Hidden Gems: Meet Lindsey And Ben Forche of Starling Lounge and Four Keys Brewing

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsey And Ben Forche

Hi Lindsey and Ben , thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
When we got married in 2008, Ben and I talked about how much fun it would be to open some kind of bar. I’d grown up watching my uncle own and operate a bar in my little hometown and had such starry-eyed memories of the jukebox music and the karaoke and the camaraderie. When we got into craft beer in the coming years, the aspiration grew. Homebrew days were the norm at our home, when Ben had days off from his EMS work and our kids were small. The sloppy beer messes in our kitchen spurred us, for years, to look at any available building in our town to get the operation out of our house and into something bigger.

During the home brewing years, we talked a lot about how we’d make our village more enticing. On our travels, usually to nanobrew conferences, we fell in love with indie coffee shops, in particular the combination of espresso bars and microbreweries. We realized that starting with a small coffee shop could be a more affordable way into business ownership. As a former barista, I had coffee experience and, with the right connections, this felt doable.

The journey began in a small room of an antique shop, which gave us a place to explore and learn and work out the kinks. Ben was still working crazy hours in EMS, and I was managing the shop in the mornings when our kids were in school. In January of 2020, we had the opportunity to move to a larger space downtown. After months of renovation–all done by us, with the help of friends and family–the pandemic hit. Reopening the coffee shop (rebranded as Starling Lounge) took until August, after which we endured a year of the usual Covid ups and downs, and it was another two years before we were able to amass the supplies and equipment we needed for the brewery. Four Keys Brewing opened in summer of 2022. Since then, we’ve gone at this thing full-force, building slowly and organically.

With the help of Ben’s wonderful aunt, Denise, we acquired an adjoining building and created The Bloom Room, an event venue and space for private parties.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
While we LOVE what we do (it’s kind of dreamy that we sling coffee and brew beer and collaborate with the coolest artists and businesses), the unpredictability of a small business can be anxiety-provoking. Obviously, nobody could have foreseen a pandemic that would cause various widespread setbacks. But to be honest, the main struggles of business ownership are more personal: many nights away from our young children to work the taproom, precarious finances, long hours, the unrelenting necessity to innovate and adapt when we’re exhausted. While being able to exercise our creativity is an incredible perk, there are definitely times we wish we could be on autopilot for a day or two!

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Starling Lounge and Four Keys Brewing?
We are a full-service espresso bar and taproom brewery, focused on local offerings and community impact. In the mornings, we’re serving Actual Coffee (Toledo) and Arbor Teas (Ann Arbor), as well as baked goods from Blissfield’s own Emmy’s Kitchen and Nourish Juicery & Kitchen, and bagels and bagel sandwiches. In the evenings, we’ve got ten taps of craft beers and seltzers brewed in-house. We serve a small food menu out of our Starling Kitchen–grilled cheese sandwiches on sourdough (you have to try the Pickle & Potato Chip grilled cheese!) and Starboards, which are colorful curations of cheeses, fruit, veg & snacky things.

We offer special events weekly, from Wednesday trivia to comedy shows and Silent Writes and Analog Activities in the Bloom Room.

You can find our beers on tap regularly at Rich Lanes (Blissfield), and often at Chaloner’s (Adrian), Maumee St. Taproom (Adrian), Atlas (Brooklyn), and elsewhere. You’ll find us at many Michigan Brewer’s Guild beer festivals, and our own Blissfield on Tap.

We believe in quality, ethically sourced coffee and tea, in craft beer, and in the communities built around these beverages.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
I often say I’m glad we didn’t have any idea what we were getting ourselves into; if we had, we likely wouldn’t have dared to take on the immense challenge. The best thing we’ve done is made peace with growing incrementally and organically, at a snail’s pace. We’ve had to be okay with being complete novices, and with making mistakes and learning from them. Course correction never ends, as trends and customer habits shift. I also like to tell people who are interested in starting a small business that we would not be here if we hadn’t built connections and collaborated with other local businesses. We are a small part of an ecosystem; support is vital. And it’s more fun to do things together! Mostly: infuse your business with your own personality, allow your staff to share their talents and passions, cultivate community, and try new things. And if you’re not for everyone, you might just be doing something right. Over time, you’ll find your people–from customers to staff (we have the best!)–and they’ll be the reason you keep going.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.starlinglounge.com & www.fourkeysbrewing.com
• Instagram: starlinglounge & fourkeysbrewing
• Facebook: Starling Lounge & Four Keys Brewing