Dunes Café opens near Empire
Family-run cafe at Dunes Golf course serves locally sourced coffee and vittles
Photo of Barista Clayton Morrow by Myles Wall
By Cameryn Cass
Sun contributor
As of May 15, a new cafe is up and running near Empire.
The Dunes Café, located inside the clubhouse of the Dunes Golf Club off of M-72, offers coffee, tea, light food and smoothies.
“If it takes off, we’ll get an espresso machine,” said Clayton Morrow, an experienced barista who helped his sister Brittany Morrow open the cafe.
He said it’s been a lot of work the past few months, creating and refining the menu and getting things up and running in general.
“The biggest challenge has been trying to impress everyone,” he laughed. “Kidding. Really, it was deciding what’ll work, what won’t. That’s been the hardest– even just making the smoothie recipes.”
Clayton said the Cherry Bomb smoothie, a nod to the cherry country we’re in, is his favorite thing on the menu. It’s made up of tart cherries, bananas and homemade vanilla syrup. Frankly, “it rocks.”
And Brittany’s favorite?
“Probably our signature drink, the Dunes Brew,” she said.
It’s a butterscotch cream cold brew named after the golf course and greater Sleeping Bear Dunes area.
“It feels special to us,” she said.
Having worked at coffee shops for more than a decade, Brittany said she’s long dreamed of opening her own.
Plus, the golf course has had its food license for many years now. With more golfers coming in every season, the move to open a cafe kind of just made sense.
“People come in and we’ve got this big space we’re not doing anything with,” Clayton explained. “It’ll be another option for food and bev in Empire and it’ll bring in more golfers. It’s a win win.”
Though folks who purchase a round of golf will get 10% off at the cafe, Brittany underscored how it’s open to everyone– not just golfers.
“I want it to feel approachable, not like you have to be a golfer to stop in,” she said.
“We’re in such a beautiful area,” she went on. “I’d love for the cafe to be a place where locals, families and people passing through can come in for coffee, light food and a friendly atmosphere.”
Chris Wall, the owner of the Dunes Golf Club and Clayton and Brittany’s father, echoed that sentiment. He added that, “Hopefully we can help out the community over at the campground and fulfill their need for coffee and baked goods.”
Indigo Bluffs RV Park & Resort, the campground Wall referred to, is a stone’s throw away from the golf course.
“We love the idea,” said Gary Becker, the owner of the campground. “I think it’ll do really well.”
Every season, there’s roughly 6,000 camping reservations at Indigo Bluffs. It’s not unusual for 30,000 campers to stay during the month of July alone.
Put simply, “we have a lot of people coming through,” and “we always direct our guests to businesses in the area,” said Becker.
And so “the campground community, golfers and the greater community will – hopefully – come and enjoy it,” said Clayton with a smile.
Permanent operating hours are still uncertain. For now, the cafe will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday to Saturday, closed on Sundays.
Like the campground supporting its new local cafe, the Dunes Café is sourcing things locally.
It’ll get coffee from Mundos Roasting & Co., baked goods from Bay Bread Company and some other ingredients from Cherry Republic.
And, for those who’ve visited the golf course before and are wondering, “We’re still going to do the Dune dogs,” said Clayton.
