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WineEast Marketing How does an urban winery survive in a small town? In this case, Traverse City has a resident population of 15,000, but it is also a vacation destination for families from Chicago, Ill., Michigan cities Grand Rapids and Detroit, and as far away as Cincinnati, Ohio. The region is the largest producer of tart cherries in the country, and the weeklong Cherry Festival in early July draws as many as 500,000 visitors (part of the reason that 80% of Left Foot Charley���s sales occur in the second half of the year.) Tourists also visit the numerous wineries on the Old Mission and Leelanau peninsulas. As an urban winery, Left Foot Charley is outside the appellation borders for the wine trails on the Old Mission and Leelanau peninsulas. The Ulbrichs realized that many local residents viewed wineries as being for tourists on the wine trails and were not drinking the region���s wines. Bryan set out to make the tasting room at Left Foot Charley a destination for locals as well as tourists. He wanted it to be a fun place���and one that would encourage people to stay. So, he built a patio with chairs, tables with umbrellas, plus a huge sandbox to entertain visiting children. In the tasting room he installed an antique (but functional) Wurlitzer jukebox, put bar stools at the tasting counter and added a small restaurant. Caf�� Leftique���open seven days a week���offers a limited menu that ranges from two soft pretzels with a selection of local mustards or peanut butter and jelly for the kids ($3) to the Ploughman���s lunch: wild boar salami, chorizo, teahive English cheddar, rosemary manchego and blue cheese with Pleasanton golden wheat, local mustard, seasonal chutney and pickled vegetables ($12.) Wine is sold by the glass for $5. For Thursday happy hour (5-7 p.m. each week), chef Kristin Karam prepares a single-dish menu that is billed ���Weekly Ethnic Eats.��� For $15, each guest receives a plate of food inspired by a different region and a glass of wine or cider of their choice. Featured cuisines have included Cuban, Cajun, Mexican, Indian, Lebanese and others. Left Foot Charley participates in several Traverse City festivals such as the annual Wine and Art Festival and a newly created Colantha Walker Dairy Festival (to celebrate both Colantha Walker, a prolific milk-producing cow residing at the Asylum in the 1920s, and the preservation and renewal of The Village) as well as several festivals centered at the winery, which also offers rental space available for events up to 100 people. Left Foot Charley���s tasting room has a wine bar and comfortable seating for winery visitors. decided to use Bryan���s childhood nickname instead. As he tells the story, as a child he was ���impulsive, impatient and���as a result of my inward-pointing left foot���I was also clumsy. I fell constantly and my mother and uncle thought it was a riot. They coined me Left Foot Charley. No one knows, or admits, why. I think it had something to do with a giant, green jug of ���Rhine Wine������the centerpiece to many early memories.��� Ulbrich continues, ���Wine has taught me to become patient. Let time do the work!��� WE The wines While Ulbrich concentrates on producing white wines, he also makes a dry ros�� from Pinot Noir, L��on Millot and Blaufr��nkisch, a red variety Ulbrich believes has huge potential for Northern Michigan. At the urging of a friend at a local cider mill, Ulbrich began in 2008 to make dry ciders that he sells by the glass, in 750ml bottles or half-gallon growlers. The ciders are available only in the tasting room and at one restaurant, but as of August 2012, cider constituted 30% of Left Foot Charley���s sales. The name When the Ulbrichs discovered that their first choice of names for their winery was already in use by a vineyard in California, they Win es & Vin es JA N UA RY 20 13 159