Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jon Stoia. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jon, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

My wife Katheryn and I are from Michigan, we moved to California for work with Tesla. I am an engineer and Katheryn is a middle school teacher. We lived in California for 8 years then moved back to Michigan to start and be near family. One day while at home we looked for a self pour taproom around out of curiosity. We liked the concepts we went to out west and when we visited friends in CO and OH. They were at some breweries that we went to and loved that you could interact and try much more than you normally would. You got to explore a bit more of different craft beer since you could pour smaller amounts. This search snowballed into us opening one of the first in the state.

We found it was illegal to pour your own alcohol in Michigan but there was a representative up in Saginaw that had a bill he was looking to pass to change that. We gave him a call and talked through the status, our interest, how we could help, and the next steps. It was stalled because it was not a priority relative to COVID legislation previously but as COVID settled down, it was a good time to bring it back up. This started an almost 2 year process to change the law that involved testifying in Lansing, many conversations with legislators, and back and forth to shape the language of the bill. Ultimately the bill passed, we got city approval and built out our concept.

While waiting for the bill to pass we put our business plan together, obtained an SBA loan and found a building that was perfect for us. It has a long history of being different bars, restaurants, jewelry stores, tire shops, and grocery stores and right on Main Street in Royal Oak. Mark (Katheryn’s dad) was onsite almost daily working on demolition work before the law ever passed. We tried to do work that did not affect the building value incase the law failed. When the law did pass I went part time at my day job at Waymo and worked with Mark to finish demo then start building different parts of the building, we did a good amount of woodworking, bought a welder and welded up some shelving, ran almost 8000 ft of ethernet lines, worked to save a lot of the older material in the building like the old wood flooring that was used as wall decoration and cleaned up for our flight boards.

We planned to be first however while we were doing construction other places saw the news about the bill and were able to install a self pour tap system in their brewery just down the road. We almost stopped everything after realizing we would be beat by someone so close. We ended up talking with them and built a of a relationship that worked out in the end well. They brewed a beer exclusively for us and allowed Katheryns dad to do the brewing as a bit of a thank you for all the help he put in as well during the construction phase.

Through word of mouth from our contractor we ended up finding our GM Josh and then together found our Chef Craig. Both of which have helped guide us into opening and operating the doors of North End Taproom. Josh brings great experience and knack in providing great customer experiences and Craig has been able to shape our menu into something unique that is fresh and fits the beer perfectly.

Along the way we ended up having 3 children, our daughter first then twin boys 2 months before we opened. Luckily with help from family and the staff we managed to balance the work and get the place going with a strong start just before the end of summer.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Katheryn is originally a science teacher and myself an engineer. We grew up in Commerce and White Lake, Michigan. We moved to CA for work and were out there for about 8 years. We enjoyed our time out there, enjoyed mountain biking, snowboarding, and craft beer. There was a place we used to go after biking that we particularly liked and took family too when they came to visit. We eventually moved back to Michigan to be closer to the rest of our family to start a family of our own. One day while a bit bored with the day job we decided to look for a similar taproom in MI and after not finding anything decided to jump into it ourselves.

We opened North End Taproom which is a self serve taproom. We like to think we offer the community an alternative experience to many of the great hospitality locations around. We have the same great food and drinks however with the self serve wall you are able to tailor the atmosphere a bit differently. The concept allows you to pour small glasses and try some fun new things you may otherwise not want to commit to when ordering a pint. Since you are moving around and grabbing drinks we also made the place nice and open and something akin to being at a back yard bbq. We have board games, shuffleboard, some TV’s for the games, lounge areas and of course plenty of dinning space.

Craig, our chef, created our menu which we are describing as elevated bar food. Essentially it’s a scratch kitchen where we found food that compliments the beer, used quality ingredients, and make it fresh. We have the basics like a house Burger as well as some some other items like Shishito Peppers, Brazilian Bread Balls, Tatchos, etc.. He attended culinary school in Chicago. During his tenure, he often voluntarily worked for free in various kitchens (stage), trying to learn as much as he could from various chefs. Feeling burnt out, he moved to Michigan in 2012 for a change in scenery. He got back into restaurant life as a result of Charlie Trotter’s passing. Since then, he’s had the pleasure of working in some of the most popular restaurants in Southeast Michigan, including Grey Ghost, The Peterboro, Joe Bar and Freya. He started my culinary career when he realized people often stop fighting (with each other), when they start eating.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Simply put, through word of mouth. We started our social media presence a couple months before we opened and put some teaser photos/videos up to hopefully get some initial interest. Some of those earlier posts were about us as new business owners, what we did for work previously and about us as parents which is obviously a huge part of our identity. We also shared details of the demo work that we did ourselves along with Katheryn’s dad. These backstories really seemed to connect with people and are some of our most liked posts. I think people want to support a family and a mom and pop type establishment rather than a big corporate organization. Details about our place that are unique to us, like the mural behind the tapwall and the flight boards that we repurposed from the old hardwood floors have really helped to showcase that personal story for our audience.

Since social media for business is a whole new ball game for us, we have definitely just been figuring out things as we go. We have made connections with some foodie and beer people in the area that have a following which has helped boost our audience a bit. Some local FB groups have also been very helpful, whether we are posting ourselves or if someone posts about how much they enjoyed our place, more people see it in those FB groups and then check us out as well.

One major thing that seems to help is talking to people in house and making connections with the people who come in to try the place out. These are the people that then tag us and tell their friends about us in addition to following us. We already have a few regulars that we love seeing and they are the ones who bring new people in with them.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think what brings people in at first is obviously the wide variety of beer, but also that we are a family friendly place. With three kids of our own we knew we wanted to make North End a place that young families could enjoy. Early on, we posted a picture of our family and explained just that; we wanted to make sure young families had a place to go to drink and relax but was also kid friendly. We have gotten an overwhelming amount of positive feedback about this. Everyone seems to really enjoy the fact that we have games available for kids to enjoy.

In addition to the kids games we have some board games and shuffleboard available for adults as well. This has added to the vibe of a backyard hangout spot that is maybe a bit different than a traditional restaurant that has waiters/waitresses. This relaxed, play a game, type atmosphere is something that is more unique for the area.

On top of all that, people seem to really enjoy our food. We were hoping to offer a good variety of fresh, made in house dishes that keep people coming back and I think we have done that and are continuing to make improvements or changes to capture more of the foodie demographic.

Finally, our concept gets rid of tipping in an era where people are starting to get frustrated with the tipping culture. We instead built our menu to be slightly higher in price but it allows us to pay our staff a living wage and guests get a better experience. They don’t need to add any tips, or even sign any receipts if they don’t need a hardcopy of the receipt. Customers give us a card when they check in to open a wristband and when they leave all they need to do is drop their wristband off with us and walk out the door. We close all the tabs connected to the wristbands at the end of the day, no tip needed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.northendtaproom.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/north_end_taproom/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093963093040
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/north-end-taproom-royal-oak?osq=Restaurants

Image Credits
Images of the space: Gerard + Belevender