Check Out Steve Zieverink’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Zieverink. They and their team shared their story with us below:

Emma Hearth & Market is a restaurant and market in Bridgman, Michigan, that focuses on making the healthiest and best-tasting Italian food possible. We also bring curated products from local organic farms, makers, and specialty Italian products.

From our hearth – Inspired by Nonna Emma, southern Italian food, and local Michigan organic seasonal farm offerings, we make wood-fired pizza, sandwiches, and salads and always have amazing seasonal specials. Our low dome wood-fired oven, built in the Neapolitan style, is maintained at 1000 degrees to beautifully cook a pizza in 90 seconds.

From our market – We sell many of the products we use in our restaurant, including imported Italian specialty items, locally grown produce from our farm, and regional artisan-made products. We also sell amazing Gelato made in Michigan and make Italian bread and pastries. From Our Farm – At Live Station Farm, we grow many specialty items, like San Marzano tomatoes and Calabrian Peppers, and make our wood-fired maple syrup.

In addition to his Italian upbringing and restaurant training, chef Steve Zieverink’s background as a musician, artist, professor, and documentary filmmaker has brought a unique approach to growing, making, and serving food and the additional education and programming we offer. HIs partner Wendy Uhlman is an industrial designer, photographer and works in marketing so a perfect combination to bring a food business to launch!

We also offer supplies, education, and workshops to help teach you how to “do it yourself” and share important issues of our time, such as bringing more young people to farming and responsible land practices. We aim to educate people about current food issues to create a dialogue toward better health and happiness and make accessing the best organic food easy!

There are so many amazing possibilities for the quality of our food in the future, and we look forward to the exploration and problem-solving we’ll do with you, our customers.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We started as Live Station Farm in 2013 in Coloma, MI, a certified organic grower and producer in Southwest Michigan, and then in 2015 built a mobile wood-fired pizza food truck and farmers market called EMMA Hearth & Market, named after Nonna Emma, who is from Calabria – the bottom of the boot, just across from Sicily.

We took the food truck all over SW MI, Southbend, and Chicago to farmers’ markets, breweries, and wineries – it was amazing but tiring, so we opened a brick mortar in the Summer of 2019 in Benton Harbor, where people joined us year-round, we were excited!

Then COVID hit, and we had to pause everything. We lost our location and had to begin the search for a new place. After a while, we found that in Bridgman and love being close to Weko Beach and the Red Arrow Hwy. Opening during COVID was a challenge on many levels, including employee management, being unable to have it in the cafe, and all the unknowns.

We’ve had to pivot many times to deliver food and focus on market items with no indoor seating, etc. Since then, we’ve also had to find the right business focus – getting an alcohol license to focus on organic Italian Wines has helped greatly and goes so well with pizza.

Unfortunately, we’ve found ourselves able to farm less and had to limit hours to rest and rejuvenate – finding employees has been a challenge, and Summers are crazy busy. As we transition to being a lasting business, sustainability for ourselves, our health, and our longer-term employees has become a focus. We aim to continue building new customers and nurturing our committed customers to keep offering the same good things and try new things like new items, wine clubs, dinners, and film screenings.

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Steve Zieverink is a filmmaker, artist, educator, and musician from Chicago and Michigan, where he is the Director of the Unit 2 Collective, a non-profit platform for programs to bring together communities through curation, exhibition, and dialog.

In his art practice, he works within a range of media, mediums, and materials, attempting to focus on ideas first and foremost. As an interdisciplinary artist exploring multiple modalities utilizing sculpture, film, photography, and installation, he also integrates discursive aspects from other concentrations, such as science and anthropology.

A common thread in his work is the evolution of science, man’s impact, and competition with natural systems. He takes a cross-disciplinary approach, exploring the human connection to sound, color, landscape, the built environment, displaced rituals, loss of place, and freedom.

He believes artists have a role and responsibility to positively impact our world in many ways, seemingly underutilized in today’s world. Artists can be researchers, makers, activists, storytellers, and strategists who come to the table with clarity and a unique, impactful voice.

http://www.unit2.us/steve-zieverink.html

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Building a community with like-minded local business owners has been essential for support and growth. Also important is exposing ourselves to other places, new business models and inspiring innovators/entrepreneurs.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hearthmarket.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emma_hearth_market/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emmahearthmarket/

Image Credits
Steve Zieverink and Wendy Uhlman