Local Businesses

Tucked away at 2000 Merritt Road, between Park Lake Road and Haslett Road, is the largest beverage distillery in Michigan. It produces apple brandy, buckwheat bourbon, corn whiskey, gin, and rice vodka for its own label as well as producing distillations for private labels. In addition to the distillery, this location includes a tasting room, Red Cedar Spirits, featuring handcrafted cocktails.

"Last week, my companion and I had the totally serendipitous experience of finding an East Lansing restaurant we had never heard of."

Altu’s is owned by chef Altaye Tadesse, and many of the menu options are her family recipes.

Ted Wilson, owner and founder of Michigan Shirt Works, wants downtown East Lansing to once again be a family destination. His aim is to become known for providing innovative design services and for providing fun for families in East Lansing while printing any design on any article of apparel.. “When I was growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, my family and others regularly came to downtown East Lansing,” Wilson says, adding, “That’s not the case anymore, and I want to be part of changing that.”

Note: This article begins a new weekly Friday feature of ELi called “Ask ELi to Investigate.” This feature takes questions from readers and assigns a citizen-reporter to investigate the answer. If you’d like to submit a question for “Ask ELi to investigate,” use our contact form.

A reader asks: How much money does the Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL) give from its profits to the City of Lansing each year?

Perhaps because we have serious winters in East Lansing, when the weather is nice the outdoor cafes and pubs fill up. The current stretch of temperate, dry weather led this reporter to ask a non-scientific sample of locals for their two or three favorite places to enjoy a cup of coffee or a glass of beer outside.

Sara Beer doesn’t just show up at the East Lansing Farmers’ Market on Sunday mornings with homemade granola and a great smile. A tremendous amount of work goes into every week of selling Spoonful of Granola at the Market, and for Beer, that work is a labor of love.

“My favorite thing,” she says,” is to see people love what I do. I like the fact that I’m making something homemade that’s not full of sugar, and is pretty much a super food – it covers all the food groups if you add dairy.”

Mackerel Sky has functioned as a kind of “anchor store” to East Lansing’s downtown shopping district from the time it was founded in 1990. Since 1969, husband-and-wife team Tom and Linda Dufelmeier, Mackerel Sky’s owners, have worked almost continuously within a one-block radius. This means they have witnessed four decades of change in East Lansing’s downtown. While they are troubled by the current state of downtown (as noted below), what has not changed is their affection for the regular customers of their business.

East Lansing Info (Eli) has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to help cover their first six months operating costs. Using the IndieGoGo platform, the campaign was launched this morning and gives contributors a wide choice of ‘perks’, based on donation level. Perks include coffee mugs, t-shirts, house concerts by Eli board member Michael Lawrence’s band Jackalope, local artwork, and an invitation to a swank party at board president Alice Dreger’s home. Eli needs to raise $20,000 during the 45 day duration of the campaign.