Kalamazoo’s oldest bar preps to reopen

For 102 years, Louie’s Trophy House has been serving food and drinks at the corner of North St. and Porter St. in Kalamazoo.

That all changed in mid-March when the governor ordered all bars and restaurants to close to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Since then, they’ve lost the income they’d have gotten from holding events almost every night of the week, according to a profile on Southwest Michigan’s Second Wave.

“We’re busy every weekend. Every Friday we have someone playing guitar during dinner. Every Wednesday we have an open microphone out here,” said Assistant General Manager Anne Tremblay. “We have parking lot parties. We have comedy … And trivia. We’re always doing something.”

They’ve survived largely on the support of their regular customers.

“They’re wonderful,” said Tremblay. “They put in their orders. We catch up. They’ve been taking care of us.”

When they’re allowed to reopen June 8, they plan to expand into the outdoors.

“Our regulations right now, we can only operate when we open at 50 percent capacity,” Tremblay said. “That doesn’t count the people outside. So we can bring more people outside.”

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