Once upon a time…
There were two kids that fell in love, Joe & Karen. They had a family and enjoyed their simple together. One day, they decided they were ready to take a little bigger bite out of life’s apple. Why not open up a small market in their favorite lakeshore town? Somewhere that locals, tourists, and boaters alike could get the everyday staples they needed. It would be an absolute dream to own their own business, have their kids work with them, and be in a town where they had made so many good memories and friends.. “Let’s do it!” And so, with a lot of town meetings, blind faith, and very good people helping along the way: “Lucy’s Market” was created out of the old print shop at 133 Columbus Ave….
Well, some ideas can be great, and still not succeed. That was the unfortunate case for Lucy’s Market. No one was coming in. Slowly, items on the shelf had to get thrown out from not selling with dates passing expiration. Maybe the town didn’t need a local market or maybe word just wasn’t getting out. Either way, the red line kept growing and Joe and Karen needed to think of something before needing to close the doors entirely.
And so was born, “Lucy’s Deli”. You see, Karen noticed that although no one was coming in for their market goods like a bag of flour or packaged hotdogs, there was a small shuffle of customers that were consistently stopping at the very small deli counter for some of the homemade salads and sandwiches that she had made using recipes from her mother (Lucy’s Grandma). With this observation Joe and Karen turned their losses into successes by expanding the deli selection to encourage more and more customers to come in for lunch. It worked.
Lucy’s Deli survived. It grew to have a large, supportive group of regulars and a whole town that would recommend them by name. Eventually Lucy’s was steady enough to provide a few jobs of steady income to some members of the community via employment at Lucy’s. That part was always a big deal to Joe and Karen.
Things we’re good, steady, and safe. This is where the story should end for any reasonable couple, but not these two… Karen and Joe loved supporting local breweries on the weekends and in spending time at these spots, started to love the beer garden aspect that some of them offered. Being able to sit out in the sun and drink a cold beer WHILE eating a sandwich now became a tiny spark of an idea that they couldn’t seem to put out. Years passed, many many. Then one day an opportunity arose to get licensed to sell beer and they went for it.
Just like in the beginning when their kids were the actual employees, the whole family got involved again…. but this time they were adults and could contribute a bit more :). Sarah, the oldest, had the biggest task of going to work on the design of the backyard and the remodel of the inside (if you remember our deli before it was cylinder brick wall that made for a quite cold experience). Joey made sure to get all of our music scheduled and stage ready. Angie helped oversee the project come to fruition and manage the new team of employees. Becky helped curate the new menu with the help of Karen and Chef hunter. After 6 very hard and intense months, we were ready to reopen to Grand Haven and hope our that our new look wouldn’t scare our town away.
If I am keeping it real, you can’t please everyone. It do go great, but some people don’t like change 🙂 The majority loved it though, and we still kept 40% of sandwiches so we really almost please everyone. Transitioning to a restaurant with a strong music presence has been a very very very long learning curve. We are getting better everyday and you’ll still see both Joe and Karen in working to make sure the place still reflects their vision.
Cheers Ya’ll!!