Pam and Kirk Lorenz purchased the Brookside Inn on June 17, 1981.
Both are from Plymouth, Michigan, where Kirk's father owned and

operated the Mayflower Hotel.

Kirk has been in the restaurant business since he could stand on a milk crate.
After attending college for geology, the hotel/restaurant business

called him back. Pam has a teaching degree from Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

The two had looked extensively for a place of their own.
After traveling many thousands of miles, Kirk and Pam decided on staying in the
Beulah area where they both had spent many a summer.

The Brookside Inn began as Case's Dairy Bar, a little white building
in which there were only four seats and homemade ice cream was the specialty.
Louis Case was the original owner. Denny Johnson, Randy Dye and now
Kirk and Pam Lorenz have owned the restaurant. The Brookside was pretty
bare when they first purchased the building, but Kirk and Pam took care
of that by putting up all the antiques, memorabilia and a little just plain "junque"
 

In March 1983, construction was started on four of the twenty guestrooms upstairs. One comment frequently made was that the people never knew where the front door

would be next, as things were constantly changing.

Three dining areas were added during a fourteen-year period of time, as they didn't want to make people wait for meals.