GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — As rush hour traffic goes by, the doors are open at 1590 Plainfield Avenue NE. Inside is a trio of entrepreneurs cracking open a bottle of red wine and taking a look around.
The inside isn't much to look at right now. The floor is dirt and there are plants growing from it here and there. There's trash everywhere. What little paint is left inside is chipping off. But Samantha Keuning, Kyle Warren, and Jon Benedict smile and laugh because they see this place not just for what it is now, but what it will be.
The building will soon be home to a business called Good Good Good Wine and Flowers.
"We’re going to be Grand Rapids’ first natural wine shop. It’s going to be retail focused. As soon as you walk in, you're going to be greeted with a library of natural wine. And we have the ability for you to sit down in a European café style. You can do glass pours. You can take a bottle off the wall and we can open it with you. It's about getting engaged and educated about what makes natural wine exciting," said Benedict who will serve as the community coordinator for the business.
Warren is a sommelier and can't wait to introduce people to natural wine.
"It’s going to sound super corny, but it really is a lifestyle that just kind of embodies organic, healthy living and taking care of the earth. You can just experience so much more," he said.
"There’s just so many more flavors than what you could imagine, and there's just so much more history. It really is an adventure. And once once you taste it and open yourself up to it, you can't go back."
On the flower shop side of things, Keuning will offer arrangements for delivery, flowers that can be picked up in-store, and classes that will teach people how to do floral arrangements.
"We want to have a focus on supporting local, and having organically farmed floral arrangements and flowers, so over the past couple years I’ve been making connections with local farmers that I want to purchase flowers from during the summertime," she said.
"Obviously in the winter, it gets a little trickier in Michigan. Absolutely we'll have to import some flowers. But intentionally recycling and composting and making sure we're as sustainable as we possibly can be, is going to be a big part of what we do here."x
1590 Plainfield Avenue from the inside and outside
As for the building itself, 1590 Plainfield is around 100 years old and has a historic brick exterior. It's had a variety of uses including a tool and die shop, a market, and a secondhand clothing store. It hasn't been used since the year 2000.
"We're excited to bring it into 2023 and update it. It's a really unique building, because the bones are exceptional. The brick work is beautiful. But the rest of it is awful. So we're excited to restore this building and just shed some new light on it," Benedict said with a laugh.
Warren and Keuning live in the Creston Neighborhood and Benedict is very involved in the area. They say it would've been much cheaper to build from scratch in an empty lot but they're excited about the opportunity to bring life to a new building.
"It’s such a cool space and it would just have been a shame to knock it down and put something modern up. It’s going to be a transition. When you drive by, it's still going to be a 100-year-old building but when you come inside it's going to be modern and beautiful," Warren said.
They hope their renovation will continue a trend in the neighborhood.
"Cafe Mamo right across the street restored their building. Gaia [House Cafe] had been an empty building for whoever knows how long and I just think that it's going to be a really exciting next couple of years in the Creston Neighborhood," Keuning said.
There's not a solid timeline for Good Good Good Wine and Flowers to open, but the owners are hopeful and confident they can welcome customers by Spring of 2024.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.