Bil-Mar Restaurant

Welcome to the Bil Mar

The Bil-Mar Restaurant celebrates its 58th anniversary in 2010. The Meyer family has owned and operated the restaurant since 1969. The name of the restaurant is derived from the original owner, combining the name of his son (Bill) and daughter (Margot) to form Bil-Mar. Over its fifty-eight year history, the restaurant has catered to not only many West Michigan residents, but to an entourage of foreign visitors and many tourists from throughout the fifty states.

Prior to the Bil-Mar becoming a restaurant with the addition of the now main dining room, the building consisted of an ice cream parlor and soda fountain in the main entrance area and a grocery store in the lounge area. In the 1880s the property was used as a bath house and a boat rental area. The second-story Seaview Room consisted of overnight sleeping rooms before its conversion to dining in the late 1960s. In 1986, the roof was raised and glassed in to create a sky roof. The open air deck south of the main dining room, built in 1985, serves a variety of food and is open only in the summer.

The views of dazzling sunsets, the variety of boats and the endless changing wave patterns always present a picture-postcard view. The large vessels, some more than 600 feet in length, visit the Grand haven port regularly with cargoes of petroleum products, coal, fertilizers and limestone, and some leave with loads of sand and gravel from Ferrysburg for delivery to other Great Lakes ports.

While the restaurant has survived many battles with the wrath of Lake Michigan though the years, it has been the serenity and beauty of the lake that has prompted the motto of the restaurant: “Come for the view, stay for the taste.”

We hope your stay here is enjoyable, and invite you to return to enjoy the cuisine, great service and the breathtaking beauty of Lake Michigan.