Serving Up Community by the Slice

New Suttons Bay pizzeria aspires to create community hub

By Ellen Miller | Dec. 14, 2024

For Kristine Ingrao and Desmond Berry, running a business is all about family. First the owners of Suttons Bay’s Bay Burrito, the two recently took on a new local restaurant, opening up Bay Pizzeria in September.

Ingrao and Berry have owned Bay Burrito for a few seasons. They got into the restaurant scene, Berry explains, because “we wanted to have a place for our children to work. My son had been working there for the previous owners, and had just started managing the place when COVID hit.” Berry was good friends with the previous owners and “put a deal together” to buy the place. “Kris has four children, I have five kids, and we wanted to create a place where they could work,” Berry says.

The decision to jump into the pizza business was a bit more of a leap of faith. “What we knew about pizza: we like to eat it,” Berry says, laughing. When the opportunity arose to acquire a restaurant that was for sale, they dove in headfirst. They had known the owners for a couple of decades and bought the place trusting they could figure it out.

“For us it’s a family legacy. We want to create small businesses in our community to ensure our kids have a place to work and ensure the community has a place to go to get good food,” says Berry.

The new pizzeria owners brought in Walt Rowen to help. Perhaps best known for his roles in the Dogman film franchise, Rowan also boasts four decades of pizza prowess. He put together the restaurant’s recipes, hired and trained the staff, and trained Berry and Ingrao, too—“you’ve got to know how to do it if you’re going to do it yourself!” Berry says.

Bay Pizzeria officially opened its doors on September 15, heading into the shoulder season. Business has been good so far, especially considering the slower time of year, Berry says.

On the Menu

“There’s a couple things on the menu that kind of connect to my past,” explains Berry. Berry was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula and moved below the bridge in the 1990s. “Leelanau County is home now, but I wanted to bring some U.P. influence,” he says.

That influence is seen most prominently in the presence of cudighi on the menu. “Cudighi is a pork sausage that originated in the U.P. back in the 1930s from Italian immigrants. I grew up loving those sandwiches, and there is nowhere south of the bridge that serves them. Now there are only a couple spots left in the U.P. where you can get one, from Marquette over to Houghton. I wanted to put that on the menu and we did,” says Berry.

The Cudighi Sub is the No. 1 selling sandwich. In addition to the Italian sausage, it features pizza-lover ingredients like marinara, mozzarella, parmesan, red pepper, green pepper, and onion. The restaurant offers several other classic sandwiches like a Meatball Sub and a Club Sub.

Pizzas have naturally been popular; Bay Pizzeria offers them up by the slice as well as selling whole pies. Go for the Deluxe, Meat Lovers, or Cheese, or build your own with nearly 20 topping options.

A recent popular special was the “Dogman” pizza, with cudighi, meatballs, and jalapeño, named in honor of Rowan. Calzones have also been a hit; they aren’t common or readily available locally. The pizzeria also offers breadsticks, cheese bread, and a few salad options.

The previous iteration of the pizza shop was known not only for its pizzas but for its in-house baked goods, so Bay Pizzeria is also expanding in that direction. “People have been craving baked goods, and so we just hired a baker who will be able to provide homemade goods here at Bay Pizzeria,” says Ingrao.

The new baker comes in early and does all the dessert bars, as well as focaccia.

And don’t miss the newest addition to the menu, which “ties back to my history, and Kris’s—her family is from the U.P. as well… we have a strong Yooper connection!” Berry says. “In the U.P. you can find these paper plate-sized cinnamon rolls. We’re going to do that here, one of the biggest cinnamon rolls. We want the wow factor—when you see it we want people to go, ‘Oh my god, wow.’” Those cinnamon rolls hit the menu in late November.

Community Place

Many of Bay Pizzeria’s regulars are longtime customers who Berry and Ingrao know from Bay Burrito. The two businesses are tied together by more than their ownership; Berry and Ingrao are committed to supporting diners across both. They designed the logos and menus to reflect the connection and regularly cross-promote. Customers can grab a punch card that is good at either restaurant; when you buy 10 burritos or pizzas, you get one free.

“We have a lot of regulars and relationships,” says Berry. “We know them by first name, we know their kids. It’s kind of like when I could grow hair, and I used to go to the barbershop… [laughs] that was a good place to catch up on information. I see that developing here with a lot of the regulars. Folks will come in and chat about who’s going where, who’s doing what. They’ll order their food and stand around and visit for five to10 minutes. It’s creating what we wanted, a community hub. It’s working—that’s exciting for us. That’s what we wanted.”

That community spirit is present behind the scenes as well; Berry describes it as a family atmosphere. Many employees are related, and others are close friends.

“For us, that feeling of family and tradition, that’s what we like to embody in our businesses,” says Ingrao. “Good memories, good food, and family.”

Bay Pizzeria is open daily, including Sundays (with slightly abbreviated hours). While Ingrao and Berry are hopeful that the community aspect of the business continues to grow, Bay Pizzeria also offers delivery (within 10 miles) for when you’re not feeling like bundling up to grab a slice. The restaurant plans to stay open over the winter and does not anticipate scaling back hours.

“We are hoping that delivery takes off in the wintertime when it’s nasty out and people want to stay home and stay warm,” says Ingrao.

Find Bay Pizzeria at 100A Cedar St. in Suttons Bay. (231) 866-4494; bay-pizzeria.com