food is incredible, fries are real potato’s!
Always a great beer selection.
Staff is awesome.
This is one of my favorite places in town!
Also have live bands.

The French fries here are probably the best fries I’ve ever had. Big meaty chunks fried to a perfect crispness.

Miss the low-​key signage and you will drive right by GR’s best kept secret. They have this big bar on the first floor that fits with the chill vibe. The building is long and narrow, like old bars are, with the original, exposed brick on one side. We sat at the bar with a few other regulars and everyone was really friendly and talkative. I can see how it would be easy to make this a regular spot.
I heard the weekend dancing on the second floor can’t be beat either. I will be back to check it out!

I just read an article in the Rapidian about the burgers here. My girlfriend and I were excited to go wolf down some nice burgers. When we got there at 11:45, there were no customers. First red flag.
Next red flag: there was this cranky old lady there with an attitude from the beginning. We sat ourselves down and she was very rude and short with us. She had already thrown her hands up in the air with disgust because we ordered water. When she came to take our order, I asked her to bring the coke out with the food. Her reply, «I am the only one here so you will get it when I bring it.»
She was correct, she was the only one there, until we arrived. Not really sure what she meant otherwise, there were no other customers so she could have easily brought the coke out with the food.
Sure enough she brought the coke out in seconds. We could not believe it and decided this was a nightmare customer service joint. I looked at my girlfriend and we thought this place could use Restaurant Stakeout help.
They may have nice burgers but we were not able to try one but we certainly can say the older woman waitstaff was so nasty. If you see her, turn around and go to Brewery Vivant.
No wonder this place is empty, she scares everyone away.

this bar was an accident. on a trip to grand rapids, my friends and i just wanted lunch and a cocktail. we got rocky’s. the bartender was super nice and had great recommendations for beer and mixes of beers. the food was hot and prepared by nice bartender lady. the fish sandwich was pretty darn good and the trio of chilis did not dissapoint.
the inside of this older bar was amazing. the entire place is carved wood and in really good condition.
ps, they apparently have a 90’s dance party upstairs and the back patio looked like a fun place for warmer weather.
love, juston

It is a great place for any after work happy hour.

It’s a bar. A real bar in GR. It’s out of the way, which is a plus. Park on the street out front. The inside is pretty nice and rustic. I haven’t been in there past 6:30 so I don’t see it when it is busy.
The burgers are great bar burgers!

Rocky’s is a kick ass local bar. I had to laugh when another reviewer was knocking the bar for being in a bad location, people are stupid.
The staff at Rocky’s are amazing and will always be there with a smile on their face for you. Also, Rocky’s has an amazing beer selection so it’s not for those «bud light» type of people, which makes it a local favorite as well.
The grub is decent, very small one page basic menu, but they can cook a hell of a burger. I would say to try the Rocky’s Ruben or the Olive Burger, but either way, you can go wrong.

My first experience at Rocky’s made me never want to go back. Granted, I can’t really blame the bar itself for this. I had been inside dancing for about 45 minutes, and then went outside to my roommate’s car to the check my cell phone. I was shocked to discover broken glass everywhere because someone had smashed her window and stolen everything we had left in the car. So, Rocky’s loses a couple of stars for bad location. Leave NOTHING visible when you go in. The police said there were some other cases of car break-​ins in the area.
So after recovering from the shock and violation from getting one’s wallet stolen, my roommate somehow convinced me to go back last weekend. Maybe it was because it had nowhere to go but up after my last experience of frantically calling my bank and canceling my credit cards, but I had a blast.
The DJ on Fridays spins some great music — not the top 40 business playing at the more college-​y (yeah, I made that up) bars of downtown. My only gripe is that the dance floor is pretty tiny, and gets extremely packed, which can lead to party fouls, like the time I accidentally knocked my roommate’s beer to the floor because I was dancing a bit too exuberantly. Oops. That is just props to the DJ for bringing in such big crowds. I go almost every Friday now, and haven’t had a bad experience since that first time. Hey, we can’t all make good first impressions.

A great small bar with big perks. The upstairs is small but cozy. Love the DJ’s on Friday nights.

Rocky’s has live music downstairs and nightly drink specials, but my main reason for going is upstairs on Friday nights.
Control is a three-​DJ mix of new wave, post-​punk, dance, electro and more. From the second I stepped on the dance floor, I couldn’t stop dancing. Amazing stuff. Oh, and the smoking patio means no need to run downstairs to puff.
Also, Rocky’s has the largest restroom and the smallest restroom I ever have seen at a bar.