Cheese Shanty closing, but Leland Fishtown remains open
The (high) Leland River flows through Fishtown in June. Photo by Linda Dewey
From staff reports
Following news that the popular Cheese Shanty lunch joint in Leland’s historic Fishtown is closing early this year due to high water levels, Fishtown Preservation executive director Amanda Holmes issued wanted the public to know that Fishtown remains open. She wrote the following letter on Wednesday, Oct. 2:
“I am reaching out to let you know about the recent impact of high water in Fishtown. Some of you may have already heard the news that the Village Cheese Shanty is closing for the season at the end of the week. Increased rainfall since early September has brought about conditions where we’ve had many more seiches, including several in the past week. At the same, time the Leland Dam is fully open because Lake Leelanau is also high – and its only outlet, the Leland River, flows through Fishtown.
Dave Kareck, the owner of Village Cheese, came in early on Tuesday morning to say that when the water came into the shanty during the early morning hours while he was baking bread, he realized that he just couldn’t do it anymore, not to himself or his employees. Over the past month Dave had been wondering if he should close because of the toll the water has been taking on him, his employees and his business, but he prides himself on his business being open seven days a week from early in the season through the Leland Fall Frenzy near the end of October.
Every day all summer we have had calls in the Fishtown Preservation office from people asking, “Is Fishtown closed due to flooding?” The news of the water has reached all corners, but not the news that Fishtown is still open. We need the public to know that Dave’s is the only business that is closing due to water issues. There are 12 businesses that lease shanties from Fishtown Preservation, and most of them are open. They keep their own hours, so anyone making a special trip for a particular business should check ahead. There will be Fall Frenzy throughout Fishtown and Leland on Saturday, October 26th, the traditional close of the Fishtown season. Some shops stay open beyond that date, particularly on lovely late fall days.
The Village Cheese Shanty is having issues on a regular basis while the others are not. The shanty, built in 1958 for commercial fisherman Louis Steffens, is still at its original level. Some of the other shanties were raised in 1986, when water was last at its peak. The Village Cheese Shanty was built on a concrete slab that has been severely undermined and has cracked all the way across the floor in several places, so fixing the problem is not as easy as simply raising up the building. In order to repair the shanty we will have to lift it out of Fishtown, put in a new foundation that will be a foot higher than it is now, then lift it back and make other additional repairs.
Fishtown Preservation has spent the past four years preparing to improve Fishtown’s infrastructure, rehabilitate three of the shanties (Village Cheese, Carlson’s Fishery and the Morris Shanty) and make changes to cope with the high water, all to be funded by The Campaign for Fishtown. Making changes on public waters is complicated. We’re still working through the approvals process and are crossing our fingers that work can begin before winter sets in. We hope to be finished by early-spring so that our tenants can reopen their businesses on schedule.
Fishtown has been the focus of many lovely stories in the news – local, state and national. (To read some of the stories, click here.) The only downside to this coverage is that there is an assumption that donations must be flowing in – that others are giving. Unfortunately, we still need substantial additional funding in order to complete the shanty work, and that work is only a part of a much larger current effort to preserve and improve Fishtown. We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and we depend on donations from the public to do this work.
Please let us know if you have any questions.”
