Last January, Lucas Grill opened the doors of his new restaurant in downtown Holland: Lovejoy. Locals were curious. The location had been home to Grill’s popular Spanish-inspired restaurant, Poquito, since 2019, and people wondered what they could expect in the remodeled space.
“I think the most important thing is warmth,” Grill says of Lovejoy’s vibe. He points out the dining room’s wildflower- patterned wallpaper, its soft green table accents, and its bar, which includes not only the expected assortment of spirits, but a selection of family-owned cookbooks and framed photos of a young Lucas with his grandmothers.
“I want visitors to walk in and immediately feel the hospitality,” he says.
Lovejoy’s transformation goes beyond mere aesthetics. The new restaurant includes a menu that harkens back to classic comfort food. Grill promises to offer customers predictability, coziness, and value for their dollar while preserving a high-end dining experience. These are the qualities he thinks customers long for in 2026, and they’re the characteristics he seeks out in his own dining experiences.
Lovejoy’s dinner menu references dishes that his grandmothers used to make: a Sunday roast plated with mashed redskin potatoes (his dad’s favorite); Lake Michigan perch topped with tartar sauce, slaw, and lemon zest; and meatloaf with mushroom gravy and a side of onion rings.
“I remember so clearly walking into my grandmothers’ kitchens as a kid and feeling that sense of belonging,” Grill says. “And then the food would come out to the table, and you just knew everything was going to be all right.”
The menu item Grill seems most excited about, though, is Lovejoy’s layer cake.
“Every year my grandmother Mildred made me this fantastic layer cake for my birthday,” he says. “Audrey, my other grandmother, made the best coffee cake, made with real coffee. And Cathy, my mom, makes the best carrot cake.” Grill melded elements of all three cakes to create Lovejoy’s version, with a sherry cask rum butterscotch and cream cheese frosting.
“That’s the concept of Lovejoy,” Grill explains. “It’s a place that’s inspired by and pays homage to these three amazing, strong women in my life who loved to cook.”
If nostalgia for Grill’s grandmotherers guides Lovejoy’s concept, the restaurant’s menu offers some decidedly 21st-century tweaks to its recipes: A rich red wine reduction glazes the Sunday roast; the cheeseburger is topped with a triple crème brie; and the short rib hand pie — a riff on a classic U.P. pasty — includes red wine jus and Dijon-truffle aioli.
Lovejoy’s menu incorporates a few holdovers from Poquito, the restaurant that preceded this one. Bacon-wrapped medjool dates and warm goat cheese with focaccia were fan favorites, and they appear on the new menu, too. The restaurant also offers a carefully curated wine list.
“I cherry-picked some of my favorites from the old menu,” Grill says, “because I knew our customers love and expect them.” He admits a personal appreciation for red wine and an inclination toward sharing little-known producers with his dining room guests. And wine is a natural inclusion, given Grill’s sommelier certification with the London-based Court of Masters.
The first sign of Grill’s future profession appeared when, as a third-grader, he asked for and received an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas. As an adult, he went on to graduate from the Culinary Institute of America and Michigan State University’s Hospitality Business School. After working in Michelin-starred kitchens at Jean-Georges and Aquavit in New York, and at Tru in Chicago, Grill — who had always known he would return to Michigan at some point, since he had grown up here — moved on to cook at the 1913 Room in Grand Rapids’ Amway Grand Plaza Hotel.
When the 1913 Room closed in 2011, Grill felt ready to strike out on his own; his time in Grand Rapids had convinced him of the need for more casual fine-dining restaurants in the region. Grill shares that he was raised on a family farm in Fowlerville, on Lovejoy Road, which inspired the name of his newest restaurant.
Lovejoy ranks as Grill’s fifth Holland-area food and beverage concept, all of which have been under the umbrella of 1983 Restaurants. He opened Public, in nearby Zeeland, in 2012. In 2017, Grill unveiled Seventy-Six in downtown Holland, which was followed two years later by conjoined food and beverage spaces Poquito and Obstacle No. 1 — the latter a sophisticated craft cocktail lounge, also in downtown Holland. Now, Lovejoy fills the area once occupied by Poquito.
Given his penchant for launching new restaurants, you might have expected Grill to have opened Lovejoy as an additional dining space. But it’s clear that, while developing restaurants has been important to his career, Grill’s appreciation for family has grown, as well.
“At some point we’ll probably hit the gas pedal again,” says the restaurateur, who, along with his wife, is raising four children, ages 6 to 16. “But right now, I really want to be a good dad. 
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Lovejoy
lovejoyholland.com
