Seafood’s Charm in Grand Rapids: A Dive into Beacon Corner Bar’s Success

Then COVID hit.

2

then we just closed the

doors here for two years.

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I wouldn't even open the door and come in.

4

It just was so sad to me, you know?

5

and then we just maintained what

we had, which, it was a real

6

struggle, but we got through it.

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Cliff Duvernois: Hello everyone and

welcome to Total Michigan where we

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interview ordinary Michiganders doing

some pretty extraordinary things.

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I'm your host Cliff DuVernois.

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So today I am back in Grand Rapids.

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The more time I spend here,

the more I love this place.

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And I read an article recently

about Grand Rapids actually being

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the culinary hub of Michigan, and

I'm beginning to agree with that.

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So today, to help guide us through

this here, I have Cindy Schneider.

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She's the owner of Beacon

Corner Bar in Grand Rapids.

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Cindy, how are you?

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I'm great today.

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Thank you.

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Awesome.

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Yes, thanks for having us here today.

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Appreciate it.

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So why don't you tell us

what is Beacon Corner Bar?

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Cindy Schneider: Well, Beacon

Corner Bar is a downtown Grand

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Rapids culinary experience.

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The idea was to bring seafood, primarily,

or coastal fare is what we shop for, to

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the Grand Rapids area in a casual setting.

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So it's not like you need to have

white linens and the piece of

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walleye fish presented to you.

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You don't need a three piece suit.

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You don't need it.

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You can come.

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we're very casual things.

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Food is food.

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Um, It's always been a little

bit of our philosophy here.

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Like you don't need extraordinary things.

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You just need an amazing dish, to excite

people and to stick it in their memories.

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So, We're right here, um, two

blocks from Van Andel Arena.

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And, um, our sister restaurant

over here, while it's more like

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our mother, cause it's been

there for 31 years, is a Sanchez.

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And Sanchez is more of a

two hour dining experience.

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And we felt we were missing out

on a lot of people that were going

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to shows or to sporting events.

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we decided to take this corner, beautiful

piece of property here and turn it into, a

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restaurant and call it Beacon Corner Bar.

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And, uh, that's what we do.

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We have Smash Burgers here.

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We have, boils, seafood boils.

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We have sandwiches.

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We have lobster rolls.

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We have steaks.

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We have all kinds of wonderful

culinary dishes from some amazing

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chefs that put things together for us.

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And uh, and of course, an amazing bar.

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And here you sit here and you look

over one of the busiest little

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areas of downtown Grand Rapids.

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that's what Beacon Corner Bar is.

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Cliff Duvernois: Nice.

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And I got to tell you, this

location is just, it's beautiful.

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I thoroughly enjoy, was driving my, when

I was driving down here, I thoroughly

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enjoyed the track because there's so

many beautiful buildings down here.

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And the murals.

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Yeah.

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The murals.

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The murals are just absolutely incredible.

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You know, I absolutely love them.

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So one of the questions that I

got for you is, so why don't,

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so let's take a step back.

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Tell us a little bit about where

did you, where are you from?

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Where did you grow up?

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Cindy Schneider: I grew up in

Long Island in West Sayville.

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That's where the coastal

part of it comes from.

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So most of my neighbors

at the time were clammers.

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So the little neck clams is what we.

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Um, everyone was, living off of back then.

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So I lived about, um, two blocks from the

bay, which, and of course across from that

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was Long Fire Island and then the ocean.

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And so, um, I grew up, uh, instead

of like most Michiganders having a

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burger fry or a hot dog fry on the

weekends, I grew up with clam bakes.

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So, seafood's in your blood.

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It is.

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It's always been in my blood.

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It's always been casual.

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and then now when you just

think, oh, I want to, a nice

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piece of fish or, some oysters.

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It's unfortunate that you just have

choices that, you know, take quite a

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bit of your paycheck away from you.

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I don't feel that way.

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I just always felt you know,

we've come so far with seafood.

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It used to be how fresh is it?

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But all seafood has really enhanced

and is a cryovac and frozen quickly.

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So you can get a fresh flavor

of fish or seafood pretty

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much in most restaurants that.

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are like this, that are focusing

on a good quality piece of meat.

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Yeah.

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Cliff Duvernois: Certainly.

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Yeah.

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at what age did you get

bit by the restaurant bug?

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Cindy Schneider: I, um,

put myself through college.

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I studied to have a teaching degree.

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Oh, interesting.

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Okay.

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Yep, I'm a Grand Valley grad.

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when it came time to, uh, do my student

teaching and um, get that part of it done.

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I was already a general

manager in a restaurant.

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Oh wow.

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Yeah.

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So I've always been in the restaurant

business, always from city to state.

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And um, I just, I always say, I guess I

wasn't, I wasn't geared to teach history.

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I was geared to teach hospitality.

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That's kind of the, how I figured it out.

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I teach hospitality.

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I, Um, do my very best.

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We're very, very focused on service here,

and of course good quality food, but.

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Cliff Duvernois: So why did you

decide to study teaching then?

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Cindy Schneider: why did I?

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I don't know.

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I don't think back then I really had

much of a choice of I don't know.

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I've always loved teaching.

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I always have.

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I've always been inspired by

minds that don't know anything.

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Most of the students that come here and

the young people that work for us here

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really were raised on ramen noodles.

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So you know, when you say here, yeah.

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So when you say here, you know, have

this seared tuna or try this oyster,

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you know, they're just like, no way.

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And, but they try it.

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So it's opening their minds to a lot

of education that in the hospitality

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culinary field that they haven't had.

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And new experiences.

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Cliff Duvernois: Yeah.

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Cindy Schneider: Love it.

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And they don't forget it.

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You don't forget things you taste, right?

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Cliff Duvernois: No, you don't.

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That's for sure.

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I'm a huge seafood nut.

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Yeah, you're good.

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Yeah.

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So, this works out really well.

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So you were telling me that you were

the general manager at a restaurant.

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What I'd like to do is explore a little

bit about how you went from being

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a general manager in a restaurant

to now opening your own restaurant.

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Talk to us about that journey.

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Cindy Schneider: Absolutely.

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So in 92, the downtown area was starting

to pick up little tiny new adventures.

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So really this town was,

still pretty quiet in 92.

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I mean, I always try to explain to people

that, the handbook that we created, I'm

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getting ahead of myself, but, used to

say that no woman was allowed to walk

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to her car by herself after a shift.

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She had to have an escort.

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plus because everybody lives around here.

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So the feel and the culture of the

downtown area has definitely changed.

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So in 92, I was a married

with two children.

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And there were these signs on this

I've always been downtown working.

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I worked at the Amway.

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I worked at Tootsie's.

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my husband was at Z's, Chop House.

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So we've always focused

on the downtown area.

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So anyway, I drive by and I see the

signs now hiring for a tapas restaurant.

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Of course, you know, I

had to look tapas up.

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I didn't know what that was, you know.

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I hadn't experienced anything like that.

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Anyway, so I came in and applied.

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I was hired.

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And I connected with the two chefs

that started this restaurant, which

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was Dan Gendler and George Sanchez.

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Sanchez, the word of

where Sanchez came from.

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They were very young, younger than me.

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They were culinary chefs.

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And if you know much about restaurants,

chefs don't run good restaurants.

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It's all there is to it.

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That's, I don't mean to say anything.

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They have, they're artistic,

they're talented, but they don't

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know anything about the functions

or the finances of a restaurant.

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So I knew all about that.

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They sucked me in.

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And I built all of their,

um, their standard, and, um,

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that's how it came, happened.

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and then like they bought

George Sanchez out.

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Dan Gendler did.

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And then Dan himself, wanted to go

teach up at the Culinary Institute.

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Um, They were both graduates

of the Culinary Institute.

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And um, so he got out and he said,

just buy the business from me.

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So that's what happened.

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So it was a, it was a longer process,

but that's how I got into it.

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And I own Sanchez.

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And then I have two sons who went

to college, never thought they'd

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come back to the restaurant field.

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Um, my oldest son, Nolan, he

was an air traffic controller.

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And he said, Whoa, there's a difference.

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Right?

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He still directs.

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But yeah, so he said he

wanted to come back, so.

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We're like to Sanchez?

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You know, so he came back and then

our other son drew, he was doing

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a business degree at Western and

he said he wanted to come back.

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Well, we're like, well, we need

to create more restaurants.

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So Dan and I spent a lot of time

trying to take Sanchez and move

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that that piece to the Detroit

area, the east side of the state.

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So many of our comment cards

said, please come to Ann Harbor.

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Please come to the east side of the state.

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We love you.

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So we took all the information.

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We're like, let's go to

the east side of the state.

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But, and Kevin Orr, who was the

gentleman that Um, the lawyer that

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helped, get Detroit out of bankruptcy

was my brother's roommate in college.

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He's like, do it now.

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Get to Detroit.

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So we really focused on getting to

Detroit with just the concept of

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Sanchez and that was a disaster.

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That wasn't a good situation.

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Ouch.

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Sam Cummings, who's part of CWD, said,

What are you looking in Detroit for?

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I've got so many buildings

here in downtown Grand Rapids.

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And our thought was, well, we

didn't want to create a new concept.

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We just wanted to write off the one

that was doing really well for us.

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But anyway, so we decided

to create another concept.

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So we could split our

boys up, to be honest.

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I don't know if you have a brother

or a sister, but you're always so

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different, on different spectrums.

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That's when we, uh, Dan

and I traveled a lot.

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So we, and we were reading a lot,

um, through the National Restaurant

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Association that, uh, street food was

really becoming popular at the time.

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So then we opened up Rome by

Sanchez over there by DeVos

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Hall, across from DeVos Hall.

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So we had that restaurant.

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And then we always sat on

this little corner here.

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And it's been through a lot of different

changes that were ahead of its time.

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And I think the number one, not

problem, but challenge that Beacon

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Corner Bar has right now is that it

sits next to a 31-year-old, very, very

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popular restaurant that everyone knows.

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You just say Sanchez

and people's responses.

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I love Sanchez.

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Let's go.

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I love Sanchez.

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Let's go.

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So it gets really busy over there.

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Here it just trickles in.

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And I'm like, it'll build, it'll

build popularity, it will happen.

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good experiences, good food,

good service, it'll happen.

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This hotel comes in and at first it

was supposed to be like 40 stories

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and it shrunk down a little bit.

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But we were like, Oh my goodness,

we have a hotel coming in.

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We're sitting on this amazing

real estate over here that we're

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only using for private events.

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And so right before COVID

we ripped it all out.

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Got all of our material moving forward.

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for all of downtown Grand Rapids,

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great shows, great conventions.

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We were, we're doing great in sales.

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And, um, then COVID hit.

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And so, then we just closed

the doors here for two years.

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I wouldn't even open the door and come in.

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It just was so sad to me, you know?

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and then we just maintained what

we had, which, it was a real

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struggle, but we got through it.

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We're very proud of ourselves.

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Cliff Duvernois: And I just know this

cause I read Anthony Bourdain's book.

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So I'm playing it from memory here.

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So you came in and they said,

Hey, we want you to do this.

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And you said, okay.

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We were talking before about

you becoming a teacher.

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How did you learn those skills to take

over the business side of a restaurant?

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Cindy Schneider: Well, I did

have quite a bit of training.

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Like I worked for Pietro's for a while.

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So I had a lot of training.

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Let's see, and I worked for Tony Roma's.

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So I did some corporate

restaurants that taught me along

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the way, about how to do it.

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I had, the first food truck in

downtown Grand Rapids, in the 80s.

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So I knew and studied a lot about

what percentages you run, how to

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pay your bills, how payroll works.

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So I learned along the way.

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And so, um, when I got here in 92.

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I was like, well, I could just

take all these skills and help you

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out and help you put it together.

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Cliff Duvernois: And then the next

question I got for you would be

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then is they, so the one owner

bought it out from Sanchez.

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And then convinced you to buy him out.

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That is correct.

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What made you think that you could take

over ownership of a restaurant completely?

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Cindy Schneider: Probably because

he was gone for so many years

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and I was doing it anyway.

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Cliff Duvernois: There you go.

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On the job training.

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Cindy Schneider: Yeah.

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So he was up at the Culinary

Institute for many years.

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And we never saw him.

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And I was doing just fine making

all the decisions and paying all the

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bills and, Bidding out insurance.

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And so I was doing it all.

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So I was like, I don't know why

I'm not doing this just for myself.

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So that was you know, like should I do it?

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Should I not do it?

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Should I do it?

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You know, it was like one of those so

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Cliff Duvernois: For a lot of these chefs

that are coming in, you know, they train,

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you mentioned the Culinary Institute,

CIA, and they go get their training there.

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Now they come in here, but

you've got a restaurant.

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You've got like a set menu, like

this is how we make our food.

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Versus them wanting to come in

and create all these dishes.

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So how do you, how did you squeeze

all that, I guess, like imagination,

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creativity or whatever it is to say,

okay, this is what you have to follow.

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Cindy Schneider: There are dishes

that are on our menu over at Sanchez

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anyway that have been there for

31 years that you don't touch.

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However, we always, we have a quarterly

change that it's called our features.

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And we run them.

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And you give every opportunity to all

the chefs to create a dish it gets

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tasted by all managers, the board.

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It gets approved or not approved It

gets told to go back to the drawing

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board tweak this you're almost there.

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So we're constantly Testing and

putting things in the test kitchen.

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And then we were since COVID only doing it

twice a year, but now we have a new chef

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and he's pushing us back to the quarterly.

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So we're very excited.

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and we do that here.

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We do that at all three restaurants.

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We run features.

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Everybody has the chance to be creative,

do their homework, do a little research,

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come together, create their dish.

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Nice.

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And that keeps chefs very happy.

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Cliff Duvernois: For our audience,

we're going to take a quick break and

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thank our sponsors when we come back.

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Cindy and I are going to talk a lot

more about the Beacon Corner Bar and

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what you can expect when you come there.

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We'll see you after the break.

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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to

Total Michigan, where we interview

348

ordinary Michiganders doing some

pretty extraordinary things.

349

I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.

350

Today, we're talking with Cindy

Schneider at the Beacon Corner

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Bar here in Grand Rapids.

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Now we're going to talk

a lot about seafood.

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So here's the first question for

you because you said this restaurant

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was based on the concept of seafood.

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Why seafood?

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Why not just like a, like a bistro

burger place or something like that?

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Why seafood?

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Cindy Schneider: we just really

wanted to offer Grand Rapids the

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opportunity to have it in a casual form.

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So, and we love sea, I love seafood.

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We have quite a, a different

arrangement of different foods.

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So we do focus on, meats and vegetable

dishes also, but why seafood?

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I don't know.

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I mean, one of our signature

dishes is a walleye.

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And if you've ever followed walleye,

um, it was never conventionally,

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fished, let's just say that.

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It was the fish that only fishermen got.

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And I think it was like maybe

six or seven years ago that,

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well, they got the permission.

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Because I believe it belonged to maybe,

I don't know who it belonged to, but

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somebody owned the rights to walleye.

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And it is our most

wonderful Michigan fish.

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so we have, uh, Uncle Joe,

who is my, uh, my husband's.

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So he brought walleye fishing

to Grand Rapids, or to Grand

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Rapids, to the Michigan area.

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So he brought that chapter.

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And he had an amazing

recipe for walleye bites.

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So walleye bites has been on our,

our menu for the longest time.

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And people love walleye because it's like

coming to Michigan to have Michigan fish.

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Certainly.

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like white fish up north

and stuff like that.

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Cliff Duvernois: The walleye bites.

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Now, is that an appetizer?

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Cindy Schneider: Nope.

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it's a full dish.

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Yeah.

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And so we have Perch and we,

we didn't, we didn't know that

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oysters would be so popular.

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To be honest, I always

thought oysters was mm, just.

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not for everyone.

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Kind of one of those dishes, but right

now we sell more oysters than any other

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location in the Grand Rapids area.

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And so

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Cliff Duvernois: So now when

you're talking about oysters,

395

is it the raw oysters?

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Cindy Schneider: Raw, yeah.

397

We always have like four

or five different choices.

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And we, sometimes they make oysters

Rockefeller, sometimes they broil them.

399

But mostly people just come here and enjoy

oysters, which I'm so thrilled about it.

400

I had no idea it would take off like this.

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There are certain things that just

happened during COVID that Oh!

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Oysters!

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Really surprised you.

404

Yeah, yeah.

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They do like a really great Smash burger.

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They have a great steak on the menu.

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I have a lot of handhelds.

408

One of the dishes that really became

popular here was the lobster roll.

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And yeah, people love lobster rolls.

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Cliff Duvernois: so then let me ask

you this question because I, I still

411

want to chase down the, the seafood

angle of the, because the thing is like

412

seafood has a very short shelf life.

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Yes, it does.

414

You know, it's not something that

you can just buy it and, Oh, we'll

415

pull it out three weeks from now and.

416

Yep.

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And serve it.

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Yep.

419

So going back, I'm thinking

about how you got to always have

420

that fresh inventory coming in

because, you know, once it smells.

421

so talk to us a little bit

about like managing that versus

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like a hamburger or something.

423

Cindy Schneider: Yeah, We have

three deliveries a week for seafood.

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Sweet Moses.

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Yeah, three.

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And, We also designed the kitchen in the

back for having easy accessibility to

427

not only the walk in, but the freezer.

428

So it's like right online.

429

So like if you're If you're familiar

with kitchens, um, restaurant kitchens,

430

often you have to go quite a ways to get

to the cooler, the big walk in cooler.

431

Well, we made it part of the line here,

so the fish is always staying either

432

in a frozen state or right out of

their ready to eat refrigeration state.

433

Our chefs are very, very cautious

about freshness, about Um, you

434

know, the timing of when you

can have it and stuff like that.

435

And so they do a really good job with it.

436

So it's always fresh here.

437

Now, seafood boils are something

that I grew up with in Long Island

438

and they're very popular here.

439

that's basically.

440

Picking the things that you want in a

boil, which consist of like corn, red

441

skin potatoes, often it has sausage in

it, and then you can add, shrimp, crab.

442

Cliff Duvernois: This is

where I start getting hungry.

443

Cindy Schneider: Yeah, yeah.

444

And they become very popular.

445

And then we have these significant

steamers that are back in the

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kitchen that I'm, I grew up with.

447

And they're not around here anywhere.

448

They're, it's hard to explain,

but the steam is inside the

449

pocket of these, cookers.

450

And so it goes really fast.

451

We use it for almost

everything in the seafood.

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So it doesn't make the seafood overcook.

453

one of the dishes that we have is like,

clam chowder, which is very popular here.

454

And we have a beautiful base and then

they steam the clams and pop them in

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and they're, so instead of getting

a clam chowder that's been sitting

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on the stove all day long and then

you're chewy, it's fresh, it's clean.

457

Clean.

458

It's nice.

459

So

460

Cliff Duvernois: That is something

that I didn't get exposed to until I

461

really started getting into seafood

restaurants is and I'm thinking in

462

particular shrimp, if you overcook

shrimp, it almost becomes bubblegum.

463

Yeah, exactly.

464

And it never occurred to me.

465

So when you have a shrimp that's

cooked properly, it's just, it's

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almost like melt in your mouth.

467

Cindy Schneider: I know.

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It is.

469

It's so delicious.

470

And why everybody cooks it like,

the shrimpers close, the more they

471

close up, the harder they are to eat.

472

That's the rule.

473

So, so when a shrimp is open, when

a shrimp is open like this and

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you're getting it, it's really good.

475

And then as it overcooks, it continually

closes up into an E as opposed to a C.

476

So that's, you just got to

treat the seafood the right way.

477

Certainly.

478

Yeah.

479

we have a great spirits to

go along with everything.

480

We also have a huge list

of mocktails, which.

481

through dry January is very popular.

482

We started bringing mocktails to our

restaurants probably about six years

483

ago, which are just really nice mixes of

good things that don't include alcohol.

484

There's lots of people that just

don't include alcohol anymore.

485

And then, of course, we have an

amazing wine list and, uh, of

486

course, a lot, quite a few bubblies,

which go along with the oysters.

487

Cliff Duvernois: I'm

a big fan of bubblies.

488

Yeah, me too.

489

I admit, I admit.

490

I miss you.

491

Let's talk about, because

you made it before, made a

492

comment before about, walleye.

493

Yep.

494

And walleye being like a Michigan fish.

495

Yes, it is.

496

Where else do you source

your inventory from?

497

Is it just all Michigan?

498

Or are you looking, do you get

some flown in from the West

499

Coast, from the East Coast?

500

How does that work?

501

Cindy Schneider: I think we

get a little bit of, I mean,

502

we don't get shrimp from here.

503

so I know that shrimp comes, I

want to say, Vietnam, to be honest.

504

I think that's where most

of our shrimp comes from.

505

this is probably, the purchasing

part is probably what I don't

506

know a hundred percent about it.

507

But I know all of our

fish comes from Michigan.

508

Our whitefish, our perch, our walleye.

509

And then whenever we have a feature or

a special and we do like, rainbow trout,

510

it's all Michigan, all Michigan fish.

511

Cliff Duvernois: If somebody was

coming here for the first time, Yep.

512

What would be like a dish,

maybe two dishes, that you

513

would recommend that people try?

514

Cindy Schneider: I would

say have the clam chowder.

515

Our wedge salad is amazing.

516

There's an ingredient in the Um,

dressing that I can't reveal.

517

But it's amazing.

518

I have it every time.

519

Of course you should try some

oysters just even if you have to

520

just give it a try for a couple.

521

let's see.

522

I'm a fish lover.

523

So I always love the perch.

524

I'm a, I'm a big perch lover.

525

But I, I, I'll eat anything.

526

And then if you've never had a seafood

boil before, you should experience it.

527

Because.

528

it, it takes a long time to prep

all that and put it together

529

and get the timing right.

530

And we've got it all figured out here,

531

Cliff Duvernois: The next question

I got for you is cause you

532

mentioned like extensive wine menu.

533

So do you get good chunk of your

wines from inside of Michigan?

534

Cindy Schneider: We get

our wines from all over.

535

I mean, at Sanchez, we focus

more on like, Spanish and

536

Argentine and things like that.

537

But from here, we do

have some Michigan wines.

538

We've had Michigan wines at all three of

our restaurants that sell really well.

539

people like Riesling's.

540

We get wine from everywhere from

California to the East coast,

541

uh, Malbecs from Spain, all over.

542

So.

543

Our wine is very diverse.

544

Cliff Duvernois: So it's a global.

545

It's global, for sure.

546

Very nice.

547

And then, so the question I got for you

is, Cindy, if, if somebody's listening to

548

this and they want to check out more about

Beacon Corner Bar, what's your website?

549

How can people find you?

550

Socials?

551

Cindy Schneider: Sure.

552

it's just Beacon Corner Bar that you could

go to, to bring up, go to our website.

553

And you can see our full menu, you can

see our hours of operation, you can

554

see our features like, what we do for

special happy hours or days of the week.

555

Or we're doing like a brunch punch right

now, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

556

So if you come in and get

lunch, you get a punch.

557

And then on the sixth

one, you get it free.

558

Cliff Duvernois: Well, well, you clenched

your fish when you said punch there.

559

Cindy Schneider: I'm punching in my head.

560

I'm punching.

561

That's what I was doing there.

562

So like I'm the piece of your little card.

563

So, yeah, I mean, it's It's always

a challenge in, in the culinary

564

field to, to build people's trust.

565

And Oh, I'm going to try that, you

know, and get here and just get here.

566

And then just to come back.

567

So, um, so many restaurants fail.

568

And we haven't failed yet.

569

So

570

Cliff Duvernois: we're

pretty proud of ourselves.

571

Well, you're not going to fail.

572

I'm an optimist.

573

You're not going to fail.

574

Cindy Schneider: So,

yeah, we, we do our best.

575

So, If it's pasta.

576

If it's a burger.

577

If it's a surf and turf.

578

If it's the feature of the day.

579

You just can't go wrong.

580

Because our, our chefs

are, are really talented.

581

Most of our talent is right here

in this, in Beacon Corner Bar.

582

Cliff Duvernois: Cindy, thank you so

much for taking time to talk to us today.

583

Really

584

Cindy Schneider: appreciate it.

585

Yeah, I appreciate you too, Cliff.

586

Cliff Duvernois: Thank you very much.

587

And for our audience, you can always

roll on over to Total Michigan,

588

click on Cindy's interview and get

the links that she mentioned before.

589

We'll see you next week when we

talk to another Michigander doing

590

some pretty extraordinary things.

591

We'll see you then.