The For Sale sign remains in front of the Union Grill but Steinhaus owner Justin Fairbanks is, in fact, leasing the property and will convert it into his own, new restaurant within four months.
No name for the restaurant yet, and they’re still working on getting a conditional liquor license, but Fairbanks expects to open by May when he’ll celebrate with a pig roast.
Plans for the diner have actually gotten more ambitious in the last few months. Tentative hours now call for it to be open from 8 am to 7 pm.
Breakfast will include breakfast sandwiches and the like–an alternative to fast food. Lunches and early dinners will consist of sandwiches, fried chicken, lasagna and fish fries. Comfort food in the $9-$10 range.
The restaurant will also retail meats, cheeses and specialty foods, and most important, it will process meats for Fairbanks’s signature restaurant downtown, Das Steinhaus. As a result, he’ll be able to expand the Steinhaus’s somewhat limited menu.
Fairbanks also recently bought the Dancing Crane Farm, including a coffee roaster, in Skandia. Big expansion, big plans.
As we’ve seen in the past, plans don’t always pan out. Let’s hope these do.
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Speaking of which.
Remember the Ron’s Taco Shop space on Third Street which was going to become a new Johnny Dogs? And we were all excited and…
Well, just hold on there.
Don Potvin, the landlord, says he hasn’t heard from John Flanders, the owner of Johnny Dogs, in weeks. No contract was ever signed, no money was put down, so Potvin’s got a big, ol’ nothing at this point, except for a For Rent sign that he’s just placed in the window.
No word yet from Johnny Dogs on what’s happened.
And Potvin’s got an additional problem: he and the former owners of Ron’s Taco Shop are engaged in a legal battle over who owns what of the kitchen equipment.
Ah, the joys of property ownership.
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Earl’s Carpet Shop downtown recently went dark.
But on Monday, February 2nd, expect the place to brighten up again. Northern Hydroponics is moving in, transferring from its location on US 41.
Two young entrepreneurs, Stosh Wasik (an NMU grad) and Ryan Hammack, have bought the building and are busy getting it ready.
It’s a much bigger space allowing them to stock more inventory.
What is hydroponics? It’s a gardening method that allows you to grow vegetables and herbs (except for root vegetables like potatoes) in water rather than soil. You can grow them inside if you provide light.
That comes in handy here in the U.P., and the Northern Hydroponics boys have found demand for their goods increasing. Thus, the move.
They also offer supplies for medical marijuana growers, as well as conventional gardening equipment, and soon they hope to have supplies for home brewers.
Sounds like they’ve found their niche. Sounds like downtown is diversifying.
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The latest on the never-ending battle over Marquette’s controversial proposed boathouse.
Opponents had been given 90 days to round up about 1350 voters’ signatures to either overturn the City Commission’s lease for the boathouse, or to put the whole matter up for a vote.
City Clerk Dave Bleau says the deadline has passed. He has no petitions.
But that doesn’t mean the issue is dead. The “Save Founders Landing Beach” website is still up and running with very recent postings.
What’s the strategy? We’re awaiting an update from Michael Neiger who’s behind the anti-boathouse campaign.
(Update: Neiger confirms his group failed to get enough signatures. He says his group hopes the Commission will put the lease before the voters in the next election or moves the proposed boathouse to one of the city’s two marinas. He, himself, is headed to the Arctic on an expedition.)
As for the Upper Peninsula Community Rowing Club which wants to build the boathouse near the Hampton Inn, their next plan is to survey the community to determine what kinds of boats would be stored there, and then to start raising money to building.
$600,000, give or take.
Just a hunch: The boathouse battle ain’t over.
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