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OCR scan of the main text: Restaurants Places to eat are important to the tourist, and, like most of the other businesses, there is a high turnover although a handful of restaurants manage to stay in business for years - usually until they bum down. Here is our listing of places we remember eating. Douglas Eateries Tara The popular restaurant that had been started by Charley Koning in the old Spencer house on the hill near the old schoolhouse in Douglas. It was one of the first businesses opened on the newly built Blue Star Memorial Highway in 1936. By the time we arrived it was owned by Fred Koning and still had the “Indian” theme that had been part of a redo by Dannie Hunn, noted interior decorator who had a home at Pier Cove. The Indians on the walls and menus were so stylized that they had a vaguely Egyptian look to them. The walls in the main dining room had several Carl Hoerman paintings of the Grand Canyon and other western scenes. I don’t remember much about the food except that it was expensive enough that we only ate there on special occasions. It had been sold when it burned about 1974 in a slow moving fire that started in the basement somewhere. A couple of years later it was replaced by a similar looking building and went through a succession of owners, at the end being renamed the Avalon. Bought by developers, the building was boarded up for several years before being razed in the summer of 2001 to make way for a condominium development. The Auction House One of the oldest buildings in Douglas at the northwest comer of Center and Main Streets has served the town for more than 100 years. It has been a gallery, insurance office, upholstery shop, tile store, meat market and grocery store. In the 1970s it was purchased by the Van Meters with the idea of beginning a restaurant. They found that the waste system did not meet code for a restaurant and, since a new sewer was planned for completion in a couple of years, they turned the building into an auction house while they were waiting, where Douglas native Ev Thomas held out several evenings a week. They sold all kinds of ordinary stuff on consignment. We used to go to the auctions for entertainment usually coming home with a new bowl or some dish towels, After the new sewer was built the restaurant opened and was named The Auction House for the building’s most recent use. It was the “family” restaurant where locals gathered for breakfast for many years. Successive owner Craig Mokma enlarged it several times eventually incorporating the old barber shop building on the west. They made a wonderful bread pudding and served full dinners. In the late 1990s it was turned into an upscale eatery called Chaps which lasted five or six years and, then a succession of short-lived, but mostly elegant, operations. Douglas Dinette For many years the Douglas Dinette, at the southwest corner of Center and Main Streets, Douglas, was the only place to eat in downtown Douglas. It had been owned by the Schaeffer family, had an old time soda fountain as part of its decor and a sign that was one of the last painted by Saugatuck’s legendary sign painter Dan Cook. For much of its existence it was open for breakfast and lunch only, closing about 2 p.m. After going through several owners it was purchased, probably in 1987, by Margaret Balmer whose son Matt, later studied to be a chef. It gradually changed its menu from hamburger and chicken dinner basics, to a more modem and healthful outlook, and, about 1998 reinvented itself as the Everyday People Cafe with an upscale menu and prices. In 2000 the restaurant doubled its size by building an addition next door where the old fruit stand had been torn down. Tastee-Treet The 1950s-style building on the Blue Star Highway that was the Tastee-Treet housed a typical franchise ice cream place. For many years it opened in March of every year and was the first sign that spring was coming to a snow-weary town. It was sold, probably in the late 1980s to M and M and renamed for themselves. The family had been in the restaurant business and, in addition to new and imaginative ice cream confections, they sold sandwiches and other lunch specials with a Greek theme. In 2001 they finally figured out how to squeeze a small sit-down restaurant onto the site. Redwood Drive-in Behind the Tastee-Treet was a building with redwood siding that served the best hamburgers in town. Joe and Kathy Hanacek ground their own hamburger meat using a special blend of meats and spices. When we arrived in 1967 the drive-in was still operating. There were covered parking places both in front and in back of the building and a “car-hop” would come out and take your order, then bring it on a small metal tray that attached to the car window. You ate in your car, an especially handy proposition for those with small children. Later the front covered area was enclosed to create the Lakeshore Convenience Store which was a major purveyor of hot pizza for the Saugatuck-Douglas area when Marros and Coral Gables was closed in the winter. The Redwood Drive-In later became the Waypoint, long after it ceased drive-in service, much later owned by fisherman Mike Peel and wife. Kalico Kitchen A “down home” restaurant on the west side of the Blue Star Highway near where it forms a “Y” with Chase Road the Kalico Kitchen has always specialized in homestyle food with a slight southern tinge. The menu reflects the country theme by spelling “eggs” as “aigs” and talking of “biskuts.” It has always been a premier breakfast place, but was open for dinners as well. After The Auction House and the Douglas Dinette went upscale and stopped serving breakfast, this business really boomed and the Kalico Kitchen added first an outdoor seating (enclosed in cold weather by plastic) and then a new dining area along Chase Road. For a period of time, probably in the 1970s, Kathy’s Ice Cream Shop was open in the old gas station at the point of the Y later razed for more parking space. It was very handy for people who didn’t want to search for a parking place in Saugatuck, but wanted an ice cream cone. In 2013 the restaurant was having financial trouble and attracted the attention of a TV show that goes around showing restaurant owners how to change their decor, menu and maintenance to attract more customers. The owners made an effort at accepting the suggestions, but in the end, balked and the restaurant was closed for good and for sale a couple of months later. Woodshed Primarily a bar the Woodshed, located on the Blue Star Highway just north of the Redwood/Tasty Treet dining area, tried to fill whatever food void it noticed. About 1990 it began advertising a special dinner each night and was sometimes open for breakfast, especially during hunting season. In 2007 it was sold, remodeled and went upscale as Jo-Jo’s, later Costa Azul, before being partially destroyed in a fire in 2010, and razed in the summer of 2011. Amity Restaurant Located on the Blue Star Highway in Douglas in conjunction with the Amity Best Western Motel later called The Dunes. It was run by the Kostyla family and featured prime rib served in a variety of different sizes, one of which was huge. When the motel and restaurant were sold to Carl Jennings and Larry Gammon the restaurant was redecorated and the menu changed to reflect true nova cuisine. Everything, even the coffee, was served in glass tableware, and portions were much smaller, but elegantly sauced. Later it went through a variety of names including Magnolia Grill, Le Cabaret Cafi and Blue Frog and was rarely open off season. Back Alley Pizza After 1992 a pizza place opened in a small building in the backyard of The Auction House/Chaps restaurant building at the southwest corner of Center and Main Street. The little building had earlier been used as a TV repair shop, a dance studio and a residence. Back Alley Pizza and their related sandwiches and dinners were excellent, but primarily for the take-out and delivery trade. Later a limited amount of outdoor seating was added in the summertime and a couple of tables inside were sometimes used in cold weather. Respite A brown tile drug store was built on the southwest corner of Spring and Center Streets by John Norton in 1931. Later it became Tyler’s Candy and Liquor store. They sold it to new owners who stuccoed the tile exterior. When Michigan passed a deposit law on drink bottles and cans, the new law required a separate facility for storing and sorting the cans and an addition was built on the west side of the building. After the party store closed the building was renovated as a gallery and the old bottle room opened as the Respite coffee shop, featuring coffee including cappuccino, scones and other homemade goodies, and sandwiches and soups for lunch, run by the Philippe family. Although tiny it is a popular meeting place in Douglas, especially Renee Phillippe Waddell. Mi-Ro The Mi-Ro Motel, run by Joe Migas at the northwest corner of the Blue Star and Wiley Road at various times in its existence has attempted to open a restaurant. I remember an Italian place, a Mexican restaurant and maybe another incarnation or two in the square building right on the comer, the one which for years had a rearing Palomino horse on the sign out front, and a standing brown horse on the lawn. In the winter they would bring the brown horse inside the building and we could see it there for months gazing out the front window at the snow. None of the restaurants lasted very long. The building came to be known as a jinx building, where nothing ever seem to amount to much. At one point in its existence there was a small restaurant in the crook of the large motel building behind it. Later the motel was sold and renamed The Lighthouse. The Blue Moon opened in 2002 and closed in 2008, perhaps the furthest upscale of any of the Douglas restaurants, one of the chefs was said to be a former member of the White House staff in Washington. It became Zing! in 2011. Italian Deli For a season or two in the 1980s there was an Italian deli, with wonderful bread and some takeout food in a section of the “turkey” building on the Blue Star Highway in Douglas, next to the school bus garage. The building was called that because it had once been a part of a frozen turkey operation. About 2013 another deli tried their luck there. Weathervane Mall When the Weathervane Mall (named for an elegant metal sculpture of a weathervane which kept blowing down in high winds) on the Blue Star Highway in Douglas opened about 1980 there was nearly always an eating place among the businesses. Some were very small primarily take-out establishments including a smoothie shop and a Mexican place, and some, including a succession of short-lived Chinese restaurants, were full service, with at least a stab of elegance. Vicki’s Diner which opened about 2010 continues the tradition. Gray Gables When the Broudes had the Gray Gables store in the old River Guild Gallery, a portion of it was used as a lunch room. They served sandwiches, salads and baked foods. The proprietor explained that they could not sell fried foods or the smell would get into the clothing in the nearby shop. In the 1970s Peter’s Soon-to-be-Famous barbecue and ice cream parlor occupied the front room on the north. After Peter moved into Saugatuck into the alley between the Leland Building and the London Shop (and eventually to Holland), another owner took over the ice cream shop and fixed it up like a real old-fashioned establishment, but it didn’t last long. It was patronized mostly by locals who wanted ice cream cones but didn’t want the hassle of finding a parking place in Saugatuck. My most vivid memory of the ice cream shop occurred when the power was out for more than a day, and the owner attempted to keep ice cream in the freezer cold by piling the top with sleeping bags for insulation. Harbor Village at the end of the Red Dock where the Keewatin was docked near the bridge served hamburgers and other simple food for a while. It was handy for boaters, and was partially designed to give Matt Peterson, son of Keewatin owners R. J. and Diane Peterson, a job during high school and when he was home from college. Later the waterfront diner got a beer license and reopened as the Red Dock. Lake Shore Convenience Store In about 1975?? someone [who] purchased the front part of the old Redwood Drive-in and enclosed the front driveup part turning it into a small convenience store. When it first opened they had a drive-up window, but that proved impractical. Later it was bought by Tony and Randi Herrell who ran The Little Store in Ganges and called the Douglas operation Little Store II. They sold ice, drinks, and some hot sandwiches and pizza. For many years in the winter when Marro’s and Coral Gables were closed it was the only pizza around. Al’s Pizza Before there was Back Alley or even the Convenience Store, there was a pizza establishment in the mid 1960s on the south side of Center Street between the Blue Star and the golf course. And they made GOOD pizza. For years one of the cooks was Jimmer Boyce and Terry Thomas figured into the setup in some way. It sat back from the road and had a high fence around part of it. I don’t remember ever eating inside, it may have been a strictly take out place. We used to stop for pizza on the way to the beach and take it with us. Saugatuck Eateries Coral Gables was still under the ownership and whims of Tom Johnson when we first came to the area, after Tom died suddenly in 1979 the operation was taken over by his two sons, Topper and Mike, and later after Topper’s death in 1984, by Mike alone. Tom was known for changing his mind. The story is that he set up a little screened porch on the end of the old building often called The Annex. Constructed from one of Saugatuck’s earliest stores several motel-type living units were built into it. Sometimes they were rented to visitors, but more commonly they were reserved for hired help who otherwise could not afford to live in Saugatuck. The porch was intended to be an area for the rest and relaxation of the employees. It existed for less than a week when the space proved too tempting. He tore it off and replaced it with what was later known as The Dog House, a walk-up hot dog stand, with picnic tables on a nearby patio. It was the last food service in the complex to close on summer nights. If my son, who worked there one summer, is to be believed they were occasionally open as late as 3 a.m. if there were still a lot of people around.The upstairs dining room in the main building was originally called the II Forno (“the oven” in Italian) and featured an upscale menu as well as pizza. For many years they had what was called a Gourmet Table, an enlarged salad bar with a couple of hot dishes and cold cuts, intended to serve as appetizers, soups and salads for someone who would also order a full meal. However they always kept at least one kind of pizza hot on the gourmet table and you could make a meal of it easily. The Mariner Room with a slightly different decor on the street side of the south end of the dining room was often reserved for private parties and meetings. Vi Fox was firmly in charge of the dining room operation, assisted as hostess for many years by Kathleen Bekken. Oldtimers will tell you that the area under the main building was just a partial cellar when Tom Johnson bought it in 1959 and one summer he hired college kids to dig the basement deep enough to create The Rathskeller which was mainly a beer bar although they tried a variety of food service ideas. One year they subleased the food service to a man who served up lobsters. For another period it specialized in steaks. One summer two of my sons shared the duty of manning the Deli Bar, where sandwiches were made to order. Business was so slow that their major problem was keeping the salami from turning green. The Galley was a coffee shop, featuring homemade donuts, on the water side of the lower level in the northwest corner. It was the only part of the complex open for breakfast and was originally designed primarily to serve the boaters at nearby docks. In the 1980s when the water level was high the floor was sometimes flooded, but they persevered. I always wondered what the health inspector thought of the squishy carpet and puddly floor. It was closed for a while and the space was later used as a take-out liquor store. Still later it was reopened as The Corner Grill. Crow Bar The Coral Gables building consisted of two identical hip roofed structures, the one on the south held the main dining room, the one on the north was the Crow Bar. It was actually named for a former owner of the Coral Gables complex Dale (or Edson?) Crow. For a while in the 1950’s old postcard views show that there was a crow motif around the bar, flying black crows in a field of com. It was usually loud and noisy with live bands and sometimes a comedy show on weekends and I seldom went there. However, the Saugatuck High School athletic banquet was held in the Crow (with drinks served only to the parents and coaches) and either Art or I had to attend to present the Commercial Record trophy. This award which had been instituted by a previous owner of the newspaper was given to the athlete who lettered in two or more sports and had the highest grade point average. The Oyster Bar was another brainchild of Tom Johnson’s. With an eye to possible expansion, and to acquire more dock space, he had purchased the old boat bam along the riverbank to the north. For a while, in the summertime when it was empty of boats being stored, it was used as a teenage dance venue. One season it was called Noah’s Ark, another year it was labeled The Green Door. Eventually he decided to put a restaurant in the southwest comer that would specialize in oysters. This existed for several seasons. Later the entire complex became the Dockside Mall. The inside of the huge building was made to look like a village street with shops on both side although some of the shops were also accessible from the street and the Mermaid Bar and Grill ?? Sheri and Dan Shanahan took over the old Oyster Bar space. There were also quaint little shops built on the docks, although some of these later succumbed to high water. The Butler started in the 1890s as a grist mill. After the three story structure was built, but before the machinery was installed, the community held at dance in the empty mill. They must have remembered that social occasion, because after the mill closed and the machinery was taken elsewhere, Captain Waterman G. Phelps, who commanded a boat in the summer, and taught school in the winter, in 1901 gave up both vocations and remodeled it as the Butler Hotel with a restaurant which specialized in fried chicken. After the Big Pavilion burned in 1960 the Butler purchased the Pavilion’s liquor license and built a bar. In the 1970s, to lower their insurance costs they removed the hotel floors, leaving only the dining area on the first floor, and a small clubhouse bar on the lowest level. The White family owned it most of our years in Saugatuck and had one of the best hamburgers, a Butlerburger, naturally, in town. The old fireplace from the lobby of the hotel, and the Butler Hotel sign over the door speak to its past. Hollyhock House The Hollyhock House located on Water Street between the Village Hall and Mason Street, was especially known for its cinnamon rolls which were enormous and delicious. I recall breakfasts and sandwiches at lunchtime, but do not remember that they were open for dinner. The place was run by Emily Lamb, and one of the things they had for sale there was a big linoleum-type block print map that Mrs. Lamb had made of western Michigan, including, of course, Saugatuck and the Big Pavilion. It was later bought by the Marro’s and, with a new portion built on the front, became part of Marro’s Restaurant. Corner Grill Owned by the Krawitz family the Comer Grill was located at the southeast comer of Mason and Water Streets. It had a long lunch counter and a general sandwich menu. I barely remember it because they sold out shortly after we arrived to Frank and Lynn Marro and it became Marro’s and was turned it into a pizza place with an Italian menu, but for many years retained the old lunch counter. Each year the Marros would remodel some portion of the restaurant and it was always interesting to visit to see what the changes of the year were and what kind of things had been added to the menu. For many years when there were no pizza places in town during the winter we would order a dozen or two pizzas with various toppings just before they closed. They would prepare them for cooking, then put them on a stiff piece of cardboard, wrap them in what seemed like endless yards of plastic wrap, and freeze them. About the mid 1980s they purchased the old Hollyhock House and for several years would serve food in both buildings and also, in nice weather, in a small fenced-in patio between the two structures. It was not until the early 1980s that the restaurant was able to obtain a license, first to serve wine and beer and later, I believe, mixed drinks. About then the menu, and prices, went upscale, but even then it was one of the most popular restaurants in town with a crowd of people sitting on benches outside most summer weekends waiting for service. Some years the restaurant closed right after labor day so the Marros could get back to their winter home in Florida so the children could go to school. However, when young Frank was in high school he would enroll in Saugatuck High School and was a major asset to the football team. During those years there was a large screen TV located in the dining room where they would sometimes show game videos from the high school game, and other teams on fall weekends. About 1990, after much negotiation because a comer of the old building is actually in the street right-of-way, they were permitted to raze the front section of the old Hollyhock House and build an addition. Billie’s Boat House started in an old box bowling alley at the comer of Mary and Water streets. It was a small restaurant but had an active bar and often featured musical entertainment. Later a second dining room, about the same size as the first was added to the south, and still later a third dining room, was added behind the second. One of my sons worked there when he was in high school, and the place was robbed one night. Fortunately it was local kids, and since Saugatuck is so small they were recognized, despite the ski masks that covered their faces. After the third dining room was added son Eric visited and we went to Billie’s to eat. He was impressed with the new menu and kitchen facilities, and went looking for the old kitchen returning to announce that what used to be the old kitchen “is just a little closet now.” In 2010 it was renamed for the park across the street, Wicks Park Bar & Grill. Singapore Grill For at least a few seasons in the mid 1970s there was a small grill-type restaurant in the Heath Building on the Huffman Street side, the store that was later occupied by Pat Mulligan as an Irish shop, then On Track, later Landsharks expanded westward to include the space. It sold cold drinks (maybe including milk shakes and sodas) and the usual sandwiches. Although they occasionally patronized the establishment the library board was not happy about its presence because our insurance rates went up because of the presence of a restaurant operation in the building. “Bookstore” Restaurant Just to the west of the Loaf and Mug building, at ??? Culver Street was an old residence which was converted into a commercial building when the Call Me Ishmael bookstore moved there in the 1970’s (“Call me Ishmael” are the opening words of Melville’s Moby Dick). After it closed as a bookstore it became a restaurant but was one of several properties in town which changed hands annually with different people, and different ideas turning up each year. I can’t remember any of the names applied to the businesses there but there was a big sandwich and french fry place open one year, another that was chiefly devoted to Greek foods, and perhaps others. Eventually in 2000 it became the outlet for the Saugatuck Lodge complex in Douglas, another project that had difficulty getting off the ground, before it reverted to use as a retail store. Pine Crest Inn was on the Blue Star Highway just between the Y and the north Interstate interchange. It was built in the late 1930s not long after the highway opened and included a series of cabins with carports between them, a early sort of motel. It had a beautiful wooden bar and a small restaurant in the rear. It was later sold and renamed Jocko’s. Yet again under new owners it operated for a season or two, including crepes among its offerings, then burned in a serious fire. At this writing the motel units are still standing behind where the restaurant used to be, and were used in a Tom Hanks movie Road to Perdition in ???? . Security was so tight that local people never got to see anything but security guards and a lot of trucks and trailers. The scene was dropped from the movie in the editing process but was featured as a deleted scene on the DVD. Grubowsky’s Good Grub opened at 311 Water Street, Saugatuck, in the 1990s. It used a building which had housed the local newspaper in the 1930s and was set back from the road. The new owner constructed a patio on the Water Street side and built a second floor of living quarters above the patio. In ad the place billed itself as “Saugatuck’s Chicagoland Eatery” featuring “a real Chicago style hot dog with all the trimmings, Kielbasa, Bratwurst, and ‘Chicago Wings’ because Buffalo never won a Superbowl. By 2008 it was ?????? Corner hot dog stand. One of the oldest buildings in Saugatuck was Leland Lodge, a boarding house and hotel at the northeast corner of Culver and Butler Streets. It was built in the 1850s by early settler Stephen A. Morrison. The house was set back from Butler Street and by 1970 to better utilize the Butler Street frontage the owner had built, or allowed to be built, a small hot dog stand right on the comer in the front yard of the old house, and a couple of other small stores along the side. When the hotel caught fire in 197?? these outbuildings were lost too. Left Bank. After the hot dog stand burned, Tom Johnson bought the land and built a brick business block with a fake second floor. It was named the Vi Fox Building named for the longtime manager, and some time hostess, of the Coral Gables restaurants. They had not told Vi about this ahead of time and she attended the unveiling of the plaque and was very surprised. There were small shops along Butler Street and a bar and restaurant called the Left Bank opened on the Culver Street side. He may have used the liquor license acquired when the Blue Tempo burned in ???? After the Johnson family decided that the Left Bank wasn’t worth continuing, a variety of restaurants and other businesses took over the space. Chequers An English style pub took over the back end of the old Left Bank. It is a small restaurant, only 10 or 12 tables and features not only imported beers, but British style food - fish ‘n chips, Welsh rarebit, etc. Chequers in reached via a short pedestrian alley off Culver Street, and later expanded into the east end of the building on the Culver Street. ICBY (an anagram for “I can’t believe it’s yogurt”) was one of the few franchise restaurants to operate inside the village limits of Saugatuck. Various kinds of yogurt treats were served up there, including a hot walnut sundae which was very tasty. They had a good business for one summer, then tried to stay open all year, but by November the hot walnut sauce was evaporating into a sticky mess and they closed. I think, but am not sure, that they opened the following summer, but closed for good in the fall. It was located in front of Chequers at the southeast comer of the Vi Fox building. Palazzolo’s Marie Palazzola was of Italian ancestry and loved to cook. The first restaurant she and her husband, and later children, opened was in the old Plummer house on Hoffman Street. The menu featured their homemade Italian ices, with intense fruit flavors made from whatever fruits were available. The hot table had calzone and other Italian delicacies. There were a couple of tables inside and more on the porch. Later the restaurant was moved to the Vi Fox building on Culver Street and expanded, with a greater variety of offerings and open for lunch sometimes. In the off season the family continues making the Italian ice and it is available at various grocery outlets, to restaurants and other wholesalers. The story goes that during the Clinton administration in Washington the people in charge of food for Air Force One would put in an order for Mango Sorbet whenever the President was aboard. Peter, the Pallazolla son, also devised a smoothie that was much admired and he would occasionally operate a small booth at craft fairs in the park and at sidewalk sales. Toulouse’s The building which the Toulouse restaurant occupied was originally constructed in the 1950s for use as the Saugatuck truck garage for the Saugatuck fire trucks and apparatus. Prior to its construction the fire trucks were housed on the first floor of the Saugatuck Village Hall on Butler Street and when they received a call had to enter traffic through the busiest intersection in town. By about 1970, and especially after the Saugatuck and Douglas fire departments merged as the Saugatuck Township Fire Department there was increased concern that with summertime traffic a truck could be considerably delayed just getting out of either town. By then, also, the department had too many trucks to fit into the Village Hall, so a new structure was built on the Blue Star Highway and the old cement block building a... 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