GRAND RAPIDS, MI — The folks behind Cherry Deli and the former 4th Street Deli on the West Side are moving downtown.

Two Beards Deli is under construction on the ground floor of 38 Commerce Ave. SW across the street from Stella's Lounge in the Heartside District.

“There’s a cry for this in the Heartside,” said owner/chef Scott Schulz. “We’ve seen people randomly pulling on building doors around here just looking for a place serving lunch.”

When it opens around the end of October, the menu will feature 100 sandwiches named after famous bearded actors or personalities like Obi Wan Kenobi and The Most Interesting Man in the World.

The deli, which is leasing the space from Locus Development, will open for breakfast at 7 a.m. and serve lunch and dinner from 10:30 a.m. to 10 or 11 p.m. all week, open late enough to catch some of the bar crowd downtown.

The $250,000 project is opening in the “liner” portion of the 38 Commerce building, constructed as a city parking deck by Locus Development with market-rate apartments and some offices lining the north and west sides.

They are trying to use as much recycled lumber from trees cut down during Emerald Ash Borer mitigation as possible in the construction, said Schulz.

“We could not have picked a better operator to fill this void in the marketplace,” said John Green of Locus Development, whom Schulz said helped cement the name Two Beards after he remembered some banter about it.

When Green approached Schulz about locating downtown after 4th Street closed on the West Side in April, he inquired whether it would be called ‘Two Beards” because both Schulz and manager Chris Summerfeldt have beards.

“If the name can stick in someone’s head for a year, it’s probably a good idea to use it,” he said.

Schulz said he hopes some of the dedicated 4th Street customers can migrate to the new deli. The deli was located in a rehabbed industrial building at 4th and Seward Avenue NW that was owned by the Israels family.

The deli had two years left on their lease but had to vacate when the building underwent a repossession, said Schulz. It opened the opportunity to augment 4th Street’s lunch business downtown with later hours that weren’t right for the West Side neighborhood, he said.

The new deli will bring back some of the best-selling sandwiches from 4th Street. They are also bringing back all five employees from the old location, and adding 7 or 8 more due to expanded hours.

“We want to be able to reclaim a lot of our 4th Street customers,” he said.

Breakfast will feature sandwiches, oatmeal, yogurt and coffee. Lunch and dinner will feature sandwiches, half a dozen soups (including the white chicken chili), and some salads from the Cherry Deli menu. The staff will also do catering.

The menu will lean to the healthier side, he said. There will not be a fryer installed on site and each sandwich can be ordered sans cheese or mayonnaise.

“From vegetarian and vegan options, to dozens of types of meat combinations, everyone will find a favorite.”

“Once we open, I know we’ll do really well,” he said.