Shipwreck Cafe adds pizza oven

From staff reports

The Shipwreck Cafe, the popular sandwich shop in Empire, has upped its game in 2021 by adding a wood-fired pizza oven. Owner Steve Nowicki began serving pies the first week of January.

Through the month of January, Nowicki said he sold about 50 pizzas per day on Fridays and Saturdays—the days Shipwreck serves pizza. He has sold about 30 per day in February and March.

“We haven’t advertised this widely because we wanted to start slow and work the bugs out so we wouldn’t get overwhelmed,” said Nowicki.

“Business has been out of control this winter. Literally, our numbers have almost doubled this winter compared to last,” said Nowicki, who observed that many Leelanau residents never left this winter and stayed put to safely ride out the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’ve become a year-round destination point now.”

The mild winter with less snowfall and warmer days has also brought big crowds to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore during the first quarter of 2021. (January saw 21,880 visitors, compared to 13,049 in 2020.) That, too, has helped Nowicki’s business.

The winter months may no longer be a dead time for business in Leelanau County. Several other businesses opened their doors, and their registers have been busy. They include Nittolo’s Pizza, which opened in February in Lake Leelanau (and will add a seafood wing of the restaurant in April), and Cedar City Market II, which opened in February in Cedar. In addition, Cedar River Coffee Company hopes to open its doors in April.

Shipwreck Cafe names both its pizzas and its sandwiches after Great Lakes shipwrecks. Check out the menu here. The establishment is open Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., Friday and Saturday (pizza days) from 9 until 7, and closed on Sundays during the “off season”.