Questions & Answers with community faces

Victoria (Mitchell) Mekas (46) grew up in Thompsonville and graduated from Benzie Central High School in 1997. She moved to East Lansing to study at Michigan State University’s four-year floral business program, but decided after a few years that her path was back in Benzie County.

Since she was a teenager, Victoria had a love for flowers, and she opened her first solopreneur business, Victoria’s Floral, a small flower shop in downtown Beulah in 2001, at what is now the Pawsitively Waggish location. For the next few years, she and her small team made floral displays for everything from weddings to funerals to high school dances.

Meanwhile, Chris Mekas (50) was born in Ann Arbor but grew up in Reed City, where he graduated from high school in 1993. He then went to Ferris State University; he transferred to Bethany Lutheran College in Minnesota; he then transferred to Eastern Michigan University; and then finally back to Ferris to finish with an Associate’s degree in liberal arts in 1997 and another in architectural technology in 1999. 

He moved to Ann Arbor to do computer-aided design (CAD) drafting work for a roofing company for a few months, but he says now that he knew it was not where he wanted to end up, so he moved to Traverse City a few months later, when a job opportunity presented itself to be a CAD designer for a residential builder for the next three years.  

Victoria and Chris met in 2001, just a few months after she had opened her first store. The couple were married in the fall of 2004, and by the next year, they had built a 4,000-square-feet building in Benzonia, where they opened the new Victoria’s Floral, along with Hill Top, where they were selling homemade ice creams from scratch. 

Between 2008 to 2011, Chris worked for Interlochen Center for the Arts to manage their ice cream and coffee shop on campus: he learned a lot during this time, as he had 25 summer employees working under him.

In 2013, the Mekases opened their third business, Perks, a coffee shop, in downtown Frankfort. Two years later, their landlord—who had owned Classen Shoes for decades before—offered up the space next door to Perks, and the Mekases opened Lynn & Perin, a gourmet foods store. 

For years, Chris—a self-described “foodie”—had thought that Benzie County needed a space that sold olive oils, vinegars, and other specialty items. (The store is eponymous, named after each of the Mekases middle names.) 

In the fall of 2015, the same year that they opened Lynn & Perin, the Mekases welcomed their daughter, Beatrice (10)—their “fifth business,” Chris jokes.

From those early days of Victoria working alone in the floral industry in her sister’s basement during her early 20s, the Mekases have grown to four thriving Benzie County businesses over nearly 25 years: with six full-time, year-round employees just at the floral shop and about 40 employees during the height of the summer season at all four businesses. They are well known in the community for their philanthropy, as well, and they are always coming up with new and innovative events that their businesses will host, such as cooking classes, open mics, and so much more. 

Continuing with our interview series on impactful Benzie County characters, The Betsie Current caught up with the Mekases as they were gearing up for the holiday season. 

The Betsie Current: What made you want to own one small business, let alone four? How did you make the decision to get started with each?

Victoria Mekas: I grew up here and knew that I wanted to stay right where my roots were. I’ve wanted to be a florist since 7th grade; it took a few years, but when I was 22, in 2001, I opened a small flower shop originally in Beulah, and months later, I met Chris. We outgrew our space in Beulah, and at the time, there was nowhere else to go—Beulah was full! So, we found a piece of property in Benzonia, up above the ShopN Save plaza, essentially. In 2005, we opened our new location and named it “Hill Top.” Not only the flower shop, though; we dove into the ice cream world, too. Chris and I went to ice cream school to learn how to make the best ice cream we could, from scratch. All of the ice cream is made on site with non-GMO, rbST-free, and corn-syrup-free dairy base. We use as many local ingredients as we can. I hired my dad to build the building, and we had some rental units; but after a while, we just took it all over, the whole building. In 2013, an opportunity came up for us to open a coffee shop in Frankfort, and why not?! In Benzie County, business is very minimal in the winter, so having more than one business helps our name to get out in the community, and we can cross-promote our various businesses. We thought we were done at three, but in 2015, we had the opportunity to open another business in Frankfort, next to Perks: Lynn & Perin, “the market on Main,” is our dream foodie business. With more than 250 bulk spices, balsamic vinegars, cold-press oils, jams, kitchen supplies, wine, and so much more. Opening businesses is so exhilarating—we love the unique little community we are in, and we are so proud to be a part! 

Chris Mekas: I grew up with my parents owning different businesses and always tagging along with them. After going away to college and having a career of my own, I met Victoria and helped her with Victoria’s Floral in those early days. When there was a downturn in the economy during the early 2000s, my job was eliminated, and I went to work with Victoria—and the rest is history. We kept having ideas and growing and moving forward. 

Current: What does a typical day of work look like for you? 

Victoria: Most of my day is spent in Benzonia, where all of the “behind the scenes” is happening. I spend a lot of my day at the flower shop—it is also where our offices are—so helping to make sure that the important deliveries and pick-ups are ready; we have an amazing staff, to where I have been able to step back a little from this. I have meetings a few times during the week with managers and marketing staff. This time of year, with Christmas, is my favorite; I am decorating trees and putting up lights, helping to make the magic happen!

Chris: Running around to all four locations, putting out fires—unclogging toilets, ordering for all of the stores, delivering, making deposits. 

Current: How have you seen your work grow and change? How do you hope that it will continue to grow? What is next?

Victoria: I went from very “hands on” to hiring people to do a lot of it. I used to do almost every daily floral arrangement, every wedding, every funeral, every school dance, as well as making displays in all of the stores, etc. It is wonderful to be able to hire people and train them and have them stay and be such an important part of the business. I hope that it keeps growing, to where we would not need to be here on a day-to-day basis, and maybe it becomes something that we can either sell one day or hand down to our daughter. For the future, we are hoping to open a larger Christmas store, with outbuildings for artisans and crafters to rent out, an ice skating rink, lit walking trails—kind of like a Christmas wonderland! Which will give us more room inside Hill Top for seating, if we can get the Christmas stuff out of there. I am so, so excited about this next venture! 

Chris: Over the years, especially the last five years, the number of year-round residents has skyrocketed here in Benzie County. So we’ve had to increase what we do, in order to accommodate the wants and needs. Including more staff, longer hours, more diverse products. Victoria listed all of the future growth very eloquently.

Current: Now for the really tough questions—Victoria, what are your three favorite flowers? Chris, what are your three favorite ice cream flavors that you guys make? For both of you, what is your personal go-to caffeinated beverage?

Victoria: Yes, this is tricky! Ranunculus for the soft-layered petals, stock for the amazing clove smell, and Queen Ann’s lace for the queen in the center of all that lace.

Chris: Caramel chocolate oreo! Then minty chip, and also local strawberry, made with Grossnickle Farm strawberries: no artificial color or flavor—just strawberries, sugar, and the ice cream base. 

Current: What kinds of things do you do for fun, when you are not working? What other things are you involved with? How did you get involved with them, and why are you passionate about these causes?

Victoria: We do not get out too much, but we like traveling whenever time allows—we hope for once a year—and going to nice restaurants, hanging out with family. When we only had two businesses, the flower shop and the ice cream shop, I was involved with a lot more, but it does make it very hard to try to work around others’ schedules, so we do mostly our own causes. For instance, we do a give-back at one of our stores once a month, so a percentage of sales from that day will go to a certain cause. The most recent have been the Benzie Central volleyball program, the Benzie High School prom committee, the Frankfort school band program, upgrades for the Frankfort lighthouse. We also started Benzie’s Star Search back in October, which was really fun; we did cash prizes and gave donations to the NCCA [New Covenant Christian Academy] choir. We try to give back whenever possible. I am passionate about these causes, because I grew up here, and we are trying to find causes that may not get picked as much as some of the big ones. Coming up on Friday, December 12, about 75 women from the Fresh Wind Christian Community, where we attend church services, will be roaming around Benzie County on a bus, looking at Christmas lights and stopping for food and shopping; we will have food and a cocoa bar set up for them at Hill Top!

Chris: We try to make sure that Beatrice, our daughter, has plenty of activities to do, so that she is not “bored.” I guess that’s what we do in our free time, ha. We do have scholarships for Benzie Central and Frankfort graduates. It’s a “Hard Work” scholarship that is geared toward folks that are going into the trades and that have proven themselves in the realm of grit and hard work. We love doing Thanksgiving at Perks every year in Frankfort. This year, we cooked 17 turkeys—a combination of 11 smoked turkeys and six fried, accompanied by all the “from scratch” fixin’s that make heartfelt Thanksgiving meals so wonderful. Along with community love and support, this was our best year yet. After doing the math over the weekend, we delivered close to 100 meals to folks and had about 200 walk-ins—the event is open to anyone in the community who shows up. It was a successful day!

Current: How have you seen Benzie County change since you grew up here, Victoria? How has it changed since you first moved up here, Chris? What are your hopes for the area in the future? 

Victoria: I have seen a large boom in the Benzonia area. I have seen Beulah go up and down, and Frankfort has flourished. So many wonderful businesses come and go. There are a lot more larger beautiful homes that were not here back in the ’90s! I love that the area is expanding, and there is a lot more offered here in our town than what used to be. I hope that we can stay away from “big box” stores, but I would love to see a sewer system in Benzonia, so that maybe a few more restaurants and housing could come into town.

Chris: I was born in Ann Arbor, grew up in Reed City, and moved to Benzie in 2006. That said, I’ve seen lots of changes. One of the saddest is the few factories that were here have now disappeared. Also, a couple of the restaurants that were community anchors were either torn down or turned into an alternative use.

Current: What are the biggest challenges and rewards of living/working in Benzie County, and in Northern Michigan, in general? What is the best or most rewarding part of your job?

Victoria: Biggest challenges are that, during the winter, there are not enough customers—that is from October to May, while June through September is booming. But we do not get employees until mid-June, when summer people and college kids return to the area. And it’s never enough staff during the busy season; we’re always looking for more people to join our teams, as is every other business in town. So they are not fully trained until July, and then any college students leave mid-August. So we are trying to find “off-season” employees and get them trained before Labor Day, but then give them reduced hours from January through May, because there are not enough customers at that point in the year. It is definitely a vicious cycle. Additionally, a lot of our product that we get in is more expensive for us than it would be for a business downstate; flowers, for example, cost me a lot more than they do for a florist downstate, because they can go straight to a market or they are buying a lot more at a time in bulk, so the cost goes down for them. This is just a hard area to get to; there is not much past us, and to have to drive four hours from Detroit with goods and drive another four hours back is not worth it to some companies, so FedEx or UPS are the next options for getting stuff up to us, and that gets very expensive. The most rewarding  part of my job is watching people’s reaction when they walk into one of our stores and are in awe by the Christmas decorations or the flowers or the taste of our hand-crafted ice cream or our delicious coffee or our huge selection of wines! I also love to be able to make a difference in a good employee’s life. I think we all know the difficulties of finding good staff, but when you do, there is nothing like it; being able to support them is the best feeling. 

Chris: The biggest challenge is staffing and the short tourist season. Second are the property and housing prices. We are rewarded by not having many stoplights—only one in the entire county—and the speed that we can get to different bodies of water and/or beaches. But the most rewarding part of my job(s) is seeing residents come through the doors and getting to know them and their families over the decades; that is number one. Number two is positive feedback from the different folks that we meet and serve.

Current: What could Benzie County do to attract more and/or retain talented people in this area? What else does Benzie County need?

Victoria: I think making sure that we have good, fast, reliable internet, so that people could work from home—which I think is actually happening really well right now! There has been a lot of time and money invested by local businesses and government into our internet coverage over the past few years, which is good. In order for small businesses to pay a really good wage, we really need more people to live and shop here all year long; again it is a vicious cycle with our seasonality. I think Benzie needs more things for younger people to do. Like, we used to have the Hut! Dancing, snacks; it was like a homecoming dance every Friday and Saturday night, and it was so fun! Young people are much different now than they were back then, so I am not sure if that would even work. But I’ve heard people talk about an arcade; seems like that would go over well. Of course, everyone knows we need housing, and that is hard, because mid-income housing is what is needed, and I am not sure there is very much government funding for that, so you would need a company to front a lot of money.

Chris: We have so much in this little burg. But I do know that full-time, year-round jobs and housing are the biggest needs in this area. Something to attract young people and families to the area, to plant their roots.

Current: What are your favorite local events and activities? Any favorite dining, recreation, hiking spots

Victoria: We love swimming at the Crystal Lake outlet during the summers; praying that they are not putting concrete in place of the beautiful wildlife that is there now, as has been proposed, because it will be completely ruined! We love walking the Arcadia Marsh and Old Baldy. As for dining, we have so many great options; to list a few would be Lucky Dog Bar & Grille in Beulah, Sweet’s Bar & Grill in Honor, Old Town Grill & Tap in Frankfort, and The Cherry Hut in Beulah. Local events, for sure, are both the Frankfort and Beulah 4th of July parades and fireworks! My very favorite event is the Holiday Night Lights at Victoria’s Floral! I also really love our new Star Search event that happens during Beulah/Benzonia Fall Fest. Bear Lake Days has great fireworks. There are so many great events. This year, we’ve started a new Shop Small Crawl that is turning out to be so fun—we’ve partnered with 14 other local businesses to encourage folks to shop locally this holiday season. The idea is really simple; from November 28 until December 24, folks can show up to the flower shop to purchase a tote bag for this year’s holiday shopping. When you make a purchase at a participating business, you’ll receive a button to add to your bag. Even if you can’t find something you would like from that location, you can purchase a button for $1. If you collect all of the buttons and then show us your bag in person back at the flower shop or email a photo of your completed tote, you’ll be entered in the Grand Prize drawing, worth more than $750 in cash and gift cards. Also, there is a give-away on Facebook almost every day. This is our first year doing it, and it’s been a hit. 

Chris: The events at our different stores are very diverse. Hats off to Victoria and our marketing manager, Caribe McClellan, for developing and moving the ideas into fruition. I like to cook, so my favorite place to eat is my own backyard in the summer or my dining room during inclement weather. I do like to kayak, but we don’t often get a chance to do that. Sometimes, we’re lucky enough to get a pontoon boat ride and just sit and relax.

Current: What does your perfect winter day look like in Benzie County? How would you spend it?

Victoria: If it is a thick snowy day, I love being home and watching the snow fall by the Christmas lights and drinking a Hill Top—or Perks—coffee. Snowshoeing the property is great, too! 

Chris: I also love big fluffy snowflakes and watching the snow fall! There’s nothing like being outside during a calm snowfall—not a snow-nado—at midnight, and all you hear are the flakes bumping into each other and stacking up on the ground. Victoria mentioned snowshoeing, and that is fun. Sipping on a hot coffee, or toddy, with the flakes hovering around would be a grand time.

Victoria’s Floral and Hill Top Coffee & Ice Cream are both located at 7117 South Street Benzonia, essentially atop the ShopNSave/Family Fair plaza and across US-31 from Watson Auto. Learn more at VictoriasFloralDesign.com and HillTopSodaShoppe.com or visit “Victoria’s Floral Design Inc” or “Hill Top Coffee & Ice Cream” on Facebook. Perks is located at 429 Main Street in Frankfort, while Lynn & Perin is located next door at 422 Main Street. Visit “Perks of Frankfort” or “Lynn and Perin Mercantile Co” on Facebook. Call the flower shop at 231-882-5144 or email VictoriasFloral01@gmail.com with questions about any of the four businesses, or how to get involved with the Shop Small Crawl before December 24.

The Hill Top Holiday Market is Sunday, December 7, with 17 local vendors from 1-5 p.m. and a visit from Santa from 1:30-3 p.m.

Featured Photo Caption: Chris Mekas (50) and Victoria (Mitchell) Mekas (46) with their daughter, Beatrice (10). Photo courtesy of the Mekas family.