The popular bakery, offering vegan pastries and vegetarian sandwiches, has moved to bigger digs in Union Pier.

I never visited Black Currant’s original Union Pier location, but their move to a bigger building nearby prompted me to check them out, and I’m glad I did. Along with a terrific brownie, I had an excellent grilled cheese with tempeh bacon, tomato and avocado. My meat-eating husband, Mr. Diva, loved his seitan Reuben, and my vegetarian friends also enjoyed their veggie sandwiches.

A lot of care goes into each sandwich, with terrific, perfectly toasted bread.

Jesse Ives and Katie Marggraf are a couple and co-owners of Black Currant, which they opened in 2016 after relocating to Three Oaks from Portland, Oregon, by way of Milwaukee.

“I am from Cook County originally,” Katie says, “and have been coming to Union Pier to my uncle’s cottage near McKinley Beach since 1983.”  Jesse is from the Washington, D.C. area. 

“Before opening our own bakery, we worked at many other bakeries and restaurants across the country,” Katie says. Katie’s first baking job was at the Chicago Diner, making and decorating vegan cakes in the second-floor bakery above the restaurant right out of college. “That job was very intense,” she says. “but funnily enough, the owners of the Chicago Diner now have a summer home in Union Pier and we see them every once in a while!”

Jesse’s first cooking job was Sacred Chow, a vegetarian restaurant in New York’s West Village. 

In the new, bigger location at 16175 Red Arrow Highway, which started life as a gas station 100 years ago and was most recently an architect’s office and motorcycle showroom, longtime fans will find things haven’t changed much, save for more seating inside and out. There are vegetarian sandwiches, custom cakes, vegan pastries, cinnamon rolls, bagels, cupcakes, cookies, quiche, bars and coffee drinks.

“Once the summer calms down and we all get our bearings, we plan on doing some newer things,” Katie says.

She warns that even though they have our own parking lot now, “it can get a little hairy during the summer. We highly recommend walking, biking, or parking in the public lots on Townline across from the old bakery, or on the northeast corner lot at the main Union Pier intersection.”

Black Currant is right off the new eight-mile paved multi-use trail that connects New Buffalo and Sawyer.

“We are just so happy to have made this decision to be a delicious part of Union Pier for the rest of our lives,” Katie says, “and we can’t thank all of our customers enough for supporting us over the last nine years. You don’t go into the food hospitality business to make money, you do it to make people happy.”  Mission accomplished!

The bakery is open Thursdays through Mondays, 8 am to 3 pm ET.

Black Currant Bakehouse, 16175 Red Arrow Highway, Union Pier, (269) 586- 3830