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Sullivan's Black Forest Brew Haus & Restaurant:

How Tim Sullivan & Tom Wood Took a White Elephant

and Transformed it Into a Stunning Restaurant, Banquet Hall, and Brew Pub

By Robert E. Martin

"To be a success in business, be daring, be first, be different. Production is not the application of tools to materials, but logic to work. Business has only two basic functions - marketing and innovation."
- Peter Drucker

      

The year is 1990.

Envision, if you will, building a castle in Frankenmuth at a cost of $15 million dollars.
Designed as an Italian restaurant capable of serving 600 people in order to compete with such established German icons as Zehnder's and The Bavarian Inn, the endeavor goes broke.  The castle goes through four sets of different owners in a dozen years that collectively lose another $5 million dollars (one of whom tragically commits suicide).

Then one day you are approached and given the opportunity to acquire the property and add your own name to the legacy.

What would you do?
     

Such is the quandary Tim Sullivan and Tom Wood found themselves in two years ago when presented with the chance to take on all the pitfalls & potential of what is now known as Sullivan's Black Forest Restaurant  & Brew Haus.

Located at 281 Heinlein Strasse across the street from the soon to be unveiled Zehnder's WaterPark, the venture is also a success story that serves as a blueprint for how a keen eye towards innovation and perseverance can take you very far, especially when its all glued together with a positive attitude.

Today, for the first time since its inception, the facility is utilized creatively to its full capacity. 
With a gorgeous large Banquet facility called The Kaufmann Room, a second banquet facility in the basement, a full service restaurant & bar serving incredible  (and affordable) dinners & lunches, coupled with their own specially brewed beers, the evolution of this venture has risen to a new level.

  Sullivan & Wood's involvement with the project began when the 4th owner of the property approached them about assisting with food preparation at The Black Forest.   With a 24 year track record as the successful owners of Sullivans Catering, the partners saw an opportunity to solve problems associated with the growth of their rapidly expanding catering business.

"When we first came here three or four years ago, we'd grossly outgrown our previous facility and needed the multiple kitchens available," explains Tim. "Before the 4th owner was prepared to close the place, he approached us and said he had some big wedding dates booked in June, July, and August, and invited us in. We couldn't believe all the incredible freezer and production space, so it was right up our alley."

"Our original concept was to sell the brewing equipment and exist solely as a banquet facility - like Horizons #2 - but after we got into it, given our restaurant experience and knowing a bit about the bar business as co-founders of Retro Rocks, we decided let's try it - lets offer a fine restaurant, an exceptional banquet facility, and feature beers made in our own brewery."

When Sullivan & Wood acquired the property, they were serving 60,000 meals a year. "We decided early on to keep our off-catering separate from what we offered in the restaurant," notes Tim.

"Both consist of different menus, plus we need to monitor the restaurant differently than the catering component.

"But I would say that this year our in-house food & bar banquet will surpass what it took 25 years to build up with Sullivan's Catering."

ORIGINS * 
Rockin' at the Golden Glow

   As part of the famous Sullivan restaurant family, in 1981 Tim was eager to become independent, so he purchased the legendary Golden Glow Ballroom with partner Dan Whaley.  It was during this period that he met current partner Tom Wood and started to create history.
      

"I left the Golden Glow in 1985 because it didn't pay me any money," laughs Tim, "and started building up my catering business out of that. We produced some memorable shows there - The Romantics, Humble Pie - all the teen dances.  I was 25 years old and wanted to leave the family business. I wanted my own thing."

"When the Glow fell apart for me I'd also gone through a divorce at the time, so decided to concentrate on making this catering business work.  What really kept me self-employed and independent is that we had a 10-year run catering at the race track, plus we picked up the airport account in 1993, so a lot of the catering evolved into contract services."
    

"I started working at the Glow when I was 15 years old," explains Tom. "I'm 9 years younger than Tim so came in as a Manager.  When we started the teen dances at the Glow we got 400 kids on the first dance we held. Within weeks it was highly profitable."
 

"Basically," relates Tim, "as the catering business grew, so did the contract service business. The airport account gave us the confidence to do Retro Rocks and come out here to take on this project.
"It gave us opportunity."


Opportunity Knocks

      "One of the problems with prior owners is the only thing they ever concentrated on was the restaurant," opines Tim. "Space was not being utilized.  But our main focus was on the banquet rooms, which we knew we could sell. This year we don't have a Saturday available from April through December, so essentially we've created a banquet facility that never really existed prior to us coming here."
    

"The third owner of the Black Forest spent $200,000 on brewing equipment and another $200,000 on installation," adds Tom. "At first we weren't interested in brewing beer. In fact, one guy offered us a whole $35,000 for it. But finally we said, 'no, we've got everything here. Let's try making beer. Plus we have a friend, Andy Rathaus, who is an excellent Brew Meister and handles that end of the operation."
       

With 'Flagship' brews that consist of a Vienna style amber lager, Woody's light, which is a light golden ale similar to a Killians, an Indie Pale Ale, along with Sully's Irish Oat stout, some of the beers are brewed with hops grown outside in the courtyard. Brewed in smaller batches, the Black Forest even features a Mug Club.

 

"The truly beautiful thing is that everything you see came with the building," notes Tim. "When we came in there were 900 china place settings and silverware.  At $25.00 a piece for full service, just do the math. If I had financial problems I would have auctioned items like that to recoup money, but when we walked into the door, it was almost a turnkey operation."

 

Indeed, a view shared by Tim & Tom is that the growth of the BrewPub is an evolutionary process.  If one builds & manages a successful banquet facility, it will feed into the bar and restaurant, increasing sales for each division.
 

"We have 83 people on payroll right now and that will increase to 105 in the summer," adds Tim, "and in a big weekend we can do 2000 meals off premises and in our restaurant, without missing a stroke."
      

With Executive Chef Mike Redland at the helm overseeing the separate catering & restaurant divisions, all kitchens at the Black Forest are totally utilized.
   

"Our mantra when we entered was banquets, banquets, banquets," relates Tim, "because four other operators tried to take 190 seats and pay all the fixed costs from this room alone. The other operators got about 60 percent of the way there, but they needed to do $1.6 million just to break even."


Finding a Niche

   Today the Black Forest Restaurant is holding its own. A recent dinner on Valentine's Day witnessed a specially created menu, replete with lobster tails, prime rib, incredible appetizers and mountain high slices of delectable cheesecake.
   

"We're doing more special events and creating more every day," continues Tom. "We offer special menus for Sweetest Day, New Year's Eve, and other special days that offer a 4-course meal at a fixed price, but also have our Easter Day and Mother's Day buffet that utilizes both floors. We served about 1,100 people for Mother's Day and our goal this year is 1,500 between the two levels."
     

"Plus if you look at our menu, we offer a wide spectrum of food. Sullivan's fish & chips is our most popular menu item, but we offer lots of steaks and barbecue ribs and Kids Meals and our pizzas are very good, too."

"What I find incredible, coming from a restaurant family, is that Zehnder's and The Bavarian Inn are listed in the Top 10 list of restaurants nationally and they're across the street from each other in a town of 5,000 people," states Tim.

"It's phenomenal. And then if you go back 30 or 40 years and realize that the largest Christmas store in the world is across the street and 3 million people come through here, the founding fathers of Frankenmuth latched onto something.  It's hard to know who to give credit to - the Zehnder family, Wally Bronner, certainly the Chamber of Commerce is a part of it, but the fact they're building a $12 million water park a block away is going to impact our business greatly this year."

Tom agrees with Tim's assessment of the old real estate adage: 'location, location, location.'
"The building going on in this community is impressive," he echoes. "We can draw people from that.  Government is spending $2 million on the roads, Bronner spent $9 million adding an addition to his building a few years ago, and between the Water park investment, not to mention the $32 million in River Place, you have a $50 million investment in this corridor of six blocks over the past three or four years, and there's still a lot of commercial space available."

"What happened with my career is that my family took me out of the kitchen and said you're not going to cook anymore, you need to learn other parts of the business" explains Tim. "Now my career is more involved with accountants, bankers, and lawyers, but I still love to go out and carve prime rib at banquets and put a face on the food that is being served.

While their persistence and vision has paid off, Tom and Tim both agree that adopting the 'Sullivan's' name to the Black Forest has also contributed to its success.
"We've created a niche where people know Sullivan's is involved with the Black Forest," comments Tim. "It's the same family, but different corporations and generations. Still, I feel the name is significant to our success. I've ruffled some feathers in my family, but my father always said, 'Your last name is your last name.'

And as one might suspect with such an amazing tale, the biggest misconception about the Black Forest that the partners hear is that it is on the verge of failure.

"We brought almost $2 million dollars into this building through the catering and off premise business, and I truly sympathize with the prior owners," reflects Tim. "When you lose money it sucks the life out of you. And for independent restaurants, statistically for every two that open, one will fail, so it's a pretty brutal business. Fortunately we've been here for 28 months and all signals are strong"

With pricing that is competitive and new additions that include an outdoor chapel, the Black Forest accommodates weddings ranging from the large and grandiose to smaller and more intimate affairs with 32 people.

"Our catering pricing is competitive and we may be two or three dollars below the cost of places like Horizon's or Apple Mountain, states Tom. "We may be slightly higher on off-premise catering, because we offer so many different packages, but in most instances of the operation we are competitive and represent a value for what you receive."

"If there's a secret to our success," concludes Tim, "it's that we believe intensely that you have to enjoy what you do or you might as well pull the plug.  A positive attitude is very important. Plus we understand that you're only as good as the last meal served."

"I'm going to be 50 in June and have never been more enthused. More significant than making money is the sense of coming out here and being successful. Doing what nobody else could do.

Money is all relative. It's nice to get more than less, but the sense of achievement is where the real value is.

"I feel our potential is unlimited."

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