I love to head out on the town gathering stories. Wesco on Laketon in
Muskegon Michigan stayed open last night when Meijers and Walmart had
their doors locked. Wesco had people thronging the aisles and so many
cars parked in the lot, the tanker guy had to move some cars, with
gentlemanly gestures, so he could deliver gasoline. There's a Wesco
bakery along US-31 near Van Wagoner Road in Spring Lake, Michigan. The
modest sized Wesco on Laketon, surprisingly, has a bakery in the back.
Since the regular clerk was slammed and had to handle a bottle return,
the baker in the back came up to run the registers, a versatile woman
if she can bake and clerk at the same time. This is very typical for
Wesco employees, however. I challenge you to find a Wesco that isn't
being cleaned obsessively by the staff. She even suggestively sold the
baked goods and popcorn. She is a marvel of cross-training. She wore the red shirt of a Wesco baker and she has one year remaining
in the Pasty Chef program for the Culinary Institute of Michigan. Her
plan is to work as a pastry chef in a major hotel, resort or
restaurant. Maybe a cruise ship awaits in her future. She deserves to
go some place where she can work hard and play hard because right now,
she's working hard and working harder. Alas, when she and her family
board the plane to fly to Virginia Beach or to Las Vegas to work for
Steve Wynn, Muskegon, Michigan will experience the hardest kind of
brain drain, foodie fail. The students of the Culinary Institute of Michigan add a dash of
excitement just by their presence. Stop by the Subway in the Chamber
of Commerce building around "shift change" at CIM and see the chefs in
training lined up for good tasting, fresh made food, all of them
dressed flawlessly in the white and hounds tooth of their profession.
Met a woman scrutinizing the shelves at Earthly Kneads, next door to
the Cheese Lady. She and her family were visiting Muskegon for CIM
orientation and were looking for lunch recommendations. I pitched Mia
& Grace and I think mom and dad went for it. I saw five young men in
CIM uniforms drop by for lunch at the Olive Tree, and I saw the men
behind the counter, cooking the lunch rush, acknowledge the young guns
with nods. I even noted a few chefs-in-training stopping into the
McDonald's by the Catholic Church, ordering a round of the Frozen
Strawberry - Lemonades. Most notably, chef students at CIM have a Student Chef Association
that will field a team of highly motivated chefs for your non-profit
event. Simply make a proposal and cover the costs for food and other
minor costs. The association provided an excellent banquet at a church
in North Muskegon when Miriam Brysk came to speak for the Shoah
Remembrance Committee of Muskegon. In June 2010, the culinary young
guns were selling soup at Taste Of Muskegon to fund their programs,
which usually means more great banquets coming up. That's a club I can
throw my strength behind. Don't think of these chefs as students.
Think of each one as a destination restaurant waiting to happen. How
can we make that destination West Michigan and Muskegon. The chef
students are already here, living and working. Mr. Thrasher and Dave
Bieseda are doing their bit by opening one smashing restaurant each a
year. Wesco is a great employer, and they know Wesco is a great stepping
stone. They want their Laketon Street baker to move onto bigger and
better things. Let's take a quick look at Stratford, Ontario, a city
with many simularities to Muskegon. All of the Stratford Chef School
students are expected to work in area restaurants as part of their
laboratory work. CIM engages students in our restaurant and food scene
through internships and externships, but many students place
themselves with employers happy to find such motivated people. A chef
has to eat while learning to cook. Our comparison breaks down as we
realize that the Stratford Experience for visitors includes a between
theater period where many repair to restaurants to dine. Or to picnic
upon the Thames, called the Avon River as it flows through Stratford. After the evening show, most of the restaurants stay open for the
afterglow, which is usually phenomenal for spotting stars from the
theater and from film. My best bet for you is Down The Street. The
walls are decorated with the work, I must confirm this, local Theater
Poster artist and Neil Gaiman illustrator, Scott McKowen. Summer
Celebration, the Michigan Irish Music Festival, Moosefest and the
Unity Christian Music Festival are all outstanding draws of people to
downtown Muskegon, and well executed events. However, beer tents and
fine dining often usually appeal to different demographics. You have
thousands in Heritage Landing for Summer Celebration and a handful in
the Muskegon Athletic Club or Mia and Grace. Or to put a fine point on
it, if you want a between - theater dinner crowd, you need two shows a
day. It is fairly easy to count 10 decent stages or performance spaces
in the vicinity of downtown Muskegon, ten if you count Port and
Starboard at the Harbor Theater. This doesn't include the prop shop
over by the Muskegon High School. Was the once the home of the Port
City Playhouse? We have the cuisine. We have the scenes. Now, we just
need the theater companies. Oh, I just remembered. The Lakeshore Museum has a theater that will
seat more than eighty people. Quiet Faith and Michigan Shipwreck
Research Associates have held well-attended events there. Wait, does
the Masonic Hall have a stage? Here's the takeaway. Muskegon, Michigan
has more performance spaces downtown than the Stratford, Ontario and
Niagara by the Lake, Ontario combined. Muskegon Civic Theater has shown remarkable strength and growth.
During the Christmas season, they mounted two simultaneous events, one
Mr. Harryman as Ebnezer Scrooge and one out at the community college,
the Muskegon Civic Theater Glee Choir. The Summer Theater festival at
the Howmet Theater in Whitehall packs them in during the summer to the
point that it is no longer possible to feed more than 300 patrons free
desert at intermission. The Howmet Summer Festival has caused the
renaissance of the White Lake Dramatic Society, and the rise of a
playwright, Mitch Coleman. Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp has a recreation
of Shakespeare's Rose, although I have yet to learn of public
programming. What is remarkable is watching Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company calve
into at least two distinct theater companies. In the small setting of
Dog Story Theater, these offshoots are showing vigor that is a delight
to behold. Can the process of creating theater companies as offshoots
be fostered by civic planning on the community foundation level? What
if it were possible to embolden ten or more of the one hundred serious
theater people around Muskegon Michigan to attempt a theater company
for the summer? There's a planning grant that might grow some serious
legs. Point is, we have scores of young men and women learning both culinary
arts and theater arts in our midsts. If we can keep them, we can
supercharge our city.
Stratford Chef School, Stratford, Ontario:
http://www.stratfordchef.com/ Culinary Institute of Michigan:
http://www.culinaryinstitutemi.com/ Earthly Kneads:
http://www.earthlykneads.com/ Subway:
http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/index.aspx McDonalds
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/home.html Down the Street, Stratford Ontario.
http://www.downthestreet.ca/ Scott McKowen trained in art at the University of Michigan and lives
and works in Stratford, Ontario. Brain Drain Again!
http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Line-Scratchboard-Illustrations-McKowen/dp/1554074... Baker College Students Prepare Meal to Celebrate Visit by Shoah
Survivor, Miriam Brysk.
http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2010/04/holocaust_survivor_miria... West Michigan Lakeshore Student Chef Association:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=197843066676 Taste of Muskegon.
http://www.tasteofmuskegon.com/ Muskegon Civic Theater
http://www.muskegoncivictheatre.org/ Muskegon Civic Theater, Glee on the edge of town:
http://www.grandhaventribune.com/paid/298900782861967.bsp Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company:
http://www.pcshakespeare.com/ Tom Harryman, Edgar Allen Poe or Ebenezer Scrooge:
http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/muskegon/index.ssf/2010/12/muskegon_actor_... Howmet Theater:
http://www.howmetplayhouse.org/ The White Lake Dramatic Society returns to life. What next? The Port
City Playhouse. The Cherry County Playhouse?
http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/muskegon/index.ssf/2010/08/white_lake_dram... A Rose at a Blue Lake:
http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2009/09/blue_lake_fine_arts_camp... White River Yoga, Montague, Michigan
http://www.whiteriveryoga.com/ The Cherry County Playhouse slumbers:
http://www.cherrycountyplayhouse.org/main.htm Dog Story Theater, Grand Rapids Off - Broadway District and Comedy Greenhouse:
http://www.dogstorytheater.com/about/
Muskegon Michigan stayed open last night when Meijers and Walmart had
their doors locked. Wesco had people thronging the aisles and so many
cars parked in the lot, the tanker guy had to move some cars, with
gentlemanly gestures, so he could deliver gasoline. There's a Wesco
bakery along US-31 near Van Wagoner Road in Spring Lake, Michigan. The
modest sized Wesco on Laketon, surprisingly, has a bakery in the back.
Since the regular clerk was slammed and had to handle a bottle return,
the baker in the back came up to run the registers, a versatile woman
if she can bake and clerk at the same time. This is very typical for
Wesco employees, however. I challenge you to find a Wesco that isn't
being cleaned obsessively by the staff. She even suggestively sold the
baked goods and popcorn. She is a marvel of cross-training. She wore the red shirt of a Wesco baker and she has one year remaining
in the Pasty Chef program for the Culinary Institute of Michigan. Her
plan is to work as a pastry chef in a major hotel, resort or
restaurant. Maybe a cruise ship awaits in her future. She deserves to
go some place where she can work hard and play hard because right now,
she's working hard and working harder. Alas, when she and her family
board the plane to fly to Virginia Beach or to Las Vegas to work for
Steve Wynn, Muskegon, Michigan will experience the hardest kind of
brain drain, foodie fail. The students of the Culinary Institute of Michigan add a dash of
excitement just by their presence. Stop by the Subway in the Chamber
of Commerce building around "shift change" at CIM and see the chefs in
training lined up for good tasting, fresh made food, all of them
dressed flawlessly in the white and hounds tooth of their profession.
Met a woman scrutinizing the shelves at Earthly Kneads, next door to
the Cheese Lady. She and her family were visiting Muskegon for CIM
orientation and were looking for lunch recommendations. I pitched Mia
& Grace and I think mom and dad went for it. I saw five young men in
CIM uniforms drop by for lunch at the Olive Tree, and I saw the men
behind the counter, cooking the lunch rush, acknowledge the young guns
with nods. I even noted a few chefs-in-training stopping into the
McDonald's by the Catholic Church, ordering a round of the Frozen
Strawberry - Lemonades. Most notably, chef students at CIM have a Student Chef Association
that will field a team of highly motivated chefs for your non-profit
event. Simply make a proposal and cover the costs for food and other
minor costs. The association provided an excellent banquet at a church
in North Muskegon when Miriam Brysk came to speak for the Shoah
Remembrance Committee of Muskegon. In June 2010, the culinary young
guns were selling soup at Taste Of Muskegon to fund their programs,
which usually means more great banquets coming up. That's a club I can
throw my strength behind. Don't think of these chefs as students.
Think of each one as a destination restaurant waiting to happen. How
can we make that destination West Michigan and Muskegon. The chef
students are already here, living and working. Mr. Thrasher and Dave
Bieseda are doing their bit by opening one smashing restaurant each a
year. Wesco is a great employer, and they know Wesco is a great stepping
stone. They want their Laketon Street baker to move onto bigger and
better things. Let's take a quick look at Stratford, Ontario, a city
with many simularities to Muskegon. All of the Stratford Chef School
students are expected to work in area restaurants as part of their
laboratory work. CIM engages students in our restaurant and food scene
through internships and externships, but many students place
themselves with employers happy to find such motivated people. A chef
has to eat while learning to cook. Our comparison breaks down as we
realize that the Stratford Experience for visitors includes a between
theater period where many repair to restaurants to dine. Or to picnic
upon the Thames, called the Avon River as it flows through Stratford. After the evening show, most of the restaurants stay open for the
afterglow, which is usually phenomenal for spotting stars from the
theater and from film. My best bet for you is Down The Street. The
walls are decorated with the work, I must confirm this, local Theater
Poster artist and Neil Gaiman illustrator, Scott McKowen. Summer
Celebration, the Michigan Irish Music Festival, Moosefest and the
Unity Christian Music Festival are all outstanding draws of people to
downtown Muskegon, and well executed events. However, beer tents and
fine dining often usually appeal to different demographics. You have
thousands in Heritage Landing for Summer Celebration and a handful in
the Muskegon Athletic Club or Mia and Grace. Or to put a fine point on
it, if you want a between - theater dinner crowd, you need two shows a
day. It is fairly easy to count 10 decent stages or performance spaces
in the vicinity of downtown Muskegon, ten if you count Port and
Starboard at the Harbor Theater. This doesn't include the prop shop
over by the Muskegon High School. Was the once the home of the Port
City Playhouse? We have the cuisine. We have the scenes. Now, we just
need the theater companies. Oh, I just remembered. The Lakeshore Museum has a theater that will
seat more than eighty people. Quiet Faith and Michigan Shipwreck
Research Associates have held well-attended events there. Wait, does
the Masonic Hall have a stage? Here's the takeaway. Muskegon, Michigan
has more performance spaces downtown than the Stratford, Ontario and
Niagara by the Lake, Ontario combined. Muskegon Civic Theater has shown remarkable strength and growth.
During the Christmas season, they mounted two simultaneous events, one
Mr. Harryman as Ebnezer Scrooge and one out at the community college,
the Muskegon Civic Theater Glee Choir. The Summer Theater festival at
the Howmet Theater in Whitehall packs them in during the summer to the
point that it is no longer possible to feed more than 300 patrons free
desert at intermission. The Howmet Summer Festival has caused the
renaissance of the White Lake Dramatic Society, and the rise of a
playwright, Mitch Coleman. Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp has a recreation
of Shakespeare's Rose, although I have yet to learn of public
programming. What is remarkable is watching Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company calve
into at least two distinct theater companies. In the small setting of
Dog Story Theater, these offshoots are showing vigor that is a delight
to behold. Can the process of creating theater companies as offshoots
be fostered by civic planning on the community foundation level? What
if it were possible to embolden ten or more of the one hundred serious
theater people around Muskegon Michigan to attempt a theater company
for the summer? There's a planning grant that might grow some serious
legs. Point is, we have scores of young men and women learning both culinary
arts and theater arts in our midsts. If we can keep them, we can
supercharge our city.
Stratford Chef School, Stratford, Ontario:
http://www.stratfordchef.com/ Culinary Institute of Michigan:
http://www.culinaryinstitutemi.com/ Earthly Kneads:
http://www.earthlykneads.com/ Subway:
http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/index.aspx McDonalds
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/home.html Down the Street, Stratford Ontario.
http://www.downthestreet.ca/ Scott McKowen trained in art at the University of Michigan and lives
and works in Stratford, Ontario. Brain Drain Again!
http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Line-Scratchboard-Illustrations-McKowen/dp/1554074... Baker College Students Prepare Meal to Celebrate Visit by Shoah
Survivor, Miriam Brysk.
http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2010/04/holocaust_survivor_miria... West Michigan Lakeshore Student Chef Association:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=197843066676 Taste of Muskegon.
http://www.tasteofmuskegon.com/ Muskegon Civic Theater
http://www.muskegoncivictheatre.org/ Muskegon Civic Theater, Glee on the edge of town:
http://www.grandhaventribune.com/paid/298900782861967.bsp Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company:
http://www.pcshakespeare.com/ Tom Harryman, Edgar Allen Poe or Ebenezer Scrooge:
http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/muskegon/index.ssf/2010/12/muskegon_actor_... Howmet Theater:
http://www.howmetplayhouse.org/ The White Lake Dramatic Society returns to life. What next? The Port
City Playhouse. The Cherry County Playhouse?
http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/muskegon/index.ssf/2010/08/white_lake_dram... A Rose at a Blue Lake:
http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2009/09/blue_lake_fine_arts_camp... White River Yoga, Montague, Michigan
http://www.whiteriveryoga.com/ The Cherry County Playhouse slumbers:
http://www.cherrycountyplayhouse.org/main.htm Dog Story Theater, Grand Rapids Off - Broadway District and Comedy Greenhouse:
http://www.dogstorytheater.com/about/
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