MANISTEE, MI – A pair of former Mackinac Island business house owners prepare to bring frozen margaritas, paddleboards and extra to an Up North Lake Michigan beach front this summer and further than.
Jack and Terrie Armstrong ended up calendar year-round citizens of Mackinac Island for 20 decades just before recently marketing their 6 island businesses and buying property in Manistee County wherever the pair programs to create a home and run a ramped-up seaside concession stand.
The spouse-and-wife duo not long ago signed a 3-12 months contract (with two one particular-calendar year extensions) with the town of Manistee to run their Sunset Grill at the First Street Seashore concession stand. But they are taking it a several ways additional.
“We would actually like to make this some thing a lot more than just a concession stand,” Jack Armstrong explained to MLive.
His vision?
“The entire relatives can come down to the seaside and have a terrific lunch,” he stated. “Then mother and dad can have a frozen strawberry margarita and the kids can go out on a paddleboard.”
The business starts with a menu of smoked meats, barbeque, ice cream treats, frozen margaritas and draft beer – and then spirals out from there.
Jack Armstrong expects a significant draw to be “theme nights” wherever the concession delivers Italian, Mexican, Polish, seafood, barbeque and other sorts of delicacies on rotation.
Sunset Grill will give smoked meats, burgers, frozen margaritas and much more at Manistee’s 1st Road Beach concession stand starting this summer months.Offered by Jack Armstrong
One more facet is celebration organizing and catering at the beach front, like weddings, he stated.
Which is something the few is experienced in.
“We did a ton of weddings on Mackinac Island, Jack Armstrong explained. “(The beach) is a good everyday location. It’s a fantastic collecting spot and persons are extra comfortable. I assume it would be a pure suit in this article.”
The Armstrongs earlier owned Mackinac Island Occasion Preparing, Cannonball Catering, Cannonball Drive Inn, Smokey Jose’s, Mackinac Island Tuxedo and Men’s Don and Somewear on Mackinac (a women’s boutique at The Grand Lodge).
Likely even even more, the Armstrongs plan to fill a void at the beach front: watersport rentals. They will give paddleboards and kayaks this calendar year – maybe far more choices in the long run.
“We’re in it for the very long haul,” Jack Armstrong reported.
His spouse, Terrie Armstrong, is from Bear Lake, which is about 17 miles north of Manistee. The couple not long ago acquired her great grandfather’s farm house in Bear Lake and system to build a home there.
The Armstrongs system to fulfil the total five years of their town contract and then apply once more. They are currently creating a “significant investment” in the seashore pavilion with upgraded kitchen equipment, such as a meat smoker, grill and fryers.
Manistee’s First Road Seaside/Douglas Park incorporates a number of playgrounds, sports fields, gazebos and picnic locations, a boat start, a fish cleaning station, and a puppy park. A new Hampton Inn & Suites is envisioned to open up this spring across the street from the waterfront.
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