Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from Terra Bagels Co-owner Ken Sung.
GRAND RAPIDS — Terra Bagels LLC is expanding with a second location, branching out from the city’s Eastown neighborhood to a downtown Grand Rapids storefront at the Michigan Trust Building that was previously occupied by Ferris Coffee & Nut Co.
Terra Bagels is co-owned by Terra GR restaurant Owner Ken Sung and Terra GR Executive Chef Clark Frain. The bagel concept first opened in September 2020 at 1413 Lake Dr. SE — on the same block as Terra GR — in Grand Rapids’ Eastown neighborhood in a small space with a focus on takeout.
The downtown location at 40 Pearl St. NW is planned to open next month at the corner of Pearl Street and Ottawa Avenue.
Sung said “some modifications” will be made to the space, but Terra Bagels will be set up similarly to the former Ferris Coffee shop. Opening a downtown location will allow Terra Bagels to build its production systems to prepare for the office crowd in hopes of workers returning to more in-person work at some point next year, Sung added.
“We’ll be more than prepared with coffee and sandwiches,” Sung said. “The biggest thing we learned (opening the Eastown location) was our sandwiches are more popular than we thought they were going to be. We originally thought we’d be doing a lot of bagels and schmear, but then people noticed the difference of how we’re doing our own pastrami and lox on our sandwiches.”
Officials with CWD Real Estate Investment LLC say the Terra location will add another downtown dining option for nearby hotel guests, convention visitors and office workers. The Trust Building is owned by 40 Pearl Street LLC, which is registered to CWD Managing Partner Sam Cummings.
“We continually look to increase the offerings of strong restaurant concepts, urban service uses and retailers to cater to our downtown office, entertainment and residential community,” CWD Real Estate Investment Managing Partner Scott Wierda said in a statement.
Ferris Coffee closed its downtown coffee shop at the 40 Pearl building, along with its west side cafe at 227 Winter Ave. NW, at the end of May. The Grand Rapids-based specialty coffee and gourmet nut company cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the driving force behind closing the two cafes. The company still has a retail and cafe space at its headquarters located at 839 Seward Ave. NW.
Sung said the ownership team is “just excited about being downtown, and we feel like there is a lot of activity happening there. It’s fun to expand what we do in a different part of Grand Rapids, even though it’s not too far from our Eastown location.”
