Cedar’s Polka Fest embraces roots with native son’s Valentine Vodka, Polish beer

Photo by Raquel Jackson

By Jacob Wheeler

Sun editor

The three-step polka returns to Cedar for the 38th year this weekend, June 20-23, as revelers raise their cups to community pride and dance under the grand white tent adorned with the Stars and Stripes and the red and white Polish eagle. This annual tradition marks the highlight of the summer in the “community that cares”.

And Polka Fest has fresh legs this year. For the first time, Michigan-made vodka and Polish beer will be served in Cedar. A pancake breakfast, Hagerty classic car show, children’s activities on Saturday, and an outdoor food truck from the Polish enclave of Hamtramck in southeastern Michigan are also new to Polka Fest.

Native son Rifino Valentine, who developed the wildly successful, high-quality Valentine Vodka spirits brand in Detroit, will return “home” and toast to his roots on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights under the tent. Valentine grew up on a nearby farm, raising goats and chickens, and later, Christmas trees. That locavore sensibility spurred him to develop single-batch, handcrafted Valentine Vodka. “I am taking a stand against mass-produced spirts,” Valentine’s website reads. “I am here to prove that American ingenuity and quality American manufacturing is still alive.”

“I decided to start this in Detroit because Detroit was one of the cities that was responsible for the economy we built in the United States,” he said. “Why should we be serving liquor made by some international conglomerate when we can get stuff that’s better quality, and has a responsibility to the area where we all live?”

Valentine attended Polka Fest as a kid, but it’s been at least a decade since he took part in the festival, which is typically static and changes little from year to year. 

But Cedar has an energetic new booster in Kathleen Bittner Koch, a 37-year-old Hamtramck native who moved here five years ago to buy a farm (Polish Heritage Farm) and raise pigs together with her husband Thomas, and later to open the Polish Art Center next to Pleva’s Meats. Koch said she joined the Polka Fest planning committee with the goal of getting better-quality liquor. 

“At a good Polish festival, vodka has to be a staple,” she said. “I’m sick and tired of them feeding people Five O’clock Vodka here in paradise!” Once Koch learned that Valentine was a Cedar native, she made it her personal mission to bring him back for this year’s Polka Festival—not just his vodka, but the man himself.

“I said, ‘Rifino, will you come back to Cedar?’ He said ‘What do you want; How much do you want?’ I don’t think he’d ever been asked. I said, ‘I don’t just want your booze, I want you’,” said Koch. “What Rifino is doing for Cedar is throwing logs on the embers that have been there for the past 15 years this festival has been at a lull. Polka Fest needs someone to jump in and give it new life. Rifino is doing that. I’m helping, but he’s giving me the leverage I need.”

On June 12, Koch and Cedar elder Ray Pleva drove to Detroit and back the same day to bring his classic red “Valentine Distilling” 1937 Ford Barrel truck to the festival.

A-frame signs promoting Valentine Vodka (made by a local carpenter) will line Sullivan Rd, which leads from the center of town to the festival, and offer catchy messages: “Vodka is made of potatoes. Potato is a vegetable. Vegetables are good for you. You’re welcome” and “I doubt vodka’s the answer, but it’s worth a shot.”

“People walking to the festival will know something’s different this year,” said Koch.

Koch has arranged a special “toast to Rifino” under the big tent on Saturday evening. She envisions having roaming “shot girls” selling vodka under the big tent while patrons can come “meet the maker” and mingle with Valentine. A custom-built Valentine Distilling bar by Seth Harris of NorthShore Builders will serve Moscow Mules, Bloody Mary’s, and a Polka Fest drink specially made by his mixologist. The three bars under the tent will also serve Polish“Okocim” beer for the first time in the festival’s 38-year history.

“Nobody has more energy than Kathleen,” Valentine said. “She reached out, and it hit home in a lot of ways. Cedar is a little gem. Fortunately—or unfortunately—not many people know about it.”

Koch unabashedly encouraged Valentine to embrace his roots.

“Rifino has given lots of interviews. People always ask where he’s from and he always says, ‘I’m from Traverse City’ or ‘from Leelanau County’. He never says ‘I’m from Cedar’. I have a problem with that! I told him, ‘I understand you’re trying to make a reference because no one knows where we are. But I’m from Hamtramck and that breathes a fierce independence into you. I’m very proud of my Polish background.”

Serendipitous landing

Kathleen and Thomas Koch quite literally stumbled upon Cedar five years ago in the middle of the night. They were urban farmers in Hamtramck, which is surrounded by Detroit, but culturally and politically independent from the Motor City. Her parents run a Polish Art Center there—also next to a butcher shop, as the Cedar location now is. The young couple wanted to buy a farm in rural northern Michigan, anywhere north of Midland, including the Upper Peninsula, said Kathleen Koch. 

They saw a listing for Isadore Farm near Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Centerville Township and arrived at 1 in the morning to check it out. Though Cedar was sound asleep as they drove through town, the first thing Koch saw was the red Polka Fest sign hanging over the street to advertise that year’s festival. Then they drove by Stachnik Flower Shop, then Rosinski Road, then Polish Harbor. Red and white Polish eagles—ubiquitous in her native Hamtramck—were everywhere.

“I said ‘Oh my God, Tommy’ and I got goosebumps.”

Isadore Farm sold before they could put down money, but she had already fallen in love with Cedar. “Something drew me here for a reason,” Koch said.

They returned, toured 50 different properties, and ultimately acquired the land that would become Polish Heritage Farm.

There was only one problem with Cedar, as far as Kathleen Koch could tell. They attended Polka Fest together with their then 1.5-year-old sonduring that first visit. Without knowing a person in town, they paid to get in, so the bar felt high. “This festival better be good!” she thought.

“I walked in, went to the bar and said, ‘I’ll have a Polish beer’. The bartender looked at me like I was speaking a different language. I said ‘You don’t have Polish beer? I came all the way from Hamtramck for this festival!’ I asked who’s on the committee, and they pointed me to (another Cedar elder) Frank Novak, standing their stately in his red vest. I said, ‘Frank, we’ve got a problem. There’s no Polish beer at this Polka Festival.’”

Koch put down roots and began to push for Okocim beer, which will finally make an appearance this weekend.

The young business owner and booster of all things Polish is also donating 100 pounds of her family’s Mangalitsa pork sausage from Polish Heritage Farm to the Cedar Fire Department for Saturday morning’s pancake breakfast (8-11 am). “So we can have the highest quality pork, in paradise, along with the highest-quality vodka (later in the day),” she said. The pancake breakfast—a benefit for the fire department—runs from 8-11 am under the big tent. Adults cost $10, children 12 and under eat for $5.

The Hagerty Classic Car Show, also organized by Lisa and Rick Brett, runs from 9 am until noon at the railroad depot near the tent. Following that at 1 pm through downtown Cedar is the parade, which Koch is helping to grow in size after a lull in recent years. She said the parade lineup will feature Pleva’s, Leelanau Fruit, the Glen Arbor Arts Center, the Cedar Fire Department, Broomstack Kitchen & Taphouse, Leelanau Pines Campground, Wool & Honey, Cedar Ron and Gun Club, Cedar Sol Tacos, Big Cat, and decorations by Trinity Lutheran in Traverse City. The streets will be lined with haybales the night before to give it the feel of an old-time parade, where kids don’t have to sit on the curb. Polish candy will be thrown from floats. Ray Pleva will be the official parade announcer.

Children’s Activities follow that from 2-4 pm, including a live DJ, Clark the Juggler, and games. A Veterans Tribute commences at 6:30. Veterans and current military personnel get free entrance into the tent when presenting military ID. Admission otherwise costs $10.  Polka bands are scheduled from 5-11 pm on Thursday night, 5 pm-midnight on Friday, 2 pm-midnight on Saturday, and 1-4 pm on Sunday.

“This can be a great festival,” said Kathleen Koch. “We have all the resources possible. We live in paradise. There’s so much pride in this town. Cedar will shine its pride on every baby they’ve ever had!

“There’s no reason this can’t be the best Polish festival in the country.”

As for the future of Cedar, Koch said she’d love to see a Polish restaurant in town, perhaps with a cocktail lounge or tasting room. She wants to lure Rifino Valentine home.