Businesses thrive in St. Clair Shores

ST. CLAIR SHORES — St. Clair Shores offers a wide variety of restaurants, and over the years new ones have moved in while others have celebrated anniversaries and remodels.

Baffin Brewing Company has been open for 10 years on the Nautical Mile, Joe VanderMarliere said.

“My prior partners and I basically were young, and they brewed in college. I home-brewed in college. We just had a passion for beer,” VanderMarliere said. “Certain circumstances led us to have a lot of free time and not have many opportunities, so we decided to look at different locations to open a microbrewery.”

VanderMarliere said he’d always thought there was a need for something to be on the Nautical Mile in 2014.

“We figured it was untapped,” VanderMarliere said. “There weren’t very many competing businesses or breweries around at the time, so we settled on this.”

One of the main features of the brewery is their mug club that patrons drink into.

“For every 25 beers you drink, you get a prize, and once you get up to 150, we give you a mug,” VanderMarliere said.

The mugs hanging from the ceilings of the brewery were added as they went, starting with 75 founding members. Now they are over 2,700 members.

VanderMarliere said their experience in St. Clair Shores has been great.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better town,” VanderMarliere said. “Like I said, I grew up here, been here for a long time, basically my whole life. So yeah, I love the city, I love the town. The way it’s expanded just over my lifetime has been incredible, but just over the last 10 years has been kind of remarkable.”

He went on to say that the town has grown organically, and people have taken notice of it.

VanderMarliere said they’ve had great relationships with other breweries within the city. They collaborate with other businesses and received mentorship from others when they started up.

“We all help each other. We’re all (in) really good relationships,” VanderMarliere said. “They come in here to drink beer. We go there to drink beer. Kind of a tight-knit community.”

Nina Tringali, manager at the Blue Goose on Jefferson Avenue, said the original restaurant was built in 1925 and reopened under new ownership on Nov. 1 of last year.

“The original owners who built the Blue Goose, her name was Gloria. She sold it off to Deda Paloka, in 2019, I believe it was. He had renovated it for two and a half years, and then reopened officially as Blue Goose under new ownership,” Tringali said.

Tringali has been here since the beginning. She said she helped with the hiring, scheduling, liquor tasting and much more.

“We’ve had almost all of the same staff since, so we’re doing pretty good with that,” Tringali said.

Tringali said the area in St. Clair Shores is a good area.

“A lot of the people that are here were regulars before,” Tringali said. “They used to come to the Blue Goose all the time. A lot of them say that they love the new renovation. So it’s completely different but they like the difference of it.”

Tringali said they’re friendly with the restaurants around town, and it’s a relatively small world in St. Clair Shores.

“It’s a pretty tight-knit community in the restaurant community over here,” Tringali said. “St. Clair Shores people tend to stay in St. Clair Shores. So, we get a lot of recurring customers.”

The renovations took the full two years, and Tringali said they completely gutted the building.

Patti Kukula, one of the owners of Dox Water Bar on Jefferson Avenue, said work on the restaurant is going well. They’re currently working on the menu and outside renovations.

Kukula said the approximate opening date is scheduled for the end of September, and they are currently hiring.

“We have our general manager,” Kukula said. “We’re real excited about that as well. She’s actually moving into St. Clair Shores.”

Kukula said the general manager previously lived in Ferndale and is an experienced worker.

The surrounding restaurants, Kukula said, have been the best.

“Baffin actually brought waters over when it was the 90-some degrees, you know,” Kukula said. “So I think Joe Van is one of the more tremendous people in the community.”

She added the manager from another business next door has been great as well. Having the support of both businesses allows for an open line of communication when inclement weather occurs and other things.

“They’re both so supportive of us,” Kukula said. “It’s great.”

The neighborhood association across the street is also very excited for the new business.

“It’s part of how we are,” Kukula said. “We want this to be the neighborhood’s place, and want people to make memories there with their families.”

The bar plans to offer catering, takeout, dining in, entertainment, late night food and more. Kukula said they’ve had relatively smooth sailing through the construction of the project.

“It’s great to work with the city. They’re so accessible by email or phone or meetings,” Kukula said. “Our architects have been really good to work with. Our construction company, the GM there. I mean, they’ve been really nice.”

VanderMarliere said the COVID-19 pandemic was a rough spot in business. Baffin’s major distribution model mainly failed because of the pandemic. In this model, they used to distribute across the entire state.

“COVID happened, we walked back our distribution model,” VanderMarliere said. “So now we just self-distribute. You can find us in local bars mainly on draft and if you want cans, we mainly just sell them in house.”

Tringali said that there was definitely a halt in renovations, and that getting things done at the restaurant was hard because of the pandemic.

Kukula hopes that the bar is the first place people think of when they choose a restaurant.

They’re looking forward to the years to come.

Tringali hopes the Blue Goose stays busy over the years.

“It’s really just been great so far,” Tringali said. “We’re just really grateful for how well it’s been since we’ve opened. We’re just hoping it keeps going like this.”

VanderMarliere said he never expected to be here when they started 10 years ago.

“If you had asked me before we opened, I mean, the average small business lasts less than three years, so that would have been my goal,” VanderMarliere said. “We’ve far surpassed that, so I’m very happy with that.”

He hopes that the brewery scene continues to come out with great products.

“Push the limits, push each other. That just produces better beer,” VanderMarliere said.

He said he hopes the city continues evolving, keeps bringing in events that people want to do, and continues to be conscious of people’s wallets with different events such as Music in the Park and others.

“I think it’s definitely helped get outside eyes onto the city, and I think if they keep concentrating on that, it’ll just evolve from there, too, continue to grow,” VanderMarliere said.