Mark Hallett Opens ‘Goody’s Market’ to Compliment ‘Goody’s Lobster Shack’ in Frankfort

In Volume XI Issue 9, published July 14, 2022, we featured a Q&A with Mark Hallett (56), a Long Islander who had moved to Benzie County after spending most of his life in New England—which means that he knows good seafood. 

Hallett and his wife, Kate [Koengeter] (54), have spent the last two seasons running Goody’s Lobster Shack. They have been serving up East Coast fare of lobster rolls, crab cakes, and traditional “fish and chips,” along with pickled slaw and homemade key lime pie. 

Kate grew up vacationing in Frankfort, and the couple together had vacationed here for a week or so each year after they met in 2008. Since they had become “empty nesters” around the same time as the pandemic layoff, they decided to move to Michigan permanently. 

In April 2021, they purchased a commercial building in downtown Frankfort that had come with renters—Bayside Printing Inc. and the Frankfort-Elberta Area Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber moved out in December 2022 and Bayside moved into the Chamber’s spot. Meanwhile, the next few months were spent renovating the building to create Goody’s Market in the space where Bayside had occupied.

When we first interviewed Hallett two years ago, the couple had just opened Goody’s Lobster Shack on July 4, 2022—while they waited on permits and construction, this was a way to cut through some of the red tape and get their names out in the community by opening a to-go food kiosk in a custom-built “tiny house/kitchen” in the parking lot next door. 

Fast-forward nearly two years, and Goody’s Market had a soft opening on April 17, 2024. 

The market will offer: prime meat, including steaks, veal, pork, lamb, and duck; fresh fish from the Atlantic and nearby, including halibut, salmon, walleye, and a variety of smoked fish; an assortment of shellfish, such as dry sea scallops, oysters, and crab. There will also be Boar’s Head meats, cheeses, and provisions, as well as house-made hot and cold deli sandwiches, fresh salads, homemade soups, housemade salads, pickle slaw, potato salad, pasta salad, and more. Also for sale will be snacking essentials, such as crackers, chips and dips. 

Additionally, the market has a retail license to sell beer, wine, and liquor, with wine-tasting events coming soon. 

“We are happy to provide a much needed service to the community of Frankfort,” says Mark Hallett. ”We are humbled by the local support for the Lobster Shack, and we are grateful for the opportunity to expand our vision with the butcher shop/gourmet market. We are excited to continue growing alongside this community that we’ve come to love.”    

Meanwhile, the plan is to open Goody’s Lobster Shack on Thursday, May 23, with a smaller menu than in the previous two years, since Goody’s Market will have many items inside, too. 

When asked where the name “Goody” comes from, Hallett responds, “You’ll have to figure that one out. It started way back in 1710 on Cape Cod’s Wellfleet, Massachusetts. As a clue? Mariah ‘Goody’ Hallett.”

Goody’s Market is located at 515 Main Street, while Goody’s Lobster Shack is located in the parking lot between the market and the West Shore Bank in downtown Frankfort. Websites for the Market and the Lobster Shack are connected and can be accessed at GoodysLobsterShack.com and GoodysMkt.com online, where open hours are posted. Visit “Goody’s Lobster Shack” onFacebook. While the Shack will continue to be a mostly-summer endeavor, the Market plans to be open most of the year, possibly closing for the months of February and/or March.

Frankfort-Elberta Area Chamber of Commerce Moves in with Monumental Finds

Way back in Volume III Issue 7, published August 14, 2014, we profiled the wildest of the wild things—the collector and creator behind Monumental Finds. 

Driving down the Gateway hill into Frankfort, one of the first things that visitors see is a rooftop labeled “ANTIQUES” sitting next to the Shell gas station and across the street from A&W. However, what is inside is so much more than 100-year-old furniture, fine china, or brass doorknobs—though you are likely to find those, too.

The building is a 1,200-square-foot space that was once an appliance store and later a Sears Catalog business, but it  has been filled with an eclectic array of strange, colorful art pieces—made with scraps of this or that—mixed in with antiques and collectibles that have never been refinished. Outside in the side yard, there are outbuildings made from old windows and adorned with rusty license plates and the grill of a yellow Jeep.

To have such an inventive imagination is a rarity. The creator of the madness is Bob Thomas, known simply to friends as “BT.”

In 2004—21 years after his first visit to Benzie County—Thomas threw out his computer, packed up his life in Virginia, and moved a barn full of antiques via four truckloads all the way to Northern Michigan. He had been making annual summer pilgrimages Up North, but he was finally ready to trade in big city life for a lake house and swap out a business of carving headstones for one of sculpting from scraps.

Now, 20 years after that big move, he is still creating, thanks to his ever-evolving collection of supplies and accessories, such as: deer antlers (which make good shark fins), shoehorns (useful for fish scales), table legs, Sculpey Baked Clay, a bag of turkey feet, barbed wire, Venetian blinds, croquet mallets, driftwood, stumps, cow skulls, swordfish bills, and other very unusual accouterments. 

“Half the fun is chasing down the parts and pieces for my sculptures,” he remarks.

Thomas now has a new neighbor to share the building with, however.

Back in Volume IX Issue 6, published June 4, 2020, we profiled Joanne Bartley, who has served as the executive director of the Frankfort-Elberta Area Chamber of Commerce since 2007—this was a big switch from her previous job working for 17 years for a multinational company, Ford, to working for a very small operation here in Northern Michigan. She credits the “event-planning side of things” as being what drew her to the Chamber job. 

To clarify for our readers, there are two Chambers of Commerce here: Frankfort-Elberta and Benzie County, the latter of which recently sold its office building at the corner of US-31 and M-115 in Benzonia; as of this publication, the Benzie Chamber still has no official office location and the director is working remotely.

Meanwhile, when we last profiled Bartley, the Frankfort-Elberta Chamber was located in downtown Frankfort in the same building as Bayside Printing, Inc. However, that building was sold in April 2021, and the Chamber moved out in December 2022. 

A contract was struck with B.T. Thomas to use half of his space at Monumental Finds, and the renovations took about eight months.

“We thought that the new location would be ideal for catching all of the visitors driving into town,”Bartley says. “After moving in August 2023, we documented the visitors and where they are from and what their plans were when they were here—more than 98 percent of visitors to our office had never been to Frankfort. They were traveling along M-22 going north.  They had no idea there was a town of Frankfort or a village of Elberta and all of the goodies they encapsulate! Needless to say, we are pleased with our new location.”

The Frankfort-Elberta Chamber has almost 200 members, up from 135 when Bartley started 17 years ago. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, when we last profiled Bartley, businesses have opened back up and events have been able to restart.

“The local economy seems to be booming!” Bartley says. “May seems to be busy, earlier than usual! All storefronts are occupied with businesses, according to city superintendent Josh Mills. We look forward to seeing familiar faces and news ones!”

Want to learn more about joining the Frankfort-Elberta Chamber or about what to expect in terms of events this summer? See the Community Calendar section of this newspaper and reach out to Joanne Bartley at FCOFC@Frankfort-Elberta.com via email or call 231-352-7251. Check out Frankfort-Elberta.com for more information. 

Visit the Chamber and/or Monumental Finds at 1311 Forest Avenue in Frankfort. The Chamber is open Mondays through Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Friday beginning in June, but you might want to call first if you plan to visit BT’s art and antique gallery to see if he is in: 703-675-7835. You will enjoy browsing his monumental finds, antiques, and embellishments, with no pressure to buy—just have fun! There is a blog, if you are interested, but don’t count on Bob Thomas to know what’s being written—no computer, remember? Visit OutsiderArtOriginalSculptures.blogspot.com to learn more.

Featured Photo Caption: Mark Hallett (left) has been running Goody’s Lobster Shack over the past two summers, and he recently opened Goody’s Market in downtown Frankfort, in the space formerly occupied by Bayside Printing Inc, which moved into the space formerly occupied by the Frankfort-Elberta Area Chamber of Commerce. Joanna Bartley (middle) is the executive director of the chamber, which moved in with Monumental Finds, owned by Bob “BT” Thomas (right). All photos by Aubrey Ann Parker.