Leelanau Coffee Roasting Arens brothers grow into Leland
Photo of Steve and John Arens by Jackson Arens
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
The Early Bird breakfast and lunch destination in downtown Leland has a new tenant—one whose brand is already ubiquitous in northern Michigan.
In mid-June, John and Steve Arens, who own the Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company in Glen Arbor, will open a breakfast bistro that combines high-quality food with fresh-roasted coffee on the main drag in Leland. They are leasing the space from Skip Telgard, who owns the Blue Bird restaurant next door. The Early Bird sat empty through much of 2020 as Telgard struggled to find enough employees to staff the popular eatery.
“We’ve been looking for years to open a place that serves great food with fresh roasted coffee,” said John. “Steve saw that Skip was leasing the Early Bird and they began chatting in early February. The Telgards have been anxious to get someone back in there.”
The Arens brothers have hired Matt Anderson as their chef. Anderson previously worked for Guillaume Hazaël-Massieux at La Bécasse and Bistro Foufou. His menu will include breakfast staples such as huevos rancheros, eggs benedict, briskets, breakfast sandwiches, sourdough pancakes, cinnamon rolls, oatmeal and pastries. Brunch features blue crab bisque, tomato and tarragon soup and various salads.
“We wanted to combine that kind of breakfast with coffee that 48 hours ago was green,” said John. “And we wanted to find a place that mimics the amount of pedestrian traffic Glen Arbor gets in the summertime.”
Once COVID restrictions lift, the Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company Breakfast Bistro will seat 52 inside and 20 outside. The Arens brothers are adding a gazebo, and plan to have coffee bars both inside and outside. Hours will be 7 a.m. until 2 p.m., 7 days a week.
Boomchunkas, dried cherries, coffee
The Leelanau Coffee Roasters’ story is a central part of Glen Arbor’s business surge over the past 25 years. The Arens opened a small café across from Lake Street Studios—where the Cherry Republic retail empire lives now—on Memorial Day weekend of 1993 in a building they rented from Steve Heller. They initially shared the space with local entrepreneur Bob Sutherland, who sold cherry Boomchunka cookies. Steve and Bob knew each other from working at the Red Pine, which is now the Good Harbor Grill.
Steve Arens initially wanted to open in Empire—a hotter business destination than Glen Arbor at the time—and call their business “Empire Coffee Company.” They couldn’t find any retail locations available so they expanded their search to Glen Arbor.
When they opened 28 years ago, artist Suzanne Wilson walked across the street and told John she was impressed that this A-frame sign on the street had real hinges; she used shoestrings to hold together her A-frame at Lake Street Studios.
Bob showed up one day and told the Arens brothers he had visited Smeltzer Orchard in Benzie County, which had dried cherries they wanted to promote that were packed in plastic deli tubs. John remembers they put a dish of the dried cherries on the counter for customers and Steve wrote a sign that said, “Dried cherries. Try Some. Yum.”
Cherry Republic took off. So did the Coffee Roasters, which moved in 1998 to their current location on M-22, across the street from the Western Avenue Grill.
The Arens brothers have flirted with retail expansions in the ensuing years. They opened, briefly, in Petoskey in 1997 and at the now mothballed Sugar Loaf resort in 1998, but each store closed within a few years.
Now the Leelanau Coffee Roasters is growing again, this time in downtown Leland.
