First things first. Yes, there really are three blondes who own the upcoming Three Blondes Brewing Company in South Haven, and no…the picture you see here is not one of the three blondes. It’s only one of them. The two guys you see in the photo, however, are pretty critical to the whole equation as they are the new Chef and the new Brewmaster for Three Blondes Brewing which is coming this summer to the lakefront community and getting more excited by the day.
The lead blonde is Carrie VanDerZee Troyer…and she’s the one in the middle, which is appropriate because she is at the epicenter of the amazing new brewpub and restaurant now under construction alongside her father’s renowned VanDerZee Motorplex at 1875 Phoenix Street in South Haven.
I got a tour of the impressive new space where contractors were hanging drywall, finishing up the brewing system, and otherwise very busy at prepping what will be a huge boost to the craft brew trail by, hopefully, mid-June.
The new Three Blondes Brewing Brewmaster is Jake Demski who comes to them from a five year stint with Greenbush Brewing in Sawyer. He’s busy finishing the installation of a new 15 barrel system that can potentially produce up to 3,000 barrels a year from the start. Jake says this year, because he won’t actually be brewing beer until April, they’ll likely finish “between 800 and 1,200 barrels this year, and hopefully around 2,000 next year, or maybe a little more.”
He tells me they will offer up, “Pretty much everything, starting out with a solid IPA, a good Porter, a Brown Ale, and naturally three blonde ales — one for each VanDerZee daughter.” Carrie’s sisters, Megan Zernicke and Amanda Johnson are partners in the business as are their husbands Adam Troyer, Matt Zernicke and Joe Johnson. Jake says once they’re underway he expects to add some lagers and sours, but…to start it will be “Straight up ales.”
I asked Demski about the often quirky names for craft beers, and he said naming always depends on the situation. He says, “Sometimes you have a name and think, ‘that’s a great name, I’ve gotta craft a beer for that,’ and then, sometimes a beer — especially one with a special ingredient — gets named off of that.” He admits, too, that “Some beers are just hard to name.” He’s not revealing any names yet…keeping that surprise for closer to show time.
The new Chef for Three Blondes Brewing is Sean Marr, who has a solid pedigree in the hospitality business, having been an executive chef for ten years, but, he says, “I’ve been working in kitchens since I was fifteen.” Following culinary school and a degree in business, Marr spent a lot of time in country clubs over the last 13 years, for combined total of 19 years in the food business. He has been the Chef for the Se4sons Gastro Pub and Muskegon Country Club most recently.
Carrie says, “Research showed us that most breweries don’t have very large kitchens, but we want a big focus on food, too, so the kitchen is substantial.” She adds, “Chef Sean helped consult on how big to make the kitchen and which amenities to provide there.”
Regarding that food focus, the new Chef says, it will be seasonal fare, so it will change. He says, “We’ll start with the summer menu, and I prepared a rough draft of that menu just yesterday.” So what can you look for? “A lot of burgers, and pizza will be the two main focal points. Also, tacos, a lot of different shared plates. Everyone’s favorites.”
Sean says, “We want to appeal to everyone, so (he says with a chuckle) lots of bacon.” But, he promises some healthy options, too. Sean is a big fan of healthy food, and likes to cook and serve it. He also promises the place will be kid- friendly, as well, with some unique and different ideas for the kids. He points out, “With several moms with six kids as owners, you can rest assured this place will welcome kids.”
The food will have a decided local flavor. Marr has established a lot of connections with local farms for many years, and will continue those relationships, and bring in as much as possible. He also adds, “We’re going to focus a lot on scratch made as much as possible.” While he doesn’t have any particular plans for a specialty of the house yet, “there are a few things on there that could be, but that will be my surprise to you all.” He adds, “I’m bringing a few of my favorites from the past few years with me. But a lot will be brand new to even myself, because I like to create and change things up. It will change a few times of year with the changing crops, but burgers and pizza will be staples year round, as other dishes will rotate in and out.”
Nothing goes with beer like pretzels, so he promises they will be a big hit. “We’ll make them fresh with local apple mustard that we will make ourselves. We make pretty much everything, there’s not much we won’t do in-house. We’ll even use spent grain from the beer making process for the pretzels, and we will experiment with a spent grain dough for pizzas as well.”
Demski started at Greenbush in 2013, after doing a little home-brewing at first. He says he learned everything else on the job at Greenbush, and found the Three Blondes Brewing job after another brewer acquaintance sent him a message and said that they were looking for somebody, and asked if he’d be interested so he said, “Hey, let’s talk.” He adds, “It’s just a great opportunity to get into something on the ground floor at the very beginning, and make your mark.”
Three Blondes Brewing is a 7,000 square foot addition to the Motorplex complex with a brewing house that is about 2,000 square feet of that. Then there’s the dining area, bar, kitchen, bathrooms, and a mezzanine level overlooking the taproom. They built in a large window to the brew house so folks can watch Jake in action. There will be a 30-foot long bar, a large outdoor concrete patio with seating and/or standing room for up to 80 people in the summer season.
The general seating area of the restaurant will seat about 100 at capacity, and then up to 49 more can make their way to the mezzanine level, overlooking the dining room and bar. There will be booth spaces, low tops and high tops on the lower level and the upper level will feature furniture recaptured from the old school library. The formal entry leads to small vestibule and host stand, and the large Three Blondes sign at the front of the space.
The furniture from the high school will be upstairs and they’ll name that area The Library. It will also be available for rent for semi-private parties, and a bit of soft seating lounge for those waiting for a table to enjoy a beer while waiting.
A half garage door will be along the patio wall with a counter on each side of the glass to allow a little fresh air in during nice weather.
The project is still targeted for mid-June completion, however a bad snow storm before the building was enclosed caused them to lose a couple of weeks. However, things are moving quickly now. Mid-June is still the target, but that’s if everything goes well, recognizing that permitting and things can delay operations. Carrie says, “It could be delayed, but we’re optimistic about June.”
She will be in the house all the time, transitioning out of her full time job as a financial analyst for Wolverine Worldwide right now, so she’s still working part time now in Grand Rapids, and part time here. In another month she will be on site full time, handling front of house operations and accounting – which is her background.
Her sisters will be around as much as they can, but they’re stay-at-home moms. Joe is a sales manager at the Motorplex, so he’ll be there, right next door. Matt, is the brainchild right now, behind the whole project. He’s project managing everything, and making sure everything stays on track. He’ll be around as much as he can, but he still has to have a full time job because of his stay at home wife and kids. Carrie’s husband is also in finance at Steelcase, so he’ll be helping her do some of the financial analysis, but he’ll keep his job. She says, however, “Our goal is for all of us to be involved full time down the road.”
In the beginning, the main focus for Three Blondes Brewing will be South Haven and the taproom. Carrie admits that they’d love to distribute their product at least locally to start with, but admits it’s tough to get into the distribution market, but they’ll focus on that when their more established. Another short to mid-term goal is to expand to include a small tasting room downtown, but that will have to wait “until we have some more capital to invest.”
You will, however, be able to take product to go through growlers and perhaps crowlers, especially the stainless steel type that you can take to the waterfront. As Carrie says, “This is a beach town, so we want to stay away from glass when we can for those headed to the beach with our products.”
If you really want to get in on the ground floor, you can already join the Three Blondes Mug Club online. Mug Club members will be the first to be invited to the soft opening of the taproom. They already have close to 50 members of the club, and all members get discounts, plus a tee shirt and a pint glass with the logo. Click the link below to join the club. Carrie says the entire family is “appreciative of, and pleased with, the community support as South Haven has rallied around us.” Meantime…stay tuned for the forthcoming opening of Three Blondes Brewing, coming this summer. Here’s the link:
