This month I sat down with the new owners of Bartertown Diner, Crystal Lecoy and Thad Cummings, to chat about their vegan diner’s recent transformation and revamped plant-based menu. Find out the reformist restaurateurs’ noble game plan and how they’re handling the business after taking the reins from former Bartertown owner Ryan Cappelletti.

After a long day’s work there are few things I enjoy more than curling up, Ron Swanson-style, with a thick, juicy hunk of animal meat and an equally luscious single-malt scotch. 

While my appetite for vast quantities of meat is admittedly less than the mustachioed libertarian of Parks and Recreation fame, I do possess a vigorous ferocity for cuts of all shapes and flavors.

By the time you read this list, it will probably be inaccurate. Ten years ago, the arrival of a new restaurant concept in little ol’ Grand Rapids was an extraordinary, blessed occurrence. Now, it seems not a day goes by without the announcement of a trendy new brewpub, small-plate restaurant, beer garden, artisan cocktail bar, tasting room or gourmet coffee purveyor, often attached to a mixed-use development and usually accompanied by a sleek Squarespace website.

If you want to see Shelby Kibler’s eyes light up, ask him about the miracle of fermentation.

His Field & Fire artisan bakery, one of the Grand Rapids Downtown Market’s original tenants, specializes in a style of baking consistent with the ethics of the “farm to table” movement, employing a two-to-three-day fermentation period for all dough awaiting its turn in one of the bakery’s two enormous wood-fired ovens.