The company that owns Eastern Market Brewing Co. is expanding with its new concept, Elephant & Co., with locations in Royal Oak and Detroit. Vice President of Sales and Marketing Pauline Knighton says Royal Oak is already open and Detroit should follow by June.
“The concept of Elephant & Co. is really pizza and beer at the end of the day,” Knighton says. “We have self-serve taprooms for these locations and all of the beer is Eastern Market Brewing beer … and they have a Detroit-style pizza kitchen.”
The Royal Oak operation, rebranded from what the company previously operated as Lincoln Tap, includes an Eastern Market Brewing Co. production facility and smaller taproom. In Detroit, the company has taken over the former Founders Brewing space with options that will include a private room for 50 attendees with its own bar and a patio large enough for 120.
The company continues to operate its original Eastern Market Brewing Co. at Detroit’s Eastern Market. “There it’s just beer and an old-school taproom,” Knighton says. “We do host events, we have a little side room that’s very industrial—it’s in an old meat-packing plant.”
About 40 attendees can be accommodated in the side room or clients can buy out the entire Eastern Market location, she adds. “We’re not open every day of the week there, so if we work with people [to host events] on days and times we’re not open, it’s obviously cheaper than times when we’d have to shut down the business,” she says.
Elephant & Co. also owns the Ferndale Project in downtown Ferndale, which is a brewery as well as full-scale restaurant, Knighton says. Its other enterprise is Dooped Donuts in Detroit. “They’re all vegan donuts, but a little more high-end with unique, fun flavors,” Knighton says. “That was actually a spin-off during the pandemic when we were trying to survive and do things out of our kitchen and donuts started doing very well.”
Donuts can be ordered from Dooped Donuts for group events and delivery is available as it is for pizza and beer from Elephant & Co. locations. Cafes with donuts are going to be included at Elephant & Co. as well, Knighton says, noting, “It’s a nice way to have all of our brands come together.”
