Creston staple Graydon’s Crossing sells to Grand Rapids restaurateur

The owner of a Grand Rapids restaurant and coffee roaster is expanding with a deal to acquire Graydon’s Crossing, a longtime Creston neighborhood restaurant and watering hole.

MudPenny owner Matthew Fuller now plans to add a coffee bar to Graydon’s Crossing, with plans to renovate the restaurant in the coming year. 

The nearly 2,900-square-foot pub, located at 1223 Plainfield Ave. NE, will retain its name, and all staff members as Fuller assumes ownership of the business. The deal for the restaurant closed Wednesday. The pub is currently closed for licensing and the transition processes with expectations that it will reopen on Friday, Sept. 27.

Graydon’s Crossing originally opened in 2005 and serves lunch and dinner daily, offering traditional pub fare and brunch on weekends, with breakfast features including biscuits and gravy, omelets and french toast.

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The restaurant seats 180 guests indoors and on a 1,100-square-foot patio and keeps 37 beer varieties on tap at the bar, which also offers a wine and cocktail menu.

Fuller, who launched MudPenny in 2012 as a coffee cart, said the purchase is a natural next step for the growth of his business, which operates locations in Ada and Grand Rapids, as well as a roastery and appointment-only coffee tasting room. 

“This all started off with us looking for a new location for MudPenny,” he said. “Our brokers came across this opportunity, and after we started talking, it just got me excited to keep it as Graydon’s and try something different.”

Graydon’s was previously owned by Kevin Farhat and Eric Albertson, in partnership with an affiliate of Grand Rapids-based Third Coast Development LLC, which retains ownership of the building. 

David Levitt, principal at Third Coast, is confident that the restaurant will be in good hands under Fuller’s ownership. 

“The Graydon’s that our customers have come to know and love and the expectations set are going to be upheld if not enhanced,” Levitt said. “Matthew does a great job in his other restaurants, and we’re really excited for this transition.” 

Third Coast purchased Graydon’s in 2017 from Larry Zeiser and Brian Giampapa, the partners behind L&B Portfolio, a local restaurant group that operates Logan’s Alley. 

According to property records, an entity associated with Third Coast purchased the building for $600,000 from Zeiser. 

Third Coast has invested in the business, which has increased in sales since the company and its partners assumed ownership of the pub, Levitt said. They wanted to sell the restaurant so the partners could focus on other business ventures. 

Dan Parmeter, an attorney at Grand Rapids-based Rhoades McKee PC, represented Third Coast in the deal, while Jeshua Lauka and Jacob Greendyk at Grand Rapids-based David, Wierenga & Lauka P.C. represented Fuller. 

Fuller said he’s hoping the addition of Graydon’s Crossing can diversify MudPenny’s brand and give him new space to grow.

While MudPenny offers a range of breakfast foods in addition to its coffee, Graydon’s will be Fuller’s first foray into owning a bar. 

In the short term, he intends to continue operating it as-is and get a feel for the pub’s customer base, but he has an eye for future investments. 

First on his list is a remodel for the interior of the nearly 100-year-old building, which he intends to kick off in 2025. 

While Fuller said there’s “a lot of ideas on the table” for the remodel, he intends to emphasize the food side of the business and showcase a new menu alongside the newly-remodeled space. 

“Each menu release will keep pushing the menu a little bit further. I would love to bring it back a little bit closer to its English pub roots, being true to the English pub that it was founded as is exciting to me.” 

All of the restaurant’s staff members, more than 20 people in total, will be retained as Fuller takes over the restaurant and will receive a benefits package as part of the MudPenny team. 

Looking forward, Levitt said he’s “really excited” for the future of the restaurant. 

“(Fuller is) a younger guy, he’s got a successful business model (and a) growing business,” he said. “They have great food, and it seems like people love to work for him. That was important for us. 

“Creston is funky, and Graydon’s is funky, and it takes the right personality, I think, to manage that. This is not cookie cutter. This is diverse and human. It’s good for us to have people who are (focused on) growth-minded local ownership. We’re really excited about that.”

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