A bartender at a restaurant isn’t all that busy during the day, Sheldon says, so he “bothered Terry and Shawn” (Hagen brothers, owners of Bravo) and in so doing learned a lot about the restaurant business.
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ver the next three years plus, Sheldon learned the ropes from the experts at Bravo, where, in addition to tending bar, he also served, hosted (with his arm in a sling following his surgery) and managed a little. At the same time, Sheldon says he was tending bar at the Hideaway, a bar in Vicksburg. He remembers that patrons and other staffers at the Hideaway laughed at his work clothes: khakis and golf shirts. “I haven’t owned any jeans since high school,” he confesses. From Bravo, Sheldon moved on to the University Roadhouse, where he met another pair of brothers who would hugely influence his life, Chris and Tim Housler. Tim Housler had started the Main Street Pub on West Main in Kalamazoo in 1990, and the University Roadhouse had opened in 1991. By the time Shane came their way in the early 2000s, the Houslers had already opened a string of Main Street Pubs and Fletchers Pubs. So Sheldon found his niche in the Housler empire. Chris Housler, Sheldon says, gave him the opportunity to do some managing, and from him, the ex-pitcher learned about the business side of food service. His Roadhouse days were also the first time Sheldon “got to see some action in the kitchen,” he says, since the managers in all the Main Street restaurants were expected to jump in when things got busy. Sheldon then spent five years or so learning about all aspects of the business by serving as general manager at the Grill at the Moors, where he had his first opportunity to create the menu — as district manager for all the Housler restaurants, and as manager of the Beacon Club. All this experience helped Sheldon learn more about himself, too, including what he really wanted to do (run a restaurant of his own) and what his food passions were (casual fine dining).
About that time, the Houslers had decided to close their Main Street Pub in Texas Corners. They offered the site to Sheldon to see what he could do with it, and told him they would back him. His family thought he was crazy. As his mother puts it, “. . . in this economy, on a site where three other restaurants hadn’t made it (Bud’s Bar, Cork at the Corner, and Main Street Pub), and orange and purple!?!?” But Sheldon had made up his mind: “We were bringing a concept that had never been done in Texas Corners, (an upscale restaurant) focused solely on dinner.” And yes, he wanted the color scheme to be orange (he prefers calling it burnt sienna) and purple. Step one was to renovate the Housler’s facility to match his vision. Actually, much of it was, by necessity, the vision of Sheldon’s girlfriend, Jeanne Peltier, who holds a degree in interior design from Western Michigan University. “Shane has always loved orange,” she says, “and he picked the faux finish.” Peltier then designed around those two choices, layering textures by use of patterned glass, wood, tile and carpet, and dramatic lighting. The result is an urban, contemporary look that melds comfort and sophistication. The new restaurant had just a small budget to work with. “Shane had to make a go of it with what he had,” says Marlene Sheldon. Fortunately, what he had included a lot of supportive friends and family members, not to mention a local high-school football team. With help from cousins, aunts and uncles (especially Uncle Jon Richards), Sheldon and Peltier changed the building’s entry way, restored the flooring, redesigned the bar area, scrubbed, tiled, painted, reupholstered and stained. One of the biggest challenges in the remodel was removing the old carpeting, with glue that seemed to have been designed to last for centuries. But Sheldon has friends with sons who play on the Portage Central High School football team. Players tackled the sticky problem and eventually scored a
clean floor for the new restaurant. Sheldon consistently tries to patronize local vendors and merchants as much as possible. He buys produce at the Texas Township Farmers Market, conveniently located just kitty-corner from BOLD. The wine list is 100 percent American, points out Sheldon, with all wines coming from Michigan, California, Oregon and Washington State. Even the restaurant’s artwork has Michigan roots. Grand Rapids-based artist Deborah Hoover, long a favorite of Sheldon’s, was commissioned to do several pieces for the project.
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OLD’s head chef is Andy Havey. A Kalamazoo native, Havey earned a culinary arts degree from Johnson & Wales University in Charleston, S.C. He worked in restaurants and private clubs in Colorado and California before returning to Kalamazoo, where he was at Mangia Top to bottom: BOLD bartender Mangia before Sheldon Michael Sansone, hired him at BOLD, just hostess Meaghan Lamb, server Chris Fish. days before its grand opening in November 2009. “I got lucky,” says Sheldon. “Andy came into a restaurant where the menu was in place … and put his touch on things.” Sheldon says it was like the items on BOLD’s menu “ … were my kids and Andy adopted them and made them better.” BOLD’s menu comprises “simple food with big flavors,” says Sheldon, also crediting that concept with the name he chose for the restaurant. The theme is regional American cuisine, and the regions
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