In response to Long Road's Facebook announcement, some commenters criticized Cadillac's leadership for not doing more to keep the business going.
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"We were offering to pay a lot of money plus tips … but where there's not housing for folks, when there's an influx in the population, it's just really nearly impossible for restaurants, bars or any customer-facing operation to staff up appropriately without a big population to draw from," he said. Van Strien attributed the Charlevoix closure to staffing issues and a lack of affordable housing for workers, especially during peak tourist season.
They closed the Boyne City operation and opened one in Charlevoix, but ended up running it as a retail operation for just a few months before closing it at the end of last year.
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Long Road previously had a location in Boyne City from 2018-21, but the business from which it was subleasing the space moved out, and the partners didn't want to take over the full lease, Van Strien said. "In a place like Cadillac, you don't have that population to draw on, and the population that is there doesn't have the same level of experience that we see in other locations." "Cadillac has a population of 10,000, which is the same as Grand Haven, but in Grand Haven, you have the Tri-Cities (Grand Haven, Spring Lake and Ferrysburg), and you can draw from Muskegon, Grand Rapids, Holland and other areas pretty easily, especially in the seasonal booms and busts of the tourist towns," Van Strien said. Those include its flagship distillery, restaurant and bar on Grand Rapids' West Side, the cocktail bar Less Traveled in Grand Rapids' East Hills neighborhood, and a tasting room in Grand Haven that opened in July 2019. Long Road decided not to renew it primarily due to a staffing shortage that was worse in Cadillac than at any of its other locations. Kyle Van Strien, co-owner of Long Road with Jon O'Connor, said the lease was up on the Cadillac space. The 3,000-square-foot storefront, which did not serve food, opened in spring 2021.
Long Road Distillers said in a Facebook post that it will close its tasting room at 412 S. GRAND RAPIDS - A Grand Rapids-based distillery is closing its third Northern Michigan location in a year.
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