River & Main and Fishtown Candy, the family-owned coffeehouse/candy store (and Leland’s unofficial corner hangout) will close in December. For owner and longtime Lake Leelanau resident Dawn Fisher, the driving force every season — since the mid-70’s — has been connecting with her shoreside community and what makes Leland special. The store started as Fishtown Candy where it operated on the docks of Fishtown for years, and later became the enchanting village anchor it is now at the corner of Main and River Streets. The reason for closing is straightforward, says Fisher: Her 21-year lease runs out at the end of the year, and “it’s time.”

Nevertheless, she has wrestled with the emotions in closing the business after decades.

When we caught up with her, she was on a call with a long-ago employee, and making arrangements to remove the immense, classic glass candy counter from the building. Fisher will have some epic candy deals in the final stretch to the new year — and she will be completely out of the space by January 1. After that? “I think I’ll relax a little more. Right now, I am still a little hyper about it.” Her eyes convey it: “I want my guys and gals to be happy,” she says, noting dedicated store supervisors and employees and acknowledging those who made it a Leland institution. “A lot of people are upset. It’s totally a locals’ spot. The kids after school are always right there.”

Many of those kids worked on her crew as teens and college students over the years. “The list goes on and on, it’s unreal,” she says.

What blossomed into a full-blown confection-and-coffee shop with fine wines and gifts at River & Main, had its roots as a penny-candy emporium in Fishtown. Fisher was instrumental in the future of the iconic fishing village, by helping make it a historical site at a critical time which then paved the way for its eventual preservation. “If we didn’t have a Fishtown, we wouldn’t have a Leland,” she says.

When the coffee shop opened a few decades ago, there was nothing quite like it in town. It has equally drawn Main Street boutique browsers; Leland’s workforce; local parents and their kids; and socializing teens to its candy-and-coffee counters and super-chill corner courtyard, where the trademark wooden gliders invite lingering.

And the lingering was always fine with Fisher, for whom it really comes back to a focus on people. Her voice catches, “I’m going to miss the overall building and what it’s all about. People loved to sit down and enjoy themselves. I love treating the little guys that come in; I check with mom and dad and find out what they like. I love the smiles. That’s why I am catching heck from a lot of people that we are closing.”

The mind-melting array of classic and newfangled confections came from Fisher’s annual trips to the Atlanta Market. “Atlanta is the best. It’s two huge buildings with 20 levels.” She — and her young customers — were drawn to the candy oddities. “I always handed out chicken feet gummies, and kids came back every year asking, ‘Do you still have chicken feet?’” she laughs.

The building that now houses River & Main and Fishtown Candy is owned by Benjamin Maier and family; his ceramics gallery is housed next door. Stay tuned for what’s next for the space: negotiations are in the works and the interested party hopes to fill a need — for both Leland tourists and locals — on this high-profile corner.

For Fisher, now is time to relax and enjoy her grandchildren, and her automobile adventures with the vintage road and racecars she has collected for years with her husband Mike Fisher. She is an Audi enthusiast; and she owns one rare classic car that even gregarious gearhead Jay Leno has visited their Traverse City automobile storage facility, MFD Classic Motors, and admired.

Both Fishers also teach a driving school every year at Grattan Raceway near Grand Rapids. This is their 30th year running it. Fisher races herself, at several famous tracks around the country including Wisconsin’s Road America. Cars are something she has loved since age 12, when she used to sneak the family’s ride out to tool around the fields surrounding her house in Long Lake.

But for now, those who were charmed seeing Fisher’s irresistibly adorable, cherry red 1957 BMW Isetta parked in front of the candy store over the years, will now have to look for it zipping along the scenic roads of Leelanau County. Fisher says it doesn’t go faster than 45 or 55, so she’s cool if you pass her.