- June 4, 2026
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River Club's Mike and Jenny Schenk have been getting the calls.
People continue to stop by their Pineapple Kitchen business at 4914 Lena Road, only to find the doors locked and the place cleaned out.
The calls are of concern because the Schenks, since they opened at Lena Road in 2020, had become a staple of the community.
It wasn't just their fusion jam collection or their sauces or marmalades. It has been their positive connection to the community.
That connection manifested itself in their Murder Mystery Dinner Theater and their Pineapple Kitchen Kids camps and programs, along with fundraisers and donations for nonprofits such as the Lakewood Ranch Community Foundation, the Twig, Take Stock in Children, and many more.
The good news for fans of Pineapple Kitchen is that the business is growing, not closing.
While the Lena Road location has, indeed, been shut down since February, the Schenks are following an overall business plan that could lead to them being more visible than ever before.
"Lena Road was great," Mike Schenk said. "But we outgrew it. We made the decision to close last year, and things started to fall into place."
A big piece of the Schenks' business puzzle happened in November when marketing representatives from Amazon came to see one of Pineapple Kitchen's mystery dinners.
"We didn't know they were there," Mike Schenk said. "But they told us they wanted to get us on Amazon. Then they put us in with their product team. They liked our whole lifestyle brand. Jenny and I fit their model."
Their first products — Pineapple Kitchen Jalapeño Bacon Jam, Hot Bread & Butter Pickles, Pineapple Grilling Sauce, and Chef Pineapple's Bear Jam — went on line in May.
"Amazon is a process," he said. "We had to build a Pineapple Kitchen storefront (main page) and we plan to roll out more items. But you have to start slow and let it grow."
Four more food products, along with the Pineapple Kitchen Kids Activity & Cookbook, will go on Amazon in the fall.
The food products are only part of their business endeavors.
They launched into a partnership with State College of Florida, which will host the Pineapple Kitchen Summer Culinary Camps for kids that were designed by the Schenks. The four-day camps (10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday) are for ages 7-13 and will be held on SCF campuses in Lakewood Ranch, Bradenton and Venice.
The camps teach basic cooking and baking skills, food safety, restaurant etiquette and operation, and culminate with a three-course graduation luncheon that is prepared by the kids. For information on the camps or to register, go to SCF.augusoft.net/info/landing/Camps.
The camps previously were hosted at the Lena Road location.
"We were literally turning kids away (for lack of space)," Mike Schenk said.
The third main focus for the Schenks is their Murder Mystery Dinner Theater. They currently do approximately 50 shows a year, but taking the show on the road has allowed them to host far more people than the 24 guests they could host at the Lena Road location.
They perform a regular show at the Courtyard by Marriott at University Town Center and then schedule shows around the state when booked.
The Schenks handle the main acting chores at all the interactive shows, which assigns various acting roles to the guests. The host venue takes care of the dinner arrangements while the Schenks write all the scripts.
The next show at the Courtyard by Marriott is "Who Killed the Cabana Boy?" at 6:30 p.m. July 11. Future dates and tickets can be found at PineappleKitchenMysteries.com/. A new show "Dr. Pineapple's Haunted Laboratory" will begin in October.
While the Schenks say the most important focus is selling their products on Amazon, Mike Schenk is most passionate about the dinner shows. He loves to act.
"That is the fun, the joy," he said. "Since I was a kid, I loved community theater. I started (acting) when I was 10. I always had a wild imagination. I would write these plays and my friends would be the performers."
He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, California, for two years and then tried to make a living as an actor.
"It was tough," he said. "I spent five to six years as a starving actor. Then my dad (the late Ed Schenk) asked me, 'What are you going to do with your life?"
His father was in the meat business with Smithfield and Mike Schenk became involved in the business as a salesman. He eventually went back to school at Towson University in Maryland, where he met Jenny Schenk.
After they married, Jenny Schenk became involved in the food industry as well. They have been married 38 years.
At 56, Mike Schenk decided they should market their own products.
They opened Pineapple Kitchen on Lena Road in 2020 because they planned it to be a manufacturing facility. But COVID happened and they reeled in production of their Pretzel Bite Kit that was in 300 gourmet stores because packaging had become a challenge.
"We needed more packers but everyone was sick over COVID," Jenny Schenk said. "We shifted gears and continued to sell out of Lena Road."
Lena Road became more than a host store for their food products. They began hosting mystery dinners and the camps.
The popularity of their food products was tempered because Manatee County's project to improve Lena Road from State Road 64 to State Road 70 stalled.
"Lena Road was not ideal for how our business plan had changed," Jenny Schenk said. "We took it to the max. People would come to our events, but outside of that, it was not a good location."
Now much of their Lena location is in their garage.
"People still tell us, 'We miss your cute, little place," she said.
