A popular Leelanau County bookstore is relocating to Traverse City, a local cherry vinegar brand is expanding its footprint, and one of the county’s favorite restaurants has closed until spring. 

The Folded Leaf heads for Traverse City

After facing building constraints that forced it to sacrifice parts of its business plan, The Folded Leaf is leaving its Cedar location for the Commongrounds building in Traverse City. Despite previously indicating that it would be open for one final week of business this week, the bookstore announced Sunday its Cedar location is now closed. Owner Rachel Zemanek started her lease at Commongrounds Sunday, and is targeting a soft opening in early March, with a grand reopening celebration planned for April 26. 

The Folded Leaf opened in Cedar last April, and quickly made a name for itself with a “community living room” model that emphasized live music and other community events. As the Leelanau Ticker reported in December, though, limitations at the Cedar Station building had rendered the future of the business uncertain. 

Speaking to the Traverse City Ticker last week, Zemanek said the new space will be enough to feature the same inventory of new and used books, local art, merchandise, and goods from Great Lakes Tea and Spice and Higher Grounds, and will also allow her to host events.

Zemanek isn’t cutting ties with Leelanau County, however. She tells The Ticker she plans to keep the bookstore’s live music series going in Leelanau County by partnering with local businesses to host “The Folded Leaf Presents” concerts, and is also in talks to open a future Cedar location in the historic bank building being redeveloped by Corey Flaska.

“The Cedar Station location for The Folded Leaf was a great spot to establish a bookstore,” building owners Nadeen Kieren and Thom Green said in a statement. “Its rapid expansion into an event space and tasting room overwhelmed the building’s capacity and intended use. We wish Rachel and The Folded Leaf much success in their new location to follow her dreams to grow and grow.”

Red Truck Orchards forges new partnerships

Red Truck Orchards, which produces a vinegar made with locally-grown cherries, continues to expand its output and reach. The brand, which soft-launched in summer 2024 and expanded its production throughout 2025, is now producing “well over 5,000 bottles a month” according to co-owner Phil Hallstedt, up from just 700 bottles last July.

The latest vendors? MI Farm Co-op and Cherry Capital Airport (TVC).

MI Farm Co-op, which encompasses more than 25 farms across northwest Michigan, offers a year-round CSA (community support agriculture) program, distributing weekly boxes of fresh local food to members. Red Truck Orchards is donating one bottle of cherry vinegar to every winter CSA member.

“They're trying to build up their base of subscribers, and we're trying to build awareness for the vinegar,” Hallstedt explains.

According to Christine Straley, operations manager for the co-op, drumming up interest for the winter CSA is a challenge. Membership in the colder months falls to just a third of what it is in the summertime, meaning less income for sometimes-cash-strapped farms.

“Winter it's hard,” Straley tells The Ticker. “We have a lot of seasonal folks who do the summer CSA, but then they’re not here during this part of the year, so they’re not signing up. And then a lot of people just assume we aren’t year-round. But we actually have a lot of growers who have hoop houses, so we can still get those delicate fresh greens and herbs during the winter, and then we're also using a lot of root vegetables like carrots, beets, and radishes.”

Value-added products can help, but to be added to the CSA, a value-added product has to come entirely from a local farm. The Red Truck Orchards vinegar – made from cherries grown and processed at Hallstedt Homestead Cherries in Northport – fits the bill.

Beyond the free bottle of vinegar, Straley says MI Farm Co-up CSA members will have the option going forward to add Red Truck products to their boxes for an additional charge.

Also new on the vendor list for Red Truck is TVC, which is now carrying the vinegar in its café space. Ron Lemcool, vice president of the airport’s Cherry Country Cafe' & Gift Shop, says he often stocks liquid items in the café – which is post-airport security – so that travelers can take them home.

“We have the gift shop that’s pre-TSA, but the café gives us a place where people can buy things like local wines, sauces, or Phil’s vinegar, and then take them on the plane,” Lemcool explains. “It’s another way for us to promote local products.”

Leland’s Blue Bird closed until April

Just a few months after opening at its brand-new digs, the Blue Bird Restaurant in Leland is going into winter hibernation. The business announced the closure last week on its Facebook, noting that it has “a long list of work to do on our dining area, Kitchen, office, and basement that we will be accomplishing while we are closed.” The restaurant will reopen in April.

“We had a fabulous four months of business, and now we are taking this time to finish up numerous details inside and outside to prepare us for a robust spring/summer/fall that we so on the near horizon,” says Blue Bird co-owner Skip Telgard. He clarified that the work will focus on “details that we couldn't finish in time to open.”