Pegtown Station, a community gathering spot
By Linda Beaty
Sun contributor
At least 15 minutes before Pegtown Station restaurant in Maple City opens for breakfast, cars are already pulling into the small parking lot in front. In large part, that’s because Pegtown, owned by Maple City residents Dave and Mary MacDonald for almost 10 years now, serves up some of the finest breakfasts in northern Michigan. In fact, the restaurant was awarded “Best Breakfast” by the Northern Express in 2012. From the “Little Engine” (your basic one or two eggs, choice of meat, fresh hash browns and toast made from GT Bagel Factory bread), to a delectable Eggs Benedict smothered with homemade hollandaise sauce, omelettes, pancakes, waffles, French toast and breakfast burritos, you’re sure to find something you like. And you won’t go away hungry.
While the MacDonalds hadn’t actively been seeking a restaurant business in 2001 when they moved to Maple City, the “For Sale” sign that appeared on Pegtown, a popular pizza and sub restaurant, in 2004 set Dave to dreaming about purchasing the turnkey operation. “Of course, Dave had worked in the restaurant business for years, both cooking and in management,” said Mary. “And his family had always said, ‘you should own a restaurant’. So we thought about it and got advice from other people. Then he jumped on the opportunity, and as a loving and supportive wife, I jumped on it with him,” she laughed.
Reluctant at first to change the menu—or even the name of the restaurant—the MacDonalds continued to serve pizza and subs, keeping with the charm and tradition of the eating spot. But over several months, they considered a breakfast menu. “There was no place nearby that served breakfast at the time,” remembered Mary. “So Dave developed a menu that used many of the same ingredients across different meals. The Greek omelette uses many of the same ingredients as the Greek pizza. It reduces waste that way.”
Since that time, Pegtown’s popularity has only grown. But it’s not only the food that brings locals and visitors alike to the restaurant, said Pat Thies, who along with husband Phil owns Jaffe’s resale and consignment shop in Lake Leelanau, and who works part time at the Maple City branch of Chase Bank. “Of course it has the best breakfast ever, anywhere,” she said. “But it’s also the community feeling. Mary and Dave are great. And there’s always somebody here that I know.”
Pastor Ben Shimek, who has breakfasted regularly at Pegtown since it opened for the early meal, agrees. “I especially like it in the off season when there’s a kind of ‘community’ table,” he said.
The staff themselves feel the same sense of warmth and community, said Sydney Butler, who has waited tables at Pegtown for five years now and who calls her position “the best job I’ve ever had.” According to Sydney “you make good friends here, with both locals and visitors.”
Mary MacDonald also values the friendships she’s gained over the past decade through waiting tables and “front of the house” management. “You start to develop friendships and to share in life experiences with others. It doesn’t always feel like work here; I enjoy seeing people, both locals and those who come up year after year. I don’t always remember a name but I won’t forget your face.”
While the MacDonalds admit that owning a six-day-a-week business (Pegtown is closed on Mondays) is sometimes a challenge, and it’s hard to find time to really get away from things, in the last few years they’ve started to modify their working hours to allow each some individual recreational pursuits. Dave enjoys fishing, hunting and woodworking, said Mary, while she golfs on Wednesday evenings and runs with others on Tuesdays. And the couple, along with 11-year-old son Stuart, travels out of state once a year and takes short trips in between.
As for future plans? Don’t look for Pegtown’s expansion, said Mary. “We don’t want to take away from the charm and closeness of the place.”
And while in the foreseeable future—at least until Stuart graduates from school—the couple have no plans to relinquish their successful business, Mary doesn’t rule out the idea of doing something else someday, perhaps a job in interior design or gardening, two of her interest areas. For now, she is happy with where she’s at. “We’ve put our hearts and souls into Pegtown,” she said.
And it shows.
Maple City, the heart of Leelanau
Located in the rolling heartland of Leelanau County, Maple City seems at first glance to be nothing more than one of those sleepy one stop-sign communities barely worth a second look. But this unincorporated village in Kasson Township has a rich history and embodies the warmth and neighborly spirit of earlier days—a place worthy of more than a drive by.
Maple City owes its beginnings to J.T. Sturtevant, who came north from Ohio in 1866, buying up hundreds of acres of the maple forests that grew there for a wooden shoe peg factory. The hardwood pegs were used as shoenails in the making of shoes prior to the development of metal nails. The factory was soon sold to William H. Crowell, who built a sawmill beside the peg factory and also a hotel south of town to house the laborers. Machinery was installed in the mill for the manufacture of wooden products such as shingles, butter bowls, broom handles, and pitchforks, as well as maple flooring. These goods were shipped all over the Midwest.
In 1880, the peg factory burned down, and by 1916, the forest had retreated under the woodsman’s axe and saw, and the mill, now under ownership of William Bellinger, closed. But settlers continued to be drawn to the area by the lure of rich soil and free government land promised by the Homestead Act of 1862. The legislation, signed by Abraham Lincoln, gave homesteaders an opportunity to claim 160 acres of land in return for building a home and farming the land for five years. Those who were able to weather the rigors of pioneering began to prosper, raising dairy cattle and growing fruit trees and vegetable crops. With the addition of a post office in 1875, the bustling village, which had previously been known as “Pegtown,” was renamed Maple (later expanded to Maple City), in honor of the trees that had given the area its beginning.
As the communities within Leelanau grew, the need for travel between the settlements increased and roads, which had once been only crude paths used for horse and buggies and wagons gave way to more sophisticated (but still unpaved gravel) roads. Rail service began within the county, although the rail never came into Maple City, with the nearest station being Cedar. By the turn of the century, scenic touring of the countryside became popular and automobiles popped up within the county, although affordable at first only by the wealthy. The first car in Leelanau County was owned by Dr. Fralick of Maple City, a darracq twin cylinder vehicle he nicknamed the “Red Devil”.
By the mid 1900s, Maple City had, in addition to the post office and hotel, two hardware stores, a cash variety store, a schoolhouse, grocery, butcher shop, tavern and a creamery. And as a central location within the county, the busy village was also the host of Leelanau’s yearly agricultural fair, where exhibits of vegetables, grains, canned and baked goods, stitchery, crafts and flower arrangements could be admired, with the finest examples being awarded ribbons by the Leelanau County Agricultural Society.
While people worked hard, they also played hard. Baseball, described at that time as America’s national pastime, was popular, and informal teams sprung up across the county. Maple City ball players were known as far away as Traverse City as formidable opponents, and were challenged by players in that town to games to be held during the county fair.
Dancing was popular too, especially polka dancing, as there was a large population of Polish people who had immigrated to Leelanau from the Milwaukee area. And there was no finer place to dance the night away than the Maple Tavern. Built originally in 1930, then rebuilt in 1933 after a fire burned it to the ground, it was expanded and remodeled several times to accommodate crowds that came from all over northern Michigan to take a spin on the oiled dance floor to Ed Flees and the Polka Trio, Bobby and his Polka Pals and Agnes and her Polka Dotz—as well as to play cards and pool, listen to folk singing on Friday nights and eat burgers and fish, washed down by beer. For a time, Maple City was dubbed “Polkatown,” and when the 4,075 square foot Maple Tavern eventually burned down in 1980, the dancing spot was so sorely missed, it gave rise to the development of the Cedar Polka Festival two years later.
Today, Maple City still bears remnants of the past. The old Maple City School houses the Maple City Health and Fitness Center and Kerby’s Bar and Grill, and the old cash variety store is Pegtown Station, a popular restaurant. You can still drive along miles and miles of country roads to enjoy the open fields, barns, and animals. But nowhere will you find reminders of the past more than in the friendliness and camaraderie among those who live and work in Maple City. Even if you’ve never been here before, you’ll be welcomed everywhere you go with a smile and friendly conversation. It’s well worth staying for awhile.
(Historical information from 100 Years in Leelanau by Edmund M. Littell, Vintage Views of Leelanau County by M. Christine Byron and Thomas R. Wilson, and archives from the Traverse City Record-Eagle)
