April 14, 2025 • 18 mins
Three friends turned their home brewing passion into a thriving community hub during one of the most challenging periods for small businesses in recent memory. When Lost Art Brewery opened its doors in July 2020 amid pandemic restrictions, founders Austin, Mike, and Brad couldn't have predicted that loyal customers would show up in snowmobile suits to drink beer on their outdoor patio during freezing Michigan winters. But this remarkable display of community support exemplifies why this Walker establishment continues to succeed while others struggle.
The brewery's name perfectly captures their philosophy: doing things "the hardest way possible" to achieve the best results. Unlike many businesses forced to compromise quality during tough economic times, Lost Art refuses to cut corners. "We never sit down and have decisions about how we can make this cheaper," explains one founder. "It's always how can we make this better?" This quality-first mindset extends from their brewing techniques to their ingredients and has fostered intense customer loyalty.
Starting from humble beginnings as home brewers experimenting in a four-season room, the team has created a neighborhood institution that feels like it belongs to the community rather than just serving it. Their recent expansion to include an indoor kitchen (replacing their food truck operation), creative small-batch brewing program featuring popular "ice cream beers," and commitment to customer feedback demonstrate why Lost Art continues to thrive. As one founder puts it: "If you make decisions based on taking care of your customers, they will take care of you in return." Visit them at 3393 Remembrance Road and discover why this brewery has become an essential part of Walker's identity. Have you experienced their small-batch creations yet?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Made in Walker, a podcast that connects
you to the people, the storiesand the ideas shaping our
community, from local innovatorsto everyday changemakers.
We're diving deep into whatmakes Walker a great place to
live, work and grow.
Here's your host, nicoleDiDonato.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
We've been hearing it for years now.
It's a tough economic times,especially for restaurants, and
we know that several of themhave actually closed in recent
weeks.
But there is one here in Walkerthat seems to have found the
secret sauce, and I'm here withAustin, mike and Brad from Lost
Art Brewery.
Thank you all so much forjoining us.
We really do appreciate it.
Thanks for having us, of course.
(00:48):
Thank you, yes, and so, first ofall, it's not like you guys
aren't used to adversity.
You actually opened Lost ArtBrewery during the pandemic.
What was that like?
What were you guys thinking asyou were going through this?
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Well, we didn't really have a choice, so it
definitely wasn't planned thatway.
It took about two years fromstart to finish, in terms of
just opening it in 2020.
So it kind of was what it was.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yes, yeah, opening in July of 2020.
What was the ribbon cutting?
Take us back to that day.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
That was.
It was pretty wonderful just toget to that.
It felt like a finish linebecause we were supposed to open
months before that, like March,april of 2020.
And the you know, thecontractors were all ordered off
the job site and we couldn'tget our inspections done.
So we kind of just had to sitaround and wait for the
government to allow those peopleto come back.
(01:40):
So just getting to that momentwas just such a such a sigh of
relief because you know the bankand everybody you know you
still have to pay your bills andeverything.
So, like you want to starthaving money come into your
business.
So when we finally got to openand you know, see people come in
and sell beer to the community,it was it was just like an
amazing day to think back on.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, you guys are certainly no strangers to
problem solving right To smallbusiness owners.
That's probably something youdo a lot, huh.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Every day and every week, all day, every day.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
And what kind of inspired you guys to start a
brewery?
Because did you all havebackgrounds, whether it was
serving food or in therestaurant industry?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
None of us had brewery experience.
Brad started home brewing.
What year?
Speaker 5 (02:29):
It was about 10 years before the brewery opened.
So it was back about 2010 thatI started home brewing.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
So I was living in Chicago when the two of us
started home brewing together.
I would come back to GrandRapids and we would homebrew out
of his four season room andwhile we were brewing I would
bring back beers from Chicagoand we'd drink stuff from the
East coast, west coast, and brewwhatever delicious beer this
(02:59):
guy concocted.
And we were kind of wrappingback and forth like, oh, if we
weren't doing the corporatething we both were doing at the
time, what would we do?
And started tossing ideasaround and everything led back
to Brew Beer Awesome.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
Yeah, we had some crazy other ideas that I don't
even want to get into but, itall kind of came back to that of
just like, if you're going todo something, you have to do
something that you're completelypassionate about, right, like
you want to wake up and do everyday and you want to think about
it at night and you want to beyour family to be proud of, you
to be proud of and, like Mikesaid, it just always led back to
(03:35):
.
You know, we're from the Westside, we grew up over here, we
wanted to have a business hereand we were very passionate
about beer and you know, it wasstill a point where people were
very into craft beer.
We felt like we had somethingto say, though that was
different than everything elsethat was out there.
So it wasn't like we were justtrying to tag on to a movement.
(03:56):
We felt like what we were doingwas unique and special in its
own way and we really wanted toharness that into the business.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
And you know, being able to open a brewery was it
was awesome, oh my gosh andwe'll get more into what you
guys offer shortly, but thestory behind the name as well.
Lost Art.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
So I wish we had a better story for it.
But the original name was 1983Brewing Company, which is the
year the two of us were born,and there was a restaurant group
that already had that name.
So we had to make an audibleand we started asking friends
and family if they had any othergreat ideas for for names.
And my father-in-law came upwith Lost Art, which really fell
(04:39):
in line with the way we kind oflook at brewing beer, which is
kind of a lost art of doingthings.
So the way this guy goes atbrewing beer every week is the
proper way with the technique,European style of different
styles.
I guess I'll let him talk moreabout that.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
Yeah, I mean they're.
Like in any industry, it's veryeasy to cut corners for a
multitude of reasons, whether itbe a cost or ease or whatever.
We always like to say that wedo things the hardest way
possible all the time, and thattends to lead to the best result
.
So we don't again, we don't cutcorners anywhere.
(05:21):
With everything we purchase,every process we use, everything
we do in the brew house is allabout quality.
We never sit down and havedecisions and like, how can we
make this cheaper?
It's always how can we makethis better?
Wow, you know so.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
And in a time where you, you know, do have to maybe
crunch the numbers and costcrunch and all that, you still
refuse to kind of give up onquality right.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
Yeah, I mean a lot of the business people that I look
up to.
I know we look up to don't makedecisions that are always based
on that bottom line.
If you make a decision that'sjust about the bottom line, it
tends to not work out well.
But if you make decisions thatare based on, you know, taking
care of your customers and thepeople that come through the
(06:07):
door, they're going to take careof you in return.
It's kind of like a.
It's a different kind of way ofdoing business, because some
people might say it's not thesmart way, but if you take care
of your customers, they willtake care of you.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, and we're also lucky enough to um finance all
of this ourselves, so we don'thave a board or anything that we
have to answer to um that aremaking decisions for you and
forcing you to do things for thebusiness that you know, don't
actually pan out.
So yeah, like we've seen someother.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You know businesses have, so and you're mentioning
about taking care of yourcustomers and I know passing by
every day, going to work andsuch, even into winter people
when it was the pandemic stillcoming out.
You had a lot of patio space.
It could be the middle ofwinter, people were in their
snowsuits and they were stillsitting outside.
What did that mean to you guys?
To get that type of communitysupport and just that, that show
(07:01):
of unity and such?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Very humbling yeah extremely humbling.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
It means a lot just growing up on the west side and
it really shows true colors ofthe community and all that
coming to support.
So we've told the story beforepeople showing up in snowmobile
outfits and setting up shophanging out outside in the
freezing cold.
We gave them a place to comeand they chose our little humble
patio when we had no tap room.
(07:28):
You had no choice but to standoutside.
So definitely humbling.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Yeah, and it's not something we ever take for
granted.
We sat outside then and we'llgo out there now, just on the
weekend.
And you sit there, you don'ttell anybody who you are, you
don't say, oh, I'm the owner ofthis establishment.
You just sit down and you watchpeople enjoying themselves and
being able to give the communitya place to meet like that and
(07:52):
enjoy things.
It just fills your heart to away that I can't even possibly
explain or put into words rightnow.
For you, it's awesome to see,especially, like Mike said,
growing up here and having thecommunity embrace us in this way
.
It's just so humbling.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, smocker definitely is a special place
and, um, we've seen you guysbeing able to expand as well,
offering a new service.
If you wanted to kind of talkabout that.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, so, um, we have the kitchen indoors now.
Um, we built out, you know, uh,figured it out in our tiny
little building, a way to makeit work, and it's great up and
running now.
Our grand opening was lastTuesday and we had specials and
everything completely packedhouse every single night, so it
was absolutely great.
(08:39):
Yeah, we offer a line of chilidogs now with a homemade chili
sauce.
We hope to have differentspecial events down the line,
such as like special dinners,like ticketed events and
everything too.
But you know, there's neverenough time in the day.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
You were the one that was running the food truck and
the smash burgers and just kindof back and forth and back and
forth.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Yeah, our employees are very thankful too, because
there's not a lot of runningback and forth now indoors.
So you know, we have a climatecontrolled kitchen now instead
of the freezing cold food truckin the wintertime.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
God bless our employees yeah.
Did that in the summer and thewinter.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah, yeah, you know, on top of like loyal customers,
the loyal employees too thathave been with you for so long.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
They're all amazing, everybody that like a lot of
places, like to say, oh, we're afamily here, but we really
would go to bat for anybody thatworks for us and they're just
such wonderful people.
The energy they bring to workevery day it's.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
It's an awesome place to be and what do you think
that you've learned over theyears?
The last five years, I meanagain opening up at an extremely
difficult time and just withthe way that the economy has
been going the last five years,it seems like it never lets up.
But you guys are still going atit and you're determined and
you're succeeding.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
We really try to keep our heads down.
I know a lot of businesses, youknow.
You come up and you kind oflook around see what everybody
else is doing, follow the leader, follow the crowd.
But from the very beginning forus it was very much just focus
on what you're doing, do it tothe best of your ability and
don't let all the noise aroundyou get in the way.
(10:19):
Like, just do what you're doing, the best you can, keeping it
interesting too.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
You know, we're small batch breweries, so we're
constantly coming out with newbeers, um, coming out with new
specials for food stuff likethat, just so it's not always
the same thing that people comein for, so yeah, yeah, your
weekly beer releases and the icecream beers.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
these look wild.
They look so delicious.
What are like the storiesbehind that?
Where do you get yourinspiration for some of these
creations?
Speaker 4 (10:48):
honestly, a lot of them are on the fly with whether
it's like a seasonal fruit orsomething like that, whatever we
can get our hands on.
And then, because we're sosmall, we do a small batch and
not have to necessarily worryabout screwing something up,
which gives us more freedom ofgetting crazier, I guess, if you
(11:09):
want to call it that.
So that's kind of how thosethings happen we might do a
pivot and come up with acompletely different type of
beer, which I think is anadvantage for us versus another
place that doesn't have thattype of nimble movement.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
And you get such great direct feedback from the
customers.
We've done other things in thepast that didn't work as much,
but when the ice cream reallystarted to take off you could
talk directly to the customersand they tell you what they like
, what they don't like, and thenyou know you can build products
that are directly tailored towhat people enjoy, you know.
So, like Mike said, just beingable to be nimble like that and
(11:56):
kind of do small batches andmove around it allows us an
ability that a lot of otherplaces don't have.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Same thing with food.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
You can create a burger of the month on the fly
as well?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yes, I already have your mind kind of thinking of
some for the next couple months.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, I think we're going to bring back an old
favorite for April, and it wasone that we did that was pretty
popular.
We're still trying to get oursea legs in the kitchen, so we
don't want to overwhelm ouremployees and everything like
that.
Um, yet, and we've had, youknow, our St Patrick's day party
(12:32):
, which was a huge hit, then oursoft opening week, and now our
grand opening week, and nowwe're finally, you know, getting
to the point where everything'skind of settling down.
So we hope to, you know, kindof bring back some more, you
know, different options andstuff like that coming up soon,
so yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And do you think thinking back, because you said
you were looking at starting acouple of years before you were
actually able to open?
Looking back this far now,could you have seen yourselves
where you were or where you areright now, or?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
what were your thoughts?
We say that all the time.
Wow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Would you imagine yourself, you know, scrubbing
the deck of a food truck on aFriday at 5 pm?
You?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
know, and it's just funny.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
It's funny stuff yeah no, I'm surprised every week at
where I end up, Like I don'tthink I could tell you where I'm
going to be next week.
Even, Like you know, it comesback to being nimble.
Like I don't think I could tellyou where I'm going to be next
week, it comes back to beingnimble.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
But like, yeah, as a business, you go where the
customers tell you they want youto go in a way, very true, not
necessarily Not any other way,though.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
Yeah, it comes back to where we started.
You know it's all for thecustomers and, like you could
say, I want things to go thisway, but that doesn't mean that
people are going to latch ontothat and you know you could be
stubborn and say, no, I want itto go this way, I need it to go
this way.
But people say, come this way,this is where I want you to go.
And then you take it that wayand there's so much more reward
(13:58):
to you know being what theyenvision you being it's.
You know it's a lot easier thanforcing people to go your way.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Sure, sure sure I like that You've kind of like
taken your customers alongsideyou and kind of incorporated
them the entire time.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
And I feel like they definitely understand that and
embrace that too.
It does not feel like it is ourbusiness and they are patrons.
It feels like the businessbelongs to the community.
That stretcher remembrance inWalker, the west side, it is
their brewery, we run it, butyou know it's it's at the end of
the day it really does feellike it's theirs and I think
that ownership you can see itjust coming in there and talking
(14:36):
to people and stuff.
It's not like just anotherbusiness, you know right, yeah,
that sense you get.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
It is just a neighborhood and obviously all
your neighbors and your friendsand family are there.
Part of that as well.
Looking forward in the nextfive or so years, if you are
able to, or you let yourselveslook that far in advance where
do you see yourselves?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
That's a tough one.
We have a grand plan.
It really all depends on a lotof things going the right way
and the market and all thatstuff, but we definitely have
plans in place, long goals offive years, ten years stuff like
(15:18):
that, possible second locationsif it makes sense, all kinds of
different things like that.
So we don't want to reallyexpress any of those things, oh
yes.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
We're definitely happy to just have the kitchen
open right now.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Kind of retire the permanent food truck that's been
in our parking lot for twoyears.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Yeah, we always joke about how every day is a new big
project.
It would just be great to youknow.
Settle in a little bit with thekitchen?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Yes, like we've been.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
It's about it's been almost a whole year since we
were like we're going to build akitchen and then you have to
get all the plans drawn up andeverything approved.
And then you're sitting therewith a sledgehammer and knocking
down brick walls and you'relike how did I get?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
here.
That's amazing.
You guys put so much like blood, sweat and tears in your
business.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
Austin has a lot of construction background so he
was able to whatever we could do.
He was kind of our, our bossand getting all that done, so
had to crack the whip A lot oftalent right here on the other
side of this table.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Nobody's hard, nobody's afraid to work very
hard.
That's important.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
And for the final question where can folks find
you and hours and such.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
You can find us at 3393 Remembrance.
We're almost across the streetfrom Sobeys, if you recall the
old D&W.
We're basically across fromthere.
We're open Tuesday throughSunday, so Tuesdays 4 to 9,
wednesday, thursday, 4 Sunday,so Tuesdays 4 to 9.
Wednesday, thursday 4 to 10.
Friday, saturday 12 to 10.
And Sundays 12 to 3.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
All right.
Well, we appreciate Austin,Mike, Brad, we really appreciate
you all being here and we're sothankful to have you in our
community.
And what can folks do?
Just one last thing what canfolks do to help support you
even more going forward?
And what can folks do?
Speaker 3 (17:07):
just one last thing.
What can folks do to helpsupport you even more going
forward?
Just spreading the word,telling people about our
products, telling their friendscoming in to buy some cans to go
, and taking them to events thatyou're going to, if you're
going up to the cottage in theweekend, you know, hopefully
pretty soon here we're going tobe doing some takeout caterings,
so pick up catering boxes andstuff.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
So think about us when you're looking for dinner
options and the brewery isfamily-friendly, so bring the
whole family, absolutely Allright.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Well, thank you both so much, thank you all so much
for being here today.
We appreciate you tuning in.
Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of the
Maiden Walker podcast.
If you have comments orquestions about this podcast, or
if you have suggestions forfuture episodes, we'd love to
hear from you.
Please drop us an email atpodcast at walkercity.
Maiden Walker is the officialpodcast of the city of Walker,
Michigan.
You can find Maiden Walkerwherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome to Made in Walker, a podcast that connects
you to the people, the storiesand the ideas shaping our
community, from local innovatorsto everyday changemakers.
We're diving deep into whatmakes Walker a great place to
live, work and grow.
Here's your host, nicoleDiDonato.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
We've been hearing it for years now.
It's a tough economic times,especially for restaurants, and
we know that several of themhave actually closed in recent
weeks.
But there is one here in Walkerthat seems to have found the
secret sauce, and I'm here withAustin, mike and Brad from Lost
Art Brewery.
Thank you all so much forjoining us.
We really do appreciate it.
Thanks for having us, of course.
(00:48):
Thank you, yes, and so, first ofall, it's not like you guys
aren't used to adversity.
You actually opened Lost ArtBrewery during the pandemic.
What was that like?
What were you guys thinking asyou were going through this?
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Well, we didn't really have a choice, so it
definitely wasn't planned thatway.
It took about two years fromstart to finish, in terms of
just opening it in 2020.
So it kind of was what it was.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yes, yeah, opening in July of 2020.
What was the ribbon cutting?
Take us back to that day.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
That was.
It was pretty wonderful just toget to that.
It felt like a finish linebecause we were supposed to open
months before that, like March,april of 2020.
And the you know, thecontractors were all ordered off
the job site and we couldn'tget our inspections done.
So we kind of just had to sitaround and wait for the
government to allow those peopleto come back.
(01:40):
So just getting to that momentwas just such a such a sigh of
relief because you know the bankand everybody you know you
still have to pay your bills andeverything.
So, like you want to starthaving money come into your
business.
So when we finally got to openand you know, see people come in
and sell beer to the community,it was it was just like an
amazing day to think back on.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, you guys are certainly no strangers to
problem solving right To smallbusiness owners.
That's probably something youdo a lot, huh.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Every day and every week, all day, every day.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
And what kind of inspired you guys to start a
brewery?
Because did you all havebackgrounds, whether it was
serving food or in therestaurant industry?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
None of us had brewery experience.
Brad started home brewing.
What year?
Speaker 5 (02:29):
It was about 10 years before the brewery opened.
So it was back about 2010 thatI started home brewing.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
So I was living in Chicago when the two of us
started home brewing together.
I would come back to GrandRapids and we would homebrew out
of his four season room andwhile we were brewing I would
bring back beers from Chicagoand we'd drink stuff from the
East coast, west coast, and brewwhatever delicious beer this
(02:59):
guy concocted.
And we were kind of wrappingback and forth like, oh, if we
weren't doing the corporatething we both were doing at the
time, what would we do?
And started tossing ideasaround and everything led back
to Brew Beer Awesome.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
Yeah, we had some crazy other ideas that I don't
even want to get into but, itall kind of came back to that of
just like, if you're going todo something, you have to do
something that you're completelypassionate about, right, like
you want to wake up and do everyday and you want to think about
it at night and you want to beyour family to be proud of, you
to be proud of and, like Mikesaid, it just always led back to
(03:35):
.
You know, we're from the Westside, we grew up over here, we
wanted to have a business hereand we were very passionate
about beer and you know, it wasstill a point where people were
very into craft beer.
We felt like we had somethingto say, though that was
different than everything elsethat was out there.
So it wasn't like we were justtrying to tag on to a movement.
(03:56):
We felt like what we were doingwas unique and special in its
own way and we really wanted toharness that into the business.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
And you know, being able to open a brewery was it
was awesome, oh my gosh andwe'll get more into what you
guys offer shortly, but thestory behind the name as well.
Lost Art.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
So I wish we had a better story for it.
But the original name was 1983Brewing Company, which is the
year the two of us were born,and there was a restaurant group
that already had that name.
So we had to make an audibleand we started asking friends
and family if they had any othergreat ideas for for names.
And my father-in-law came upwith Lost Art, which really fell
(04:39):
in line with the way we kind oflook at brewing beer, which is
kind of a lost art of doingthings.
So the way this guy goes atbrewing beer every week is the
proper way with the technique,European style of different
styles.
I guess I'll let him talk moreabout that.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
Yeah, I mean they're.
Like in any industry, it's veryeasy to cut corners for a
multitude of reasons, whether itbe a cost or ease or whatever.
We always like to say that wedo things the hardest way
possible all the time, and thattends to lead to the best result
.
So we don't again, we don't cutcorners anywhere.
(05:21):
With everything we purchase,every process we use, everything
we do in the brew house is allabout quality.
We never sit down and havedecisions and like, how can we
make this cheaper?
It's always how can we makethis better?
Wow, you know so.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
And in a time where you, you know, do have to maybe
crunch the numbers and costcrunch and all that, you still
refuse to kind of give up onquality right.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
Yeah, I mean a lot of the business people that I look
up to.
I know we look up to don't makedecisions that are always based
on that bottom line.
If you make a decision that'sjust about the bottom line, it
tends to not work out well.
But if you make decisions thatare based on, you know, taking
care of your customers and thepeople that come through the
(06:07):
door, they're going to take careof you in return.
It's kind of like a.
It's a different kind of way ofdoing business, because some
people might say it's not thesmart way, but if you take care
of your customers, they willtake care of you.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, and we're also lucky enough to um finance all
of this ourselves, so we don'thave a board or anything that we
have to answer to um that aremaking decisions for you and
forcing you to do things for thebusiness that you know, don't
actually pan out.
So yeah, like we've seen someother.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You know businesses have, so and you're mentioning
about taking care of yourcustomers and I know passing by
every day, going to work andsuch, even into winter people
when it was the pandemic stillcoming out.
You had a lot of patio space.
It could be the middle ofwinter, people were in their
snowsuits and they were stillsitting outside.
What did that mean to you guys?
To get that type of communitysupport and just that, that show
(07:01):
of unity and such?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Very humbling yeah extremely humbling.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
It means a lot just growing up on the west side and
it really shows true colors ofthe community and all that
coming to support.
So we've told the story beforepeople showing up in snowmobile
outfits and setting up shophanging out outside in the
freezing cold.
We gave them a place to comeand they chose our little humble
patio when we had no tap room.
(07:28):
You had no choice but to standoutside.
So definitely humbling.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Yeah, and it's not something we ever take for
granted.
We sat outside then and we'llgo out there now, just on the
weekend.
And you sit there, you don'ttell anybody who you are, you
don't say, oh, I'm the owner ofthis establishment.
You just sit down and you watchpeople enjoying themselves and
being able to give the communitya place to meet like that and
(07:52):
enjoy things.
It just fills your heart to away that I can't even possibly
explain or put into words rightnow.
For you, it's awesome to see,especially, like Mike said,
growing up here and having thecommunity embrace us in this way
.
It's just so humbling.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, smocker definitely is a special place
and, um, we've seen you guysbeing able to expand as well,
offering a new service.
If you wanted to kind of talkabout that.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, so, um, we have the kitchen indoors now.
Um, we built out, you know, uh,figured it out in our tiny
little building, a way to makeit work, and it's great up and
running now.
Our grand opening was lastTuesday and we had specials and
everything completely packedhouse every single night, so it
was absolutely great.
(08:39):
Yeah, we offer a line of chilidogs now with a homemade chili
sauce.
We hope to have differentspecial events down the line,
such as like special dinners,like ticketed events and
everything too.
But you know, there's neverenough time in the day.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
You were the one that was running the food truck and
the smash burgers and just kindof back and forth and back and
forth.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Yeah, our employees are very thankful too, because
there's not a lot of runningback and forth now indoors.
So you know, we have a climatecontrolled kitchen now instead
of the freezing cold food truckin the wintertime.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
God bless our employees yeah.
Did that in the summer and thewinter.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah, yeah, you know, on top of like loyal customers,
the loyal employees too thathave been with you for so long.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
They're all amazing, everybody that like a lot of
places, like to say, oh, we're afamily here, but we really
would go to bat for anybody thatworks for us and they're just
such wonderful people.
The energy they bring to workevery day it's.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
It's an awesome place to be and what do you think
that you've learned over theyears?
The last five years, I meanagain opening up at an extremely
difficult time and just withthe way that the economy has
been going the last five years,it seems like it never lets up.
But you guys are still going atit and you're determined and
you're succeeding.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
We really try to keep our heads down.
I know a lot of businesses, youknow.
You come up and you kind oflook around see what everybody
else is doing, follow the leader, follow the crowd.
But from the very beginning forus it was very much just focus
on what you're doing, do it tothe best of your ability and
don't let all the noise aroundyou get in the way.
(10:19):
Like, just do what you're doing, the best you can, keeping it
interesting too.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
You know, we're small batch breweries, so we're
constantly coming out with newbeers, um, coming out with new
specials for food stuff likethat, just so it's not always
the same thing that people comein for, so yeah, yeah, your
weekly beer releases and the icecream beers.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
these look wild.
They look so delicious.
What are like the storiesbehind that?
Where do you get yourinspiration for some of these
creations?
Speaker 4 (10:48):
honestly, a lot of them are on the fly with whether
it's like a seasonal fruit orsomething like that, whatever we
can get our hands on.
And then, because we're sosmall, we do a small batch and
not have to necessarily worryabout screwing something up,
which gives us more freedom ofgetting crazier, I guess, if you
(11:09):
want to call it that.
So that's kind of how thosethings happen we might do a
pivot and come up with acompletely different type of
beer, which I think is anadvantage for us versus another
place that doesn't have thattype of nimble movement.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
And you get such great direct feedback from the
customers.
We've done other things in thepast that didn't work as much,
but when the ice cream reallystarted to take off you could
talk directly to the customersand they tell you what they like
, what they don't like, and thenyou know you can build products
that are directly tailored towhat people enjoy, you know.
So, like Mike said, just beingable to be nimble like that and
(11:56):
kind of do small batches andmove around it allows us an
ability that a lot of otherplaces don't have.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Same thing with food.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
You can create a burger of the month on the fly
as well?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yes, I already have your mind kind of thinking of
some for the next couple months.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, I think we're going to bring back an old
favorite for April, and it wasone that we did that was pretty
popular.
We're still trying to get oursea legs in the kitchen, so we
don't want to overwhelm ouremployees and everything like
that.
Um, yet, and we've had, youknow, our St Patrick's day party
(12:32):
, which was a huge hit, then oursoft opening week, and now our
grand opening week, and nowwe're finally, you know, getting
to the point where everything'skind of settling down.
So we hope to, you know, kindof bring back some more, you
know, different options andstuff like that coming up soon,
so yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And do you think thinking back, because you said
you were looking at starting acouple of years before you were
actually able to open?
Looking back this far now,could you have seen yourselves
where you were or where you areright now, or?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
what were your thoughts?
We say that all the time.
Wow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Would you imagine yourself, you know, scrubbing
the deck of a food truck on aFriday at 5 pm?
You?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
know, and it's just funny.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
It's funny stuff yeah no, I'm surprised every week at
where I end up, Like I don'tthink I could tell you where I'm
going to be next week.
Even, Like you know, it comesback to being nimble.
Like I don't think I could tellyou where I'm going to be next
week, it comes back to beingnimble.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
But like, yeah, as a business, you go where the
customers tell you they want youto go in a way, very true, not
necessarily Not any other way,though.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
Yeah, it comes back to where we started.
You know it's all for thecustomers and, like you could
say, I want things to go thisway, but that doesn't mean that
people are going to latch ontothat and you know you could be
stubborn and say, no, I want itto go this way, I need it to go
this way.
But people say, come this way,this is where I want you to go.
And then you take it that wayand there's so much more reward
(13:58):
to you know being what theyenvision you being it's.
You know it's a lot easier thanforcing people to go your way.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Sure, sure sure I like that You've kind of like
taken your customers alongsideyou and kind of incorporated
them the entire time.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
And I feel like they definitely understand that and
embrace that too.
It does not feel like it is ourbusiness and they are patrons.
It feels like the businessbelongs to the community.
That stretcher remembrance inWalker, the west side, it is
their brewery, we run it, butyou know it's it's at the end of
the day it really does feellike it's theirs and I think
that ownership you can see itjust coming in there and talking
(14:36):
to people and stuff.
It's not like just anotherbusiness, you know right, yeah,
that sense you get.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
It is just a neighborhood and obviously all
your neighbors and your friendsand family are there.
Part of that as well.
Looking forward in the nextfive or so years, if you are
able to, or you let yourselveslook that far in advance where
do you see yourselves?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
That's a tough one.
We have a grand plan.
It really all depends on a lotof things going the right way
and the market and all thatstuff, but we definitely have
plans in place, long goals offive years, ten years stuff like
(15:18):
that, possible second locationsif it makes sense, all kinds of
different things like that.
So we don't want to reallyexpress any of those things, oh
yes.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
We're definitely happy to just have the kitchen
open right now.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Kind of retire the permanent food truck that's been
in our parking lot for twoyears.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Yeah, we always joke about how every day is a new big
project.
It would just be great to youknow.
Settle in a little bit with thekitchen?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Yes, like we've been.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
It's about it's been almost a whole year since we
were like we're going to build akitchen and then you have to
get all the plans drawn up andeverything approved.
And then you're sitting therewith a sledgehammer and knocking
down brick walls and you'relike how did I get?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
here.
That's amazing.
You guys put so much like blood, sweat and tears in your
business.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
Austin has a lot of construction background so he
was able to whatever we could do.
He was kind of our, our bossand getting all that done, so
had to crack the whip A lot oftalent right here on the other
side of this table.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Nobody's hard, nobody's afraid to work very
hard.
That's important.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
And for the final question where can folks find
you and hours and such.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
You can find us at 3393 Remembrance.
We're almost across the streetfrom Sobeys, if you recall the
old D&W.
We're basically across fromthere.
We're open Tuesday throughSunday, so Tuesdays 4 to 9,
wednesday, thursday, 4 Sunday,so Tuesdays 4 to 9.
Wednesday, thursday 4 to 10.
Friday, saturday 12 to 10.
And Sundays 12 to 3.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
All right.
Well, we appreciate Austin,Mike, Brad, we really appreciate
you all being here and we're sothankful to have you in our
community.
And what can folks do?
Just one last thing what canfolks do to help support you
even more going forward?
And what can folks do?
Speaker 3 (17:07):
just one last thing.
What can folks do to helpsupport you even more going
forward?
Just spreading the word,telling people about our
products, telling their friendscoming in to buy some cans to go
, and taking them to events thatyou're going to, if you're
going up to the cottage in theweekend, you know, hopefully
pretty soon here we're going tobe doing some takeout caterings,
so pick up catering boxes andstuff.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
So think about us when you're looking for dinner
options and the brewery isfamily-friendly, so bring the
whole family, absolutely Allright.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Well, thank you both so much, thank you all so much
for being here today.
We appreciate you tuning in.
Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of the
Maiden Walker podcast.
If you have comments orquestions about this podcast, or
if you have suggestions forfuture episodes, we'd love to
hear from you.
Please drop us an email atpodcast at walkercity.
Maiden Walker is the officialpodcast of the city of Walker,
Michigan.
You can find Maiden Walkerwherever you get your podcasts.
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