What's New in Suttons Bay This Summer: Openings, Reopenings, and Dates Worth Knowing

If you already live in Suttons Bay, you probably heard the news secondhand at the marina or over coffee. Three familiar addresses along and just off St. Joseph Street have quietly changed shape this year. The Art Festival will pull the crowds in August, but the more interesting story for anyone who lives here is what's happened to the village's food-and-drink core in the last four months.

Here's what's actually different, and what to put on the fridge for the rest of the season.

The corner that used to be North Country

The waterfront building most locals still call "the old North Country" reopened last month under a new concept from the same owner. A new restaurant has opened inside the former North Country Kitchen and Bar building in Suttons Bay, under the same ownership but rebranded as Cantina TwentyTwo, a Mexican-inspired restaurant with a patio-driven experience featuring waterfront views. North Country Grill and Pub was the final restaurant created by Barry Boone, the restaurateur behind Boone's Prime Time Pub, Boone's Long Lake Inn, and Boonedocks; his wife Karen maintained ownership until 2023, when she sold it to Matthew Branton.

What that means in practice: the menu leans on handcrafted margaritas, house-smoked meats, and shareable plates rather than the pub format the building held for fifteen years. Cantina TwentyTwo is open Sundays through Thursdays from 11am–9pm and Fridays and Saturdays from 11am–10pm, with happy hour deals — $2 beers, shots, and tacos — available daily at the bar from 2–5pm and again from 8pm to close.

If you have been avoiding the patio because you assumed nothing had changed since March, it has.

A bakery under new hands

The Chimoski Bakery space on the north end of the village has been reopened as Unsalted Mitten by new owners Tom and Christine Klotz. The signature items are Montreal-style bagels and cinnamon rolls, which is a departure from the pastry-forward Chimoski era. Montreal-style bagels are smaller, denser, and slightly sweeter than the New York version, so if you walk in expecting the old menu you will walk out with something different.

Worth stopping in on a weekday if you want to actually talk to the owners; the shop is small enough that the counter is the conversation.

The tasting room that went dark and came back

Northern Latitudes Distillery has reopened its Suttons Bay tasting room following a three-month closure. July 10 marked the first day since March 29. Going forward, the Suttons Bay spot will once again offer complimentary spirit tasting, bottle sales, and cocktails, with hours of noon–4pm Sundays and noon–7pm on Saturdays and Monday through Thursday.

The three-month gap threw a lot of locals off routine. It's worth knowing the Sunday hours are shorter than the rest of the week, which is the opposite of what you might assume for a village that fills up on weekends.

Dates worth putting on the fridge

The village's summer and shoulder-season calendar tightens after July 4. Rather than one anchor weekend, there are three back-to-back August dates and a run of fall events that quietly draw as much foot traffic as the festival itself.

The pancake breakfast is the underrated one. It funds the Suttons Bay Fine Arts program and it is the only time all year the festival grounds feel like a locals-only event before the gates open to the crowd.

The library is doing more than you think

The Bingham District Library has built out its summer programming in a way that's easy to miss if you don't have kids. A Michigan Notable Author Talk with Susan Hollister Wasselman, author of "Stepping Off the Boat: Stories from North Manitou Island," ran June 18, and outdoor Story Time is held Tuesdays at 10:30am outside the library overlooking the beach. On Wednesday July 8 at 6pm, folk musician Ben Traverse performed an American Folk Concert at the Friendship Community Center — worth watching for repeat bookings, because the program was co-hosted by the Leland Township Library, Suttons Bay Bingham District Library, Friendship Community Center, and the Leelanau Historical Society, and that four-way partnership tends to schedule more than one date.

The Bay Theatre's 2026 lineup

The Bay Community Theatre is running a broader schedule than in past years. The Bay Community Theatre will host free Formula 1 watch parties, a St. Patrick's Day concert, and the Made in Michigan Film Series as part of its 2026 lineup. "Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake)" by Sierra Falconer showed Sunday, April 12 at 4pm, features multiple Northern Michigan locations and actors and follows four connected stories centered on a summer at Green Lake; co-producers Nick Loud and Chris Loud participated in a Q&A, with tickets for all Made in Michigan films at $15. The theater is also hosting free watch parties for live Formula 1 races throughout 2026.

A free watch party at a restored small-town theater is a genuinely odd and good use of a Sunday morning. Put it on the list.

Where locals are going when they leave the village

The Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail sits at the village's back door, and a few of the closer stops have specific summer programming worth planning around rather than just showing up for:

• Shady Lane Cellars. A Yacht Rock Happy Hour runs July 7–9, all day from 12–6pm, featuring classic yacht rock playing all day, $10 select glass pours, and 25% off select bottles.
• MAWBY. Their summer schedule is running a series of food-and-wine pairings under the tent, featuring breads and butters from Farm Club and 9 Bean Rows, plus a German-style rye Vollkornbrot from Martin Sorge, winner of The Great American Baking Show, with pre-orders of Martin's upcoming cookbook "Great Bakes: Modern Classic Recipes from the Midwest" before its August 4, 2026 release.
• 9 Bean Rows. The Suttons Bay storefront is worth timing around the MAWBY events; ticket holders to the Butter Together pairing receive special savings at the 9 Bean Rows storefront in Suttons Bay.
• Black Star Farms, Suttons Bay Ciders, Tandem Ciders, Verterra Winery. Suttons Bay is at the heart of the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail, with Black Star Farms about 10 minutes out, Suttons Bay Ciders on the hilltop, L. Mawby (reservation required), Tandem Ciders, and Verterra Winery all in close range.

The one detail worth calling out: L. Mawby's tasting experiences typically require a reservation. A drop-in on a Saturday in August will not go the way you want it to.

One local business note that will matter to homeowners

Beyond food and drink, a small piece of Leelanau County business news is quietly interesting. Hallstedt-Homestead Cherries in Northport is open for U-pick despite a challenging growing season for cherries, and its Red Truck Orchards cherry vinegar recently launched at Meijer on US-31 in Traverse City and won a bronze medal at the 2026 USI International Vinegar Competition. The Northport farm is a 30-minute drive up M-22 and worth building into a Saturday loop if you have not been.

Putting it together

If you're a resident planning the next six weeks, the shortest version of this post is: try the new place on the water, grab bagels before they sell out on a Saturday, get the distillery back into your weekend rotation, and block off the first weekend of August. Everything else is a bonus.

And if the reason you're reading a local roundup like this is that you're quietly weighing whether the house you live in is still the right one for the next chapter, the team at Kyle O'Grady knows the Suttons Bay micro-market better than most. When you're ready for a real number rather than a portal estimate, request a free home valuation and we'll walk you through what your home would actually do in this summer's market.