Inspiring Conversations with Kyle + Lea Hunt of Collect Beer Bar

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Kyle + Lea Hunt.

Kyle + Lea, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Going way back, Kyle and I met and started dating in high school. During our long-distance stint in college, we dreamed and planned to open and operate a small business in Detroit. We cut our teeth in business ownership with a small farm-to-table restaurant called Gather (from 2016 to 2019). While running Gather, we opened Cøllect on the 2nd floor, focusing on fun, interesting beer and bringing folks together.

We also opened a tiny custard shop, Huddle, in 2019. We soon realized our passion was simply booze and custard, so we subleased out the restaurant space and, from then on, stuck to bars and ice cream shops. We opened Two Birds (custard + cocktails) in 2021 with our dear friends Matt Mergener + Karen Green, rounding out our current businesses to 1 bar (Cøllect), one ice cream shop (Huddle), and 1 bar + ice cream shop combo (Two Birds).

Let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
So many ups and downs! I once saw a little cartoon that depicted an entrepreneur. It showed one picture of him on top of a mountain, looking accomplished with his arms in the air. A note saying five minutes later, and in the next drawing, he was under a table looking wildly stressed, holding his head.

I saw that little cartoon, instantly giggled, and thought, “THAT’S ME!” The highs are so very high and wonderful, but the lows can be stressful, and they both come and go so quickly. We bootstrapped together all of our businesses without any investors, doing all of the build-outs and working on our own to be as economical as possible, learning and relearning along the way. It is so rewarding and stressful to work and live that way, but with supportive family, friends, and community, we’ve been able to keep afloat and serve lovely folks lovely beers for over five years.

Cøllect has lived several lives in its five years. We started with a long bar with spaced-out taps, and we had to rebuild into a tiny bar with tables that were safely spaced and could be easily manned by one person to survive during the uncertainty of the pandemic. During COVID, we were closed during stay-at-home orders. We could only serve beers to-go and serve people outdoors on our roof in the winter in Detroit. All of the times were very scary as a small business owner, but somehow, we’ve made it to the other side with the support of our community.

We are currently located on the 2nd floor right on Gratiot in Detroit’s Eastern Market neighborhood, but this summer, our long run on Gratiot is ending as we move the bar a little further East on Kercheval. While we will miss our little building on Gratiot that we’ve been occupying for almost ten years since the beginning of the build-out of Gather, we are very excited about our new location.

The challenge of moving a business to a new location is something we’ve never done before, but we’re looking forward to sorting it all out and creating a space that all can enjoy and our current regulars will feel right at home in.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Cøllect is a beer bar. We have nine rotating taps, cans of beer, cider, seltzer, and wine, and always have a $6 shot and a beer. We are a small mom-and-pop shop supporting small breweries and distributors.

Cøllect is what it is because of our amazing team. If you’ve been in before, there’s a good chance you’ve gotten the distinct pleasure of meeting and being cared for by Erik. We are so lucky to have him slinging beers with us as he prepares to open his brewery in Detroit (Side Pull Beer Company).

Erik and the team’s love of beer + people, combined with all the brewers who put so much love and time into making incredible, interesting beer that we get the joy of serving to wonderful folks, makes Cøllect the special little place it is.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Kyle and I both played many sports, mainly basketball, our whole childhoods and through college, and we nod to our shared love of basketball and growing up in gyms a lot in our decor.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.collect-beerbar.com
• Instagram: @collect.beerbar

Image Credits
Scott Millington