Expansion Nears Completion At 9 Bean Rows, Chateau de Leelanau For Sale, More Fall Food & Bev Buzz

A quick look at what’s cooking this fall in the county:

9 Bean Rows — the heart-of-the-peninsula culinary destination for just-picked veggies, artisan bread and croissants, plus weekend wood-fired pizzas — is nearing the finish line of its $400,000 renovation and addition which began late winter 2022.

Owners Jen Welty (head baker) and Nic Welty (lead farmer) have added 2,000 square feet onto the existing café and bakery at their farmstead to create a more open and streamlined experience for customers, and to make room for a new state-of-the-art, wood-fired clay convection oven built on-site by Spanish artisans from Hornos Ipsor Barcelona. 

The Weltys have done much of the construction themselves, using cash on hand and a $100,000 loan from Don Coe, “one of our ardent supporters (and my personal hero),” says Jen Welty. “We were also helped out with a bridge loan from Venture North that was paid off last month.”

The business has been open through construction. “Hats off to every single person staff member, customer or construction worker that has endured the chaos,” she says. 9 Bean Rows fans can anticipate more of what they love in the market space, including gourmet take-away dinners, an expanded produce selection, and retail products.

Additionally, says Jen Welty, there will be a bar centered in front of the new oven where eventually (after the Weltys secure a winery license) customers can grab a glass of wine while they watch the bread being pulled from the oven. “We will have a very small tasting room not only for wine but for other in-house specialties, like sauerkraut, or jam, dried spices, or mustard…whatever we are growing/cooking with,” she adds.

The front-of-house addition has passed inspection; the back-of-the-house space is still under construction, awaiting a custom chimney to be delivered.

“We are hoping to have the entire space finished by mid-December but the oven up and running sooner,” says Jen Welty.

The new oven, a $150,000 investment, is a 12-foot round masonry and steel masterpiece that is wood fired “indirectly from beneath the hearth so no ashes are in the baking chamber,” she says. “It was extremely important for us to ditch the fossil fuels and go with wood. All the wood will be sourced from the hardwoods on our farm.” 

The new oven “will really allow us to hone our bread making craft and show off our skills. We’ve been using a defunct oven for so long now, coaxing loaf after loaf out of a falling apart piece of equipment that using the new oven will be like driving a Ferrari as opposed to driving a rusty old Datsun,” she laughs. 

In the meantime, it’s looking like fall on the 9 Bean Rows farm, especially with Nic’s passion project: His now-famous behemoth pumpkins currently reaching the largest sizes he’s ever cultivated.

Says Jen: “We invite people to enjoy weekends on the farm and to wander among the rows of veggies, grab a peck of apples, grab a pumpkin (or an extremely large one if you are strong enough) and see what pastries chef Trish has in store.” A short swoon list: pumpkin donuts, pear flan, caramel popcorn and carrot cake.

Nic Welty says they are making farmstead improvements to support more traffic through the market and café, including building farm worker housing — tiny houses which will be behind the forested ridge on the property. Also, “We are in the process of adding more outbuildings for farm activities, such as egg cleaning, potting sheds, green houses, u-pick station for apples and berries.”

More delicious change-of-season news:

The peninsula’s hard cider makers have juicy new releases for fall, among them Sumac Cider from Suttons Bay Ciders, Strawberry Jam from Tandem Ciders and Russet Cider from Two K Farms. More here.

Also in the wave of incoming seasonal libations: Hop Lot’s two new varieties of Marzen-style Oktoberfest lagers; a surprisingly crisp pumpkin ale called Smash Face; and a wet-hopped Harvest Ale IPA, brewed with four varieties of whole cone wet hops sourced from Michigan Hop Alliance just up the road in Omena.

Farm Club is also announcing its new can release of Fresh Hop Pale Ale, brewed with freshly harvested Michigan Cascade, grown by Spring Valley Hops in Thompsonville. The resulting beer has bright floral, citrus, notes of guava from the hops. Farm Club is prepping for its fall menu shift in coming days (i.e. a Thai curry with farm-grown lemongrass) and inviting the public to its second annual chile pepper roasting and corn shelling party. The free event — Saturday Oct. 1 at noon — is billed as a locals’ “hoedown” and “a taste of the Americas.” The farmers and chefs will have special limited menu that day with New Mexican potato green chili with cornbread made from Loma-grown and milled field corn, grilled cheese on masa sourdough with green chiles, and a fall harvest heirloom tomato soup.

The long-established Chateau de Leelanau commercial winery is for sale for $1,900,000. 

Lorri Schreiber, associate broker with Keller Williams Northern Michigan, shares that the sale includes 20 picturesque acres, a wine production facility and a potential tasting room. A buyer of the winery has the potential to lease nearby vineyards to use for their wine production. The turnkey business includes two brands: Chateau de Leelanau wines and Tractor Pull Hard Cider. Those businesses are temporary closed as the owner has relocated out of state. “The wine production facility is on Kolarik Road,” she says, with the property currently housing a “cool building that could easily convert to a tasting room. When they were open, they rented a space open M-22 for the tasting room.”

This week (Thursday, Sept. 29-Saturday, Oct. 1) will be the last chance until spring to nab Hannah’s  from-scratch, warm pretzels, jewellike macarons, and decadent cinnamon rolls in the bakery space in Lake Leelanau. Owner/baker Hannah Grinage announced that “due to unforeseen circumstances, after October 1st I will taking a break from retail sales until spring.”

Grinage is still baking, however. “I will continue to partner with Hansen Foods, the Leland Mercantile, Cedar River Coffee, and Northern Latitudes Suttons Bay, and Barb’s Bakery in Northport” this winter. She noted on social media, “I am sorry we are unable to stay open year-round this year...but it isn't a forever choice, just a for-now choice. Thank you so much for your continued support of my small business, it means the world to me.”

Editor's note: a previous version of this story indicated that the listed Chateau de Leelanau property includes vineyard farmland with potential to be leased; rather, a buyer of the winery has the potential to lease nearby vineyards to use for their wine production.