Several Leelanau businesses are on the move or making a comeback in our latest look at retail and restaurant openings and closings in the county.

Boutique fitness studio Sleeping Bear Bay Club just moved from its longtime digs in the old schoolhouse on Western Avenue in Glen Arbor to the gymnasium space adjacent to Broomstack Kitchen & Taphouse in Maple City. Sleeping Bear Bay Club owner Stacy Jago laughs, “I must have a thing for old schoolhouses.” Her new landlords operate the eatery and curling club occupying the former school in Maple City. Jago tells the Leelanau Ticker, “this move allows me to scale back expenses and to spread out physically. We are set up on the basketball court (photo, above) where it is easy to do social distancing.” Jago restarted classes last week with a shift from private training only, to adding back groups: “I’m giving locals the flexibility to create their own groups for TRX and circuits.”

New to Lake Leelanau is PlayNorth Watersports, started by Alex and Roxanne Dingrando, and a callback to a favorite summer job Alex had during college. “I was a watersports rental dealer in Leelanau and Traverse City, and I had the best time of my life,” says Alex, a Lake Leelanau native.

Becoming part of the Leelanau business community is a leap for the couple, after Alex had been developing an ICU nursing career in Detroit for the last eight years. “I’ve been planning on this transition, but COVID made it a little earlier and a little more dramatic,” he explains. The couple opened for business in June, offering jet skis, water trampolines, SUPs, kayaks, pontoons and fishing boats for rental and delivery. Dingrando says night SUP rentals (with boards equipped with a lighting system, photo above) have especially taken off: “It’s for visibility and safety, with the bonus that once it is really dark, you can see into the water in an orb four feet around you. People are taking incredible night photos.”

At North Shore Outfitters, which services the peninsula’s tip, co-owners Will Harper and Rachael Dean decided not to open their retail store at 119 South Waukazoo Street in Northport for the 2020 season, keeping their focus strictly on rentals of pontoons, kayaks, SUPs, bikes and watermats. Says Harper, “We had to make the decision in March not to stock merchandise for the store, and so far, we are not disappointed. Right now the rental business is nonstop — we are booking both impromptu rentals and reservations into August. The difference this year is we are not face-to-face; people book and pay online and we deliver from a distance.”

In Suttons Bay, Bay Books is moving to a new, larger location at 220 North Saint Joseph Street at the beginning of July. Owner Tina Greene-Bevington says the move itself will be done with “lots of community help, in a book parade down the sidewalk with the wagons and dollies on the 4th of July. Martha Ryan from Martha's Leelanau Table is going to supply sandwiches, and I'll have plenty of iced tea. Mike from Murdick’s Fudge is supplying volunteer help. That's how things get done in our small community — we help each other.”

Bay Books, which is closed from June 28 to July 12, will occupy the retail space that Nifty Things has occupied since 2014. Doug Hickman, owner at Nifty Things, tells the Leelanau Ticker, “Our last day of business should be June 28th, but it may be sooner as we sold over half of our remaining inventory and most of the fixtures last weekend.”

Hickman explained the closure in a letter sent to fellow Suttons Bay merchants and chamber members, “Unfortunately, changes in customer buying habits and now the uncertainty of what lies ahead, we have made the hard decision to close our Suttons Bay store. We want to give a special thank you to our landlords, the Bahle family. They were instrumental in bringing us to Suttons Bay and have supported us the entire time. We also thank Karen Pontius, Suttons Bay Chamber Director, who introduced us to many of our downtown neighbors, and also has become a good friend of ours.” Nifty Things will maintain its stores in Traverse City, Elk Rapids, and Alden.

Another COVID-19 related closure, Hillside Homestead, a farmstay B&B in Suttons Bay offering dinners and classes, announced in a statement on Facebook last week, “After very careful and thoughtful consideration I must announce that I am no longer open to the public for any type of rental, dinner, class, tour, etc. A new part-time job at a small historical museum is a blessing and I hope to personally get better acquainted with my porches this summer. I sincerely thank all of you who were customers and visited Hillside Homestead since it opened in July 2011.”

Tucker’s in Northport, which went up for sale after closing its doors in April, is now under contract. According to owner Bill Collins, there is “hopefully a closing the 30th of the month, and that’s all I can say for now.” (Stay tuned to the Leelanau Ticker for updates.)

In other Northport restaurant news, New Bohemian Café opened on Saturday, for curbside pickup and outdoor seating only, with online ordering new this season. The wine tasting room will sell to-go bottles only. While The Mitten Brewing Co. is typically open 7 days a week at this point in the season, general manager Dan Frank says they are operating Friday through Monday “at the moment,” with Antojitos and The Big Hot Woody/North End Eatery food trucks making their rounds on weekends. While The Union is not able to do farm-to-table dinner gatherings at this time, the culinary team is offering supper kits to-go. 

A few more Leelanau establishments have reopened after an extended COVID-19 hibernation: In Suttons Bay, North Country Grill & Pub reopened for dinners on June 17. “I wanted to be more safe than sorry,” says owner Karen Boone. In Burdickville, longtime dining destination Trattoria Funistrada reopened for takeout only, according to a statement their site: “Our dining room remains closed, but we’re excited to announce that we are offering takeaway Wednesday through Sunday. We’re celebrating our 20th anniversary and determined to persevere.” And on The Homestead property in Glen Arbor, Whiskers Bar and Grill is once again serving (and open to the public), with outdoor dining offering room to spread out.

Also creating expanded spaces for customers to safely distance, are 9 Bean Rows in Suttons Bay, and Joe’s Friendly Tavern in Empire. “The Friendly” is waiting on final paperwork for an expanded liquor license that will allow full service on a patio created from a converted employee parking lot on the west side of the building. The management hopes the patio to be open by this upcoming weekend.

The now-open pizza patio and pavilion at 9 Bean Rows has been a dream in the making for co-owners Nic and Jen Welty. Says Nic, “We have been planning the pavilion for years, in part, because where else do you want to be when you are out on a farm, and also because we have a wood-fired pizza oven that we purchased back in 2013.” 

9 Bean Rows is producing wood-fired pizzas with ingredients from their farm and other purveyors in Leelanau County. The outdoor expansion was made possible — in part — by a reimbursement grant from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and an up-front loan from Venture North.

Photos: Stacy Jago (L); Pauline Kennedy Varley (R)