Launching a new restaurant can be intimidating in the best of times; during a pandemic, it can be downright overwhelming. But what happens when even indoor dining is off limits when your new restaurant makes its debut – particularly in the winter in northern Michigan?

The Ticker spoke to five local restaurateurs who are navigating those waters as they launch new eateries amidst a statewide shutdown on in-person dining – working to quickly pivot to takeout and curbside models, juggle retooled logistics and staff, and prepare for an uncertain future ahead.

Food Arabia
Location: The Food Court at the Grand Traverse Mall
Hours: Takeout available during mall hours (typically 11am-7pm); phone ordering at 929-346-2210
The Pivot: Tanjina Noushin – who goes by Jina – likes to take on challenges. She’s already faced significant ones in her life: Noushin and her two business partners at the new Food Arabia at the Grand Traverse Mall, Roksana Yesmin and Sabina Yesmin, immigrated to America to flee life-threatening political persecution in Bangladesh. The three women are now serving up Middle Eastern fare inspired by Noushin’s ancestors, including shawarma, hummus, falafel, gyro rice bowls with chicken and lamb, Arabian burgers, and rose drinks.

“It’s true that we are living in a difficult time now,” Noushin says of launching the new restaurant during a shutdown. “Many people ask me, ‘When everyone is closing, why are you opening?’ I like to take on challenges. And we three women want to help out our family and kids during hard times. That’s why we decided to invest all the savings we have. As long as we haven’t hired anyone from outside yet, it’s just we three working from dawn to dusk, seven days a week. We believe we can settle the business down soon.”

Restaurant operations already run in Noushin’s family; her husband, Golam Rabbani, operates the Taste of India kiosk in the food court – turning the mall into a new unexpected destination for diverse dining. Noushin says part of her goal is to help expand local options for ethnic food. “Traverse City is a foodie town, but most of its restaurants serve either American or Mexican,” she says. “I always loved cooking, and that inspired me to take on this initiative.”

American House Wood Fired Pizza
Location: 151 River Street in Elk Rapids
Hours: Takeout available Tuesday-Saturday 4pm-8pm; phone ordering at 231-264-6062 (lines open at 3:30pm)
The Pivot: Michael Peterson had already closed his physical building space – the former Siren Hall restaurant – to prepare for the transition to his new eatery American House Wood Fired Pizza when the dining shutdown was announced in Michigan. The first few weeks of the closure didn’t impact operations; in fact, when American House officially opened for business Thursday – with a takeout menu heavily focused on woodfired, Neopolitan-style pizzas – the dining shutdown offered a silver lining by providing a “soft launch” transition to the new restaurant business for customers and employees.

There were other blessings in disguise: pizza lends itself particularly well to takeout, as Peterson discovered on the restaurant’s “crazy busy” first day this week. “We hit the right thing at the right time,” he says. Peterson is also featuring some Siren Hall favorites on the menu to lure back past customers, in addition to counting on the reputation and relationships he has built operating a restaurant for 13 years in downtown Elk Rapids. Still, he is keeping a wary eye on the weeks ahead, with no set end in sight to restrictions on in-person dining.

“(The shutdown) is likely going to go through at least the end of the year, if not longer,” he says. “We just hope we can have a successful go at this (with takeout) until things settle down. You can’t survive forever on just to-go orders with bills to pay and five salaried people. We are trying to keep everybody employed. We are faring OK right now, but if this continues into January or beyond, we would need to see something from the government – some PPP loans or something to help.”

Brasserie Amie
Location: 160 East Front Street in Traverse City
Hours: Takeout available Friday-Sunday 9am-2pm; phone ordering at 231-753-3161
The Pivot: Anticipation was high for the planned November launch of Brasserie Amie in the former Franklin space in downtown Traverse City – a new venture from the owners of The Parlor and Patisserie Amie planned to revive the Patisserie Amie brunch menu alongside a new cocktail program. Co-owner Jason Thibodeau says the partners were excited to welcome diners into the revamped Parisian-themed space – and says it was “heartbreaking” to get the shutdown news just as staff were finishing training in anticipation of a grand opening.

“There was such excitement about the opening that we didn’t want to not do anything and lose the momentum,” says Thibodeau. The partners decided to launch a “pop-up” weekend brunch series featuring the entire menu for takeout, along with to-go cocktails and mimosa kits. Now heading into its second weekend, the to-go program has already proven a hit with customers. “The hardest part has been our phone system, because all we did from 9 to 2 was hang up one call and then another call would come in,” says Thibodeau. “What I felt bad about is that some people just couldn’t get through, and we are in this for the whole hospitality experience, so we are working on fixing that.”

The brunch program will continue on weekends in the coming weeks (closed on Christmas Day, but open for New Year’s Day), with possible online ordering and expanded hours to come. “Our goal is to continue doing this until we can open up,” Thibodeau says.

Bergstrom’s Burgers
Location: 905 US-31 in Chums Corner
Hours: Takeout available Monday-Saturday 11am-9pm; phone ordering at 231-252-4048
The Pivot: Tim Bergstrom believes the best advertising is word-of-mouth – and is grateful he already had several months of it under his belt leading up to the Friday opening of his new brick-and-mortar restaurant Bergstrom’s Burgers in Chums Corner near McDonald’s. Bergstrom operated a food truck of the same name in the Menards parking lot this summer, attracting a following with his specialty burgers and sliders featuring locally sourced ingredients and daily fresh-made sauces.

“We rely on that simple word of mouth to trigger people to come here,” he says. “We were blessed we did very well this summer, and that give us the opportunity to go into a storefront and get through the winter. As a provider for my family, along with my wife – she’s a hard worker too – we are trying to do the best we can. We basically put every cent we had into the food truck, and then took everything we made from the food truck and put it into this restaurant.”

The new building will provide enough room to safely space out guests coming to get takeout orders, Bergstrom says; the restaurant will also run orders out to cars for curbside service. In addition to the return of sliders and burgers from the food truck menu – along with sides like fried zucchini and onion rings – Bergstrom says the restaurant will start offering rotating specials each week in the near future.

Hexenbelle
Location: 144 Hall Street (in Warehouse MRKT) in Traverse City
Hours: Takeout available Monday 7:30am-12pm, Tuesday-Thursday 7:30am-3pm, Friday 7:30am-3pm and 5pm-9pm, and Saturday 9am-3pm and 5pm-9pm; online ordering at https://hexenbelle.square.site
The Pivot: Heather Webber, Hannah Lane, and Christian Geoghegan set out planning for the opening of new café Hexenbelle in the former Alliance space with the understanding it would be a takeaway model to start – a mindset that has served the partners well, according to Geoghegan, the chef for the new venture. “It is just us three as a staff, which helps keeps our costs and also our price points down,” he says. “Our model is a European-style café with a full espresso bar, baked goods, breakfast and lunch with savory goods, and dinner takeaway on Friday and Saturday.”

The menu, which features several creative nods to Geoghegan’s Palestinian roots, includes items like housemade hummus and flatbread, maftoul (a Palestinian couscous dish), coconut curry fried rice, map tofu (a Sichuan-inspired dish), artisan grits sourced from Anson Mills, and chocolate olive oil cake. Nearby BLK MRTK – of which Webber and Lane are veterans – is collaborating on the roasting program. Since opening on November 27, Geoghegan says Hexenbelle has stayed busy, with customers placing orders online, popping in for to-go coffee (permitted when business is slow, though online ordering is preferred), and hanging out on the café’s outdoor patio.

Though the partners are looking forward to offering indoor dining when allowed – as well as expanded patio seating and alcohol service – Geoghegan says the trio supports the current dine-in shutdown. “We want us to be safe, and we want our guests to be healthy and safe,” he says. “Especially with the holidays coming up, having things open I think would be disastrous. It would extend this pandemic even further. We understand there are bigger issues going on than us wanting to have people sit in there, so if we can all tighten up and work through it, it helps. So far people have been very understanding about our situation, so it’s been great.”