GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Walking into The Commons restaurant and lounge in Grand Rapids' Heritage Hill neighborhood is a bit like entering another era.
Nineteen-seventies era glasses and plates, donated as gifts or purchased from second-hand stores, sit atop tables flanked by olive green seating outfitted with vinyl and soft, plush velvet.
Retro wood paneling covers the walls.
And a lounge - decked out with a mid-century Steelcase couch, classic board games and vintage furniture - is bookended by two 1960s-style television cabinets housing flat-screen TVs broadcasting sports and other events.
The mishmash design is a memento to the 1970s and the basements and utility rooms that owner Beth Rich fondly remembers from visits to her grandparent's home in Detroit when she was a child.
"My mother dies when she walks in here," said Rich, a Grand Rapids native who moved back to the city two years ago after spending several years in Santa Monica, California operating a craft beer and wine bar. "It's a nod to my childhood."
Rich, whose restaurant opened last week, hopes it will be a hit with customers. She chose the unique theme and design to stand out from other restaurants and attract patrons who are looking for a new dining experience.
"To break into the Grand Rapids market is difficult because there are so many exceptional restaurants, especially right in our neighborhood," she said. "You really have to do something to get people to try something different from what they know is already going to be great."
The 3,500-square-foot restaurant, 547 Cherry St SE, is located in the basement of Oakwood Manor Apartments, and has seating for 78 people. It has space for an additional 25 on an outdoor patio that will be open in warmer months.
It has a full bar, complete with a selection of wine, craft beer and several specialty cocktails, including a fresh twist on the "Grasshopper" and "Pink Lady." Its menu includes items ranging from burgers and fish to steak and prime rib sliders, as well as a "Shaved Brussel Salad," featuring marcona almond, cherries, manchego cheese and champagne vinaigrette."
"We researched what we were eating back in the seventies, and we ate some weird stuff that I don't think we need to bring back," Rich joked, referencing her decision to not attempt to bring the menu in-line with the restaurant's seventies theme. "Like jello that everyone made and we took to company parties or to funerals."
For now, The Commons is serving lunch and dinner, though Rich says she expects to begin offering brunch in January. The restaurant also has beer, and other deli and grocery items that Oakwood Manor tenants and others can purchase to-go. Meals can be delivered to tenants who place orders online.
Opening the restaurant is a project Rich has been pursuing for more than a year. She scoured the internet and second-hand stores for the decor that gives the space its homey, vintage feel.
She collected glasses from her mom (the same ones Rich drank from as a child), while other items came from a Missouri woman she met on Etsy.com, a vintage shopping website. Large, decorative lamps scattered throughout the room were purchased from Lost & Found Treasures of Old and New, a second-hand store in Grand Rapids.
Some items, such as the wood paneling that lines the walls, proved difficult to get.
Most people want to paint over the once-popular home amenity, Rich said, but Ada-based Erhardt Construction, which helped outfit the space, found a trailer manufacturing firm in Chicago who produced the paneling but didn't "sell it to ship for other uses." One of Erhardt's employees drove there to pick up a bundle.
"Nobody wanted it," she quipped. "But let me tell you, everyone who comes in here wants it now. We're going to start a new trend."
On their own, Rich acknowledges, many of the pictures, lamps, chairs, rugs and other keepsakes she snatched up "look pretty tacky and cheesy."
"But when you put it all together, I think it looks like the Brady Bunch house."
https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2018/12/new_restaurant_brings_70s_vibe.html 2018-12-05 12:00:00Z
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