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Former Gilchrist cooks Jackson, Tootla compete on Bravo TV’s “Top Chef”

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Leland resident and former Gilchrist Farm Winery chef Jennifer Lee Jackson found herself once again in the racetrack pit during the opening episode of “Top Chef”—just as when she cooked burgers and fried chicken sandwiches as a teenager at the racetrack her father operated in rural Georgia. But this time she honed her craft in front of hundreds of thousands who watched her on television. Jackson and her partner, Detroit native Justin Tootla, are competing in Season 23 of the popular Bravo show, which premiers March 9. Competing on the show “was so much harder than we thought it would be,” Tootla told the Glen Arbor Sun. “We’ve been huge fans of the show and have watched it since Season 1. For 20 years we’ve played ‘Monday morning quarterback,’ judging contestants as much as they were judged on the show. “But when you’re in the mix, when the clock starts and you’re cooking, it’s intense! Being in other people’s kitchens, you have to adapt on the fly.”

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Smiling on the Walter family farm, Leelanau’s oldest centennial farm

“Every time I walked into Eddie’s Village Inn restaurant in Suttons Bay (currently the V.I. Grill), the black and white vintage photos on the walls created a time capsule effect,” writes Rebecca Carlson in part 11 of our Leelanau farming families series. “Eddie and Mary Lou (Walter) Rothgarber carefully curated this amazing collection that they shared with every guest who walked into their restaurant. As the tapestry of pictures narrated the story of Suttons Bay and the surrounding area, the restaurant served as a semi-historical museum.”

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A Game Without Rules: Harbor House and VI Grill manage the pandemic

“The game is next week, but you don’t know the rules,” Richard Roberts reflected on running his Leelanau County businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic. Roberts owns The Harbor House in Leland, co-owns the county’s oldest, continually operated restaurant, the Village Inn in Suttons Bay—most commonly known as the VI Grill, runs real estate through Harbor House Properties LLC, and owns SAM Equities LLC in Lake Leelanau, a former restaurant currently available for rent.

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