Kyle Bowles always dreamed of being an artist. At 23, her quirky, vibrant and viral art and personality fill family restaurants and have brought a bustling backyard shopping mall made of sheds to fruition in her Michigan Thumb town, where fewer than 700 people live year-round.
The Beachy family opened its first restaurant, Lefty's Drive-In, in 1990. Now, Bowles, a fourth-generation co-owner, and her family run six current and two upcoming restaurants and cafes, along with "Beachyville," a new attraction located behind their Beachy's and Beachy's Bake and Brew restaurants. Most of the businesses are in Caseville, a small beach town on Lake Huron.
Beachyville consists of 16 sheds the family bought from Home Depot and spent the winter building, painting
and customizing as an interactive experience. Visitors can shop for trinkets, stationery, toys and more at themed sheds like the pet store, deli and ice cream parlor. At the post office shed, visitors can write notes for the business and each other on postcards made from reused cardboard boxes. In the doodle shop, people can sign their names on the walls and leave their own marks. There's also a miniature greenhouse selling crochet flowers and a museum shed filled with framed family photos and handwritten notes detailing how the business has grown over time.
In a time when malls and in-person shopping are declining, people are flocking to Beachyville from all over the world after seeing social posts about the unique Caseville experience. Bowles began posting drinks she made bartending at her family's restaurants on social media in 2023. After years of sharing her art and behind-the-scenes restaurant content, she has gained more than 248,000 followers on @kyle._.beachy on Instagram and 362,400 @kylebeachy on TikTok.
“The fact that I can create something with my hands and with my family and with beautiful employees, and then for people to come experience all of it, it's second to none,” Bowles said. “It's probably one of the purest joys of my life.”
'If you build it, they'll come'
Bowles' Grandpa Al Beachy, Aunt Jody Beachy and Uncle Murray Beachy opened Lefty's Drive In in Bay Port in 1990. In 1998, they opened Lefty's Diner in Caseville. Murray Beachy opened Murdogs in Caro in 2002.
In 2012, Bowles' mom, Bethanne Rasmussen, and four children, triplets Kyle, Westin and Garet, and their older brother Seth, moved to Caseville from Arizona in 2012 to help with the restaurants.
Beachy's restaurant started as a COVID-19 project for Kyle and Westin Bowles. They graduated high school in 2021 and opened Beachy's that summer, with the support of their mom and stepdad Curt Rasmussen.
Kyle and Westin had no interior design experience, so Kyle started filling the space with whatever she could dream up, with full support of her brothers, mom and stepdad, she said. One of her first big art projects was a wall of tiny drink umbrellas surrounding a pink, light-up "Beachy's" sign.
Every year since 2021, the family has opened a new restaurant or attraction. Inside the businesses, you'll rarely see a non-decorated lighting fixture or a blank and boring space. Kyle's projects, like a large pink disco fish, a multistory, blue spray-foam tree, a wall display made of tiny plastic balls, and a watermelon-shaped wine holder as tall as a person, shine in every room.
She said she hopes the art inspires people to find joy in whatever they want to do and share it.
"Anybody that wants to do anything, just post your little dorky videos and it might just change your life," Kyle Bowles said. "Have no fear. Build something great and show the world. And if you build it, they'll come."
Going viral
Bowles said she started posting to share the beauty she saw around her and document her life as she and her family built something she believed in. She never expected it, but now anytime she's out and about in Caseville, she's approached by fans and asked for photos. She said she's often just as excited to meet them as they are to meet her.
"It is probably the coolest thing in the world that I get to walk through my own place, and everybody knows everything about it already," she said, standing in Beachyville. "I feel so loved all the time."
The way the videos showcase daily life can make people feel connected to the content and the business, said Ed Timke, an assistant professor at Michigan State University’s Department of Advertising and Public Relations.
“People want fun and quirky,” Timke said. “Fun and quirky posts drive attention, and people share it, and you get the spreadable interest. So it’s really strategic, whether or not there was a full-on official strategy."
The family branding and parasocial relationship people form by following Kyle and getting to know the whole story attracts viewers and visitors differently than most franchises and bigger businesses that use “corporate gloss” marketing strategies, Timke said.
“There’s something to be said about the organic, authentic nature of it," Timke said. "The quirky ideas. I think there’s a freedom that small businesses have. There’s definitely a struggle there, right, you don’t have the giant resources, the huge budget that a corporation could, but if you do it right — and she’s finding a formula — maybe it’s not the exact same thing, but it’s something quirky, and then people want to follow that."
Can viral content change a town?
Michelle Louwers, the office manager at the Caseville Chamber of Commerce, said Caseville has grown in the last 20 years from many empty buildings in town to now no open businesses for sale. Next year, the town will open its second campground. This year, its 10-day Jimmy Buffett-themed Cheeseburger Festival, which wrapped up on Aug. 23, was expected to draw 350,000 people, Louwers said.
Caseville is known to be a tourism town. Bowles, who has been working at her family's restaurants since she moved to Caseville in middle school, said she never met anyone visiting from Australia or Ireland before Beachy's went viral.
Westin Bowles said as Beachy's becomes more popular, honoring their grandpa, aunt and uncle, who opened the first family restaurants, has been on the family's mind. He said promoting Caseville as a whole is also important.
"That sense of community for us was a big thing and carrying on their legacy for what they've built when they were here and being able to carry that forward for them has been awesome," Westin Bowles said. "To share the awesomeness that is here and all the other businesses that are here and showcase what they bring to Caseville, as well, has been amazing."
What's next
Peak season is Memorial Day to Labor Day, Kyle Bowles said. Lefty's Diner stays open seven days a week all year, though Beachy's is only open on the weekends in the winter. Moving forward, Kyle, Westin, her mom and stepdad look forward to opening the Sand Bar in Caseville and Beachy's Corner in Bay City in 2027. Westin and Kyle said they've floated the idea of one day opening a Beachy's University to teach new entrepreneurs about promoting their businesses.
Bowles said the work is not always as glamorous as it may seem, and it's important to enjoy the mundane moments like stacking cups, flipping burgers and dusting the sheds. When challenges arise, such as a fire in April that took a lot of merchandise, Bowles said she tries to focus on gratitude and building back better. She said though she's often the face of the restaurant because of her videos, the business is a large team effort between the whole Beachy family and their staff of about 100 people, including summer J-1 visa employees.
Kyle Bowles said her biggest advice is to go for what you want, share it with the world and to love your mom.
"Be unapologetically brutal in what you want to do in this life and in this world and then pick up your phone and share it and talk about it," she said. "You can dance and let other people know they can dance, too."
Contact Natalie Davies at ndavies@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Viral restaurants, shopping draw worldwide visitors to Michigan's Thumb
