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  • Xylo Bistro Cafe chef Matthew Walheim, left, and general manager Tom Grant will expand operations in the downtown's Warehouse District by adding alcohol to their menu and expanding food service into a neighboring brew pub. Record-Eagle/Bill O'Brien

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February 7, 2012

New brew pub possible

By Bill O'Brien bobrien@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — More changes are in store for downtown's Warehouse District, where a new brew pub will serve food from an adjacent cafe.

Rick Korndorfer, who owns the building that houses Right Brain Brewery and Xylo Bistro Cafe, is among a group that's revising a liquor license for the Garland Street property. The license would make way for a new brew pub and allow for alcohol sales at Xylo.

The city commission was scheduled to consider the application Monday night before review by the state Liquor Control Commission.

Korndorfer's plan is to develop a new brew pub in the space to be vacated this spring by Right Brain, which is relocating to Sixteenth Street. The new business doesn't have a name, and he's finalizing specific plans.

He envisions a space that will serve craft beer it produces, along with a wine bar, other alcoholic drinks and food prepared at Xylo. He hopes to open by late summer.

"It'll have a new look," Korndorfer said. "I want to do something a little different."

The change will allow for alcohol service at Xylo, which opened almost a year ago and hopes to grow its lunch and dinner business.

"A lot of people won't go to a place for dinner if they can't have a cocktail," said Matthew Walheim, the chef at Xylo and Korndorfer's partner in Warehouse District Eatery LLC. "We'll get a whole different clientele."

The venture adds to a growing list of downtown businesses using revised state rules on liquor licenses.

In 2008, the city took advantage of a state law change that allowed communities to set up specific locations for extra liquor licenses. The state's normal distribution rules issue licenses based on population. The newly available licenses require at least $75,000 in improvements to the involved property.

Several local establishments secured the new licenses, including Union Cantina and Seven Monks Tap Room on Union Street and Patisserie Amie along Lake Street.

"It's definitely an economic development tool that's worked," said Rob Bacigalupi, deputy director of the city's Downtown Development Authority.

He said the additional licenses are warranted downtown because it's a growing dining destination for residents and tourists, even though the city's year-round population stays level.

"Any city with a popular downtown is at a disadvantage," he said. "We serve much more than our own population."

Eric Fritch, owner of Patesserie Amie, said the license helped transform his business from its bakery, breakfast and lunch origins to a full-service restaurant. It opened a space called Chez Peres where it serves bistro dinners with wine, international beers and other drinks.

"It took the concept I had and brought it to fruition," Fritch said. "It definitely helped out ...; you really need the wine and the whole deal."

City officials wanted the licenses to foster restaurant growth — not necessarily create more bars — in downtown. The city attached its own regulations that require such license holders to close by midnight.

"We didn't want a great number of what you'd consider traditional bars opening up," city Clerk Benjamin Marentette said.

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