New changes are coming to downtown Traverse City this summer with the expansion of a popular downtown restaurant and new life for a former Warehouse District event venue.

Following the March closure of Union Tap & Grill at 127 S. Union Street, Harvest owner Simon Joseph has signed a deal to relocate his restaurant from the alley behind Union Street Station into the former Union Tap & Grill space. “It’ll double the capacity for us,” says Joseph. “We sit about 35 right now, and we’ll be right around 70 (in the new space), including some bar seating.”

The move will not only provide Harvest with more visible frontage and foot traffic on Union Street, but allow the company to expand its menu and hours and – thanks to a new liquor license – launch a bar program. “We’ll have five or six taps with a hyper-local focus on beer and cider…along with classic cocktails, Bloody Marys and mimosas for brunch, and a focus on rye whiskeys,” Joseph says.

The newly expanded Harvest will operate six days a week – closed on Mondays – with estimated hours of 7am until 11pm or midnight. “We’re going to do breakfast, lunch and dinner, and then brunch on Saturday and Sunday,” says Joseph. “One distinction we don’t want to get away from is that we’re a restaurant, not a bar. There will always be food available. It won’t be (a situation) where our kitchen closes early and we’re just serving drinks.” The restaurant – which may later add a late-night happy hour and new entrée items – will continue to operate as a casual counter-service eatery, with the addition of runners to help take orders during busy periods.

Joseph is working in the new space now to “refresh” the interior and kitchen in anticipation of a mid-May opening. Harvest will close for a few days in its current space to allow the business to relocate right before reopening on Union Street. While Joseph looks forward to moving to a location easier for customers to find, he says he “dearly love(s)” Harvest’s current small building in the alley and plans to hold on to it for a potential new venture.

“I think we’ve made that space viable, so we are not letting go of it,” he says. “We’re excited about some ideas we have for it.”

Around the corner in downtown’s Warehouse District, Create TC owner Troy Daily is planning to take over the front and middle portion of the former InsideOut Gallery at 229 Garland Street for the summer. Daily is renting the space from May 1 to October 15 to launch the new Create TC Lounge, which will act as a second location for Daily’s Kayak, Bike & Brew business (the first location is behind Pangea’s Pizza Pub).

In addition to acting as a launching point for local brew tours, Daily is partnering with Backcountry North to offer retail sales in the space, including Eno hammocks, Kavu clothing, Hydroflask water bottles, The North Face clothing and gear, water toys, and branded merchandise created by High Five Threads. Daily is also partnering with The Workshop Brewing Company to create a co-branded beer to be sold at various locations along the Kayak, Bike & Brew route.

Daily says the Create TC Lounge will “also do some small events throughout the summer, including concerts.” The company will host a grand opening party on Sunday, June 11 from 1pm to 5pm with retail and tour specials and live music from Jack Pine.

Other Businesses On The Move…
A long-time Kingsley watering hole is set to get a major makeover this summer. A group of investors operating under the name Kingsley Enterprises has purchased the Hideaway Bar & Grill at 211 E. Main Street. Andrew Caldwell, part of Kingsley Enterprises, says the group closed the bar last week in order to begin a complete renovation of the property in anticipation of a July 4 grand reopening.

“We’ll be remodeling the whole building, bringing more light into the place and making it suitable for outdoor seating,” Caldwell says. “We’re also making it more suitable in the winter to host groups, like snowmobile groups, and are paving the parking lot.”

The newly renovated restaurant and bar will be called The Kingsley Inn – a throwback to a former popular business on the site – and will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus offer a full bar. Kingsley Enterprises is working with an operating team to run the business. The investment group was inspired to take on the project after attending a community visioning session in which residents identified a “wish list” of businesses they’d like to see in Kingsley, including more breakfast spots, sit-down options and sites that accommodate snowmobilers.

Caldwell hints that The Kingsley Inn isn’t the only project the group has in the works, with details on other ventures soon to come. “We were inspired by that meeting, and that inspiration has led us to attempting to provide some of the things the community has requested,” he says.

Cycling nonprofit Norte! is set to open new headquarters at the Grand Traverse County Civic Center this spring. The group will host a clubhouse grand opening party May 1 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm in the old police sector building, which is being converted into Norte!’s new home and a community bike shop. Clubhouse membership is $10/year for an individual and $25/year for a family and includes benefits such as bike repair tools, access to a professional mechanic, and club event programming.

Finally, Traverse City’s 7 Monks Taproom is set to open its third Michigan location this month. The company announced Tuesday that a grand opening date has been set for April 21 for the launch of its new Grand Rapids location at 740 Michigan Street NE. Traverse City members of the company’s Friar’s Union program will also have membership benefits at the Grand Rapids site, as well as the company’s Boyne City location.