Ryan Marek is finally coming home.

Though he’s a Suttons Bay native, the restauranteur traded the Leelanau Peninsula for Petoskey in 2019 when he opened his first culinary establishment, Bayside Restaurant. Seven years later, Marek is launching his fourth restaurant – and the first in his home county – with this weekend’s soft opening of Morning on Main. The breakfast-only restaurant is located inside the former Early Bird space in Leland.

Marek grew up in restaurants. He took his first job as a busser at the age of 14, cycled through multiple different kitchen jobs throughout the latter part of his teens, and was working in a general manager capacity by the time he was 19. No surprise, then, that it became Marek’s dream to open his own restaurant – or that he was able to make that dream come true, with Bayside, by the time he was 25.

The intervening years have been busy for the food service wunderkind. Marek added a second restaurant to his portfolio, Marek’s Harbor Grill in Charlevoix, in 2023, and has opened additional spaces every year since. In 2024, he introduced the Flybridge, a rooftop bar and music venue attached to Marek’s Harbor Grill. Last year, he added Cantina Tacos and Tequila, also in Charlevoix.

Marek says he’s been interested in expanding to Leelanau County all along, but wanted to make sure he took his time to find “what would be the right fit for me.”

That “right fit” came in the form of 101 South Main Street in Leland, the building formerly occupied by the Early Bird. Once a sister establishment to Leland’s Blue Bird restaurant, the Early Bird closed its doors several years ago, taking one of Leelanau County’s few dedicated breakfast restaurants with it. Marek saw an opportunity there.

“I think the Early Bird location is really good location, and I think we all know the county is kind of starving for a good breakfast place; there's just not too much going on in the breakfast world up there,” Marek says. “So, we just decided to do it. I’ve still got some family and friends that are out in Leelanau still, and I'm from there, so now I just have more reason to head home on a regular basis.”

Morning on Main will open for the first time today (Friday) at 7am sharp, and will offer 7am-2pm hours tomorrow and Sunday, the first of two “soft opening” weekends. Next weekend, the restaurant will be open Thursday through Sunday.

“The goal is to have a solid week’s worth of operations under our belts in the first two weeks, just to work all the bugs out,” Marek explains. “Then we’ll do our ribbon cutting and grand opening the following week, and open up seven days a week as we get ready to head into May.”

Long-term, Morning on Main will be open 7am-1pm during the week and 7am-2pm on the weekends

Marek describes Morning on Main as an “elevated diner.” The menu is packed with traditional breakfast staples, but is “a little bit more upscale and with larger portions” than a typical greasy spoon joint, he says. Highlights include a loaded breakfast burrito with eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, onion, red peppers, potatoes, cheddar cheese, and Italian butter; a smoked whitefish benedict served with bacon chive cream cheese; and a prime rib omelette with three eggs, shaved prime rib, mushrooms, onions, red pepper, and white cheddar.

“We’re just serving breakfast,” Marek stresses. “We don’t have sandwiches, we don't have salads, we don't have soups. Unfortunately, the space that we have just doesn't have enough room to bring in all those items. We just decided to go with a smaller menu, and convert back to the Early Bird days, where it's just a little breakfast diner with a hometown feel.”

One part of creating a hometown breakfast hub that matters deeply to Marek? Staying open through the offseason.

“We’re going to try to stay open year-round, or close to it,” Marek tells The Ticker. “Usually, I close all my restaurants right around this time of year, and we're gone for about four or five weeks. That gives us a chance to deep clean all the restaurants for 10 days, and then I give all my managers and staff three and a half weeks off, so everyone can decompress before we go into a crazy summer. But otherwise, we plan to be open.”

Pictured, Ryan Marek's growing restaurant empire: Bayside Restaurant (top left), ribbon-cuttings for Marek's Harbor Grill (top right) and Cantina Tacos and Tequila (bottom left), and the new Morning on Main (bottom right)