Jonelle and Randy Roest are making Rosie’s Diner into a place where people can connect and become part of the community.

Landmarks Live On
Elizabeth Sanders

Ever since Jonelle and Randy Roest met while working at the Old Channel Inn in Montague, they have wanted to own a restaurant in a small town. They dreamed of being part of a community and making a place for people to connect. The young couple has found their chance with Rosie’s Diner.

Despite a turbulent past, with different managers and failed endeavors, the landmark Rockford diner is one of several local eateries getting a new lease on life with new owners or a new location.

“This is an opportunity to make this our baby,” said Jonelle Roest. “Our heart is in this.”

The Roests took over operations of the diner on March 1, and closed on the purchase transaction later that month. They have already begun to reinvent the diner to their liking.

“We’ve made extreme progress in three weeks,” she told the Business Journal shortly after the closing. “We’ve had the liberty to make the changes that we wanted.”

Those changes include bringing the main diner car back to an atmosphere that is “simple and original, not kitschy,” Roest said. “There won’t be gas pumps or records hanging from the ceiling because that’s not really how it was.”

The couple also plans to remodel one of the three diners on the property into a sports bar with a relaxed, adult atmosphere. One piece of kitsch will remain, however. The property’s miniature golf course, which features cement sculptures of food, should be up and running by summer.

“We came here once and fell in love with it,” she said. “It kind of grabbed us.”

Roest, an experienced cook and waitress, is fine-tuning the menu, with a focus on adding more “comfort food.” She is also partnering with community groups, offering promotions like a dinner-and-a-movie deal with the Cedar Springs Theatre Association. Every bit of word-of-mouth promotion helps, she said, and she is anxious to get word of the changes spread.

“If I can make this something I’m proud of, other people can be proud of it, too.”

Jeff Tanis would like to say the same for the Chick’n Lick’n Take Out in Jenison. Tanis is not a first-time business owner, having run his own seamless gutter business, but he admits that his previous experience was nothing like running a restaurant.

“This is a whole new set of problems,” he said.

Despite the licenses and regulations that he’s found restaurant owners need to deal with, Tanis said he enjoys his new role, especially working with the employees and talking to customers.

Some of those customers come from far and wide to get their favorite chicken. One customer made a stop on his way from Detroit to Muskegon, just to get some of the chicken he remembered from his childhood. Another customer picked up the famous chicken for an ill family member. The customer told Tanis that the woman’s first words after a stroke were “Chick’n Lick’n.”

A Hudsonville native who now lives in Allegan, Tanis has his own memories of the fried food restaurant.

“We’d pick chicken up here for my aunt in Grand Rapids,” he said. That meant passing up a more convenient alternative. “KFC was a block from her house. She could walk to it.”

While the fried chicken has proven its popularity, the Chick’n Lick’n is also memorable to people who’ve never eaten there. In front of the restaurant at 916 Chicago Drive SW stands the 8-foot-tall trademark white fiberglass chicken. The landmark had been plagued by theft in the past, but the previous owners solved that problem by filling it with 800 pounds of cement, Tanis said. Despite the popularity of the statue — which some customers have featured in family portraits — Tanis isn’t happy with it.

“I want a bigger one,” he said.

Another restaurant making a new start is Big O’s Café. The owners of the former northwest-side eatery haven’t changed, but their location has. The original Bridge Street location, which opened in 1996, was destroyed by a fire in November 2005.

After the fire, co-owner Bernie Kersten said it took a few days to sink in that they were going to have to find a new location. But once that reality hit, there was no time wasted.

“We just immediately started looking for another location,” he said.

He found it at 80 Ottawa Ave. NW, across from the future site of the Grand Rapids Art Museum, which is under construction. Fans of the popular pizza and lunch spot were glad to see the new location open on New Year’s Day, just weeks after the fire.

The new location has doubled the lunch crowd, with more people walking in from offices and surrounding businesses. Kersten said that the café has maintained many of its old customers as well. For those who don’t make the trip downtown, deliveries are still available to the old neighborhood, and have expanded to the east to accommodate new customers.

Those new customers have made up for the cost increases of higher rent in the downtown and the other costs associated with relocating, Kersten said.

“I think it’s a blessing in disguise,” he said of the fire and the move.

The restaurant, which boasts red-and-white-checked table cloths, exposed brick walls and a good view for people-watching at street level, has expanded its menu to include more pasta dishes, but still serves its best-selling Cuban sandwiches and gourmet pizzas.

“We still make the pizzas that you haven’t forgotten,” Kersten said.

Big O’s is also making strides with its second location on 44th Street, which had its first anniversary in April. The location, which served as a headquarters during the search for a new space, is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Kersten understands the trials that come with being a business owner, including being forced to start over after a disaster. Nonetheless, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“A bad day of working for yourself is better than a good day working for someone else,” he said.

Kersten said he has one piece of advice for other business owners: Always have an up-to-date insurance policy and keep your receipts.     BJX