The homepage for BoDocks Marina Bar & Grill now has a one-line message: "Thanks for a great 2026 Summer Season. See you next year!" That is how the year's biggest waterfront restaurant reopening wrapped up its first season, which began on May 21.
It's a good place to start sorting Muskegon's 2026 openings, because they fall into three groups. The waterfront summer spot has signed off for the year. Two downtown places that opened this year are designed around evenings indoors. A third group is mostly built and waiting on state approval before it can serve the way its owners planned. If you want somewhere new to eat on a cold Thursday, the second group is where to look.
The marina season was a summer season
BoDocks took over the old Dockers Fish House at 3505 Marina View Point. Harris Hospitality opened it to the public at 11 a.m. on Thursday, May 21. MLive named Fred Scharmer, Michelle Harris, Andrew Harris and Jennifer Harris as the people behind it. The menu covers seafood, pizza, sandwiches, tacos, chicken and casual entrees. By May 30, longtime regulars were telling MLive the place still felt like good ol' Dockers.
Visit Muskegon calls BoDocks a seasonal waterfront restaurant that serves guests through the summer. A marina restaurant built for the dock crowd works this way by design. For the next several months, though, the most talked-about opening of 2026 isn't an option for dinner. Anyone looking for something new on a fall weeknight will be looking downtown.
Downtown's two new openings are made for indoor evenings
Motu, a building with a view of the lake
Motu Lakeshore Wine Bar & Prohibition Cocktail Lounge is at 1208 Eighth St., a short walk from Heritage Landing. The owners first planned to open in 2022. They pushed the opening back after taking over the whole building so they could run two concepts in it. One is a wine bar centered on curated wines and small plates. The other is a late-night cocktail lounge. The building had sat largely unused for decades before Core Development bought and restored it. It now has large windows facing Muskegon Lake and a garage door that opens onto a patio.
The founding team is Jonathan Jelks, his father Randall Jelks, Jamiel Robinson, Willie Jackson and Alvin Hills IV. Some of them also run Sip Coffee Cocktails in the Grand Rapids area. The bar takes its name from Motu Viget Spirits, a Michigan-made wine and spirits company owned by Jelks, Jackson and Robinson. Jonathan Jelks told MLive the goal was a place "where residents and visitors alike can gather, celebrate, connect and experience a new level of hospitality on the lakeshore."
The patio is seasonal. The lake-facing windows are not. The hours posted on Motu's site are 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 4 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. That schedule was online in July and isn't labeled as a winter schedule, so check it before a late Saturday visit.
Zini, a tasting room that soft-launched for five weeks
Zini opened on Western Avenue, at 380 W. Western Ave., Suite 140. Owner Kavy Lenon is originally from Laos. She told MLive she wants Zini to be a place where "a stranger could sit down and share a meal together and spark a conversation or learn something different."
Before its official opening, Zini ran a five-week soft launch. Each night seated 24 guests at 5 or 7:30 p.m., Thursday through Saturday, for a $60 five-course meal with three paired cocktails. The first menu was the Mekong River Collection, with dishes from Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It included a deconstructed pho martini, where diners pour vodka-infused broth into the glass and add their own bean sprouts, Thai basil, jalapeño, lime and beef meatballs.
The grand opening and ribbon cutting were on Friday, September 25. The Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce, whose office is upstairs from Zini, posted its congratulations afterward. Zini's own site lists what's on now:
- Grand Opening Menu, running through October, built from guest favorites across the three menu collections served during the soft launch.
- A weekly Soup Series, with a different region of Asia each week. The featured soup when this was written is Kapoon, a Lao red curry noodle soup with chicken, rice noodles and coconut curry broth.
- $49 per person for the Soup Series dinner: three courses plus a Zini signature cocktail.
- À la carte small plates, also available.
Reservations go through Zini's Toast booking page, where you choose a date, party size and time. MLive printed regular weekly hours before the opening, but Zini hasn't confirmed them since. The booking page is the reliable way to see open dates.
Both downtown spots are cocktail-led, indoors, and focused on evenings. Neither is built around the dock season, which makes them the two 2026 openings most likely to matter once the weather turns.
The next wave is waiting on the state more than on builders
Most of the remaining 2026 openings have space and owners lined up. What they're waiting on is a license.
Lee-Lee's Crosswinds Café West has been open since May at 99 Sinclair Drive, inside Muskegon County Airport in Norton Shores. As of September 3, owner Lee Ann French was serving breakfast daily from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Muskegon County commissioners unanimously approved her application to the Michigan Liquor Control Commission. State approval was still pending, though. French told MLive she expected alcohol sales no earlier than December and more likely in early 2027. If the license comes through, the plan is to stay open until 7 or 8 p.m. for dinner. So whether the airport becomes a dinner spot depends on that state decision.
Lakeshore Tavern at 1963 Lakeshore Drive in Lakeside has five new partners, including Jay Keessen. They plan to keep the tavern's Bloody Mary on the menu. On July 28, MLive reported the liquor license transfer was still waiting on the state. The estimate for opening was one or two weeks, or one or two months, depending on the state. The new owners first announced the reopening in February without a date. No reopening has been confirmed in the news since.
Two other projects are also in this group, delayed for different reasons:
- OB's Southern Bistro at 379 W. Western Ave., Suite 102, is one address number from Zini. The city of Muskegon approved a $50,000 loan for Will Roberson's Southern brunch spot, which plans to serve shrimp and grits, catfish and grits, and chicken and waffles. After renovation delays moved it past a Memorial Day target, he aimed for July. The planned winter hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and closed Mondays. As of early October, no outlet has reported that it opened.
- Rooted is the restaurant inside Fields Cannary, a roughly $4 million project at 420 S. Harvey Ave. that also includes a dispensary, a consumption lounge and a bar. MLive described the menu as seasonal, locally sourced American food and named Edgar Ramon as co-owner and CEO. The reported timelines differ. WZZM said the restaurant would open October 1. MLive said it would open a few weeks after the dispensary, which was targeting October 1. Visit Muskegon already lists it as Rooted Supper Club. Its opening hasn't been confirmed yet.
Western Avenue lost a spot this year, too
Downtown also saw a closure. Love Café, the pay-what-you-can café run by Love Inc. at 557 W. Western Ave., left its space by the end of April after the building's owners decided to sell. It had been open less than a year, and the nonprofit said it was looking at a future location. Farther east, the Fazoli's at 1780 E. Sherman Blvd. had closed by February 25.
Taken together, Western Avenue gained Zini and lost Love Café in 2026, and OB's planned July opening there has not been confirmed. The street is turning over, and its newest tables are at the more expensive, reservation-driven end.
A fall week built from the most recent posted schedules
Using the latest hours and menus each place has published, the new spots fit into a week like this:
- Any morning: breakfast at Lee-Lee's Crosswinds Café West at the airport, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., seven days a week as of September.
- Wednesday or Thursday after work: Motu opens at 4 p.m. The patio is seasonal, but the lake-facing windows are there year-round.
- Later in the week: the current Zini Soup Series at $49, booked ahead through Toast, while the Grand Opening Menu runs through October.
- Sunday afternoon: Motu's posted Sunday hours run from noon to 7 p.m.
Motu's hours were posted in July, so a quick check of its site before heading out is worthwhile. The rest of 2026's list depends on state approvals and on two openings that haven't been confirmed.
If you're keeping an eye on how Western Avenue and the lakeshore keep changing, from new restaurants to restored buildings, I'm always happy to talk about what it means for the street you live on or the one you're thinking about. Legacy Home Leaders is here when you want a calm, local conversation. Let's Connect.
