Century-old Glen Lake Manor reopens its doors

From staff reports
Nancy Wright is at it again.
Four summers after she and Janet Niewold bid Le Bear Restaurant goodbye to make way for Dominic Moceri’s gigantic Le Bear Resort at the north end of Lake Street in Glen Arbor, Wright is charging onto the local scene once again.
The 100-year-old Glen Lake Manor, which was once owned by her parents and grandparents, has reopened its doors to the public after a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 30. The Manor is a fine restaurant on M-22 just west of the Glen Lake Narrows offering private dining rooms, outside porch seating and a main dining room, looking out toward the Sleeping Bear Dunes across Little Glen Lake.

Offering what Wright calls “new American cuisine,” the Manor is open for lunch and dinner with a Sunday brunch, and will also host private parties, meetings and formal tea gatherings. The Glen Lake Manor features a classical style with white linens, chairs from Italy, gold-rimmed dishes and old-fashioned woven carpeting. The restaurant can accommodate a total of 140 diners with a fixed-price menu that will change daily.
“The Manor on Glen Lake” was built as a summer hotel at the turn of the last century when tourism flourished. Built in 1906 by John Biddleman, a lumberman who later married into the Tobin family, the manor is the only Glen Lake resort remaining. Originally named “Cold Spring Inn,” the manor was later sold to Biddleman’s manager and renamed “Ockers Inn.” Wright’s parents and grandparents, who had purchased land from Glen Arbor pioneer D.H. Day years earlier, acquired it in 1954 and renamed it the “Glen Lake Manor.” They continued to operate it in the European style and later added cottages.