Today we’d like to introduce you to Lynne Parlberg.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
In 2014, our oldest son Rick Muschiana came to my husband Bill and I with an idea of opening a true farm to table restaurant based on the New Nordic food movement on the west side of Grand Rapids. As a family, we had always had a garden, supported local farmers markets and believed in supporting local businesses and our community. We also had a passion for sustainability, seasonal eating and saw an opportunity to fill that void in the Grand Rapids restaurant scene. We chose a garden level 100 year old building basement and an overgrown lot for our original location and totally rehabilitated those spaces into a beautiful Scandinavian style 80 seat restaurant and bar with another 90 seat outdoor biergarten complete with a planted Live Wall, a retrofitted shipping container outdoor bar and bocce ball court. In 2020, just at the start of pandemic indoor dining shutdowns, we were named the 2020 Restaurant of the Year by Grand Rapids Magazine. We barely made it through the pandemic, selling boxes of pantry staples and to go’s and thankfully so many people supported us through that very tough time. Rick was the general manager and visionary from the start, but after several crazy bouts with chefs coming in and out from opening through the pandemic, he took over as head chef. In 2022, after also dealing with a bad landlord, we made the decision to look for another space. That journey to relocate the Sovengard took us two long unplanned years. We were finally able to find a perfect location, less than a mile west from our original location on the same street. We wanted to stay on the “West Side” of Grand Rapids as we love that area and all it has to offer. Our new building is also 100 years old! (I guess we like old buildings!) The building had become an eyesore and needed a rescue! We tore off old ugly cladding to reveal the beautiful original brick exterior that we kept and restored. We also kept the original maple flooring throughout the dining areas and also the wood ceiling rafters as well. The neighbors are thrilled we have restored the building! On another great front, our son Rick stated that he wanted to remain our head chef, which we were thrilled about. Rick graduated from Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids with a degree in Illustration, so he gets to fulfill his creative side every day with food! He and his wife Kelly also designed the original space and our new space at 1232 Bridge St NW, a testament to their talent as artists. Our daughter in law even designed the wall paper in our Midden dining room! We reopened our doors in our new location on August 19, 2024 with much more space and of course an outdoor biergarten with our beloved Live Wall that gets replanted each Spring with flowers, herbs and more that the kitchen utilizes in our dishes. We also now have space for private events, parties and meetings that we did not have before. In November of 2025, Grand Rapids Magazine once again named us the 2025 Restaurant of the Year. They base this award on food, service and ambience. This time we finally got the traction of that award and it has definitely helped bring us back into focus and people’s attention after being closed for so long. We have much to be thankful for and although it was a very long and grueling path to get where we are at today, we look forward to a bright and prosperous future. We have a fantastic team of likeminded people and we are all deeply committed to continue our mission and vision of providing our guests with the most freshest, local and healthiest ingredients we can find, serving guests with a high level of customer service in a beautiful, peaceful and clean environment and to give back to our community in as many ways as we can. We also have free parking which is tough to find in Grand Rapids! See our lovely restaurant and our spaces, our delicious menus and more at www.sovengard.com as well as our Facebook and Instagram pages! Bon Appetite!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I alluded to some of the challenges we faced at our first location. Bad landlord that would not fix the parking lot he owned right next to our biergarten which caused our kitchen and dining rooms to flood at least four times a year. Parking was a huge challenge, especially to out of town guests not familiar with where to go to find parking. There were a lot of other restaurants and bars in the same part of the street we were on that made parking close very difficult. We also struggled with chefs not getting food and labor costs where they needed to be so that was always tough to get them on the same page.
Our new location, just less than a mile from the original, is in a neighborhood setting with no other restaurants or bars close by. We have abundant free parking very close to the restaurant.
We also have been able to finally have a team both front and back of the house that understands the importance of getting costs down and margins so we can be financially sustainable for the future. I think are challenge right now is the cost of everything and trying to keep our prices down. Another challenge is getting guests to realize that we are not going to be an inexpensive restaurant to dine at and to educate them that they are going to get great value for their hard earned dollars that they spend with us. Guests rave about the fresh and delicious flavors of our dishes, our service and the great ambience we’ve made inside and outside. We are very excited about our future and where it will lead us.
As you know, we’re big fans of Dig Hospitality II LLC/dba The Sovengard. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
My name is Lynne and I am majority owner of the Sovengard. The Sovengard is a small family owned farm to table restaurant and biergarten on the West Side (The best side!) of Grand Rapids.
My husband Bill has worked at the largest family owned restaurant in the US, Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth in Frankenmuth Michigan for 50 years and will retire at the end of this year. I met him there when I was working as a server and a single mother of three sons. Our three boys worked at Zehnder’s on weekends through high school. Bill has been instrumental in the areas of finance, operational and strategic planning for the restaurant and continues to guide us with his great experience. My roles at the restaurant are many. I am responsible for payables, payroll and am the private event coordinator. I also oversee our Live Wall planting and maintenance as well as scheduling many aspects of taking care of our space like snowplowing, repairs and more.
What makes us very unique in Grand Rapids is that we follow the New Nordic Movement and the Slow Food Movement of utilizing the best of the seasons and buying from and supporting local farms, bread makers, butchers, cheese makers, coffee roasters and many many other local vendors. We make everything from scratch right down to our mustards, mayos, sauces, house made crackers, breads, desserts and more! This sets us apart as we are only one of just two or three other restaurants that get their ingredients from local, Michigan and Midwest vendors as well as us not using any premade ingredients. We also believe in sustainability, so we utilize a local company called Wormies who pickup all our food scraps, paper to turn into worm castings to sell to gardeners and farms. We also make it our mission to use every part of every ingredient so there is virtually little to no waste. We are very proud that our mission and vision of local first is important to a lot of our guests and they can taste the difference! I’d like the readers to know that while we are not the most expensive or the least in Grand Rapids, we believe we bring great value to the guest and their hard earned dollars they are spending with us. Also that their dollars are going right back into the local community, creating a local loop that keeps the dollars close. We also offer private catering and we are embarking upon starting lunches to order soon. We can also accommodate private parties up to 120 guests inside and 100 outside in the biergarten and can offer total restaurant buyouts for wedding welcome receptions and corporate events. Email me at lynne@sovengard.com for more info on events!
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I don’t believe in luck, but I do believe in positive believing, prayer and hard work.
We have many people that believe in what we are doing and that has helped us navigate
some very tough and sometimes what has seemed insurmountable financial challenges.
I believe our complete honesty about what we’ve done wrong, what we are doing to correct
mistakes and actions to prove we have what it takes to succeed have been the key to getting the support we have needed from lenders, investors and supporters.
Pricing:
- Moderate to Moderate/High
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sovengard.com
- Instagram: thesovengard
- Facebook: The Sovengard
- LinkedIn: Linkedin/Lynne Parlberg
- Yelp: The Sovengard
