GTEC USA will resume its Crystal River culvert replacement work on June 15 at the crossing near the corner of M-22 and County Road 675, close to The Mill. This project will include removal of the existing culverts and replacement with a 65-foot steel bridge by the end of August. CR 675 will be closed to thru traffic from M-22 to S Westman Road, and rerouted for the duration of the project. Two previous Crystal River culvert projects were completed last year.
On Thursday, March 13, from 4 to 7pm, The Mill in Glen Arbor will once again offer live music. Partnering with Inn and Trail Gourmet, Detroit’s hottest indie-roots group, Jackamo, made up of Alison and Tessa Wiercioch on vocals and song writing, and Jimmy Showers, guitarist/song writer, will make their northern Michigan debut at The Mill.
The restored Mill on the Crystal River in Glen Arbor will open its long anticipated dinner service on Wednesday, April 17. The restaurant named “Supper,” which seats 32 people in the building’s lower level, will be open five days a week, Wednesday-Sunday, from 4-9 pm and eventually add Tuesdays for the summer season. Reservations can be made online, no more than seven days prior, at TheMillGlenArbor.com.
Leelanau County has long been a haven for artists and creatives, and the region is rife with individuals, businesses, and organizations working together towards common goals. For Kelsey Duda, co-founder and creative director of Fernhaus Studio, a hospitality group based in Traverse City, the region’s creative culture and collaborative community was a large part of what drew her to move to northern Michigan in 2020. In the three years since, the hospitality group has taken over Riverside Inn in Leland, Outpost (formerly Brew) in Traverse City, and perhaps most notably, restored The Mill in Glen Arbor, opening it in the spring of 2023 as a cafe. This summer, Fernhaus opened Millie’s in Glen Arbor, a pizza and ice cream shop where Riverfront Pizza was previously.
This year was a banner year for news in Leelanau County. The Glen Arbor Sun’s top viewed stories on our website in 2023 included the strange—a relationship coaching cult in Suttons Bay (“Twin Flames, a Suttons Bay cult, an inferno of controversy” was our fourth most-viewed story of all time); the heroic—a neighborhood effort to rescue boaters from a burning craft; the celebratory—The Mill made its long awaited opening on the Crystal River, and collaboration between the National Lakeshore and Leelanau Conservancy to preserve Glen Lake ridge property; the breaking news—an 18-hole putting course and restaurant planned to open next year in Glen Arbor; the historical—our 12-part series covering Leelanau’s farming families; and the reflective—remembering Horndog Newt Cole. Thanks for your readership, and Happy New Year! Here’s the list of our top 10 stories by online views in 2023.
The Mill in Glen Arbor will launch its long anticipated restaurant this fall in the historic Braemmer flour mill on the Crystal River. The Mill announced its Supper Club on Instagram today with 12 dates between mid-October and mid-December. According to Kelsey Duda, owner of Fernhaus Studios, which manages The Mill, supper club tickets will start at $75 per person.
This summer means now. A sign reading “Opening this Summer” inside the window at Millie’s, the new pizza and ice cream restaurant on the footprint of the famed Riverfront Pizza, has been replaced by a new sign that reads “Grand Opening” and “Thursday to Sunday 12 pm to 8 pm.” Millie’s holds its grand opening on Thursday, Aug. 10, and features made-from-scratch “Roman Pizza al Taglio,” known for its semi-thick, light and fluffy interior and crispy exterior. Pizza slices, which cost $5 or $6 each, offer cheese, pepperoni, sausage and onion, or mushroom and roasted garlic. For dessert, Millie’s features ice cream in two flavors—cinnamon toast and dark cherry—crafted from a rich, custard base that uses cream, whole milk, sugar, salt and egg yolks. The restaurant is managed by Fernhaus Studio hospitality group, whose team also runs The Mill, another time-honored Glen Arbor landmark on the Crystal River, The Riverside in Leland, and Brew in Traverse City.
French-American artist Alyssa Smith display’s her work in two iconic Leelanau County locations—Farm Club and The Mill in Glen Arbor. Three ceramic pieces from her work “A Hundred Ways to Kiss the Ground” are currently at Farm Club. Her “found object” piece “Buckets” is on display at The Mill in Glen Arbor. “Alyssa instantly had the concept for “Buckets” on her first walk through The Mill, and I could not love this piece more,” said Kelsey Duda, creative director of Fernhaus Studio and The Mill. “I would never have thought of combining the pieces together the way she did, transforming artifacts into a work of art.”
The much anticipated reopening of the historic Brammer gristmill on the Crystal River is near, though owner Turner Booth and the Fernhaus hospitality group have yet to name a date. On March 1 they introduced The Mill’s general manager Corey Smith on social media. Smith, a native of South Haven and a University of Michigan graduate, returned to the mitten state and joined The Mill team last May after working in real estate in New York City and hospitality in Hudson, a town in upstate New York.
Robert Kuras, owner of The Homestead, has announced that the historic grist mill and miller’s residence on the banks of the Crystal River in Glen Arbor have been sold to The Mill Glen Arbor, LLC. The acquiring entity is owned and operated by Turner Booth, a Michigan native who has relocated to Glen Arbor to rehabilitate and preserve the historic structures. Turner is a graduate of the University of Michigan and U of M Law School.