GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Just a few years ago, Andrew Havemeier was struggling to find purpose. He had left a job at his family's restaurant in Rockford, and was running from his addictions to alcohol and drugs. After a stint of living on the streets, he hit his rock bottom and began trying to repair his life in earnest about four years ago.
As of June 1, he is now the owner and managing partner of Wealthy Street Bakery and Hall Street Bakery.
It was a long road of difficult work and uncomfortable realizations, but now, he is living a life he never would have imagined just a few years before.
“There's a lot on our plates currently, but it's all good stuff... Like, it's all progress stuff," Havemeier told FOX 17, as he sat with his wife Ondrea, and son, Floyd.
"A little overwhelmed at the moment, but in general, very excited."
He worked in restaurants most of his time growing up, with his family owning Herman's Boy in Rockford.
"So I was with them for about 25 years," he explained.
"Then, my addiction, alcohol and substance abuse, kind of took control of me."
He left his family's business, and spent some time living on the streets.
"I kind of wandered for a little bit, and then the addiction and whatnot got even worse," he recalled.
In retrospect, it was the lowest point in his life.
“In 2019, I was homeless there for a few weeks... I got, lost my job and kicked out of my apartment, was couch surfing and figuring out what the heck I was going to do.”
Eventually, he would decide for himself that he wanted to get back control.
He walked into Guiding Light on Division Avenue, and refused to look back.
"I went through the, the intense four month in-house there, where you're doing the programming, and then you can start looking for a job," he said.
He set up several interviews— planning to run through a few just for practice at first.
Then he spoke with the folks at Wealthy Street Bakery, and things just seemed to click.
He began his tenure at Hall Street Bakery— managing their front-of-house, and then managing the kitchen.
About nine months after he started working with them, he was asked to manage both locations.
"Sobriety unlocked a bandwidth inside of me that I've never dreamed of," Havemeier said.
As he becomes buried in the day-to-day of two very busy restaurants, his life started coming back together.
He is now in a loving marriage, with a bubbly one-and-a-half-year-old son, and another baby on the way.
Eventually, over the years with the bakeries, the notion of buying the restaurants and taking over started to make a lot of sense.
"It's been an intense few weeks," he said.
"I'm excited to see what happens, like what kind of opportunities can arise, or what can we take this to."
