****UPDATE! 12/15/21
Plans for the official opening of Kingfisher Cocktails & Tacos have been pushed back by two weeks, although to-go orders will be taken until then. Here’s what the restaurant is sharing on Facebook today, along with posts regarding “hiring,” so apparently, they are having last minute staffing issues:
Sometimes the best things are worth waiting for…
We’ve had a couple of unfortunate complications this week and will be postponing our grand opening until Thursday, December 30th.
On a positive note, we know everyone is excited to try out our food and wanted to at least give you a sneak peek of what we have to offer. As such we will be offering TO-GO ORDERS this weekend during our normal hours of 11AM-9PM, Thursday through Sunday.
Please check out our website, www.kingfisherdowntown.com to see our menu.
We appreciate everyone’s patience and support. We look forward to opening our doors fully to you soon.
Here’s the original story I posted last Sunday:
In a region that continues to crave new dining experiences virtually every day, Jay Fettig and colleagues are delivering a culinary Christmas gift to the community more than a week ahead of the actual holiday when they swing open the doors onto their exciting new venture called Kingfisher Cocktails & Tacos in the heart of downtown St. Joseph this coming Thursday.
Fettig, whose business stable already includes the wildly successful North Pier Brewing Company in Benton Harbor and it’s sister restaurant the legendary North Shore Inn, was visibly excited as he welcomed invited guests Saturday night to a soft-opening private event designed to help his cast and crew gain experience in the kitchen, behind the bar, and on the serving floor before their upcoming Grand Opening slated for this coming Thursday, December 16th from 11am until 9pm.
The team didn’t miss a beat as they showcased a superbly fresh mix of offerings that focus on a beach vibe, featuring Baja-Style featuring Mexican-style tacos; Caribbean fare, including jerk chicken flavors; and Tiki-style options consisting of fruit and fish flavor combinations.
Having sampled a great array of Empanadas featuring Mexican street corn, jerk chicken, roasted poblano, Baja pork and pineapple at the private event last night as a shareable from the menu it was readily evident that Kingfisher will soar. Adding to our sampling with a Baja Pork taco with pork verde, apple slaw, onion and cilantro followed by a Jamaican Jerk taco with spiced chicken, cotija cheese, jicama, cucumber, carrot and green onion, the freshness and flavor of the ingredients were bursting in every bite. They make their own tortillas in house for ultimate freshness. You’ll also find such shareables as Chips & Dip, and Nachos, a couple of salads including a taco salad and a farm salad, and additional taco offerings including Birria, Fish Al Pastor, and Sweet Potato. Rounding out the menu are the King Wrap and a Rice Bowl, with two kids offerings including a cheese quesadilla and mac n’ cheese.
There are many cocktails from their early iterations of Cut & Run and Gold Coast Tiki, to their Kingfisher Margarita and others. Beers will be added into the menu as soon as the Michigan Liquor Control Commission approves licensing for their inclusion on the menu.
Based on Fettig’s successful development of craft cocktails at North Pier Brewing Company, he elected to provide a new venue to showcase those cocktails paired with tacos, empanadas and more at the new Kingfisher Cocktails & Tacos site which was originally targeted to open in late summer at 210 State Street in St. Joseph. As building rehab and menu development advanced, Fettig elected to hold off on potentially swamping a new staff during the busy tourist season, but was decidedly focused on getting the doors open by the end of 2021.
The goal of the new restaurant is to host a casual atmosphere for quick and easy dining that reflects the laid-back beachfront lifestyle the St. Joseph community is well known for.
When describing his concept earlier this year, Jay admitted, “St. Joe gets so busy and already has so many restaurants, we wanted to offer something that is casual, quick and easy, where you can feel comfortable coming in in board shorts and flip-flops, or to gather with friends for some of the great sharables on the menu. ”
He adds, “Those who want to stay for a drink can do just that, but everything is available to-go, and the menu offers things that are handheld and easy to eat while walking around downtown, carrying down to the beach, or taking home to surprise the family.”
The restaurant also offers appetizers and rice bowls featuring island-style fried rice with rich flavors and topped with meat, micro-cilantro and fried eggs.
Kingfisher’s actual roots stem back to 2018 when Fettig’s North Pier Brewing began to experiment with new product lines, and obtained special licenses to produce mixed spirits and craft cocktails.
Reflecting back, Jay notes, “Seltzers were just starting to take off, and not too many people were doing craft cocktails,” adding, “Just like with our beers, we wanted them to be easy drinking for a kind of lazy beach lifestyle.”
North Pier’s first cocktails were the Cut and Run and Gold Coast Tiki styles, which did well in the taproom and in retail distribution.
Essentially, that early success fostered the idea of establishing a new space and concept that could more effectively highlight those cocktails even more, paving the way for the new Kingfisher venue in downtown St. Joe.
Kingfisher is opening in the space formerly occupied by Schaller Gallery (which moved to Baroda), between Third Coast Surf Shop and The Toy Company. Fettig had hoped to open Kingfisher by the beginning of summer, but found the building required more work than was expected, telling us, “It’s an old downtown St. Joe building, and as soon as we started peeling back the layers, the complexity of the remodel just grew and grew.”.
Fettig chose the location to capitalize on the foot traffic in downtown St. Joseph, as well as for his existing relationship with the building’s owner, Ryan Gerard. Gerard’s business, Third Coast Surf Shop, located next door, has done several collaborations and events with North Pier Brewing over the years, and Jay says, “When Ryan bought the building, he wanted to have something cool there that would add to the downtown community,” and adds, “He approached me during the heart of COVID and we weren’t exactly planning to do our next location at that time, however, in the end, we decided it would be a perfect location for us.”
The building has a similar footprint to North Pier’s existing taproom, which Fettig says translates to a familiar service model that the company is comfortable with.
Fettig also hopes Kingfisher will draw new customers to North Pier Brewing and the neighboring North Shore Inn — the legendary burger restaurant across the street — which his company acquired in 2018.
“With North Pier and North Shore, people are coming to us specifically,” Fettig said. “It’s great that we’ve made this corner into a destination, but we’ve never had simple walk-in traffic, so we’re excited about being in a downtown location with Kingfisher as a complimentary but different business, and hoping that visitors to downtown who don’t know about North Shore and North Pier yet might visit us in Benton Harbor as well.”
Jay Dean, who joined the North Pier team from Chicago in 2018 to help the company’s acquisition transition of North Shore Inn, will head-up the crew at Kingfisher, as Fetting notes, “He (Dean) is honestly overqualified for what he’s been doing for us, but he really liked the company and we’ve been really fortunate to have him,” while concluding, “We knew he would be a great person to head this up, and we were glad we could promote within the company instead of hiring someone from outside.”
Kingfisher will initially be open for lunch and dinner on a Thursday through Sunday schedule of 11am until 9pm, with the final formal spring and summer schedule to come later when the goal is to be open 7-days a week.
Visit the company’s Facebook page at this link until the formal website goes online:
https://www.facebook.com/kingfisherdowntown
The company’s website at kingfisherdowntown.com will offer more information when construction is complete and the restaurant is fully opened for business.
