New Downtown Holland Spot Serves Scratch-Made Comfort Food

Here’s one of the the latest shift in West Michigan’s ever-evolving dining scene. A Spanish-inspired tapas restaurant has closed in downtown Holland, but a new concept has already taken its place.

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Poquito Replaced Downtown Holland

At the end of last year, restaurateur Lucas Grill, owner of 1983 Restaurants, announced that Poquito would be shutting down. The restaurant first opened in 2019, serving Spanish and Latin American flavors with a focus on small, shareable plates.

Grill also operates several other West Michigan spots, including Public Restaurant in Zeeland and three restaurants along Holland’s 8th Street corridor: Seventy-Six, Obstacle No. 1, and the former Poquito location.

Scratch-Made Comfort Food Restaurant, Lovejoy Opens

Now, the space at 90 West 8th Street has a new identity.

At the end of January, Grill opened Lovejoy, a restaurant built around a more approachable, everyday dining experience.

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Speaking with Fox 17, Grill said the change was largely driven by the financial realities many customers are facing:

People are struggling to pay for groceries and mortgage payments and car payments and everything else. And it's getting so expensive... What I'm hearing from my customers and my guests is, we love your food, but we want something that's more accessible every single day. Just more accessible for our whole family.

Casual, Family Dining

The new concept aims to create a welcoming, casual place for people to gather.

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“I want this to be a place where people can come and do life together,” Grill said. “I want people to break bread, to celebrate memories, to punctuate life's moments in a way that they can just make this their place to come on a Tuesday or a Saturday.”

According to the restaurant’s website, Lovejoy is designed to feel like a modern family table, inspired by Michigan’s seasons and the comfort of a grandmother’s kitchen.

Lovejoy Menu Highlights

The menu features a mix of shareable bites, medium plates, and hearty entrées. Appetizers include items like crab wontons, truffle frites, and crab wontons. Medium plates feature dishes like garlic shrimp, warm goat cheese, short rib hand pies, Medjool dates, and crab cakes.

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Larger plates include options such as cheeseburgers, lake perch, meatloaf, whitefish schnitzel, and salmon. Menu prices range from about $6 to $29.

Lovejoy is now officially open at 90 West 8th Street in downtown Holland.