January 10, 2025 • 31 mins
In this episode of Total Michigan, host Cliff DuVernois interviews Carrie Troyer, co-owner of Three Blondes Brewing, a thriving brewery and restaurant in South Haven, Michigan. Carrie shares the journey of opening and managing the brewery with her sisters, overcoming challenges, and creating a community hub. Key discussion points include:
- The collaborative spirit of the Michigan craft beer industry and the support received from other brewery and restaurant owners.
- The strategic planning and resilience that went into establishing Three Blondes Brewing, including overcoming early challenges and COVID-19 disruptions.
- The innovative and family-friendly atmosphere of the brewery, highlighted by their diverse menu, creative beer offerings, and a unique customer experience.
Links:
Three Blondes Brewing: https://threeblondesbrewing.com
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Find us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/totalmichigan
Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@totalmichigan
Show Notes:
00:00 The Collaborative Spirit of Michigan's Craft Beer Industry
00:24 Welcome to Total Michigan with Cliff DuVernois
00:53 Discovering Three Blondes Brewing
01:10 The Journey of Three Blondes Brewing
02:09 From Grand Rapids to South Haven
03:15 The Birth of a Brewery Idea
04:01 Turning a Dream into Reality
06:40 Challenges and Triumphs in Opening a Brewery
10:52 The Role of Family and Community Support
13:31 Marketing and Social Media Strategies
14:02 Early Days and Learning Experiences
15:36 Thanking Our Sponsors
15:51 Join the Total Michigan Mailing List
16:10 Welcome Back to Total Michigan
16:21 Finding the Perfect Brewmaster
18:20 Overcoming Challenges in Brewing
20:47 Developing a Winning Menu
22:47 Perfecting the Pizza
27:16 Adapting During COVID-19
28:58 Expanding Through Distribution
30:21 Visit Three Blondes Brewing
31:03 Conclusion and Farewell
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carrie Troyer (00:00):
That's another great thing about the craft beer industry in Michigan
(00:02):
is we talked to a lot of other breweryowners at the time to gather information.
And everyone was so approachableand so nice and shared their
information that they have and theiradvice about opening a brewery.
I feel like you don't get that in manyindustries because it's so competitive.
And it wasn't even just the,the breweries, it was other
restaurant owners were also veryhelpful when we ask questions.
Cliff Duvernois (00:24):
Hello everyone.
Welcome back to total Michigan, wherewe interview ordinary Michiganders
doing some pretty extraordinary things.
I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.
I'm continuing my trekthrough South Haven.
And as we were looking online andplaces to go, and I found this
nice little brewery place to go to.
What I didn't know at the time,apparently, is that this is the unofficial
(00:45):
hub of all things that are South Haven.
If you want to go where the localsgo, then you will definitely
want to check this place out.
Today.
I am sitting at Three BlondesBrewing located in South Haven.
And sitting with me is blonde number two.
Carrie Troyer (01:01):
That's me.
Cliff Duvernois (01:02):
That would be Carrie Troyer.
Carrie, how are you?
Carrie Troyer (01:04):
Good.
Thanks, Cliff.
How are you doing today?
Cliff Duvernois (01:06):
I am doing awesome.
Thank you for asking.
Carrie, why don't you tell us.
What is Three Blondes Brewing?
Carrie Troyer (01:12):
Three Blondes Brewing is a brewery and a restaurant in South Haven.
We're not right in the heart of downtown.
That means we have parking spots fory'all because we're just on the other
side of I 196, on the east side ofI 1, east side of I 196, and we have
a parking lot so that's always good.
People complain about parking downtown,but downtown is wonderful too.
(01:33):
So we're a brewery and afull service restaurant.
And we opened in 2018, so we'vefinished six years, made it through
COVID and we're still here now.
Cliff Duvernois (01:44):
Sweet Moses.
That's incredible.
Now, how many brews do you have on tap?
Carrie Troyer (01:48):
We have 14 beers on tap.
All two of those are cidersthat we get locally and.
surprise, we're also workingon our distiller's license.
So maybe by the time this airs,we'll also have cocktails.
Cliff Duvernois (02:05):
Oh my God.
So there's so much here to unpack.
But let's go back to the beginning.
Why don't you tell us where are you from?
Where did you grow up?
Carrie Troyer (02:12):
We grew up right here in South Haven.
The three blondes are me and mysisters, Megan and Amanda, blonde
number one and blonde number three.
And we went to South Haven PublicSchools here, grew up, our parents
also went to school here, so we'resecond generation South Haven gals.
And, of course, though, we movedaway because we thought we were too
cool for this town once we graduated.
(02:32):
At least two of us moved away.
We've all been there.
Yeah, we didn't, yeah.
realize how good we had it herein South Haven with the beautiful
lake and the beautiful beaches.
I mean, I only got to GrandRapids, so I didn't get that far.
But then as the breweries craft beermovement spiked around when it was at
2010s, maybe somewhere around there.
Cliff Duvernois (02:51):
Yeah, I was
Carrie Troyer (02:51):
living in Grand Rapids next to little founders,
old founders before they got big.
And that kind of startedmy interest in craft beer.
And.
and trying, there's tons of breweriesopening in Grand Rapids at the time.
So that was one of myfavorite things to do.
But then when I'd come backto little old South Haven, we
didn't have a brewery to go to.
So that kind of got the wheels turninga little bit, just a little bit.
Cliff Duvernois (03:14):
Right.
Carrie Troyer (03:15):
Why isn't there a brewery in South Haven yet?
And at the time there wasn't,this was in probably 2014.
So, my siblings thought the same thing.
And one day we were maybe drinkinga little too much together and
thought, why don't we do it?
At that point, it was just kind of a joke.
That was funny.
Ha ha.
What, what do we know aboutbreweries except for drinking beer?
(03:37):
Right.
And, but it did, it planted the seed.
So then we started.
Talking and it was stillbooming at the time.
It's kind of leveled out now.
But hey, we're still hereand I'm a finance scale.
And so is my husband.
And so we put together a business plan.
There were so many Excelspreadsheets in that plan.
It was such a solid plan.
I had so much fun doing that.
(03:58):
And we thought, Hey,this is a viable, plan.
Cliff Duvernois (04:01):
Right?
Carrie Troyer (04:01):
But we need a brewer and a restaurant manager because we
don't know how to do those things.
Cliff Duvernois (04:06):
Yes.
So let me ask you this question here.
Taking a step back.
Why did you decide to move to Grand Haven?
Carrie Troyer (04:11):
Grand Rapids.
Grand Rapids.
Cliff Duvernois (04:12):
I'm sorry.
Carrie Troyer (04:13):
I had gotten a job there.
I went to school in Kalamazooat Kalamazoo college.
And then my first job was at anaccounting firm in Grand Rapids.
So that's why I moved to Grand Rapids.
Cliff Duvernois (04:20):
So is that why you, is that what you started to do as accounting?
Carrie Troyer (04:22):
Yes.
Yes.
Cliff Duvernois (04:23):
Well, that would explain the addiction to spreadsheets.
Carrie Troyer (04:25):
Yes.
It comes in a A lot of handywhen you're opening a business.
And I think that's where a lot ofbreweries you go to, they were opened
by brewers, which also makes sense.
You have a passion for brewing.
You want to share that with everybody.
But sometimes that's hard if youare really good at brewing but don't
know the business side of things.
So at least we had the businessside of things kind of wrapped up.
We had experience in running a business.
(04:46):
But we did not haveexperience brewing beer.
But don't worry.
We don't, we personally, theblondes don't brew the beer.
We hired the experts for that.
Cliff Duvernois (04:54):
Oh, I thought this was going to be a cool part of your story.
I know.
I'm sorry.
Carrie Troyer (04:56):
We know that the funny part is, oh, I can't believe
I'm saying this, but we tried whenwe knew we were going to do this.
We're like, okay, let's get ahomebrew kit and see how it goes.
Oh my gosh.
It was a disaster.
So you guys, I promise you, we leavethe beer brewing to the experts
who actually are trained in this.
Not the blonde.
The blondes aren't brewing the beer.
There's that inside scoop.
Cliff Duvernois (05:15):
So if we go back here, because you were talking about
when you were in, when you were inGrand Rapids and the kind of like the
microbrewery thing was really startingto take off and what is it about beer?
That means you like it.
And I say that because, itcould have been easily wine.
(05:36):
It could have been very, very easily,spirits, you know, cause Michigan
is known for all of that stuff.
But what in particular aboutbeer attracted you to it?
Carrie Troyer (05:44):
Well, I think beer just comes off as much more approachable.
You know, wine is a little intimidating.
Cocktails are delicious.
But also can be deadly.
Yeah.
Right.
Also.
Yeah.
So I just feel like beerjust feels more approachable.
And.
Still, maybe more of a, I don'twant to say family friendly, but
my family will go to breweries.
(06:04):
It seems like a more invitingatmosphere sometimes, especially that
you can bring the whole family in.
So it's not saying everyone'sdrinking in the family.
But it just feels it'sa, it's approachable.
Cliff Duvernois (06:14):
Right.
And then, so when you come back hereand there's not a microbrewery that's
in the area and For some reason oranother, you and your husband decided
to put together a business plan.
Was this just something you puttogether and just let's just see what
happens with the numbers or were, wereyou already committed at that point?
Carrie Troyer (06:33):
Once we did the plan, we were pretty much gonna
do it, but we started, you know,we really flushed out the plan.
That's another great thing about thecraft beer industry in Michigan is we
talked to a lot of other brewery ownersat the time to gather information.
And everyone was so approachableand so nice and shared their
information that they have and theiradvice about opening a brewery.
(06:55):
I feel like you don't get that in manyindustries because it's so competitive.
But everyone was just so welcoming.
Like, let us know what you need.
And it wasn't even just the,the breweries, it was other
restaurant owners were also veryhelpful when we ask questions.
Cliff Duvernois (07:06):
Because you have the food here too.
Carrie Troyer (07:07):
Yes.
Yes.
Food is a big part of our business too.
Cliff Duvernois (07:11):
Now, as you're putting this together and you're doing the
research, putting together the, thespreadsheets, had you already at this
point in time, the three sisters,at what point did you all sit down
and say, these numbers are good?
Let's, let's start moving forward.
Carrie Troyer (07:26):
Well, it was the sisters and the husbands.
And when
Cliff Duvernois (07:30):
it really was a family affair,
Carrie Troyer (07:32):
when the discussion came, Okay, we're going to do it by couple.
How much are you willing to put into this?
You know, and we, we each kind ofgave our number and my husband and
I, we were the low ball, like weweren't ready to commit all the way.
But then we're like, well, we don'twant less ownership than my sisters.
So we have to do as muchas the sisters, you know?
So we all, antied up likethe maximum that we could do.
(07:54):
That was an even amount to get it started.
And it was terrifying,there's my savings account
Cliff Duvernois (07:59):
drained,
Carrie Troyer (08:00):
but like into the brewery, but we all committed.
So we could all have equal ownership.
Cause I wasn't going to be on that lessownership and let my sisters rule over me.
So we all put it in anequal amount and it was.
Terrifying.
And then we had to keep putting in moreamounts equally as the process continued.
But, uh, Hey, again, we're still here.
It worked out.
Cliff Duvernois (08:20):
Yeah, it must've worked out.
Let me ask you this question here, becauseit seems like most of the time when I talk
to somebody, they're like, you know what?
I got an idea.
And then they chase it andfigure it all out later.
You guys decided to dothe analyzing up front.
Is there anything in the analysisthat kind of stains out to you though?
Like maybe you're like reallysurprised you that signaled to
you, Hey, this really could work.
(08:41):
Yeah.
Carrie Troyer (08:41):
Well, just the fact that there was net income at the end
helped, but we found we were way offon a few things like we thought our
distribution would be a lot higher,which is selling product outside, not
just in your restaurant to stores andrestaurants, and that's plateaued a
little bit as cocktails get more, youknow, ready to drink cocktails and
the seltzers so that didn't Reallymaterialized, but the restaurant ended
(09:03):
up being a lot bigger than we thoughtit would be in the volume and all that.
And you know, what's also surprisingabout breweries is merchandise.
I just love people who go tobreweries, buy merchandise and it's
such a nice extra, it's advertisingand just an extra revenue stream
with all the t shirts that we sell.
It's so cool that people thatgo to breweries buy t shirts.
I love it.
Cliff Duvernois (09:22):
Yeah.
And
Carrie Troyer (09:23):
so lucky that they do.
Cliff Duvernois (09:24):
Now, is that part of your original plan was to sell merchandise?
Carrie Troyer (09:27):
Yes, but we thought we'd sell.
I look back on it, I think we thoughtwe'd sell 10 t shirts a month or
something and in the summer we'll sella hundred in a week, like I had no idea
the extent that the people who go tobreweries will buy merch and it's been
such a nice, it was a nice surprise.
Cliff Duvernois (09:45):
Now, where did the name Three Blondes come from?
I mean, I know you and your sistersare blonde, but how did you come
up with the name Three Blondes?
Carrie Troyer (09:50):
I think my little sister will claim she thought of it herself.
We went through, I don't even knowwhat else was on the drawing board.
I think once we said that,we just landed there.
And I guess it worked.
Some people think it mightbe Three Blonde Beers.
But it is really, we do a, wedo a, Blonde beers, of course.
But it is named after us, eventhough some of us have to dye
our hair to maintain that image.
(10:13):
That's me.
Okay, guys, that's me.
Cliff Duvernois (10:16):
I wasn't gonna ask.
Carrie Troyer (10:16):
It's okay.
It's not real.
Cliff Duvernois (10:19):
So let me ask you this question here because now you go
through you've got the business plan.
You guys have now all ponied up the money.
I am thinking now of getting the space,getting the people on board, getting
the, the liquor license, getting thealcohol license, getting inspectors
doing all the, and I think to myself,there's probably easier things to do in
(10:39):
life like brain surgery, then open up abrewery, Talk to us about that process
of just trying to get the doors open.
Carrie Troyer (10:47):
Cliff, don't bring that up in my memory bank.
Are you still talking to your therapist?
Yes, it was really hard.
okay, part of the sad story is mysister's husband was really, and I say was
because he died four years ago suddenly.
It was awful.
But he was really instrumental in getting,that's another tangent we can go on.
He was very instrumentalin getting this started.
He's a project manager in his reallife, engineer project manager.
(11:08):
And he was so focused on tasklists and assigning things.
And he was really the one drivingthe research and the inspections.
And here's what you have to do beforeyou can do this and this and this.
And if we didn't have him, thiswouldn't have happened at all.
Cliff Duvernois (11:22):
Oh, interesting.
Carrie Troyer (11:22):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So he was just really good at,at driving the task management.
Cliff Duvernois (11:29):
Was there ever a point in time when this was all
coming together that you thought toyourself, this is never going to work.
We're never going to get open.
Carrie Troyer (11:36):
Yes.
Yes.
Well, when the, you know, theconstruction bid came in, I don't
know, 25 percent higher than theconstruction company told us we had
to go get another loan to afford it.
We were building in winter.
So, As there was labor shortages.
And we were worried about getting thebuilding enclosed before winter came
and it wasn't happening, you know,just watching like it's snow in the
building because it wasn't enclosed.
(11:57):
Yeah, it was terrifying.
But we, that's one thing we said, causea lot of breweries were opening at the
time and a lot of people would have an.
An opening target date on a sign.
And I said, sisters, if we're committingto, we said opening spring 2018.
I said, there is no waywe're missing this deadline.
Like I am not, there are somany places that don't hit that.
And I don't want to be one.
And we opened June 14th, which we hadwhat was that six days to spare until
(12:22):
summer and we said spring, so we made it.
And I was so thankful.
Cliff Duvernois (12:27):
So actually, yeah.
So when you talk about that work,especially like during that time
of the day, were you pretty muchworking like 24 hours a day?
Were you getting any sleep?
Is it you just one more thing?
How did that work out?
Carrie Troyer (12:38):
I did just go through an old email where my brother in law,
the one who passed away had mentionedhe had already put in 1000 hours of
work on top of his full time job.
I luckily towards closeto opening up my Real job.
let me go half time part time soI could commit my other part time
to getting this up and runningbecause it really did take a lot of
Cliff Duvernois (12:56):
so you were all still working as this was going on.
Carrie Troyer (12:58):
Yes.
I'm the only one so far that hasquit my job to do this full time.
So,
Cliff Duvernois (13:03):
okay, so you're, you're still working at the time
you're putting this on, whichby the way, this is a miracle,
Carrie Troyer (13:09):
right?
Cliff Duvernois (13:09):
I mean, and I think about how fortuitous it is that there's
six of you now because somebody canalways be here, to be working as well.
Yeah.
my next question to you is, is thatas you're approaching that soft
deadline, what were you doing to liketo spread the word that this was going
to happen and get people to come here?
Was it purely just let'shang a sign out front?
(13:30):
How did you do that?
Carrie Troyer (13:31):
We had the sign and then we started getting into the social media.
That was fun, actually.
And we could differentiate ourselvesa little bit from all the other
breweries that are opening becausewe're three women at the forefront
of the brand, which is still rare.
I mean, there's plenty still womenbrewers and women that own breweries.
But you know, in 2018, itwas a little less common.
So we stuck out a little bit and hada way to differentiate ourselves.
(13:53):
So we tried to play on that and getourselves in the social media instead
of just hiding behind a screen.
We put ourselves out there, which is fun.
Like we have a good time together.
Cliff Duvernois (14:01):
Yeah.
you go through the opening of thisplace and, you know, people are
starting to come in, trickle in, talkto us about maybe some of those like
early, I don't want to say nightmares,
Carrie Troyer (14:13):
but it was tough
Cliff Duvernois (14:15):
learning opportunities,
Carrie Troyer (14:17):
learning opportunities
Cliff Duvernois (14:17):
that, uh, that came up, that popped up that you were just
like completely caught off guard on.
Carrie Troyer (14:22):
Well, seeing as I'd never even worked in a restaurant,
that was extremely eyeopening to me.
And we had hired a front ofhouse manager that ended up.
Backing out about a week before we opened.
So our general manager was tryingto do that plus manage the back.
So it was difficult and I learned realfast that how I could try to step in and
be of assistance, but it was a littlerocky at the beginning, but we had a lot
(14:46):
of support staff and a lot of people witha lot of experience, like the servers that
we hired, a lot of them weren't brand new.
They had been in the industry.
So that, I mean, we leanedon their experience and thank
goodness they carried us.
So,
Cliff Duvernois (14:58):
No, that's actually really good.
And the fact that you're relying on theseother people to come in and do this.
So how, so when you talk about like theexperience, like, is there a couple of
things that you learned that you thoughtwas like, Hey, that's like pretty clever.
Are you glad that your staffpointed that out to you?
Yeah.
Carrie Troyer (15:14):
I'm sure there are many of those things.
They'd have had so many good ideasalong the way, just how to organize the
restaurant, even the layout of thingsand just efficiencies that I would not
have seen, but they are, they're X, butthey've been a lot of my, our servers
have been doing this for a long time.
And so I can't think of aspecific example, but they just,
thank goodness we had them.
Cliff Duvernois (15:33):
Yeah.
You had that experience to rely on.
For audience.
We're going to take a quick breakand thank our sponsors today.
We're talking with Carrie Troyer,blonde number two of three blondes
brewing located in South Haven.
And, uh, we will be back after the break.
Are you enjoying this episode?
Well, I can tell youthere's a lot more to come.
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(15:56):
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today.
Hello everyone.
And welcome back to Total Michigan,where we interview ordinary Michiganders
doing some pretty extraordinary things.
I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.
Today, we're talking withCarrie Troyer of Three Blondes
(16:18):
Brewing located in South Haven.
Carrie, before the break, we weretalking about the absolute insanity of
opening up your doors and trying to,trying to keep all the wheels on the
cart, so to speak, what I would like todo is, and you mentioned this before,
is I want to explore The finding thebrewmaster and getting somebody in here
(16:39):
to work and because I know that basedon what you were talking about before
you and your sisters kind of had avision and your husband's to kind of had
a vision of what this place would be.
Talk to us about finding thebrewmaster that could get you there.
Carrie Troyer (16:52):
Well, that was a difficult test because we didn't even know how
to interview a brewmaster So we hadto hire a consultant that knew more
obviously to like We we don't evenyou know, hey, how do you brew beer?
So we didn't even know what toask him or how to know if he
was a good brewer he or she.
So we hired a consultant to do theinterviewing and then give us feedback
on multiple candidates And we endedon the gentleman we landed on he was
(17:15):
perfect for You The three blondes.
It was a great, great relationship.
He doesn't, he's not our brewer anymore.
But he, developed therecipes for our main beer.
He had come from Greenbush,which is in Sawyer, Michigan.
So he had some experience under hisbelt, like running a small brewery,
small to medium sized brewery.
And so he helped get all our equipmentin and let us know what we needed
to order and developed Some of themainstays that we still have today, he
(17:40):
was, the main recipes was like boom,boom, Betty, like boom, boom, Betty
named after my Grandma Boom, Boom.
That's our signature blondeale, the most popular beer.
and he was really creative.
He was, we kind of gave him like, we needa range of beers to cover all the steps.
the styles, but it also has to be for thepeople who are coming in just to visit the
restaurant that don't really drink beer.
We need pretty basic beer tolike the everyday person's beer.
(18:05):
That's not Miller Lite becausewe are not allowed to sell those.
We have to sell only what we make.
So I think he did a great job inthe initial run of beers and then
he even did barrel aging beer.
So he was awesome, fun to workwith, put up with the three
blondes, you know, it was great.
Cliff Duvernois (18:20):
Now, when we talk about, cause this is, This really
is the main part of your business.
So you were having to hire an expertto come in and actually do this.
My question to you is, is, did you eversit there and lay awake at night thinking,
what if this guy just walks away in there?
Because this, like I said,this is your main thing.
If he just like disappears and youcome in one day and he's longer here,
(18:41):
you're scrambling and I'll try tofind somebody to fill their shoes.
So how was it to let go of that control?
Carrie Troyer (18:47):
We still have that fear every day, every day,
because I still, I don't, I'm aCPA, I don't, I don't brew beer.
So at any time that couldhappen to us, you know.
But we just make surethey have careful records.
And we try to treat everyonereally well, so they wouldn't
have a reason to just disappear.
But I've heard horror stories fromother people places other business
owners that this has happened to them.
(19:08):
And it's terrifying for someone to leave.
But you just have to trust the process and
Cliff Duvernois (19:15):
yes, and everything's going to work out now.
Is it one of those things where, becausebefore you were talking about like
recipes that they come up with to makeyour signature boom, boom Betty, right?
Um, yeah.
If the brewmaster did leave, doesone of your staff, could they
step up and continue to make thisuntil you got another brewmaster
in here, or how does that work?
Carrie Troyer (19:35):
Yes, now we're big enough where we have assistant brewers,
thankfully, so the assistant brewerscan always step into that role.
so that's helpful.
And then all the recipes are written down.
And then, It's typical.
If a brewer leaves a brewery, theydon't take their recipes with them.
It's it's property of the brewery.
So we don't have an issue like, oh,we won't be able to replicate that.
Boom, boom.
So thankfully, we're covered there
Cliff Duvernois (19:56):
Now at what point did because, you know, you get
everything up that's up and running.
You've got the restaurant going.
You've got, the beer going.
At what point in time did yousay to yourself, Holy cow,
this is actually working?
Carrie Troyer (20:10):
I say that all the time to myself, still, I cannot believe
that this is what we're doing, butwhen we made money our first year,
and you know, normally new businesses,let alone in the restaurant and
brewery space, you typically don'tmake money in your first year.
But we had a really rockin summer, thankgoodness, because we opened, summer is
the best time to come to South Haven,so we opened, it was good and bad, we
(20:32):
opened in large crowds, which is tough tohandle when you're a brand new business.
But thank goodness we had the volume.
Because that, carried us through.
So then we're like,okay, we're making money.
Maybe we can pay ourselves now.
You don't start out that way.
Cliff Duvernois (20:45):
No, you definitely don't.
And what I would like to do it now is talkabout, because you, you made a comment
before about how you're a restaurant.
And, brewery, how doyou develop the menus?
Did you hire a chef to comein and do that for you?
Carrie Troyer (20:59):
Yes.
We also had a restaurantconsultant who stayed with us
on, on with us for six months.
He was also a South Haven graduateand happened to be one of my,
brother in law's good friends.
So that helped.
He was, they were close friends,like best man in his wedding.
And he had a lot of expertise inopening and running restaurants.
So he did the menu, he did thestaffing, he did the kitchen layout.
(21:19):
We have a very big kitchen comparedto most breweries are afraid of,
not afraid of food, I won't saythat, but it's, they focus on beer
because they're brewers usually.
So we knew to have the volume,we had to have food and a big
menu and big volume for that.
So we have a very large kitchenfor what most breweries have.
Right.
So, and that's because our chef was like,uh, you're going to need some space.
(21:43):
Unfortunately, he took all thespace out of the office and I
don't have any place to sit backthere But you know, that's okay.
There's plenty of spaceon the grill for your food
Cliff Duvernois (21:50):
Now, how do you come up with because I know you before
we were talking about division forthe brewery And the beers coming
in what about that menu or did youjust offload and say you know what?
These are the kind of beerswe got just come up with food
that tastes good with them
Carrie Troyer (22:03):
Yeah, that's basically what we said.
And he created the whole menu.
So and we wanted a variety because hehad You know, input from the blondes.
And we're sometimes picky.
So we did have some specifications.
Two of us are vegetarians.
So we have a lot of good vegetarianoptions and vegan, which I know
people appreciate because it's gettingbetter now, I think, in the restaurant
(22:23):
space to have vegetarian options.
But there weren't many in South Haven.
That was another problem.
When we want to go out in SouthHaven, we wouldn't, there wouldn't
be many vegetarian options.
So we have a lot of those options.
And then also for the gluten freefolks, we try to keep some gluten free
options for those with that dietaryrestriction, although it's tough to
drink beer when you're gluten free.
So we do have cider optionsfor those folks too.
(22:43):
But we ran the gamut.
So we got, tacos thatare really good pizza.
We just were voted bestpizza in South Haven in 2024.
Cliff Duvernois (22:50):
Hang your hat on that.
Carrie Troyer (22:51):
So yes, we have been working on our pizza hard.
It's definitely changedfrom when we first started.
We got different pizza ovens.
We sent some of our cooks to pizza school.
Wait a minute.
You got different pizza ovens?
Yeah, we changed out thepizza Oh, you are serious.
Yeah, we're serious.
Our pizza oven kept breaking and itjust wasn't meeting our standards.
So we got a different kind of Pete,like a conveyor belt pizza oven, which,
conveyor belt that's consistency.
(23:13):
Cause it's it goes in and goes out at theexact same amount of time for every pizza.
we had like hotspots in our old oven.
So some pizzas would come out alittle darker, not the conveyor oven.
And then we sent some of our staff topizza school to get our dough honed in.
And now, yeah, we were so busy.
So excited when we won the bestlocal pizza by the, it was a Harold
Palladium, best of South Haven boat.
(23:34):
So that was exciting
Cliff Duvernois (23:35):
Because I think, I think a lot of people don't get
the fact that there's actuallya real science to making pizza.
I mean, people, people just thinkthat, Oh, you just throw a crust
and some stuff on there and put itin the oven and it's good to go.
But the really good pizza,there is a science to that.
Carrie Troyer (23:49):
Yeah.
Yes.
And so we learned that at pizza school.
And we changed how we did the dough.
And then we try to come up withsome really creative toppings.
We have a good picklepizza, perfectly pickled.
Oh my gosh.
It's my favorite pizza.
I just I could eat it all the time.
And it's not your typical like pizza.
Pickle bacon ranch.
That's what you normally see.
It has, it's a garlic aioli base,which I thought sounded not good,
(24:10):
but oh my gosh, it's delicious.
So don't judge it till you try it.
And we have sweet hottie pickles.
So they're like a little bit sweeter thana dill, but we also have dill pickles.
And then we have pickled onionsbecause pickled, perfectly pickled.
We're putting all the pickles on them.
Cliff Duvernois (24:23):
I'm a big fan of pickled onions.
Carrie Troyer (24:24):
Yeah, so good.
And then actual dill sprinkled on the top.
And, pepperoncinis just to,add a little spice in there.
Not pepperoni, pepperoncini,and it's vegetarian.
So good.
Cliff Duvernois (24:37):
This is great.
So let me ask you this question here.
If so, it's actually, there'sgoing to be two questions.
This one first, if somebody is listeningto this and they come here and they're,
so what can they expect when they walk in?
But also I want you to share with usmaybe some of the most popular dishes
that you have, or maybe a dish that youwould recommend besides perfectly pickled
Carrie Troyer (24:59):
pizza,
Cliff Duvernois (24:59):
besides perfectly pickled pizza and the boom, boom Betty.
Carrie Troyer (25:02):
Well, what they can expect when they walk in.
It's a different vibefrom summer to winter.
So.
Southaven is a tourist town andwe are so busy in the summer, so
it will be busy if you come in thesummer, there will likely be a wait.
Most restaurants in Southaven don'ttake reservations, so be prepared for
that in all of Southaven, there's a few.
so we have a gorgeous outdoor patiofor when you're waiting, and there's
(25:23):
an outdoor bar out there so youcan grab a drink while you wait.
And there's sidewalk chalkfor the kids to play with.
We also just got a couple ofarcade games inside upstairs.
So you are
Cliff Duvernois (25:32):
Family friendly,
Carrie Troyer (25:33):
Family friendly.
You can give your kids a coupleof bucks, maybe 20, give them a
20, to spend money at the arcade.
We, or maybe mom and dad wantit with vintage arcade games.
So we got Tetris.
We got Cruising World.
I used to love to docruising world, claw machine.
So send your kids up to entertainthem while you're waiting
while mom and dad have a beer.
And then you'll get seatedin the winter though.
(25:54):
Usually there's no way youcan come right in, sit down.
You can still send your kids up toour mini arcade, which we partner
with a local arcade in town.
He's the one that helps uswith the arcade, rocket arcade,
shout out to rocket arcade.
And then enjoy some beer cider.
Cocktails soon.
Don't quote me on the date.
But those are coming.
And then the food items.
So besides the perfectly pickled, which,obviously I can't stop mentioning,
(26:15):
we also have a Rangoon pizza, crabRangoon that people rave about.
As a vegetarian, I don't eat that.
But it's like a cult favorite.
People come here justfor the crab Rangoon.
I know.
And we're not just a pizza place either.
Our tacos are amazing.
We have really good burgers,with some unique, unique burger
options, or you can create your own.
And, then we usually throw in someentrees, you know, like you can get steak.
(26:36):
If you want, if you want to be fancy,but if you don't want to be fancy, you
can get cheese curds or a tender basket.
Cliff Duvernois (26:41):
So you've got, not only is it just full pizza, though,
you can get all kinds of appetizersand everything else when you come here.
The
Carrie Troyer (26:47):
whole gamut.
Cliff Duvernois (26:48):
Yeah.
Carrie Troyer (26:48):
Lots of, and kid's menu, of course, and kids little stuff they can
draw on, keep those kiddos entertained.
Cliff Duvernois (26:55):
So let me ask you this question here, because you, you
clearly now gotten a lot of experiences.
You, you opened this in 2018.
Yes, 2018.
So the question I got for you is ifyou could go back and tell your younger
self from 2018, something that wouldhelp them out, what would that be?
Carrie Troyer (27:14):
Oh, man, that's tough.
be prepared for anything likeadapt and overcome was our, was our
mantra, especially during COVID.
Like we, we turned to the inside of thisrestaurant, which no one could eat in.
We made it a pickleball courtfor the family because I
mean, what else do you do?
You know, it was closeddown in the inside.
So we were playing pickleballin here with mom and dad, but
(27:34):
just be ready for anything.
You can't get so stuck on any one idea.
Because it's going to change.
So adapt and overcome, butthat's what we still do now.
Cliff Duvernois (27:44):
Oh, that's great.
And speaking of which, cause I know youmentioned before about COVID, did you
do what every other restaurant did andjust say, Hey, you know, you can pick up
your food here and take it home with you.
Is that how you basically got through?
Carrie Troyer (27:57):
Yeah, we, I don't think closed down at all for a full week.
That whole time we had, unfortunately, ofcourse, had to lay off most of our staff.
We kept our head chef on and we did like.
24 hour order in advance.
He would come here, cookall the orders by himself.
Cause this was when we, you didn't knowif you could have contact with anyone.
So he'd be in the kitchencooking everything by himself,
all the orders that he got, andthen we'd have a pickup window.
(28:19):
We turned our little garageinto a pickup window over there
and folks would pick it up.
and then we just did strictly.
To goes, and we had all the igloo,we had four igloos out there and we
even got a carport and made it into adining space and a little greenhouse.
So people did embrace eating outdoors.
Thank goodness.
And we still have our dome out.
We call it the blonde dome.
We still put one up every winter andwe've got a few folks who have made it an
(28:42):
annual tradition to come dine in the dome.
Even though it's not nearly aspopular as it was, but it's still fun.
Like I know folks book it everynew year's day to go out and dine
in the dome with their family.
It's awesome.
Cliff Duvernois (28:53):
Oh, that's actually kind of cute.
And before you weretalking about distribution.
Carrie Troyer (28:58):
Yes.
Cliff Duvernois (28:58):
So do you actually take your beer and you
have it distributed on shelves?
Carrie Troyer (29:04):
Yes.
So we signed up with a distributioncompany that does all that for us.
They buy the beer from us and then godistribute it to, stores and restaurants.
So the biggest, their biggest customeris the Meijer right here in South Haven.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
So we're only in Meijer, South Haven.
Oh.
Of the Meijers we're only inthe Meijer in South Haven.
But they sell a ton of our product.
It's awesome.
It's crazy.
It's just a mile down the road from us.
(29:25):
But then we're also in otherplaces as far as in the U.
P.
in stores and we have abeer finder on our website.
If anyone's curious how close to wherethey can get the beer, just go to the
beer finder on a website and it cantell you the closest store to you or
restaurant where we might be on tap.
Cliff Duvernois (29:38):
Right.
And then as far as distribution goes of,of the, the beer that you sell here, was
that always a part of the plan as well?
Or did that come later?
Like somebody was like, man, I wish Icould buy this in the grocery store.
Carrie Troyer (29:49):
It was a part of the plan.
You definitely don't make asmuch money on distribution.
So that, that wasn't our plan.
And we thought we were going to scaleup even larger with distribution, but
that, didn't exactly come to fruition.
But even our, um, external accountantswere like, uh, your distribution plan is.
Stupid, insane.
I was like, okay, okay, fine.
Wait a minute, stupid,
Cliff Duvernois (30:07):
insane, good, stupid, insane, bad.
Carrie Troyer (30:08):
Like we, we thought we'd bulk it out real good.
And then we, it wasn'tthat crazy, which is fine.
Cause that's, that makes us just, wefocus more on the restaurant and the
brewery, the local focus, which is.
It's worked out just fine.
Cliff Duvernois (30:20):
Perfect.
And if somebody is listening tothis and they want to come and check
you out, find you online, stop inhere, try the boom, boom Betty.
what, how do they find you?
Carrie Troyer (30:29):
Well, we have a website, three blondes, Marine.
com.
The three is spelled outand blonde has an E in it.
what's also cool is wejust, Google street view.
We just got the Google streetview option where you can keep.
Not only see the outside of the building,but you can click into the building.
So if you go on Google, youcan go right into three blondes
and take your own virtual tour.
That's cool.
Yeah.
They talked us into that and it is coolbecause then you can, you know, and
(30:50):
just set a scene, the outside, you cango click on the inside and you can come
right into the, the dining area and thenyou can go out to the patio and kind of
check that out through Google street view.
It's really fun.
I encourage people to check it out.
It's cool.
Cliff Duvernois (31:01):
Yes.
Carrie, thank you so much fortaking time to chat with us today.
Really do appreciate it.
Carrie Troyer (31:06):
Thanks, Cliff.
This is fun.
I hope everyone comes out to ThreeBlondes Brewing, 1875 Phoenix Street.
Cliff Duvernois (31:11):
Oh, everybody will.
Carrie Troyer (31:12):
Okay.
All right.
Cliff Duvernois (31:13):
Twist their arm.
Carrie Troyer (31:13):
And we have a jet ski dealership next door.
If you need a jet ski, havea jet ski, have a beer.
Cliff Duvernois (31:19):
Awesome.
Carrie, thank you again.
And for our audience, you can alwaysroll on over to TotalMichigan.
com.
Click on Carrie's interview and getthe links that she mentioned above.
We'll talk to you next time when wetalk to another Michigander doing
some pretty extraordinary things.
We'll see you then.
That's another great thing about the craft beer industry in Michigan
(00:02):
is we talked to a lot of other breweryowners at the time to gather information.
And everyone was so approachableand so nice and shared their
information that they have and theiradvice about opening a brewery.
I feel like you don't get that in manyindustries because it's so competitive.
And it wasn't even just the,the breweries, it was other
restaurant owners were also veryhelpful when we ask questions.
Cliff Duvernois (00:24):
Hello everyone.
Welcome back to total Michigan, wherewe interview ordinary Michiganders
doing some pretty extraordinary things.
I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.
I'm continuing my trekthrough South Haven.
And as we were looking online andplaces to go, and I found this
nice little brewery place to go to.
What I didn't know at the time,apparently, is that this is the unofficial
(00:45):
hub of all things that are South Haven.
If you want to go where the localsgo, then you will definitely
want to check this place out.
Today.
I am sitting at Three BlondesBrewing located in South Haven.
And sitting with me is blonde number two.
Carrie Troyer (01:01):
That's me.
Cliff Duvernois (01:02):
That would be Carrie Troyer.
Carrie, how are you?
Carrie Troyer (01:04):
Good.
Thanks, Cliff.
How are you doing today?
Cliff Duvernois (01:06):
I am doing awesome.
Thank you for asking.
Carrie, why don't you tell us.
What is Three Blondes Brewing?
Carrie Troyer (01:12):
Three Blondes Brewing is a brewery and a restaurant in South Haven.
We're not right in the heart of downtown.
That means we have parking spots fory'all because we're just on the other
side of I 196, on the east side ofI 1, east side of I 196, and we have
a parking lot so that's always good.
People complain about parking downtown,but downtown is wonderful too.
(01:33):
So we're a brewery and afull service restaurant.
And we opened in 2018, so we'vefinished six years, made it through
COVID and we're still here now.
Cliff Duvernois (01:44):
Sweet Moses.
That's incredible.
Now, how many brews do you have on tap?
Carrie Troyer (01:48):
We have 14 beers on tap.
All two of those are cidersthat we get locally and.
surprise, we're also workingon our distiller's license.
So maybe by the time this airs,we'll also have cocktails.
Cliff Duvernois (02:05):
Oh my God.
So there's so much here to unpack.
But let's go back to the beginning.
Why don't you tell us where are you from?
Where did you grow up?
Carrie Troyer (02:12):
We grew up right here in South Haven.
The three blondes are me and mysisters, Megan and Amanda, blonde
number one and blonde number three.
And we went to South Haven PublicSchools here, grew up, our parents
also went to school here, so we'resecond generation South Haven gals.
And, of course, though, we movedaway because we thought we were too
cool for this town once we graduated.
(02:32):
At least two of us moved away.
We've all been there.
Yeah, we didn't, yeah.
realize how good we had it herein South Haven with the beautiful
lake and the beautiful beaches.
I mean, I only got to GrandRapids, so I didn't get that far.
But then as the breweries craft beermovement spiked around when it was at
2010s, maybe somewhere around there.
Cliff Duvernois (02:51):
Yeah, I was
Carrie Troyer (02:51):
living in Grand Rapids next to little founders,
old founders before they got big.
And that kind of startedmy interest in craft beer.
And.
and trying, there's tons of breweriesopening in Grand Rapids at the time.
So that was one of myfavorite things to do.
But then when I'd come backto little old South Haven, we
didn't have a brewery to go to.
So that kind of got the wheels turninga little bit, just a little bit.
Cliff Duvernois (03:14):
Right.
Carrie Troyer (03:15):
Why isn't there a brewery in South Haven yet?
And at the time there wasn't,this was in probably 2014.
So, my siblings thought the same thing.
And one day we were maybe drinkinga little too much together and
thought, why don't we do it?
At that point, it was just kind of a joke.
That was funny.
Ha ha.
What, what do we know aboutbreweries except for drinking beer?
(03:37):
Right.
And, but it did, it planted the seed.
So then we started.
Talking and it was stillbooming at the time.
It's kind of leveled out now.
But hey, we're still hereand I'm a finance scale.
And so is my husband.
And so we put together a business plan.
There were so many Excelspreadsheets in that plan.
It was such a solid plan.
I had so much fun doing that.
(03:58):
And we thought, Hey,this is a viable, plan.
Cliff Duvernois (04:01):
Right?
Carrie Troyer (04:01):
But we need a brewer and a restaurant manager because we
don't know how to do those things.
Cliff Duvernois (04:06):
Yes.
So let me ask you this question here.
Taking a step back.
Why did you decide to move to Grand Haven?
Carrie Troyer (04:11):
Grand Rapids.
Grand Rapids.
Cliff Duvernois (04:12):
I'm sorry.
Carrie Troyer (04:13):
I had gotten a job there.
I went to school in Kalamazooat Kalamazoo college.
And then my first job was at anaccounting firm in Grand Rapids.
So that's why I moved to Grand Rapids.
Cliff Duvernois (04:20):
So is that why you, is that what you started to do as accounting?
Carrie Troyer (04:22):
Yes.
Yes.
Cliff Duvernois (04:23):
Well, that would explain the addiction to spreadsheets.
Carrie Troyer (04:25):
Yes.
It comes in a A lot of handywhen you're opening a business.
And I think that's where a lot ofbreweries you go to, they were opened
by brewers, which also makes sense.
You have a passion for brewing.
You want to share that with everybody.
But sometimes that's hard if youare really good at brewing but don't
know the business side of things.
So at least we had the businessside of things kind of wrapped up.
We had experience in running a business.
(04:46):
But we did not haveexperience brewing beer.
But don't worry.
We don't, we personally, theblondes don't brew the beer.
We hired the experts for that.
Cliff Duvernois (04:54):
Oh, I thought this was going to be a cool part of your story.
I know.
I'm sorry.
Carrie Troyer (04:56):
We know that the funny part is, oh, I can't believe
I'm saying this, but we tried whenwe knew we were going to do this.
We're like, okay, let's get ahomebrew kit and see how it goes.
Oh my gosh.
It was a disaster.
So you guys, I promise you, we leavethe beer brewing to the experts
who actually are trained in this.
Not the blonde.
The blondes aren't brewing the beer.
There's that inside scoop.
Cliff Duvernois (05:15):
So if we go back here, because you were talking about
when you were in, when you were inGrand Rapids and the kind of like the
microbrewery thing was really startingto take off and what is it about beer?
That means you like it.
And I say that because, itcould have been easily wine.
(05:36):
It could have been very, very easily,spirits, you know, cause Michigan
is known for all of that stuff.
But what in particular aboutbeer attracted you to it?
Carrie Troyer (05:44):
Well, I think beer just comes off as much more approachable.
You know, wine is a little intimidating.
Cocktails are delicious.
But also can be deadly.
Yeah.
Right.
Also.
Yeah.
So I just feel like beerjust feels more approachable.
And.
Still, maybe more of a, I don'twant to say family friendly, but
my family will go to breweries.
(06:04):
It seems like a more invitingatmosphere sometimes, especially that
you can bring the whole family in.
So it's not saying everyone'sdrinking in the family.
But it just feels it'sa, it's approachable.
Cliff Duvernois (06:14):
Right.
And then, so when you come back hereand there's not a microbrewery that's
in the area and For some reason oranother, you and your husband decided
to put together a business plan.
Was this just something you puttogether and just let's just see what
happens with the numbers or were, wereyou already committed at that point?
Carrie Troyer (06:33):
Once we did the plan, we were pretty much gonna
do it, but we started, you know,we really flushed out the plan.
That's another great thing about thecraft beer industry in Michigan is we
talked to a lot of other brewery ownersat the time to gather information.
And everyone was so approachableand so nice and shared their
information that they have and theiradvice about opening a brewery.
(06:55):
I feel like you don't get that in manyindustries because it's so competitive.
But everyone was just so welcoming.
Like, let us know what you need.
And it wasn't even just the,the breweries, it was other
restaurant owners were also veryhelpful when we ask questions.
Cliff Duvernois (07:06):
Because you have the food here too.
Carrie Troyer (07:07):
Yes.
Yes.
Food is a big part of our business too.
Cliff Duvernois (07:11):
Now, as you're putting this together and you're doing the
research, putting together the, thespreadsheets, had you already at this
point in time, the three sisters,at what point did you all sit down
and say, these numbers are good?
Let's, let's start moving forward.
Carrie Troyer (07:26):
Well, it was the sisters and the husbands.
And when
Cliff Duvernois (07:30):
it really was a family affair,
Carrie Troyer (07:32):
when the discussion came, Okay, we're going to do it by couple.
How much are you willing to put into this?
You know, and we, we each kind ofgave our number and my husband and
I, we were the low ball, like weweren't ready to commit all the way.
But then we're like, well, we don'twant less ownership than my sisters.
So we have to do as muchas the sisters, you know?
So we all, antied up likethe maximum that we could do.
(07:54):
That was an even amount to get it started.
And it was terrifying,there's my savings account
Cliff Duvernois (07:59):
drained,
Carrie Troyer (08:00):
but like into the brewery, but we all committed.
So we could all have equal ownership.
Cause I wasn't going to be on that lessownership and let my sisters rule over me.
So we all put it in anequal amount and it was.
Terrifying.
And then we had to keep putting in moreamounts equally as the process continued.
But, uh, Hey, again, we're still here.
It worked out.
Cliff Duvernois (08:20):
Yeah, it must've worked out.
Let me ask you this question here, becauseit seems like most of the time when I talk
to somebody, they're like, you know what?
I got an idea.
And then they chase it andfigure it all out later.
You guys decided to dothe analyzing up front.
Is there anything in the analysisthat kind of stains out to you though?
Like maybe you're like reallysurprised you that signaled to
you, Hey, this really could work.
(08:41):
Yeah.
Carrie Troyer (08:41):
Well, just the fact that there was net income at the end
helped, but we found we were way offon a few things like we thought our
distribution would be a lot higher,which is selling product outside, not
just in your restaurant to stores andrestaurants, and that's plateaued a
little bit as cocktails get more, youknow, ready to drink cocktails and
the seltzers so that didn't Reallymaterialized, but the restaurant ended
(09:03):
up being a lot bigger than we thoughtit would be in the volume and all that.
And you know, what's also surprisingabout breweries is merchandise.
I just love people who go tobreweries, buy merchandise and it's
such a nice extra, it's advertisingand just an extra revenue stream
with all the t shirts that we sell.
It's so cool that people thatgo to breweries buy t shirts.
I love it.
Cliff Duvernois (09:22):
Yeah.
And
Carrie Troyer (09:23):
so lucky that they do.
Cliff Duvernois (09:24):
Now, is that part of your original plan was to sell merchandise?
Carrie Troyer (09:27):
Yes, but we thought we'd sell.
I look back on it, I think we thoughtwe'd sell 10 t shirts a month or
something and in the summer we'll sella hundred in a week, like I had no idea
the extent that the people who go tobreweries will buy merch and it's been
such a nice, it was a nice surprise.
Cliff Duvernois (09:45):
Now, where did the name Three Blondes come from?
I mean, I know you and your sistersare blonde, but how did you come
up with the name Three Blondes?
Carrie Troyer (09:50):
I think my little sister will claim she thought of it herself.
We went through, I don't even knowwhat else was on the drawing board.
I think once we said that,we just landed there.
And I guess it worked.
Some people think it mightbe Three Blonde Beers.
But it is really, we do a, wedo a, Blonde beers, of course.
But it is named after us, eventhough some of us have to dye
our hair to maintain that image.
(10:13):
That's me.
Okay, guys, that's me.
Cliff Duvernois (10:16):
I wasn't gonna ask.
Carrie Troyer (10:16):
It's okay.
It's not real.
Cliff Duvernois (10:19):
So let me ask you this question here because now you go
through you've got the business plan.
You guys have now all ponied up the money.
I am thinking now of getting the space,getting the people on board, getting
the, the liquor license, getting thealcohol license, getting inspectors
doing all the, and I think to myself,there's probably easier things to do in
(10:39):
life like brain surgery, then open up abrewery, Talk to us about that process
of just trying to get the doors open.
Carrie Troyer (10:47):
Cliff, don't bring that up in my memory bank.
Are you still talking to your therapist?
Yes, it was really hard.
okay, part of the sad story is mysister's husband was really, and I say was
because he died four years ago suddenly.
It was awful.
But he was really instrumental in getting,that's another tangent we can go on.
He was very instrumentalin getting this started.
He's a project manager in his reallife, engineer project manager.
(11:08):
And he was so focused on tasklists and assigning things.
And he was really the one drivingthe research and the inspections.
And here's what you have to do beforeyou can do this and this and this.
And if we didn't have him, thiswouldn't have happened at all.
Cliff Duvernois (11:22):
Oh, interesting.
Carrie Troyer (11:22):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So he was just really good at,at driving the task management.
Cliff Duvernois (11:29):
Was there ever a point in time when this was all
coming together that you thought toyourself, this is never going to work.
We're never going to get open.
Carrie Troyer (11:36):
Yes.
Yes.
Well, when the, you know, theconstruction bid came in, I don't
know, 25 percent higher than theconstruction company told us we had
to go get another loan to afford it.
We were building in winter.
So, As there was labor shortages.
And we were worried about getting thebuilding enclosed before winter came
and it wasn't happening, you know,just watching like it's snow in the
building because it wasn't enclosed.
(11:57):
Yeah, it was terrifying.
But we, that's one thing we said, causea lot of breweries were opening at the
time and a lot of people would have an.
An opening target date on a sign.
And I said, sisters, if we're committingto, we said opening spring 2018.
I said, there is no waywe're missing this deadline.
Like I am not, there are somany places that don't hit that.
And I don't want to be one.
And we opened June 14th, which we hadwhat was that six days to spare until
(12:22):
summer and we said spring, so we made it.
And I was so thankful.
Cliff Duvernois (12:27):
So actually, yeah.
So when you talk about that work,especially like during that time
of the day, were you pretty muchworking like 24 hours a day?
Were you getting any sleep?
Is it you just one more thing?
How did that work out?
Carrie Troyer (12:38):
I did just go through an old email where my brother in law,
the one who passed away had mentionedhe had already put in 1000 hours of
work on top of his full time job.
I luckily towards closeto opening up my Real job.
let me go half time part time soI could commit my other part time
to getting this up and runningbecause it really did take a lot of
Cliff Duvernois (12:56):
so you were all still working as this was going on.
Carrie Troyer (12:58):
Yes.
I'm the only one so far that hasquit my job to do this full time.
So,
Cliff Duvernois (13:03):
okay, so you're, you're still working at the time
you're putting this on, whichby the way, this is a miracle,
Carrie Troyer (13:09):
right?
Cliff Duvernois (13:09):
I mean, and I think about how fortuitous it is that there's
six of you now because somebody canalways be here, to be working as well.
Yeah.
my next question to you is, is thatas you're approaching that soft
deadline, what were you doing to liketo spread the word that this was going
to happen and get people to come here?
Was it purely just let'shang a sign out front?
(13:30):
How did you do that?
Carrie Troyer (13:31):
We had the sign and then we started getting into the social media.
That was fun, actually.
And we could differentiate ourselvesa little bit from all the other
breweries that are opening becausewe're three women at the forefront
of the brand, which is still rare.
I mean, there's plenty still womenbrewers and women that own breweries.
But you know, in 2018, itwas a little less common.
So we stuck out a little bit and hada way to differentiate ourselves.
(13:53):
So we tried to play on that and getourselves in the social media instead
of just hiding behind a screen.
We put ourselves out there, which is fun.
Like we have a good time together.
Cliff Duvernois (14:01):
Yeah.
you go through the opening of thisplace and, you know, people are
starting to come in, trickle in, talkto us about maybe some of those like
early, I don't want to say nightmares,
Carrie Troyer (14:13):
but it was tough
Cliff Duvernois (14:15):
learning opportunities,
Carrie Troyer (14:17):
learning opportunities
Cliff Duvernois (14:17):
that, uh, that came up, that popped up that you were just
like completely caught off guard on.
Carrie Troyer (14:22):
Well, seeing as I'd never even worked in a restaurant,
that was extremely eyeopening to me.
And we had hired a front ofhouse manager that ended up.
Backing out about a week before we opened.
So our general manager was tryingto do that plus manage the back.
So it was difficult and I learned realfast that how I could try to step in and
be of assistance, but it was a littlerocky at the beginning, but we had a lot
(14:46):
of support staff and a lot of people witha lot of experience, like the servers that
we hired, a lot of them weren't brand new.
They had been in the industry.
So that, I mean, we leanedon their experience and thank
goodness they carried us.
So,
Cliff Duvernois (14:58):
No, that's actually really good.
And the fact that you're relying on theseother people to come in and do this.
So how, so when you talk about like theexperience, like, is there a couple of
things that you learned that you thoughtwas like, Hey, that's like pretty clever.
Are you glad that your staffpointed that out to you?
Yeah.
Carrie Troyer (15:14):
I'm sure there are many of those things.
They'd have had so many good ideasalong the way, just how to organize the
restaurant, even the layout of thingsand just efficiencies that I would not
have seen, but they are, they're X, butthey've been a lot of my, our servers
have been doing this for a long time.
And so I can't think of aspecific example, but they just,
thank goodness we had them.
Cliff Duvernois (15:33):
Yeah.
You had that experience to rely on.
For audience.
We're going to take a quick breakand thank our sponsors today.
We're talking with Carrie Troyer,blonde number two of three blondes
brewing located in South Haven.
And, uh, we will be back after the break.
Are you enjoying this episode?
Well, I can tell youthere's a lot more to come.
Jump over to TotalMichigan.
com, enter your email address,and get on our mailing list.
(15:56):
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today.
Hello everyone.
And welcome back to Total Michigan,where we interview ordinary Michiganders
doing some pretty extraordinary things.
I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.
Today, we're talking withCarrie Troyer of Three Blondes
(16:18):
Brewing located in South Haven.
Carrie, before the break, we weretalking about the absolute insanity of
opening up your doors and trying to,trying to keep all the wheels on the
cart, so to speak, what I would like todo is, and you mentioned this before,
is I want to explore The finding thebrewmaster and getting somebody in here
(16:39):
to work and because I know that basedon what you were talking about before
you and your sisters kind of had avision and your husband's to kind of had
a vision of what this place would be.
Talk to us about finding thebrewmaster that could get you there.
Carrie Troyer (16:52):
Well, that was a difficult test because we didn't even know how
to interview a brewmaster So we hadto hire a consultant that knew more
obviously to like We we don't evenyou know, hey, how do you brew beer?
So we didn't even know what toask him or how to know if he
was a good brewer he or she.
So we hired a consultant to do theinterviewing and then give us feedback
on multiple candidates And we endedon the gentleman we landed on he was
(17:15):
perfect for You The three blondes.
It was a great, great relationship.
He doesn't, he's not our brewer anymore.
But he, developed therecipes for our main beer.
He had come from Greenbush,which is in Sawyer, Michigan.
So he had some experience under hisbelt, like running a small brewery,
small to medium sized brewery.
And so he helped get all our equipmentin and let us know what we needed
to order and developed Some of themainstays that we still have today, he
(17:40):
was, the main recipes was like boom,boom, Betty, like boom, boom, Betty
named after my Grandma Boom, Boom.
That's our signature blondeale, the most popular beer.
and he was really creative.
He was, we kind of gave him like, we needa range of beers to cover all the steps.
the styles, but it also has to be for thepeople who are coming in just to visit the
restaurant that don't really drink beer.
We need pretty basic beer tolike the everyday person's beer.
(18:05):
That's not Miller Lite becausewe are not allowed to sell those.
We have to sell only what we make.
So I think he did a great job inthe initial run of beers and then
he even did barrel aging beer.
So he was awesome, fun to workwith, put up with the three
blondes, you know, it was great.
Cliff Duvernois (18:20):
Now, when we talk about, cause this is, This really
is the main part of your business.
So you were having to hire an expertto come in and actually do this.
My question to you is, is, did you eversit there and lay awake at night thinking,
what if this guy just walks away in there?
Because this, like I said,this is your main thing.
If he just like disappears and youcome in one day and he's longer here,
(18:41):
you're scrambling and I'll try tofind somebody to fill their shoes.
So how was it to let go of that control?
Carrie Troyer (18:47):
We still have that fear every day, every day,
because I still, I don't, I'm aCPA, I don't, I don't brew beer.
So at any time that couldhappen to us, you know.
But we just make surethey have careful records.
And we try to treat everyonereally well, so they wouldn't
have a reason to just disappear.
But I've heard horror stories fromother people places other business
owners that this has happened to them.
(19:08):
And it's terrifying for someone to leave.
But you just have to trust the process and
Cliff Duvernois (19:15):
yes, and everything's going to work out now.
Is it one of those things where, becausebefore you were talking about like
recipes that they come up with to makeyour signature boom, boom Betty, right?
Um, yeah.
If the brewmaster did leave, doesone of your staff, could they
step up and continue to make thisuntil you got another brewmaster
in here, or how does that work?
Carrie Troyer (19:35):
Yes, now we're big enough where we have assistant brewers,
thankfully, so the assistant brewerscan always step into that role.
so that's helpful.
And then all the recipes are written down.
And then, It's typical.
If a brewer leaves a brewery, theydon't take their recipes with them.
It's it's property of the brewery.
So we don't have an issue like, oh,we won't be able to replicate that.
Boom, boom.
So thankfully, we're covered there
Cliff Duvernois (19:56):
Now at what point did because, you know, you get
everything up that's up and running.
You've got the restaurant going.
You've got, the beer going.
At what point in time did yousay to yourself, Holy cow,
this is actually working?
Carrie Troyer (20:10):
I say that all the time to myself, still, I cannot believe
that this is what we're doing, butwhen we made money our first year,
and you know, normally new businesses,let alone in the restaurant and
brewery space, you typically don'tmake money in your first year.
But we had a really rockin summer, thankgoodness, because we opened, summer is
the best time to come to South Haven,so we opened, it was good and bad, we
(20:32):
opened in large crowds, which is tough tohandle when you're a brand new business.
But thank goodness we had the volume.
Because that, carried us through.
So then we're like,okay, we're making money.
Maybe we can pay ourselves now.
You don't start out that way.
Cliff Duvernois (20:45):
No, you definitely don't.
And what I would like to do it now is talkabout, because you, you made a comment
before about how you're a restaurant.
And, brewery, how doyou develop the menus?
Did you hire a chef to comein and do that for you?
Carrie Troyer (20:59):
Yes.
We also had a restaurantconsultant who stayed with us
on, on with us for six months.
He was also a South Haven graduateand happened to be one of my,
brother in law's good friends.
So that helped.
He was, they were close friends,like best man in his wedding.
And he had a lot of expertise inopening and running restaurants.
So he did the menu, he did thestaffing, he did the kitchen layout.
(21:19):
We have a very big kitchen comparedto most breweries are afraid of,
not afraid of food, I won't saythat, but it's, they focus on beer
because they're brewers usually.
So we knew to have the volume,we had to have food and a big
menu and big volume for that.
So we have a very large kitchenfor what most breweries have.
Right.
So, and that's because our chef was like,uh, you're going to need some space.
(21:43):
Unfortunately, he took all thespace out of the office and I
don't have any place to sit backthere But you know, that's okay.
There's plenty of spaceon the grill for your food
Cliff Duvernois (21:50):
Now, how do you come up with because I know you before
we were talking about division forthe brewery And the beers coming
in what about that menu or did youjust offload and say you know what?
These are the kind of beerswe got just come up with food
that tastes good with them
Carrie Troyer (22:03):
Yeah, that's basically what we said.
And he created the whole menu.
So and we wanted a variety because hehad You know, input from the blondes.
And we're sometimes picky.
So we did have some specifications.
Two of us are vegetarians.
So we have a lot of good vegetarianoptions and vegan, which I know
people appreciate because it's gettingbetter now, I think, in the restaurant
(22:23):
space to have vegetarian options.
But there weren't many in South Haven.
That was another problem.
When we want to go out in SouthHaven, we wouldn't, there wouldn't
be many vegetarian options.
So we have a lot of those options.
And then also for the gluten freefolks, we try to keep some gluten free
options for those with that dietaryrestriction, although it's tough to
drink beer when you're gluten free.
So we do have cider optionsfor those folks too.
(22:43):
But we ran the gamut.
So we got, tacos thatare really good pizza.
We just were voted bestpizza in South Haven in 2024.
Cliff Duvernois (22:50):
Hang your hat on that.
Carrie Troyer (22:51):
So yes, we have been working on our pizza hard.
It's definitely changedfrom when we first started.
We got different pizza ovens.
We sent some of our cooks to pizza school.
Wait a minute.
You got different pizza ovens?
Yeah, we changed out thepizza Oh, you are serious.
Yeah, we're serious.
Our pizza oven kept breaking and itjust wasn't meeting our standards.
So we got a different kind of Pete,like a conveyor belt pizza oven, which,
conveyor belt that's consistency.
(23:13):
Cause it's it goes in and goes out at theexact same amount of time for every pizza.
we had like hotspots in our old oven.
So some pizzas would come out alittle darker, not the conveyor oven.
And then we sent some of our staff topizza school to get our dough honed in.
And now, yeah, we were so busy.
So excited when we won the bestlocal pizza by the, it was a Harold
Palladium, best of South Haven boat.
(23:34):
So that was exciting
Cliff Duvernois (23:35):
Because I think, I think a lot of people don't get
the fact that there's actuallya real science to making pizza.
I mean, people, people just thinkthat, Oh, you just throw a crust
and some stuff on there and put itin the oven and it's good to go.
But the really good pizza,there is a science to that.
Carrie Troyer (23:49):
Yeah.
Yes.
And so we learned that at pizza school.
And we changed how we did the dough.
And then we try to come up withsome really creative toppings.
We have a good picklepizza, perfectly pickled.
Oh my gosh.
It's my favorite pizza.
I just I could eat it all the time.
And it's not your typical like pizza.
Pickle bacon ranch.
That's what you normally see.
It has, it's a garlic aioli base,which I thought sounded not good,
(24:10):
but oh my gosh, it's delicious.
So don't judge it till you try it.
And we have sweet hottie pickles.
So they're like a little bit sweeter thana dill, but we also have dill pickles.
And then we have pickled onionsbecause pickled, perfectly pickled.
We're putting all the pickles on them.
Cliff Duvernois (24:23):
I'm a big fan of pickled onions.
Carrie Troyer (24:24):
Yeah, so good.
And then actual dill sprinkled on the top.
And, pepperoncinis just to,add a little spice in there.
Not pepperoni, pepperoncini,and it's vegetarian.
So good.
Cliff Duvernois (24:37):
This is great.
So let me ask you this question here.
If so, it's actually, there'sgoing to be two questions.
This one first, if somebody is listeningto this and they come here and they're,
so what can they expect when they walk in?
But also I want you to share with usmaybe some of the most popular dishes
that you have, or maybe a dish that youwould recommend besides perfectly pickled
Carrie Troyer (24:59):
pizza,
Cliff Duvernois (24:59):
besides perfectly pickled pizza and the boom, boom Betty.
Carrie Troyer (25:02):
Well, what they can expect when they walk in.
It's a different vibefrom summer to winter.
So.
Southaven is a tourist town andwe are so busy in the summer, so
it will be busy if you come in thesummer, there will likely be a wait.
Most restaurants in Southaven don'ttake reservations, so be prepared for
that in all of Southaven, there's a few.
so we have a gorgeous outdoor patiofor when you're waiting, and there's
(25:23):
an outdoor bar out there so youcan grab a drink while you wait.
And there's sidewalk chalkfor the kids to play with.
We also just got a couple ofarcade games inside upstairs.
So you are
Cliff Duvernois (25:32):
Family friendly,
Carrie Troyer (25:33):
Family friendly.
You can give your kids a coupleof bucks, maybe 20, give them a
20, to spend money at the arcade.
We, or maybe mom and dad wantit with vintage arcade games.
So we got Tetris.
We got Cruising World.
I used to love to docruising world, claw machine.
So send your kids up to entertainthem while you're waiting
while mom and dad have a beer.
And then you'll get seatedin the winter though.
(25:54):
Usually there's no way youcan come right in, sit down.
You can still send your kids up toour mini arcade, which we partner
with a local arcade in town.
He's the one that helps uswith the arcade, rocket arcade,
shout out to rocket arcade.
And then enjoy some beer cider.
Cocktails soon.
Don't quote me on the date.
But those are coming.
And then the food items.
So besides the perfectly pickled, which,obviously I can't stop mentioning,
(26:15):
we also have a Rangoon pizza, crabRangoon that people rave about.
As a vegetarian, I don't eat that.
But it's like a cult favorite.
People come here justfor the crab Rangoon.
I know.
And we're not just a pizza place either.
Our tacos are amazing.
We have really good burgers,with some unique, unique burger
options, or you can create your own.
And, then we usually throw in someentrees, you know, like you can get steak.
(26:36):
If you want, if you want to be fancy,but if you don't want to be fancy, you
can get cheese curds or a tender basket.
Cliff Duvernois (26:41):
So you've got, not only is it just full pizza, though,
you can get all kinds of appetizersand everything else when you come here.
The
Carrie Troyer (26:47):
whole gamut.
Cliff Duvernois (26:48):
Yeah.
Carrie Troyer (26:48):
Lots of, and kid's menu, of course, and kids little stuff they can
draw on, keep those kiddos entertained.
Cliff Duvernois (26:55):
So let me ask you this question here, because you, you
clearly now gotten a lot of experiences.
You, you opened this in 2018.
Yes, 2018.
So the question I got for you is ifyou could go back and tell your younger
self from 2018, something that wouldhelp them out, what would that be?
Carrie Troyer (27:14):
Oh, man, that's tough.
be prepared for anything likeadapt and overcome was our, was our
mantra, especially during COVID.
Like we, we turned to the inside of thisrestaurant, which no one could eat in.
We made it a pickleball courtfor the family because I
mean, what else do you do?
You know, it was closeddown in the inside.
So we were playing pickleballin here with mom and dad, but
(27:34):
just be ready for anything.
You can't get so stuck on any one idea.
Because it's going to change.
So adapt and overcome, butthat's what we still do now.
Cliff Duvernois (27:44):
Oh, that's great.
And speaking of which, cause I know youmentioned before about COVID, did you
do what every other restaurant did andjust say, Hey, you know, you can pick up
your food here and take it home with you.
Is that how you basically got through?
Carrie Troyer (27:57):
Yeah, we, I don't think closed down at all for a full week.
That whole time we had, unfortunately, ofcourse, had to lay off most of our staff.
We kept our head chef on and we did like.
24 hour order in advance.
He would come here, cookall the orders by himself.
Cause this was when we, you didn't knowif you could have contact with anyone.
So he'd be in the kitchencooking everything by himself,
all the orders that he got, andthen we'd have a pickup window.
(28:19):
We turned our little garageinto a pickup window over there
and folks would pick it up.
and then we just did strictly.
To goes, and we had all the igloo,we had four igloos out there and we
even got a carport and made it into adining space and a little greenhouse.
So people did embrace eating outdoors.
Thank goodness.
And we still have our dome out.
We call it the blonde dome.
We still put one up every winter andwe've got a few folks who have made it an
(28:42):
annual tradition to come dine in the dome.
Even though it's not nearly aspopular as it was, but it's still fun.
Like I know folks book it everynew year's day to go out and dine
in the dome with their family.
It's awesome.
Cliff Duvernois (28:53):
Oh, that's actually kind of cute.
And before you weretalking about distribution.
Carrie Troyer (28:58):
Yes.
Cliff Duvernois (28:58):
So do you actually take your beer and you
have it distributed on shelves?
Carrie Troyer (29:04):
Yes.
So we signed up with a distributioncompany that does all that for us.
They buy the beer from us and then godistribute it to, stores and restaurants.
So the biggest, their biggest customeris the Meijer right here in South Haven.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
So we're only in Meijer, South Haven.
Oh.
Of the Meijers we're only inthe Meijer in South Haven.
But they sell a ton of our product.
It's awesome.
It's crazy.
It's just a mile down the road from us.
(29:25):
But then we're also in otherplaces as far as in the U.
P.
in stores and we have abeer finder on our website.
If anyone's curious how close to wherethey can get the beer, just go to the
beer finder on a website and it cantell you the closest store to you or
restaurant where we might be on tap.
Cliff Duvernois (29:38):
Right.
And then as far as distribution goes of,of the, the beer that you sell here, was
that always a part of the plan as well?
Or did that come later?
Like somebody was like, man, I wish Icould buy this in the grocery store.
Carrie Troyer (29:49):
It was a part of the plan.
You definitely don't make asmuch money on distribution.
So that, that wasn't our plan.
And we thought we were going to scaleup even larger with distribution, but
that, didn't exactly come to fruition.
But even our, um, external accountantswere like, uh, your distribution plan is.
Stupid, insane.
I was like, okay, okay, fine.
Wait a minute, stupid,
Cliff Duvernois (30:07):
insane, good, stupid, insane, bad.
Carrie Troyer (30:08):
Like we, we thought we'd bulk it out real good.
And then we, it wasn'tthat crazy, which is fine.
Cause that's, that makes us just, wefocus more on the restaurant and the
brewery, the local focus, which is.
It's worked out just fine.
Cliff Duvernois (30:20):
Perfect.
And if somebody is listening tothis and they want to come and check
you out, find you online, stop inhere, try the boom, boom Betty.
what, how do they find you?
Carrie Troyer (30:29):
Well, we have a website, three blondes, Marine.
com.
The three is spelled outand blonde has an E in it.
what's also cool is wejust, Google street view.
We just got the Google streetview option where you can keep.
Not only see the outside of the building,but you can click into the building.
So if you go on Google, youcan go right into three blondes
and take your own virtual tour.
That's cool.
Yeah.
They talked us into that and it is coolbecause then you can, you know, and
(30:50):
just set a scene, the outside, you cango click on the inside and you can come
right into the, the dining area and thenyou can go out to the patio and kind of
check that out through Google street view.
It's really fun.
I encourage people to check it out.
It's cool.
Cliff Duvernois (31:01):
Yes.
Carrie, thank you so much fortaking time to chat with us today.
Really do appreciate it.
Carrie Troyer (31:06):
Thanks, Cliff.
This is fun.
I hope everyone comes out to ThreeBlondes Brewing, 1875 Phoenix Street.
Cliff Duvernois (31:11):
Oh, everybody will.
Carrie Troyer (31:12):
Okay.
All right.
Cliff Duvernois (31:13):
Twist their arm.
Carrie Troyer (31:13):
And we have a jet ski dealership next door.
If you need a jet ski, havea jet ski, have a beer.
Cliff Duvernois (31:19):
Awesome.
Carrie, thank you again.
And for our audience, you can alwaysroll on over to TotalMichigan.
com.
Click on Carrie's interview and getthe links that she mentioned above.
We'll talk to you next time when wetalk to another Michigander doing
some pretty extraordinary things.
We'll see you then.
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