Bayside Gallery’s New Owners Open Ride Leelanau; Cedar City Market II Seeks New Tenants; Martha’s Requires Proof Of Vaccination

It’s official: the peacock blue Bayside Gallery in Suttons Bay has changed hands, with decades-long owners Sally and Tom Harrison passing the torch to Lee and Cyndi Millns, who have relocated to the village from Brighton. Commercial broker Marty Stevenson of EXIT Realty Paramount tells the Leelanau Ticker the purchase of the landmark property was complete in June; the business sale was final last week after the couples working side-by-side this summer.

Cyndi Millns assures that while bringing new artists into the mix, the trademark kaleidoscope of blown glass outdoors will remain: “It’s such an iconic place; we will work with the same artists and vendors.” Two longtime employees will also continue at the gallery.

What’s new? The Millns along with son, Tristan, 20, are opening a secondary business, Ride Leelanau, today (Sept. 1), with the back portion of the building now fully dedicated to e-bike rentals. Cyndi Millns, who discovered electric bikes as “the great equalizer” exploring the hills of Leelanau County during quarantine, says the front porch will have “a welcoming vibe and be a place for art and bikes to co-mingle.” She says with the building being steps from the Leelanau Trail, “riders will have the freedom to get to the trail, visit wineries, or head all the way to Traverse City and back.” The backroads up to Northport are also a massive draw, she says. “On top of that,” she notes, “Tom and Sally used to live upstairs, so there is a three-room condo we are renting through Airbnb.”

The Millns will be full-time residents and owner-operators, with Cyndi continuing as a professor of cyber security and computer networking at Washtenaw Community College. Lee Millns is a retired military officer and designer of telecom networks.

The current fleet of 46 Rad electic bikes, now available for two-hour, four-hour, daily and overnight reservations, will grow to 65 next spring. Deliveries are also in the works. Check out the Ride Leelanau website or Facebook page for more. 

Also in Suttons Bay, chef Martha Ryan welcomes a relative return to calm at Martha’s Leelanau Table, after Eater Detroit broke news last week that her farm-to-table restaurant (which she runs with her son Matt Ryan and daughter-in-law Andi Ryan) was one of the first in the region — and the state — to require proof of vaccination against COVID-19 to dine indoors. The story was picked up by the Metro Times, which led to backlash on the eatery’s Facebook page, where Ryan had originally made mention of the vaccination requirement to her followers and patrons.

“I posted notice that we were closed Tuesday and Wednesday — new hours for us — and I slipped in there that we started asking guests to show their vaccination cards or a picture of it on their phone to dine inside as of August 16.” She says that diners are made aware when they make reservations, and that “it’s been going well. Sunday night we had 87 guests.” No vaccination proof is required to dine on the outdoor patio at Martha’s; masks are required — vaccinated or not — to enter the building.

“I first heard of this from a restaurateur I highly respect, Danny Meyer, who is head of Union Square Hospitality [and founder of Shake Shack and other NYC fine dining establishments]. He’s starting this at all his restaurants September 6th. I checked with my lawyer and — with the spread of the new Delta variant — my son, his wife, and I decided it is a good policy going forward into fall.”

While many were supportive, she says, “we did get a lot of hate mail…and quite a bit of flak on Facebook: saying they hope my restaurant closes, calling me a Nazi and a Communist.”

She notes that Leelanau County has highest rate of vaccination in the state, and “we’re probably the only restaurant in the area that’s doing it. But we have come this far through it. I remember when we were open at 25 percent, which was 12 people indoors at one time. I don’t want to go back there. I want our diners to be comfortable, and to keep our staff safe, customers safe, and community safe.”

In Cedar, David and Theresa Gersenson have announced that the specialty grocery and meat counter, Cedar City Market II, which they opened over the winter has closed permanently, and they are now selling their remaining frozen meats and locally sourced grocery items by appointment. 

The couple shared in a Facebook post, “It’s unfortunate that we were unable to serve the community in the way that we had hoped.”

David Gersenson tells the Leelanau Ticker, “Ultimately that falls to my shoulders,” adding, “We own the building outright, and the lot next door. At this point we are willing — to the right person — give an opportunity with the lease to get them through the winter. There are a lot of people with business ideas — brewery, grab-and-go, catering, or some combination — willing to give it a shot. As the labor market continues to tighten up, owner operation is key.”

The market is housed in the iconic Pleva’s Meats building in the heart of downtown, which the Gersensons purchased last November. 

Meanwhile, the couple, who also co-owns Broomstack Kitchen & Taphouse and Leelanau Curling Club in the historic schoolhouse in Maple City, shares that both Broomstack and the curling club “have had good summers, financially, though the lack of workers is keeping our hours limited.” They have transferred part of their ownership of Broomstack to a few key employees, with a majority going to managing partner Alfiero Silveri. “He’s really taken Broomstack to the next level,” says Gersenson, noting that with this latest business move, “we are giving up control at Broomstack.”

This decision coincides with an expansion of the curling club aspect of the business to Austin, Texas, creating what Gersenson says is “the southernmost dedicated curling facility in the country” with a goal to “change the trajectory of curling in America.”

The Gersensons travel to Texas for Curl Austin’s grand opening this Friday. They, along with Leelanau-local business partner Ben Bryant, have hired Tyler George, of the 2018 Olympic gold medal curling team, to help run the new venture. “We are taking a huge leap of faith in the sport of curling for sure; we’re going full bore.”

Pictured: Lee and Tristan Millns of Ride Leelanau, which opens today in Suttons Bay.