James Berg is CEO and partner of Essence Restaurant Group, which owns four Grand Rapids restaurants, including Lucy’s. He says one of his line cooks predicted big things for Lucy’s just before the Yelp article was released.
“He goes, ‘Someday, they’re going to be talking about us in magazines,’ and then that was on Sunday and then I get the email from Craig about this thing like two days later.”
Berg says on an average weekend, they serve 600 customers and turn away another 200 due to space limitations. The restaurant has 4.4 stars out of 445 reviews on Yelp.
“So we knew we were on to something. It’s always good to get the praise but it’s not totally surprising either because of how busy this place gets.”
Lucy’s occupies the former D’Amico’s Food Mart on Plainfield Avenue, which was operated by the VanderKooy family from 1978 until 2011. In 2016, the building was renovated into two restaurants eventually being sold to Essence and simply becoming Lucy’s in 2019.
Berg credits the high praise from Yelp reviewers with a simple philosophy:
“Everything you get, we’re making it here. Whether it’s from the bakery or just an omelet or anything that we make is just from scratch.”
Lucy’s is open every day from 8 AM to 3 PM.
You can read the Yelp article here.
