These new Lansing area restaurants are opening during the pandemic

CHARLOTTE - KorrieLinn DeLand was days away from opening her own bakery in mid-March when a state mandate shut down dine-in service at restaurants around the state.

Amid COVID-19's arrival in Michigan, a final inspection scheduled for the next day of her new business, The Cheesecake Shack, was canceled.

"I saw it coming but I was really hoping that I’d catch them before everything shut down," DeLand said. "I was literally a day late."

DeLand spent nearly a year and about $30,000 renovating a 300-square-foot building on her property off Hooper Road, once used as a chicken coop, into a small, brightly-decorated bakery with pink walls, translucent curtains, and a few places for customers to sit and visit while they enjoy a slice of her cheesecake.  

The sit-down destination outside Charlotte is meant to be a home base for KorrieLinn's Cheesecakes, a wholesale cheesecake business she built from the ground up.

"I didn’t think that it would actually happen and then when COVID hit it was even more stressful and seemed far-fetched," DeLand said.

The pandemic halted those plans for several months, but late last month final inspections at the building were conducted.

Despite nearly a dozen restaurant and coffee shop closures in Greater Lansing since March, The Cheesecake Shack, at 9248 Hooper Rd., will open for business Saturday. 

DeLand isn't alone in forging ahead.

More than a half dozen new eateries are expected to open this summer and fall throughout Greater Lansing, despite COVID-19. At least one, Zynda's in Williamston, may only be available for private events until capacity restrictions on restaurants are eased. Others are setting up shop in spaces vacated by restaurants that have closed in the last five months.

Here's what we know about Lansing area eateries expected to open this summer and fall.

Acapulco Mexican Grill, Charlotte location

Acapulco Mexican Grill, a family-owned eatery on North Clippert Street in Frandor, will open a second location in downtown Charlotte.

The restaurant, at 112 S. Cochran Ave., is owned by Dutch Brothers Development Group. Its first floor was previously occupied for more than 30 years by the family restaurant the Gavel and then Dolson Tavern & Eatery, a joint venture between Dutch Brothers and Lansing restaurant group the Potent Potables Project. The Dolson closed its doors more than two years ago.  

Last month Jose Vera, an owner of Acapulco Mexican Grill, said his family, who is leasing the space, hopes to open the restaurant by the end of August. The restaurant will serve "authentic Mexican food," Vera said, along with a full bar menu.

Fiesta Charra, Lake Lansing Road location

A third Fiesta Charra Mexican Restaurant location will open sometime this week in a building near the Eastwood Towne Center in Lansing Township.

The 8,500-square-foot building at 2706 Lake Lansing Rd. was formerly home to La Senorita Mexican Restaurant. It closed more than a year ago.

The new restaurant will offer the same menu available at the DeWitt and East Lansing Fiesta Charra restaurants, said Ignacio Melendez, one of the restaurant's owners.

About $300,000 was spent on the building's renovation, he said.

The pandemic did slow the eatery's opening, he said Wednesday morning. It had been planned for April before COVID-19. Now it will open at 50% capacity. 

"We waited almost four months," Melendez said.

Jolly Pumpkin Cafe & Brewery, East Lansing

The Jolly Pumpkin Cafe &Brewery already has seven locations in Michigan and Illinois. Now the brewery plans to bring its artisan ales and food, including pizza and its "perfect fried chicken sandwich," to East Lansing.

An eighth location, at 218 Albert Ave. in East Lansing, had been slated to open this summer but the pandemic slowed it, said Marie Silvio, the brewery's director of marketing.

Now the business is taking job applications and planning interviews that will be held just outside the new location between Aug. 10 and Aug. 22 for its 6,000-square-foot brewery near Michigan State University's campus. The brewery is hoping to hire between 50 and 55 people, Silvio said.

The new location, which offers an upper mezzanine and outdoor patio, is slated to open in mid-September at less than half capacity, Silvio said. 

Social Sloth Cafe & Bakery

Downtown Lansing is poised to get its own Turkish bakery and cafe in the Social Sloth Cafe & Bakery.

Owners Burcay and Aybars Gunguler chose the name because sloths are "relaxed and focused," Burcay Gunguler said.

"They take it slow," she wrote in a text message to the State Journal. "So we wanted a gathering place where people can relax and chill out."

They have been using the hashtag #letshangtogether in promoting the business.

Customers can expect items made fresh daily on-site including sandwiches made with house-made bread, Turkish baklava, pastries, ravioli, coffee and tea. 

Burcay Gunguler said they hope to open the bakery sometime this month at 301 S. Washington Square, the former home of Backyard Bar-B-Q, which closed in August 2019.

Sunshine Diner

SunshineDiner will open Monday in a South Pennsylvania Avenue space previously occupied by The Brunch House, which closed in mid-March. 

Manager Leona Jones said the family-owned diner will serve breakfast and lunch seven days a week. Menu items will include standard diner fare and some specialties, including Biryani, a mixed rice dish made with chicken or lamb. 

Jones said while there was some concern about the impact of opening during the pandemic would have on business, there's no end in sight to COVID-19.

"I don’t see this pandemic fading away any time soon so I figured, let's try it now," she said.

Seating will be limited, Jones said. The diner has 18 tables but will operate at 50% when it opens.

The Tangy Crab

There are "limited" seafood restaurants in Greater Lansing, according to David Yang, and that's why The TangyCrab makes sense here.

The Cajun-inspired eatery will open in the 6,000-square-foot former home of Finley's Grill & Smokehouse on West Saginaw Highway in Delta Township. The Finley's location closed its doors in May.

Yang, one of The Tangy Crab's owners, said the restaurant's menu will offer traditional Louisiana food, including a southern boil made with seafood, spices, sauce, vegetables, sausage and other additions.

There are plans for a full bar too, Yang said, but right now ownership is renovating the space.

The Tangy Crab could open by early November, he said.

Zynda's

Plans to open Zynda's, the latest restaurant to occupy a more than century-old, two-story building at 150 E. Grand River Ave. in Williamston, this fall may be modified thanks to the pandemic.

The building was home to the Red Cedar Grill for 25 years until it closed in January.

Zynda's will be new owner Adam Zynda's concept. It's his first brick and mortar restaurant. Zynda spent the last five years building a following for his East Lansing-based food truck, Zynda BBQ and SmokeShack.

Now he's writing the historical building's next chapter, as a restaurant that offers a fusion of barbecue and Southwestern flavors, along with "a little bit of everything."

Nikki Zynda, who is heading up the new eatery's marketing, said the building's renovations are ongoing and it could be ready by this fall, but the eatery won't open to serve customers until the state lifts capacity restrictions.  

"In a perfect world we could open in the fall," she said. "We’ll have things ready for the fall. The difference is if things stay at 50% we’ll probably just do small events until we can open at full capacity."

Moving ahead with optimism

At The Cheesecake Shack there will be limited seating inside and some outdoor deck seating. 

The eatery will offer cheesecake, coffee and other baked goods, including muffins, cupcakes, lemon bars, brownies, cinnamon rolls, cookies and cheesecake tacos – shells deep fried, tossed in a sugary mixture, filled with cheesecake and topped with fruit or candy.

DeLand is choosing optimism as she looks to launch her new eatery.

"I’m not willing to give up on myself when I’ve come this far," she said. "I’ll push through it. It will be okay."

Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ.