By Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com
MUSKEGON, MI – The prep cook was picking up food and supplies an hour before opening time at Nipote’s Italian Kitchen on Thursday, July 25.
The downtown Muskegon restaurant made of two repurposed shipping containers first welcomed customers during a soft opening on Friday, July 19. The official opening came on Tuesday, July 23.
The new restaurant has been so popular that the cook was sent out for supplies after the restaurant ran out Wednesday for the second day in a row.
“We’ve been completely swamped, which is good,” said owner/chef Jeff Church. “But we can’t run 45-minute ticket times for too long and expect people to keep coming back. We appreciate everyone’s patience during the learning curve. In a couple weeks, we’ll be doing this with our eyes closed.”
Nipote’s has 50 seats inside and 20 on the patio. The 1,500-square-foot restaurant is a combination of two shipping containers with standard construction in between. The open kitchen is in one of the shipping container portions with seating in the other and in the standard construction portion.