Friendly Tavern

Northern Michigan burger aficionados weren’t surprised at all when Joe’s Friendly Tavern in Empire (Frank Lerchen is actually the owner, but old names die hard in these parts) won TV 7&4’s award for the best burger around. Lerchen told the local television station: “The burgers are the best, absolutely — no questions asked. … I have people who come from all over the country, even out of this country for years and years (and years and years … he goes on) and they always come back and say that we have the best dang’ burgers.”

Friendly Tavern … Front St. in Empire … (231) 326-5506 … www.joesfriendlytavern.com/about.html

Please read this excerpt from our story, “Restaurant mogul Frank embraces Friendly Empire” which ran in the Glen Arbor Sun on May 25, 2006:

New restaurant mogul, Frank Lerchen, couldn’t be more modest about his transition from general manager of two restaurant-taverns to owner of three local food service establishments in less than six months, here in the seasonally somnolent village of Empire. As Frank tells it, he was being groomed for ownership for the past five years by his boss, Mike Wiesen. However, it wasn’t until someone approached Wiesen about purchasing the Empire Village Inn that he began to seriously consider selling the taverns to Frank.