Bobcat Bonnie's to open first Lansing-area eatery in former Clara's building
LANSING - With Starbucks weeks from opening inside half of the historic former Clara's Lansing Station on East Michigan Avenue, building owner The Gillespie Group has announced a second tenant.
Bobcat Bonnie's, a Michigan-based restaurant chain with six other locations, has signed a lease to occupy the remaining 3,000 square feet of the 120-year-old train station, along with the 1,000-square-foot train car on the property.
The eatery will bring a menu centered around "new American comfort food" and a weekend brunch to the Lansing area, owner Matt Buskard said.
He opened Bobcat Bonnie's first location in a century-old building in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood in 2015. Five additional locations in Ferndale, Grand Rapids, Partridge Creek, Wyandotte and Ypsilanti have opened since. A seventh location is under construction in Toledo, Ohio, Buskard said.
Named after Bonnie Salamon, the grandmother of Buskard's partner who earned the nickname "Bobcat Bonnie" because she often drove a Bobcat utility vehicle around her family's Ohio farm, the restaurant is a neighborhood spot that serves lunch, dinner and weekend brunch.
"We want to be in communities where we think we can have an impact and support," Buskard said, and he's been looking at the Lansing area "a while."
"We knew that Lansing was where we wanted to be," he said. "It's a great community, a lot of great stuff is happening. And then we came across this property, and it just felt like it clicked."
“Our goal was to bring in a business that would complement Starbucks early morning to evening energy, with a midday to late evening experience, and Bobcat Bonnie's will do just that," said Pat Gillespie, president of The Gillespie Group in a news release.
Former Clara's provided historic draw for restaurateur
The history behind the former train station was a draw for Bobcat Bonnie's, Buskard said.
The former Michigan Central Railroad Station was built in 1903. Later called Union Station, it served passenger train traffic until 1972 when service through Lansing was discontinued.
The East Michigan Avenue property later was home to Clara's for more than three decades. It closed in 2016.
Buskard wants to lean into the structure's unique look as the restaurant is built out.
"We're not coming in and trying to change a lot," he said. "We're more so looking to come in and look at the space and figure out what things have to be updated based on code and what can we leave historic and the same?"
The building's brickwork and high arches will be part of Bobcat Bonnie's when it opens, Buskard said. He's visited the site several times.
"We thought it was really exciting to be walking into a space where we can more so lean into its historic parts, as opposed to having to create cool features," Buskard said.
The restaurant also will utilize the property's vintage 1910 train car, which has been at the property since 1994, he said.
"I am so excited to do some cool stuff with that train car," Buskard said. "We're definitely going to have dining of some form in there. We just need to figure out what that looks like."
He expects to spend $200,000 to$350,000 on the restaurant's build-out before it opens sometime next spring.
The Gillespie Group has invested $3.6 million in the building's redevelopment, according to Ashley Brzezinski, the company's director of marketing, and it will spend another $1.2 million by the time it's finished.
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Bonnie's plans to offer inviting space for a meal
Customers can expect to find an "inviting" restaurant space when Bobcat Bonnie's opens.
"It's usually very bright, very colorful and we really work hard on curating the space," Buskard said.
The menu "is 100% eclectic and all over the place," he said. It includes such signature items as fried goat cheese, Buffalo chicken nachos, a classic burger and a chicken avocado sandwich. Many other offerings change seasonally. It also includes gluten-free and vegan options.
The brunch menu includes sweet and savory options, along with a selection of cocktails.
Buskard expects to hire 50 to 60 people in a mix of full-time and part-time positions.
The restaurant will utilize the liquor license attached to the property and it will likely seat about 150 people, Buskard said. There are plans to include outdoor patio seating.
"We like the space to be really bright, warm and inviting and to be a place where people feel really comfortable and where they want to hang out," Buskard said.
Starbucks is expected to open its first community store in Michigan in the building later this month.
Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ .
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Bobcat Bonnie's to open location in historic Lansing train station
