"So, this space was just sitting here," Eddie Anderson told MLive this month. He was talking about the dining room at 826 E. Cork St. before 4 p.m., when his restaurant, House of Soul, opens for the day.
That room no longer sits empty. Since Sept. 28 a salad-and-wrap counter called Noon has used those daytime hours, and the building now holds four food businesses. Noon fits a pattern that runs through several of the Kalamazoo area's 2026 openings. A new concept goes into a space where another food business already works, sharing its square footage, its phone line or its daypart. For the people who eat at these places, an address tells you less than it used to. What you can order depends on when you arrive.
826 E. Cork St., read by the clock
The Cork Street building works more like a small food court than a single restaurant, and its businesses run on different schedules.
- Noon, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Salads and wraps in Greek, caprese and Caribbean jerk versions, plus lemonade and iced tea.
- House of Soul, from 4 p.m. Anderson's soul food and seafood business, which he started in June 2020.
- Wing Hut, Tyler Griffis's wing business, which she opened about four years ago.
- Boss Babies, cupcakes and other sweets.
Local reporting has not published full weekly hours for Wing Hut or Boss Babies. Check their social pages before you plan a trip around them.
Noon's menu is built for the hours it has. Owners Cheyenne Joza and Shilo Summons make every salad and dressing in-house, and MLive reports that much of their produce is bought locally. Joza said they shopped the farmers market and talked with vendors and farmers about what was in season. The salad that gets talked about is "The Kzoo." It combines grilled chicken, greens, chopped dill pickles, cucumber, red onion, shredded cheddar, crispy onions and fresh dill, finished with green goddess dressing.
The two founders have been friends for 20 years, and Noon is their first restaurant. Joza handles the cooking and creative side. Summons has an accounting background and runs the organization.
How a food court formed without a developer
The building became a food court one tenant at a time, starting with Wing Hut and House of Soul. Griffis told MLive that her campus location had slowed down, and House of Soul, across the street, was slow too. "I said we might as well merge together and do a food court kind of concept," she said.
She said plenty of people thought it was a crazy idea to share space with other food businesses. Her reasoning was about the customer. "Sometimes you don't always want heavy food," she said. "Sometimes you might want seafood and chicken. I didn't really see a conflict of interest."
Noon grew out of the same building. Joza had been cooking sides for House of Soul. Anderson said she pitched a lunch spinoff that would use some of House of Soul's proteins in salads, wraps and fruit, which House of Soul's own menu doesn't carry.
Anderson gave the economic reason plainly. "The economy is tough. It's tight, and starting a business is tight," he said. "If we can come together and share a space … we're surviving and making it happen."
At Cork Street, then, sharing came from small operators adding together dayparts and foot traffic that none of them could fill alone. The same idea showed up this year on Westnedge, at franchise scale.
On Westnedge, two brands share one phone number
MLive reported that on July 6, franchise owner Sam Patel opened Happy's Pizza at a new building at 3205 S. Westnedge Ave. The same building brought in the Kalamazoo area's first Savvy Sliders. Longtime Happy's customers will know the menu from the chain's earlier spot at 1517 S. Westnedge, about a mile north, which never reopened. It covers specialty pizzas, wings, stuffed bread, rib tips, BBQ, seafood, calzones and dessert.
The two brands share a counter, and they also share the ways to order. Patel said customers can order from either menu through the Happy's app, the Savvy Sliders app, DoorDash, or by calling 269-222-0013. That makes a mixed order easy, say a pizza for one person and beef, chicken or falafel sliders with a custard shake for another. Inside, the restaurant seats 34.
Savvy Sliders started the same way. Happy's introduced it in 2018 as a co-brand housed inside select Happy's restaurants. MLive reports it has since become a standalone brand with 54 locations in seven states. At a chain, a shared roof can be where a new concept gets tried out before it goes out on its own.
South of town, the shared roof comes with dessert
The third example sits just outside the city, in Texas Township. On Sept. 8, Kazoopy's Pizza & Grinders and a new brand, Buttercup's Ice Cream, opened together at 6040 S. 12th St., with the interior split between them. MLive reported that the pairing was co-owner Maria Strawhun's suggestion. She thought pizza and ice cream would go well together. Scott Strawhun owns Kazoopy's.
| Kazoopy's Pizza & Grinders | Buttercup's Ice Cream | |
|---|---|---|
| What's on the menu | Pizza, grinders, calzones | 16 flavors, two of them rotating house-made, plus floats, flurries, sundaes |
| Hours for the building | Mon–Sat 11 a.m.–9 p.m., Sun 4–8 p.m. | Same building, same schedule |
| Opened | Sept. 8, 2026 | Sept. 8, 2026 |
Strawhun said Buttercup's could be added to other Kazoopy's sites. That is the Savvy Sliders route on a local scale, where a brand starts out as a guest in another business's room.
The shared kitchen behind the counter
Some of the sharing happens where diners never see it. Can-Do Kalamazoo, which has supported local entrepreneurs since 2007, runs a kitchen incubator program and rents out commercial kitchen space at 519 S. Park St., Suite 2. The incubator supports commercial food businesses. That gives a new cook a commercial kitchen to start in before committing to a storefront of their own.
Taken together, Can-Do's kitchen, the Cork Street building, the Westnedge co-brand and the Texas Township split show how many ways there are now to open a food business in this area without filling a building alone.
Two more openings that doubled up
The pattern shows up even in openings that don't advertise it. MLive's September roundup reports that Hot Box opened Sept. 11 at 1700 S. Drake Road, next to Nonla Burger at the same address. Both come from Johnny and Kelly Nguyen, the founders of Nonla. Hot Box serves quick, build-your-own rice and vegetable bowls with a choice of protein.
MLive also reported that Irie Jamminz Caribbean Restaurant & Market opened July 3 at 3928 Portage St. Shawn and Ishicka Forrest run it with their parents, serving Jamaican and Caribbean dishes and selling Caribbean groceries, spices and sauces. It has a single owner group, but it still gets two uses from one room, a place to eat in and a shop for pantry staples.
If you're planning a meal around the shared spots this fall, keep these in mind:
- Noon serves weekday lunch only, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at 826 E. Cork St.
- House of Soul opens at 4 p.m. at the same address. Confirm Wing Hut and Boss Babies hours directly.
- At 3205 S. Westnedge Ave., one call to 269-222-0013 covers both Happy's Pizza and Savvy Sliders.
- Kazoopy's and Buttercup's at 6040 S. 12th St. open at 4 p.m. on Sundays.
At Sold By Group, we look at buildings with a builder's eye, and we love seeing a dining room that used to sit empty until 4 p.m. turned into a weekday lunch counter. If you own a property and wonder whether it's being used as well as it could be, Sold By Group can walk through it with you and talk about what it could do. Schedule your free home consultation.
