Here’s Capital Gains’ look at visiting Old Town Lansing. Also check out our guides to investing in and moving to Old Town.

Once the site of a mill, an ash factory, a hotel for state legislators and a handful of brawling bars, North Town Lansing—now Old Town Lansing—is a lot more diverse and intriguing these days.

Taken together, the people in the shops, boutiques, restaurants and offices of Old Town are often lighthearted, sometimes funny, and always friendly. They have created what many visitors are finding to be an inspiring place to live and a destination for those looking for something totally unlike the nearest mall.

Art and Pets

Today’s Old Town has attracted a unique blend of graphic and fine artists, as well as several galleries, each of the 11 (and counting) galleries uniquely offering venues for artists in all media.

The Absolute Gallery was one of the earliest local places for artists both local and national to display their work, and owner Kathy Holcomb adds an exceptional talent for framing.

Meanwhile, the multi-talented Honora Bird has a gallery and studio that’s harder to find, down the alley beside the Grand Café Sir Pizza, down stone stairs and through a door to many surprises – displays of her own work and many other gifted local artists.

These and many more galleries anchor a retail mix that includes the fashionable women’s clothing found at Grace as well as the funky animal fun found at Gone 2 the Dogs and the popular Preuss Pets, which now calls Old Town home.

There are antiques to shop, interior design storefronts to explore, and wacky specialty shops with nifty gift items and wonderful scents.

Food and Fun

Old Town also offers a mix of food and beverage purveyors that offer something for anyone’s palate.

One of the long-standing restaurants is Sharon Hind’s Portable Feast & Friends, which offers a full menu of healthy and fresh salads, soups, and sandwiches, and breakfast fare that will jump-start anyone’s day. PFF recently received an IKEA makeover in January, adding a bistro look and new food preparation areas.

The first eatery that most people recall in Old Town was the Grand Café Sir Pizza, which offers more than pizza, and a great view of the Grand River. A block east, Pablo’s Panderia is a luncheon destination for those who relish Mexican fare – you’ll find many Latino customers as well, which is a good sign of Pablo’s authenticity. Another authentic treat is Vernadine’s Soul Food, where the ribs are popular for sit down or take-out diners. Both eateries also received IKEA makeovers.

A few block up Turner Street, you can get a wonderful breakfast at the Golden Harvest Restaurant, newly redone after a fire, but the same great griddle.

Closer to the downtown, one very new kid in town is Mama Bear’s, a cozy natural foods eatery offering a menu of “organic and local foods when possible” that changes almost daily with a homemade soups and sandwiches and terrific desserts, and walking inside makes you wonder if you just stepped off a street in Raleigh-Durham or Boston.
 
Owosso-raised Chica Garcia, Mama Bear’s proprietor, is a former pastry chef at Villegas and Dusty’s who has always wanted to have a place offering fresh, healthy fare. And, of course, there was the Old Town charm: “The community feeling is just fantastic. It’s just like a bunch a friends getting together.”

Old Town at night offers watering holes with unique personalities, all a short walk apart. Late at night, Spiral throbs with dance music and a nightclub scene on Center and Clinton that caters to young gay and straight crowds alike. Just down the block is a quiet, old fashioned bar at the corner of Clinton and Turner, the Esquire bar, which tends to be a hangout for an older set of both gay and straight adults.

At the southern end of Turner, on Grand River, the Rendezvous on the Grand is housed in an old bank building with main floor and balcony seating, and the place jumps with live music on weekends. Up Grand River Ave in the same block, on the north side of the street, the Unicorn Tavern has been a hometown bar to lots of folks for more than 29 years, and it was the Shamrock before that.

Fitness and Folk

After all the food and drink, you are going to need a bit of workout. Old Town Pilates and Hilltop Yoga recently opened for your physical and mental health.

Or, in sunny weather, you can jump on the Lansing River Trail, one of the longest paved urban pathways in the county. Its meandering eight miles take bikers, joggers and strollers along the scenic Grand River in both directions from Old Town, and offers sights including Downtown, the historic Turner Dodge House, and the Brenke Fish Ladder just south of Old Town.

Visitors can bring their bikes and park in the lot at the corner of Turner and Grand River, next to the Rendezvous on the Grand, or if you’re already in town, you can access the trail from elegant new spiral stairways below the new bridge across Grand River Avenue.

Folk music and jazz are back at the Creole Gallery, with monthly performances hosted by WLNZ fundraisers, featuring jazz, blues, and many of mid-Michigan’s incredibly talented singer-songwriters. Just four or five doors south, Studio 1210 has also begun offering monthly concerts of mostly talented Michigan acts, but also a circuit of recording artists just off the mainstream radar screen.

If you’re more into making music than listening, then Elderly Instruments on Washington Avenue is a must-visit. A national Mecca for musicians of all genres, Elderly has a well-deserved reputation for new and used instruments, as well as for refurbishing your father’s hand-me-down mandolin or Gibson. A visit will allow you to feast your eyes and fingers on hundreds of the most beautiful stringed instruments to be found in one place, anywhere.

Starting in June, Old Towns’ popular festival season begins, featuring great live music, beer and wine tastings, and foods prepared by many of Lansing’s favorite eateries.

It all starts in June with the Colors of Salsa, then in succession are Festival of the Moon, Festival of the Sun, Lansing Jazzfest, Old Town Bluesfest, and Old Town Oktoberfest. All offer a true taste of authentic Old Town, along with more than their fair share of music, libation and friends.

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Jack Helder works as a writer/producer in Lansing, and is a lover of Old Town, showing his Salukis and fly fishing. 

Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.

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Photos:

Absolute Gallery owner Kathy Holcomb

Honora Bird gallery

Chica Garcia in Mama Bear's

Turner Dodge house

Elderly Instruments

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie