New restaurant, RyeBelles, hires 25 to begin work this summer

Lulu Belle and James Rye Champion’s son, Jim Champion, wanted to honor his parents.

When he combined their two middle names and opened a new restaurant in St. Joseph called RyeBelles, it did the trick – Lulu Belle Champion, now in her 80s, was stunned.

“We didn’t tell my Mom we were doing that,” Jim Champion says. “She cried when she saw it.”

The namesake eatery opened last November with 30 employees and Champion has hired 25 more to begin work in June. It is located on the second floor of a 1928 building that is the former Elk’s Club and has a deck overlooking Lake Michigan.

Champion currently is renovating the structure’s third floor rooftop into an open-air patio that will be ready by the time the weather gets warm.

“We’ve done very good business since we opened,” Champion says. The restaurant features primarily American cuisine.

Wood-fired, thin crust pizzas and steaks are big menu items, but RyeBelles’ seafood is becoming a well-loved local favorite.

“Some nights, half the dinners we serve are seafood dishes,” Champion says. “Shrimp, broiled white fish, salmon and scallops. Lots and lots of scallops.”

Champion says he feels that having several family members involved is a vital key to his current and future success.

“My sister, my niece and my nephew all work here,” he says. “And I need them because family never lets anything fall through the cracks.”

Writer: Kelle Barr, Second Wave
Source: Jim Champion, owner, RyeBelles