In May 2022, a tornado packing winds of 150 mph slammed into a mobile home park before ripping through a section of a strip mall on Main Street/M-32 near downtown Gaylord, the Alpine-themed town along I-75 in Otsego County.
In the 11 minutes the tornado was on the ground, two residents of the mobile home park were killed and 44 other people were injured. The twister also flipped over cars, uprooted trees, and knocked homes off their foundations.
On the west end of the Pine Ridge Square shopping plaza, the roof of the Hobby Lobby store was torn off, which damaged the interior. Several adjacent businesses — Maurices, the Goodwill store, and a Jimmy Johns restaurant — suffered similar damage. A nearby Aldi’s market, a Five Guys eatery, and a Panera Bread restaurant also were damaged, while a gas station and a Little Caesars Pizza store across the street from the shopping center had to be demolished.
Nearly two years later, a new Hobby Lobby and a Goodwill store are under construction, while most of the other businesses have reopened — including Maurices, which now occupies a larger footprint in the plaza than before.
While these businesses on Main Street on the west side of I-75 were rising from the storm’s wreckage, the downtown area on the east side of the freeway was left untouched and is undergoing a revival of its own.
Despite a sluggish economy impacted by high interest rates and inflation, Gaylord is booming. Over the past two years, the northern retreat has seen double-digit increases in tourists, shoppers, golfers, and outdoor enthusiasts flocking to the easily accessible town, ideally situated at the crossroads of two major highways.
“Hotel room sales through September were up 15 percent,” says Paul Beachnau, executive director of the Gaylord Area Convention and Tourist Bureau. “In June, room sales were up 25 percent. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
In the past three years, four new hotels have opened in the downtown area, increasing hotel room inventory by 15 percent. The addition of the Comfort Inn & Suites, Tru by Hilton, Mainstay Suites, and the Hampton Inn raised the number of available rooms to 1,357.
Older hotels like the Best Western Gaylord and Quality Inn stepped up their game and renovated their facilities, as well.
A pair of year-round attractions, Treetops Resort and the Otsego Resort, which attract golfers and winter sport enthusiasts, also have spruced up their facilities in recent years. For example, Treetops invested more than $12 million in renovations, new lodging, restaurants, and ski operations, while $3 million in upgrades have been added at the Otsego Resort.
Meanwhile, six years after the city approved the project, a 220,000-square-foot Menards home improvement store is under construction adjacent to a Meijer superstore on M-32, on the far west side of town. Competitors Home Depot and Lowes are already established in the market.
Beachnau credits a forward-thinking city council for its support of downtown development and infrastructure, including the maintenance and promotion of a 108-acre elk park where visitors can catch a close-up view of some 40 animals. The park will soon be enhanced by a $700,000 grant the city recently received from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to fund an accessible elk viewing platform, an additional entrance into Aspen Park, and a playground.
“It’s a million-dollar project, and we’re helping to fund that with some matching funds,” Beachnau says.
He suggests two reasons for the surge Gaylord is experiencing: its location at the intersection of two major highways, I-75 and M-32, and its lower price points compared to Traverse City, Char-levoix, and Petoskey.
Northern Charm
For many travelers heading to northern Michigan, the small city of Grayling, just off I-75, is a pass-through on the road to other destinations.
Those who stop and visit, however, may be surprised to discover a vibrant community anchored by a picturesque Victorian-themed main street, flanked by one of the state’s most famous outdoor attractions, the AuSable River.
The community also is home to Camp Grayling, the largest National Guard training center in the country. At 148 acres, the base is the largest employer in Crawford County, generating more than $30 million annually for the local economy.
Fly-fishing on the AuSable is one of Grayling’s most notable attractions, as is the restaurant in the decades-old Gates AuSable Lodge. Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the 40-seat restaurant overlooks the river and offers an ever-changing dinner menu that puts a creative spin on favorites such as trout and walleye. Reservations are a must for dinner.
Every July since 1947, the City of Grayling stages the week-long AuSable River Festival, which features the AuSable canoe marathon — one of the premier canoe races in the country.
With a population of less than 2,000 residents, the small city punches above its weight in attractions, new developments, and community involvement. On the construction front, two new apartment complexes are in the works; one with 108 units opens this spring, and another with 44 units is scheduled to begin construction by the summer.
The city also boasts three breweries — Paddle Hard Brewing, Dead Bear Brewing Co., and Rolling Rock Brewing Co. — that were the impetus for the recently designated Brew Avenue social district. In the area surrounding the breweries, patrons can stroll downtown streets sipping their favorite beverages.
Paddle Hard and Dead Bear have full restaurants, while Rolling Rock offers a food truck. Also in the district is Spike’s Keg ’O’ Nails, a Grayling landmark, founded in 1933 the day after Prohibition ended. Recent renovations include garage-like doors that open the back of the restaurant to the AuSable River.
A new gas station and convenience store might not count as a major development in some areas, but when two old stations near downtown were torn down and replaced, it was good news in Grayling.
“These aren’t big developments, but they spruce up the community,” says Erich Podjaske, Grayling’s city manager. “The BP Easy Mart gas station took down an old car repair shop and put in a brand-new building. It’s a lot cleaner and looks nice. Across the way, a Shell gas station demolished their building and is putting up a new structure that will be another thing to spruce up downtown.”
The impetus for the 108-unit apartment development came from officials at Camp Grayling, who approached the city about the need for housing that allowed tenants to sign short-term leases. Now, the three-building complex going up along M-93 will be available for military and civilian renters.
In turn, a vacant lot across the railroad tracks from the downtown Crawford County Courthouse is the site of The Sawmill Lofts project, which has been on the drawing board since 2021. The five-story building with 42 apartments also will offer 3,000 square feet of commercial space.
In adjacent Grayling Township, Arauco North America’s $450 million particle board plant employs more than 200 workers, many of whom come in from neighboring communities and drive up revenue for Grayling businesses.
“Businesses report their sales have grown in the last four years, year over year, since the plant opened, so it has had a positive impact for us,” Podjaske says.
Along Michigan Avenue in downtown Grayling, meanwhile, a vacant historic storefront built in 1934 is being transformed into a 175-seat performance theater, artist studios, and retail space. The new facility is the work of the AuSable Artisan Village, a nonprofit organization founded by Terry Dickinson, a local artist.
Podjaske says the theater and live concerts it plans to stage, along with pottery studios and an art gallery, will have a big impact on bringing more visitors downtown.
He expects similar results when Mimi & Pipi’s Casa Italiana restaurant opens this summer. The upscale eatery is owned by Gaylord residents and benefactors Matthew and Christine LaFontaine. The couple also owns the Matt LaFontaine Automotive dealership.
“Our focus is trying to attract businesses, locally owned businesses,” Podjaske says. “We’re not looking for chain or franchise restaurants or stores. We like our quaint community and want to keep its original charm.”
— By Norm Sinclair
“We’re becoming more of a regional shopping hub because we’re easy to get to. People from smaller communities around us, like Mackinac City, Hillman, Alpena, and Grayling, are coming here because of the growing retail we have,” Beachnau says. “They come for a day, do some shopping, and stay overnight with the nice restaurant vibe we have going.”
Taking a bow for efforts by the convention and tourism bureau, Beachnau points to the group’s year-round efforts to publicize the town. “We’ve developed a really strong marketing program for Gaylord; our brand is all outdoors,” he says. “We’re not necessarily the cheapest destination, but we’re one with value as an alternative to more expensive areas.”
Beachnau and others in the tourism industry believe the growing number of non-stop airline flights during the summer from hot-weather locations into Traverse City is having a trickle-down effect on Gaylord, which conducts cross-promotional campaigns with airports in cities like Dallas.
“Our Google analytics data shows Texas is now No. 7 in our Top 10 list of outside visitors. We’re seeing people from Florida coming on. These are states that never showed up before,” Beachnau says. “Climate tourism is the new buzzword, and we’re embracing it. People are looking to get out of those heat domes and we’re positioned very nicely.”
Barry Owens, general manager of Treetops Resort, says he’s watching similar trends.
“We’re tracking our visitors’ ZIP codes and we’re getting guests from areas where direct flights are coming in from Dallas, or from the East Coast, or from Florida,” Owens says.
Susan Wilcox–Olsen, a spokesperson for Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City, says by last October, the airport had already broken its annual record for passengers served, with more than 619,000 coming through the gates. The previous record was 609,000 passengers.
“We attribute a lot of that to our partnerships with northern Michigan communities like Gaylord. Gaylord is a key component, especially in the Dallas market,” she says. “Golfers are coming in from all over to play Treetops (and other courses) and are really making an impact.”
A new year-round route starting this year from Fort Lauderdale will be the 18th market the airport services, with 20 non-stop flights, Wilcox-Olsen adds. To handle the uptick in demand, three new gates were recently added at the airport, and three more are scheduled to go into service this year.
In 2022, 17 golf courses the Gaylord tourism bureau promotes as the Gaylord Golf Mecca recorded revenue of $18.9 million, an increase of nearly $1.3 million over the year before. The 2023 returns are not yet completed, but Owens and Beachnau are confident they will surpass the previous year.
To help meet visitor demand, on the east side of Gaylord on Main Street/M-32, a new five-building apartment complex recently opened. An upscale RV park next door will open this spring. The Pines45 complex, with five three-story buildings, offers 228 apartments spread across 37 acres — it’s located across the road from the Otsego Resort.
The development includes a community and fitness center, garages, an outdoor pool complex, a dog park, a playground, picnic and grilling areas, and walking trails. Units range from 600-foot studios to 1,500-square-foot, three-bedroom models. All have stainless steel appliances and 9-foot ceilings. Monthly rent ranges from $1,045 for the studios to $2,025 for three-bedroom units.
Gary Vollmar and his wife, Kathie, owners of the Otsego Resort, say their new neighbors are welcome additions. “The apartments are a little top end, but they’re doing well and they’re really needed, as housing has always been a problem in Gaylord,” Gary says. “They (city and county economic growth officials) are working hard to alleviate that issue, but we still have a shortage.”
The RV park, Alpen Bluffs Outdoor Resort, is expected to open this spring on 20 acres. Each RV site has 50-amp electric service, hook-up for city sewer and water, a patio area with a picnic table and a fire pit, and access to cable and Wi-Fi.
RV owners can book added guests into a camping yurt — a circular, fully furnished canvas tent that accommodates up to six people. Each yurt is equipped with a small kitchen, a bathroom with a stand-up shower, a television, heat, and air conditioning.
In the near future, a number of home cabins with lofts that sleep up to eight people will be added. They will be fully furnished, and have heat and air conditioning. Those new amenities will be joined by a convenience store, retail space, a car wash adjacent to the park, and a bar-restaurant with a patio and seven golf simulators, to be called Mulligans at the Bluffs.
Common park amenities include a pond with inflatable attractions for kids, play structures, an outdoor pool and a hot tub, pickleball courts and mini golf, a dog park, laundry facilities and showers, and a camp store.
“It’ll be great for tourism,” says Kim Awrey, city manager of Gaylord. “We don’t have anything like it in the Gaylord area.”
Since purchasing the Otsego Resort in 2018, the Vollmars have been upgrading the golf and ski club, founded in 1939 as a private club and a playground for auto industry families from metro Detroit. Gary Vollmar says his first order of business following the acquisition was bringing both of the resort’s golf courses — the Classic and the Tribute — up to first-class condition.
“We put a lot of manpower and resources into it,” he says. “We fixed the broken irrigation system, bought new equipment to maintain the courses, and acquired new golf carts to upgrade the experience on our courses.”
A new halfway house on the Tribute course will open this spring, while new red tin roofs, fresh paint, and new woodwork are being added on all nine buildings across the Otsego campus. In turn, the resort’s celebrated restaurant, The Duck Blind Grille, was recently renovated to make it more of an open space. The upgrades included the addition of a 14-seat, horseshoe-shaped bar.
Nearby, the River Cabin bar in the valley at the base of the ski hill was similarly redone and added a new L-shaped, 14-seat bar.
“A lot of this is driven by the huge support we get from the community in Gaylord and surrounding areas,” Vollmar says. “Last winter, we opened up Wednesday and Thursday skiing at a reduced rate, and 700 to 800 skiers, mostly locals, (regularly) showed up on those two nights. It’s been a big hit.”
Vollmar says this year he’s focused on developing real estate for residences or second homes. Construction is slated for the first of six lots that were recently sold at the Woods Cabin development. That project was stalled for years, with only five cabins built at that site. He says when completed, the development will have 14 cabins.
At Treetops, a new restaurant space in the main lodge lobby was carved out for Bar 81, serving hand-crafted cocktails — some with hand-stamped ice cubes — with a breakfast, lunch, and a light dinner menu. “It’s a limited dinner menu but you see people down there now with their computers, or they may have eaten in one of our other restaurants and came back there for a glass of wine,” Owens says.
The bar features a wide choice of Iron Fish distillery products, which are made in Thompsonville near Lake Michigan, an expansive wine list, and local craft beer from the Big Buck and Snow Belt breweries. The Bar 81 concept was developed by new food and beverage director Greg Jones, who has stepped up all the offerings at all four Treetops restaurants.
New lodging units also are on tap at Treetops. Six old chalets with 30 rooms have been rebuilt into two buildings with six two-bedroom and six three-bedroom units. Four new rentals, the Jones Cottages, have been built on the hillside overlooking the Par-3 fourth hole on the Masterpiece course, while four more will be built in the next 15 months, Owens says.
Last year, the Tradition golf course was given a major face-lift as 1,000 trees were removed, giving the layout the open look of an inland links course. “It’s really neat. From one spot on the course you can see 16 flags on the other holes,” he says. The open layout also cuts down on maintenance costs and keeps tree leaves from impacting the greens during the fall.
Owens is excited about this winter season, as well. Nearly $3 million has been invested in upgrades in snowmaking equipment, tubing offerings, two new ski runs, and two belt-like Magic Carpet conveyor lifts to transport children and beginners up the slopes.
“This season we’re introducing a new teaching program that makes it easier for beginners to learn to ski,” Owens says. “It’s a program, Terrain Based Learning, that’s been tested, proven, and trademarked throughout the country.”
In northern Michigan, the program is exclusively offered at Treetops. “They do everything from helping to train our instructors to showing our Snow Cat operators how to groom the area where people will be learning,” Owens says. “Terrain Based Learning has had great success in converting beginner skiers to full-time skiers.”
Owens says the investments in golf and skiing are paying off. “We’re up in excess of 20 percent in golf rounds played, room nights, and revenue — all across the board,” he says.
Perhaps the most remarkable turnaround in Gaylord is the exploding restaurant and dining scene. Nearly a dozen new restaurants have replaced worn-out diners or eateries that succumbed to some of the worst COVID-19 shutdowns in the country.
Choices now range from sushi to Italian to steak and seafood. “Our restaurant scene is totally different from what it was. We have a very nice selection of restaurants with a really different vibe,” Beachnau says. “We have some really good spots that focus on cuisine and atmosphere.”
Some of that vibe is found at the former Sugar Bowl restaurant, a family-owned landmark along Main Street for more than 100 years. The last surviving family member retired and sold the business in 2017.
While the venture didn’t survive the pandemic, it’s now home to El Patron Grill, an upscale Mexican eatery operated by veteran restauranteur Caesar Umbral.
Cut stone walls, a granite bar top, and colorful walls have transformed the rustic Up-North look of the Sugar Bowl into that of a bright, colorful hacienda. Umbral and his two associates who launched El Patron, Jerman Venegas and Rafael Vidal, also are involved in Rafi’s Hibachi & Sushi Bar, which opened last summer down the street from the former Sugar Bowl.
The new restaurant occupies a space that, for three decades, was the original home of Diana’s Delights, a popular breakfast, lunch, and Sunday brunch spot. The same emphasis on fresh ingredients found at El Patron is in play at Rafi’s. Seafood including lobster, shrimp, and scallops is delivered by a Chicago-based supplier that services other northern Michigan restaurants.
Another changeover sharing the 138 W. Main Street downtown address with Rafi’s is the Karma Taproom, a replacement for Taproom 32, another establishment that didn’t survive the fallout from COVID-19.
As the taproom name suggests, Karma, which opened in August 2022, is a beer and craft cocktail bar that doesn’t serve food. Karma features more than 20 mostly craft beers on tap, as well as a selection of locally produced spirits.
The team behind the Karma Taproom consists of Eric and Samm Hamina, who have experience in the local bar and restaurant scene — he’s a former manager of Gaylord’s Applebee’s restaurant, and his wife worked as a bartender at Snowbelt Brewing Co.
A few doors down on Main Street, the Crave Pasta-Pizza-Pub, located in a 142-year-old building that housed Gaylord’s first hardware store, gets rave reviews for its “absurdly fast” baking time — three minutes — for pizza coming out of an oven that reaches 1,100 degrees and simultaneously heats from the top and bottom. The restaurant is owned by Gary and Wendy Kosch, who also oversee Alpine Tavern and Eatery, a sports bar around the corner on South Otsego Avenue.
One of Gaylord’s longest-running eyesores was the defunct Fire Side Inn and its adjoining softball field on South Otsego Avenue, which went out of business in 2002.
The property was purchased six years ago by local residents Lindsey and Ed Taylor and their business partner, Tony Vaden. After renovations, the trio brought the business back as the Blind Squirrel, a family-friendly sports bar and restaurant. The softball field was also restored, and dozens of co-ed teams now play there in a Monday-Thursday summer league.
Another destination restaurant with a big impact on Gaylord is the Big Buck Brewery, mothballed for several years and rescued in 2018 by Shawn and Kathy Smalley. The couple spent months renovating the space and upgrading equipment. Although steak remains on the menu, they dropped “steakhouse” from the original name, Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse.
The towering beer bottle that stands outside the restaurant and is visible from I-75 was restored. The artist who painted the original deer label on the bottle was brought back to freshen up his work.
The brewery uses Michigan-grown hops and produces more than a dozen different craft beers and cider that flow into taps in the restaurant. The eclectic menu ranges from bison and elk to fresh walleye, tacos, and pizza.
Perhaps the most impactful player on the Gaylord restaurant scene is Kat Steinbrecher, who opened her fourth restaurant last summer when she bought the property that housed the Bearded Dogg, once an intimate dining spot that enjoyed a decade of success as a niche spot for foodies.
In its place, Steinbrecher created Kanes Lobster Pot & Bourbon Bar, serving Cajun/Creole cuisine. Her purchase included the attached Old Spud Warehouse, a trendy home décor merchandise shop that also introduced various lines of hip, offbeat women’s clothing and shoes.
Two food trucks on a lot behind the warehouse are part of the deal, and Steinbrecher now operates them, as well.
The other three Steinbrecher restaurants are the Porter Haus, a steak and seafood house that was once home to the Stampede Saloon on Gaylord’s south end; Mary’s Stein Haus, a German-themed restaurant that replaced Mary’s Tavern on Main Street; and Abi’s Bistro, next door to Mary’s on Main Street. The bistro took over the site of the former Arlene’s Diner, and is a breakfast and lunch operation.
“Kat has done a very nice job. She goes all out. She does the theme of each restaurant really well, and she’s put a lot of money in them,” Beachnau says. “She’s doing really well at each location.”
In May of 2022, Steinbrecher was honored with the Trailblazer Award from the convention and tourism bureau. The annual award recognizes an individual or group that has made a significant contribution to improving the local tourism product within Gaylord/Otsego County and the surrounding area.
“Dining is a vital aspect of travel, and experiencing locally owned, distinctive cuisine is a priority for many guests and is part of our overall charm,” Beachnau says. “Kat has not only breathed new life into empty buildings, but she also gives them a creative flair that’s especially appealing to visitors.”
