A Small Business Moves, Grows, And Welcomes A New Generation

The heartbeat of a great neighborhood is often a single place where curiosity turns into connection—and for Walker, that place might be Siciliano’s. We sit with owners Dan and Tiffany to unpack how a family-owned specialty market evolved into a community hub for homebrewing, wine kits, cigars, and curated pairings, all while honoring the legacy that started it in the 90s. From the first “build your own six-pack” to a modern mix of local coffee, artisan cheese, and zero-proof options, their story shows what happens when service and education come first.

We talk candidly about growth: moving from the West Side to Walker, adding space and parking, and scaling up with new walk-in coolers, a three-times-larger humidor, and hundreds more wines and spirits. That expansion unlocked bigger tastings, better events, and room for a thousand-plus beers. The secret isn’t just selection; it’s curation. Partnerships with Magnum Coffee, The Cheese Lady, Grand Ice, and Semifreddo turn a simple stop into a full experience you can taste, share, and bring home.

Education drives everything. Whether you’re a curious beginner or a seasoned brewer, the team helps you start with approachable wine kits, connects you with local homebrew clubs, and invites you to free events like the annual homebrew competition and Big Brew Day at Trail Point. It’s no surprise that several local breweries began in these aisles. Along the way, Dan and Tiffany open up about running a growing shop, raising a young family, and serving Walker on the downtown authority—proof that small business can shape a city’s culture.

Ready to explore, learn, or brew your first batch? Hit play, subscribe for more stories from Walker, and share this episode with a friend who loves craft, flavor, and community. Your review helps more neighbors find the show—what should we taste or brew together next?

If you have comments about this podcast, or ideas for future episodes, please email us at PODCAST@WALKER.CITY

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome to Maiden Walker, podcast that connects you to the people, the stories, and the ideas shaping our community. From local innovators to everyday change makers, we're diving deep into what makes Walker a great place to live, work, and grow. Here's your host, Nicole DiDonato.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Well, if you've ever been to Sicilianos in Standale, you know it's more than just a market. It's an experience. With a longtime Grand Rapids business, family-owned business, moved from Grand Rapids to Standale into Walker just about a year ago, and uh is growing alongside another family venture. I'm pleased to have the owners of Sicilianos Market and specialty beverage. We have Dan and Tiffany Sipkas. Thank you both so much for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Absolutely. Thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Yeah, we're excited. Yeah, of course. And for anyone who's maybe not stepped into your market before, what is it all about?

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Uh first off, it's all about the customer experience. Uh that's one thing that Steve and Barb from the beginning really hit on, and the staff has just been tremendous over the years. When someone walks in, it's hey, how can I help you? Not just, you know, sitting behind the registers, more where can we help you? What are you looking for? Um, because we have a great variety of products and you may need help finding something because you there's a lot to look at in there.

Taking Over A Local Legacy

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Sure is. Yeah, the only thing I'd add is just we've carried on the tradition that again Stephen Barb started of just being um part of community and having uh our service provide more community. So we have a lot of events, um, but we're also very much focused on education. And so not just like helping you find what you're looking for, but also educating you along the way on what you might, you know, not know that you are interested in. Or, you know, we have a really large homebrew and winemaking community. And so trying to provide more visibility to that is also, you know, one of our goals.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

Yeah, great place to do that here in Grand Rapids. But you've grown since then. You've added a lot more products, a lot more partnerships have kind of come over the years since kind of taking over as well. Um, and first we'll just back up as far as taking over ownership. Why was that so important to continue this family business?

Craft Beer Roots And DIY Culture

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Yeah, I can start. So um the Cicleanos family have long been family friends of of my family, the the Borismas. Um we've known them for my entire life, and my dad and a lot of my brothers and family had been making wine through the Cicleano store and with the family. And so um it was important to Stephen Barb when they were ready to retire that the the store continued and um it it kind of just worked out perfect timing. Um my dad had talked to him and identified as an opportunity for Dan and I to step in. Dan's more the people person, salesman. I like the back of house, more accounting, book work. And so um, yeah, we worked um alongside Steve and Barb the few months before we took over just to really learn the ropes from them. And um, it was just a the perfect marriage of being able to have kind of like younger new energy come in and and pick up the torch that they had started.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah, and they it was started in 1993. Steve bought a 7-Eleven on Creston, actually, yeah, and uh operated that for years, and then the old location, 2840 Lake Michigan, um, was Johnny's party store. Uh he bought that. Um, I remember he told me when craft beer came out, he's like, How do I sell this expensive beer? And that's when like a light bulb went off, and he started the create your own. Uh so buy uh grab one beer from here, one beer from there, create your own six pack. Um, and that really made Siciliano's part of what it is, and then kind of went into uh what she said with the home beer winemaking supplies. People are like wanted to get into it, and there's nothing around here. Um, and there's other stores that did pop up since then, but haven't made it, unfortunately. Um, because we're now the only home beer winemaking shop within about two or three hours. So we had people traveling from Ann Arbor, Lansing, Kalamazoo just to come in and get yeah, our products and our expect expertise from the staff too, as well.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

So was that something that you always had in the back you you knew about home brewing, or is that something you had to kind of uh become a proficient in, efficient in?

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yeah, that's something that I had to become efficient in in like winemaking. Uh her family's done it for years. So um I started that with them in 2020, which was awesome to do. Um yeah, um, it's been fun.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

Yeah. And what do you think of you were kind of saying, Tiffany, just that younger generation bringing this, um, introducing it more and uh making it more mainstream. What do you think that's really done for your business?

SPEAKER_02 4:47

I mean, I think it's just been exciting to bring visibility to a craft that's been around for, you know, forever and has, especially in Grand Rapids, has been a big deal. Um, but has, you know, craft beer industry has declined a little bit. And so we've taken it as responsibility, as like a platform that is involved here to try to bring more younger people in. So we have a lot of like free events. We have a big brew day every May that's free to the public. And we have all of our home brewing clubs come and kind of like share what they do. And so um I think it's really exciting. Um, but it's also, you know, as business owners, we've had to adapt to newer generations, like the latest generations that are drinking age are actually doing a lot less drinking of alcohol. And so just trying to stay ahead of those trends and really adapt our offerings to meet what um the community and the customers want, which has meant that we have like a much more extensive non-alcoholic selection. Um, and so that's been exciting too, because it's just uh a totally new vector of products.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Yes. And you've expanded to so many other partnerships as well with coffees and cheeses. Um, how do you choose which partnerships or which um supplies you want to start carrying?

SPEAKER_00 6:12

A lot of it is uh um asking the customers what they want, right? Um, but searching any avenue, like I think we've talked about it before, like if you don't try it, you don't know. So we're open to anything. Um, so some of those partnerships, like you said, coffee, Magnum Coffee, and Spring Lake, they've been great. Um, we started uh roasting fresh coffee every morning uh to sell to. Um then we partner with the cheese lady, so a variety of cheeses. I mean, when we first started that, uh, we had 10 cheeses and we're now we're at like 25. Um, so it's just that convenience of picking up a bottle of wine, pairing it with the cheese, or an IPA with the cheese. Um, some other local partnerships, Grand Ice, which is cocktail ice cubes, um, made locally by uh um a family-owned business here. They're actually their ice is used in Amway and uh Select stores here, so those are really cool. Uh semi Freddo ice cream with Right and Walker as well. Um, Jordan and his wife make Italian ice cream, so we've brought that on, which is great. So, yeah, it's um bringing on new items. Um, and it's about the people too you work with. Another one is hippie chippies. Uh so we do their chips and their fresh salsa, um, but it's about the product and the partnership in the person too.

Why Move To Walker And What Changed

SPEAKER_03 7:30

Yeah, I think it's more meaningful when you have those partnerships behind it, those relationships. Yeah, definitely. And um celebrated a year in Walker. I know that was a big uh transformation, kind of moving out of Grand Rapids, the West Side, folks really knew you, and then coming into Walker. It was our game. We're pretty excited about that. What um what made you choose coming down Lake Michigan Drive?

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Yeah, I mean, so we're both from the West Side, very close to Walker. Um, my parents actually started their first business in Standale many, many, many years ago, um, the cactus stand, well before Standale was developed to where it is today. So um it's an area we were very familiar with and and was close to us. Um, and you know, the the old location for Cicelianos was great. It served its purpose, but we were really looking to expand and have a little bit more space. And um the the location that we moved to in Walker just allowed for that. It was really the catalyst for us to be able to make a lot of the improvements that we always wanted to when we first took over, but kind of were a little just constrained with the space that we had. And so it's been really cool to invest in all new walk-in coolers and more retail space and have, you know, more capacity to do bigger tastings and like stuff in the store to really get people in and try new things. Um, so and parking has been a huge plus that was always kind of a uh a sore spot in the old store. And um yeah, I mean, Dan can speak more to kind of also just the the wider customer base from walkability that we've had as well.

Expanding Humidor, Spirits, And Selection

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Oh, okay. Yeah, so um the move has been great. Um more foot traffic. Um, we're still getting old customers, we're getting new customers, we're getting a lot more businesses that are supporting to nearby, they're seeing us. Uh, there's still people that were don't know who we are sometimes. I had a guy come in a couple weeks ago and he said he Googled a liquor store near him and he lives in the apartments behind us for two years. But he's like, wow, this place is awesome. You have coffee, you have tea, you have snacks, you have craft beer. Um so I'll tell people about this. Um, and yeah, the the move was, like she said, a catalyst for things that we wanted to do at the old place but couldn't do. Um, our coolers were were going pretty they're they're old there. So uh it would have been hard to kind of make that move. And our our our humidor um was a third of the size smaller at the old place. We really wanted to make that bigger, so now that's three times the size. Uh we went from you know carrying a hundred uh brands of boxes of cigars to 250. Oh wow, which is still it's awesome, and that's a great um a lot of people are still smoking cigars in the the golf season and and winter, even too. Um, but yeah, it's been a uh a great opportunity to expand in a lot of places. So also like spirits, you know, we added a couple hundred more spirits, wine we were able to add more wine. Uh we have over a thousand beers, I'd say. Yeah. Um yeah, and then uh City of Walker's been great and the people have been great. So it's just been a good move overall.

Family Business Next Door And Support

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Yeah. And I love that uh story of just kind of coming back home to where your family had first started a business. Your brother, actually, Tiffany, owns Adobe, just a few doors down from you. Um again, what's that experience working alongside another family, family member?

SPEAKER_02 11:02

It's great. I mean, it's it's fun to be in the same vicinity as well. Like it gives us more opportunities. We've done plenty of tastings with Adobe and different events. Like we did one for Mother's Day last year. That was really fun. Um, but also just to have another, you know, person to talk to about running a small business. Like it can be very lonely if you don't have the right type of people to kind of talk to about the challenges and like how you're navigating different situations. So that's been really um, you know, invaluable to Dan and I to have not only another business owner, but a fan a close family to be able to talk to and yeah, just kind of navigate the the difficulties and the high, you know, the highs and the lows together.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

And uh, what do you think you've learned about yourselves being, I know you're a young family, balancing that work life uh, you know, leverage there. What do you think you've learned about yourself since becoming store owners, business owners?

Balancing Ownership And Young Family Life

SPEAKER_00 12:00

She's superwoman. I'll tell you that. I mean, from balancing, she also is working nine to five. We have we welcomed two kids uh since taking over the store when we were when we were moving the store. Uh she was eight months pregnant there at 10 o'clock, putting together gondola shelving. But um, yeah, I mean, it's like she said, there's highs and lows, and it's a 24-7 job. You know, we're open seven days a week. We have staff that we care for a lot, and we're there for them when they need something, if they have questions. Um yeah, it's it's we've learned a lot and it's showing how I feel like tough and resilient we can be. Yeah. Yeah.

unknown 12:39

That's great.

SPEAKER_03 12:40

Yeah. And uh love also, Tiffany, seeing you kind of stepping up and helping serve within the city of Walker on our downtown development authority that's uh that takes care of that downtown of Standale. You're a business owner in Standale. What do you hope to kind of gain out of that experience?

Serving On Walker’s Downtown Authority

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Yeah, I mean, I think I I just feel very fortunate to be able to be involved and to be able to um, you know, not only be hearing about what we're doing, but also potentially have a voice in in the direction that we go because, you know, it impacts us as a business, but it also impacts um us as community members and and you know, all of our family and friends that are in the area. And so um, yeah, it's just been really exciting and I'm I'm really looking forward to continuing to work with the group.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

Yeah, it's a unique dynamic that you have. And so for people who are interested in learning more about the Cilianos, wanting to step uh stop on by, check out the inventory, maybe even get into the craft brewing, their home brewing, what's the the best way for them to get started and check you guys out?

How To Start Homebrewing With Support

SPEAKER_00 13:39

The best way is stopping in and talking to us in person. I mean, we're available over phone calls, obviously, too, to to tell you more about our store and answer your questions, but the in-person experience um is top-notch. Like I said, our staff, um, Katie, Beckett, Alex, and Jackson are all willing and want to help and really expand Sicilianos and keep that going and expand our customer growth.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

So yeah, and I think coming in, it's our best way of understanding what it is that someone wants, and then we can kind of tailor what our recommendations are from there. You know, like we have people come in that are interested in winemaking and maybe they're a little hesitant. So it's like, we'll start with kits as opposed to like doing grapes. And um, similarly, there's just so many resources that we can connect people with, especially um in the homebrew community with how many different homebrew clubs, like we we really try to support them and um increase their membership. So if there's people that are actually really interested in in craft beer and and brewing, then we can connect them with the local club.

Competitions, Big Brew Day, And Clubs

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Which we do have our uh so we have a Cisciano's homebrew competition every year. There's 150 entries, which is awesome, and there's like BJCP certified judges. Um, shout out to all the homebrew club members that make that happen and judge and steward with us. Um, but on May 2nd this year, Saturday, uh, we have Big Brew Day at Trailpoint. We partner with them. So there's gonna be usually 15 to 20 homebrew club member teams brewing on site, and then we announce the winner of the competition. But that's another way to um learn from us, but also the homebrew community itself. Like they're on site uh handing out their homebrews they make, but also making and answering questions. Uh so we appreciate uh Jeff and Gary uh allowing us to partner with them to allow us to have that event as well.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

A lot of support if you want to get into this. You know, we always oh go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

That was very cool to uh kind of backtracking a little bit with the legacy that Steve and Barb built, but it's also very awesome and cool to see all the breweries that started because of it. Um, yeah, a lot of the the uh the mitten uh trailpoint archival, those are all people that started as homebrewers from our shop. So that's awesome to see. And there's there's many more than that, too.

Legacy Of Homebrewers Becoming Breweries

SPEAKER_03 16:01

But that's a great story of just seeing that and their success now, all because those Sicilianos. That's incredible. You know, we talk about having experiences in communities, and your store is that a destination, a place to go, a place to learn, and to just cultivate relationships. And who knows? So, Dan and Tiffany, incredible work you guys are doing. We are so grateful that you're part of Walker Community. Yes. Thank you so much for being part, of course. Yes. And we thank you for tuning in as well.

Closing Thanks And Listener Contact

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Maiden Walker Podcast. If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop us an email at podcast at walker.city. Maiden Walker is the official podcast of the city of Walker, Michigan. You can find Maiden Walker wherever you get your podcasts.