The 347-Day Wait at Locals Lake Leelanau

Nearly a year after opening, Locals is finally getting its liquor license

It’s about to be happy hour in Lake Leelanau. Nearly a year after opening its doors, the Locals Lake Leelanau restaurant is finally able to serve alcoholic beverages. Owner Tony West announced the news on the business’s Facebook page on April 22, noting that he was “hoping to have some booze in the building” in time for the first weekend of May.

According to West, there have been two common refrains to how Locals customers have responded to the news. The first was a general “outpouring of love and support” for the restaurant. The second? Some version of the sentence “It’s about damn time.”

Waiting Game

Locals officially debuted on May 10, 2025, opening in the 112 E Philip Street space in Lake Leelanau that had previously been occupied by Northern Latitudes Distillery. The restaurant burned through its entire first summer without being able to serve a single drink, and by fall, West was joking that his fantasy football team bore the name “Where’s the Liquor License.”

“I’ve had the priest, the grocery store owner, everybody wondering what’s been going on with the license and was it ever going to happen,” West joked in the April 22 video announcement of the long-awaited license approval.

All told, it took 347 days after Locals Lake Leelanau opened for West to get the email from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission notifying him that the restaurant’s application for a liquor license had been approved.

West frames the news as a new dawn for Locals, which he admits sometimes struggled to attract and retain customers due to its lack of alcohol.

“We did have people who came in but did not stay because we did not have the license,” West shares. “And they would always apologize to me! They would say, ‘God, we’re so sorry. We just wanted to have a beer.’ And my response to every single one of those people is that I totally understand. I want you to have a beer with your brisket, too. I want you to have the full experience at my restaurant.”

Asked why it took so long for Locals to get its liquor license, West chalks it up to the type of license he applied for. Most restaurants and bars in Michigan have a Class C license, which allows for the on-premises sale and consumption of beer, wine, and spirits. West wanted to go one step further.

“I called the restaurant Locals because I wanted to tell the story of all the local legends that have paved the way beforehand,” West explains. “And with that, I knew I wanted to go for my full manufacturer’s license, which essentially entailed a microbrewery license, a small winemakers license, and a distilling license. We knew that getting all of that was at least an eight-month process.”

Long-term, West says his aim is for Locals to have its own house-made libations on offer.

“That’s the main plan. All custom-label stuff with a cool Locals label, along with some other cool products,” he notes. “Beer, wine, cider, and liquor with super fun names, named after the local legends that paved the way before.”

Let’s Throw a Party

While West expects the first days of liquor service at Locals will be plenty celebratory on their own, he is also planning a proper bash to mark the milestone and send the restaurant into both its summer 2026 season and its new chapter.

“We’re framing this as our grand reopening,” West says, touting a noon-to-10pm party on Saturday, May 9, that will feature two local bands (Loophole from 12-4pm and Drew Hale from 7-10pm), paintings for sale from local watercolor artist Mike Sincic, coffee from Pedaling Beans (“They’re actually taking over one of our bars for the day,” West says of the local coffee shop), and the launch of a brand-new food menu.

Regarding the menu, West says Locals will be expanding its pizza menu and “really jumping into our smokehouse theme,” with new barbeque dishes like smoked half-chickens and locally-made kielbasa sausage. All the new menu items, West promises, will continue the Locals tradition of naming dishes after Leelanau County landmarks and historical tidbits—part of an ongoing partnership between the restaurant and the Leelanau Historical Society.

“Our menu is really geared to be fun and interactive,” West explains. “It has a QR code on it that the Leelanau Historical Society did for us. Each menu item is named after a local legend, and customers can scan that and it will take them to a website that shares more of the history of the area. As we expand the menu a little bit, we’re also adding more names and more information to that Locals QR code.”

Both Sides of the Street

While Locals will be home base for the May 9 party, West says the event will also involve other nearby businesses, part of a block party vibe he sees as a tip of the hat to his restaurant’s “lifting up all things local” mentality.

“We’re getting Soul Squeeze Cellars, which is right across the street from us, involved too,” West teases. “Our first band gets off the stage at 4pm, and then Soul Squeeze will have a band playing from 4-7pm. It’s going to give people an opportunity to jump across the street and try another cool local venue. And then they can calibrate back at Locals from 7-10pm with Drew Hale rocking and rolling.”

Find Locals Lake Leelanau at 112 E Philip St. localsll.com

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