By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
Future Lake Orion bar and restaurant owner Johnny Gjokaj is trying what not many restaurateurs have mastered yet in Oakland County, let alone Michigan.
His coming bar and grille, currently being renovated at the old Lake Orion Applebee’s at 305 S. Broadway, will sport over 100 beer handles.
That is just to start. Eventually Johnny plans to offer 150 handles, making it one of the largest multi-tap beer bars in Michigan, here in the Village of Lake Orion.
To a lot of the people in the microbrewery business, that is quite a feat.
His closest competitor, at that magnitude, is the well-known craft beer bar HopCat, which first opened in Grand Rapids offering 48 taps, then East Lansing and Ann Arbor with 100 taps, and most recently in Detroit with 130 taps.?
For a local reference, the Lake Orion Buffalo Wild Wings has 56 handles, and 51 North Brewery has 18.
Not far from Lake Orion, the Clarkston Union offers 35 craft beer handles, and the Woodshop, also where Johnny found his BBQ chef, offers 6. Under the same owner, Vinsetta Garage of Berkley offers 24 handles, and the Fenton Fire Hall beer czars fill pints from 48 handles.
150 handles, to some, is a whole new animal, but Johnny and his son and co-owner Robbie wanted to open something Lake Orion hasn’t seen yet.
Which brings us to the food.
?’It’s going to have a spectacular menu,? he said. ‘It’s going to be different than anything in the area here.?
His exact words to describe it: ‘farm to table fresh.? And of course, the BBQ.
Farm to table generally refers to eateries that offer locally sourced menu options, promoting locally grown and raised animals, vegetables, fruits and herbs. ?
Johnny, who owns the Ox Bar and Grille in downtown Oxford, has been working with a restaurant owner in Venice, California to create the menu, which he calls ‘out of the box.?
Current renovations came after almost eight months of planning.
‘If I was going to make this kind of investment, I wanted to make sure it was something completely out of the ordinary, not completely out of the ordinary, but from a completely different angle, because the beer scene in Michigan is huge, we are ranked second or third in the nation right now, but the culinary part, we’re lagging. I think Lake Orion is great, I live in the area, and I know the area will embrace it big time, because they’re looking for something more exciting, more out of the box.?
Renovation crews still have about 60 days of work before the project is complete, and then the dry-runs will take some time to make sure everything is running properly.
The front of the building was completely gutted, and a lot of the infrastructure in the back is being remodeled.?
When it is finished, it will have a powerful, industrial feel, with massive French doors opening to the inside of steel and glass.
Total capacity for the building, including employees and patrons, is planned for about 160 occupants.
Only time will tell what is more unique to the new restaurant’its army of craft beer options, or its ‘out of the box? menu, as Johnny put it.
‘My son Robbie, he’s the one that really came up with the concept and the idea. I said, you know, this sounds like something very interesting, and the more I looked into it, the more it seemed appealing for the area.?