Big Mini Putt Club is venturing beyond the Windy City with a third location getting ready to debut in Michigan this year.
Founder Nick Jenkins says Big Mini Putt Club opened two sites in the Chicago area in the last three years. Like those, the new venture at 70 Ionia Ave. SW in Grand Rapids will feature a mix of mini golf with a bar and lounge area in an 8,000-square-foot space with capacity for up to 350 people.
“There’s this broader rise in … entertainment, or ‘competitive socializing,’ is one that people like to say,” Jenkins explains. “Really it started as kind of an idea of combining something that people in the Midwest love to do, which is [play] mini golf, with the recreation of going out and having a nice drink or cocktail with a date or group of friends.”
In Grand Rapids, besides nine holes of golf, Big Mini Putt Club will have nine holes of tabletop golf that Jenkins describes as a hybrid of pool and mini golf. A food menu is also being developed. The full bar will feature specialty cocktails as well as local craft beers and ciders.
Big Mini Putt Club custom designs and builds its putt-putt golf courses with features that incorporate local landmarks and themes, which Jenkins says in Grand Rapids is likely to include The Grand Castle and rapids on the Grand River. “Every course we’ve built is a little bit different,” Jenkins says. “We try to take elements from the neighborhood and city we’re in and include it.”
The Grand Rapids location will be able to serve groups in various ways. Meeting planners can reserve tables with food and drink packages. “We see a lot of companies like to do a course buyout—buy out the course and leave the bar open for other walk-ins that want to come and have a drink at the bar or a bite. Obviously the bigger option is to do a whole event venue buyout. That opens up a lot of opportunities for companies to host groups,” Jenkins says, noting that typical gatherings at Big Mini Putt Club last from two to four hours.
“We see a lot of repeat business from people who have had their first date with us and come back and have subsequent dates,” Jenkins says. “I think we’re up to our fifth or sixth [marriage] proposal now—we’ve hosted proposal parties at our first location because they had their first date at our spot and want to come back and propose to their fiance.”
Jenkins hopes the Grand Rapids location will be up and running by Labor Day or early fall this year.
