Bluewater Café owner Colleen McGraw is greeted by a handful of her regular “roundtable” customers several days a week when she arrives by 5:10 a.m. Despite the early hour, it’s becoming a comforting routine in her weekly schedule.
“I was told long ago in this business that you have to treat every single customer the same,” McGraw said. “That’s what keeps them coming back.”
McGraw, 65, has seen plenty of regulars at Bluewater Café, located at 323 W. Main St. in downtown Ionia, since 2003. She opened the restaurant in 1991 on the outskirts of town, but became tired of paying the monthly lease for a building she didn’t own. She’s owned the current building, where the bustling restaurant now operates, for 22 years.
Those early morning regulars know McGraw won’t serve them until the restaurant, which is open 6 a.m.-7 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays, is ready to roll. Most of her customers arrive during regular business hours, which keeps the 140-seat restaurant humming, especially during the busy breakfast and lunch rush.
The most popular menu items include the breakfast bowl and farmer’s omelet in the morning, alongside numerous stacked hamburgers in the afternoon and evening hours. Perhaps the most popular of those burgers is the whataburger, a half-pounder with two types of cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and onion tanglers on a sourdough bun, smothered with special sauce.
The level of service and appreciation for customers hasn’t changed over the years.
“It’s a family atmosphere,” McGraw said. “I’ve come to love all of our customers.”
She remembers many of her regulars as children themselves, who now have their own families to feed.
“They came in with their parents, and now they’re coming in with their kids,” McGraw said. “I love to see that.”
Like many restaurateurs, McGraw’s biggest challenge is staffing. It’s hard to find a manager, cook or employee that wants to work long shifts in a restaurant setting, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. McGraw opens the restaurant daily, and often stays until close. Her sons, Jason and Joshua, help — and she’s appreciative of the 15 employees she has.
“You can’t get the help you could before (the pandemic),” McGraw said. “It’s not easy work, but it can be very rewarding.”
McGraw isn’t retiring in the immediate future, but she hopes to find a full-time cook to help support her and her sons. Eventually, she’d like to scale back her hours and have someone else run the day-to-day, so she can transition into a supportive role. She’s not sure what Bluewater Café will look like, or who may be running it, a decade from now.
“I guess that’s the question, isn’t it?” McGraw said with a laugh.
Bluewater Café can be reached for takeout orders or further questions by calling 616-527-9960.
— M. Alan Scott is a freelance writer for The Sentinel-Standard. Contact the newsroom at newsroom@sentinel-standard.com.
This article originally appeared on Ionia Sentinel-Standard: Bluewater Café still a breakfast, lunchtime favorite after 30 years in Ionia
Reporting by M. Alan Scott / Ionia Sentinel-Standard
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