Siciliano’s Market selling to new owners

GRAND RAPIDS — Siciliano’s Marketplace Inc., the family members-owned specialty store and launching pad for many West Michigan breweries, is transforming ownership after a many years-lengthy run promoting craft beverages and foods and the equipment used to make them.

House owners Steve and Barb Siciliano on Dec. 31 signed a gross sales arrangement with Jeff Boorsma, the former operator of a number of Adobé In & Out dining places. A longtime family buddy of the Sicilianos, Boorsma will flip about functions to his daughter and son-in-legislation. 

The Michigan Liquor Control Commission accredited a conditional license for Boorsma’s Fifty percent Tail LLC on April 5, and the events expect to shut the sale on June 1. Terms of the sale were being undisclosed.

The Sicilianos have been thinking of retirement for the past 5 several years and started off actively planning to provide last summer.

“We couldn’t have located greater proprietors,” Steve Siciliano told MiBiz. “They’re community people who have owned their personal business for a variety of many years and they are heading to operate (Siciliano’s Current market) and it will nonetheless be a mother-and-pop store. You do not see a good deal of individuals any far more.”

Steve SicilianoBoorsma’s daughter, Tiffany Sipka, alongside with husband Dan Sipka, have already been “learning the ropes” at the store, preparing for their new roles as operators. They system to purchase the business outright in the coming yrs, Dan Sipka stated. The pair are just about every just shy of 30 many years previous.

“We’re really energized about the option and seriously fired up for Steve and Barb, also. They’ve set a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the marketplace,” Sipka explained. “We’re not coming in to transform nearly anything we’re all about the community. It’s a neighborhood retail store sense, and we want men and women to know it is heading to keep on as it is.”

Apart from a several minor cosmetic variations, the Sipkas system to sustain the functions, as properly as the Siciliano’s Current market name.

“Steve gave us the blessing to adjust (the name), but there’s no cause to. It is a west facet staple,” claimed Sipka, who life with his wife a block north of the sector.

Grand Rapids roots

In 1993, the Sicilianos bought the former bash retailer at 2840 Lake Michigan Generate NW as it was on the verge of going out of business.

“I thought I could occur in this article and, growth, transform it all-around overnight,” Siciliano said. “But it did not come about overnight. After men and women quit coming to a locale since there is nothing at all to occur there for, it is sort of hard to get that site visitors again.”

The 1st 5 years of business were being difficult, but Siciliano drew on former working experience managing benefit suppliers in city. He previously operated a 7-Eleven franchise on North Plainfield Avenue for 5 a long time, then purchased a convenience retail store in the Creston community that he renamed Siciliano’s Market. He would afterwards relocate from Creston to the Westside Connection neighborhood in hopes of transferring to a location more conducive to promoting good wine.

Dan and Tiffany SipkaIn the meantime, the craft beer industry was beginning to take root in Michigan and elsewhere.

“I commenced carrying some craft beers and imports aside from the regulars that absolutely everyone else carried,” Siciliano claimed. “I began searching for distinctive things to get, and I determined to start offering them in singles, which no one was undertaking again then. The craft beer field served put us on the map, and then from there we acquired into brewing materials, put a cigar humidor in, and it just grew following that.”

The shop has “turned into a place,” carrying hundreds of types of craft beer, wine, spirits, cigars, tobacco items, as nicely as materials for building wine, beer and cheese. 

Cultural ambassadors

Emerging as an early homebrew source retailer aided distinguish Siciliano’s from most specialty markets, and has built the shop a faithful pursuing amongst craft brewers, some of whom grew to create effectively identified West Michigan breweries.

Siciliano’s nurturing and guiding approach to nascent brewers and deep awareness of the craft beverage sector has produced it special.

“They genuinely care about the merchandise and the procedure and cared about the emerging tradition. I did an outstanding volume of networking there,” claimed Seth Rivard, co-owner of Rockford Brewing Co. who started out shopping for homebrewing materials at Siciliano’s about 15 yrs back. “I’ve constantly had an entrepreneurial spirit, and it was a great suit for me seeking to get into the brewing world. Acquiring that network and culture that Siciliano’s supplied was a fantastic jumping board for that.”

Several a long time ago, when Grand Rapids began earning craft brewing accolades and the title of Beer City, United states of america, “it was really eye opening to see how lots of brewery proprietors in Grand Rapids obtained their start off via Siciliano’s. It is just an extraordinary selection,” Rivard said.

“Steve has generally located the most incredible team to support folks find out from scratch and even acquire their brewing to the future level,” Rivard additional. “It’s absolutely been an incubator for the lifestyle that this town and surrounding location have designed all around the good arts of craft beer.”

Mitten Brewing Co. co-operator Chris Andrus fondly recalls his early homebrewing days being centered all over Siciliano’s.

“I never suggest to overstate it, but if not for Siciliano’s, I’m not absolutely sure Mitten would have transpired,” Andrus claimed.

Siciliano’s led Andrus and business partner Max Trierweiler to come to a decision to pursue craft beer as a vocation, providing them “an in” to master recipes and construct awareness from the unassuming staff. 

The welcoming emotion of Siciliano’s was evident early on when Andrus and Trierweiler manufactured their to start with, all-grain homebrew batch, which was sourced from the marketplace.

“I was bringing the batch from the vehicle to the garage, and the bag ripped open up and it all fell out in the driveway — it was an inauspicious starting,” Andrus said. “We experienced to go back again to Siciliano’s and scoop all the things out all over again. We felt like knuckleheads. We identified as it Driveway IPA.”

“There have been all of these complete noob times, like not being aware of how to work a grain mill,” Andrus added. “There was a great deal of intimidation in craft society at the time. It felt like a club, and we did not really feel that we were necessarily in the club. Siciliano’s is not like that.”

Andrus to this day stops into Siciliano’s for the occasional final-moment provide re-up. Not too long ago, he desired sugar for a new batch of seltzer. Or it is for study and development reasons — like purchasing six distinct bottles of kolsch to see how a new Mitten version compares.

Andrus’ advice for the new homeowners: “Remember what built Siciliano’s specific in the initially area — that nurturing nature of the put. And the significant IQ for beer. There are heaps of shops with variety, but it takes notice to detail.”

Andrus famous that Steve Siciliano not long ago appeared “happier than I’ve noticed him in all the many years I’ve regarded him.” 

And Siciliano is self-confident as he heads into retirement.

“It’s not difficult to stroll away for the reason that we know the business will be in excellent palms,” he claimed.