Danielle Horvath

Dining Danielle Horvath Betsie Bay Inn Offers
Your Heart’s Desire in Frankfort

By Danielle Horvath 7/6/09

If you wish to linger over a freshly-prepared, globally-inspired dinner, stay for a weekend in a real Northern Michigan inn just blocks from the Big Lake; or are in need of a memorable place to hold that special event, the Betsie Bay Inn has it all.
Three years ago, Leslie and Geoff Perkins took on the daunting task of renovating the historic inn that had been a landmark in downtown Frankfort since 1867. It burned down in 1925, was rebuilt during the Depression, and renamed a few times over its long history.

Features Danielle Horvath Water World:
Cruise the Dunes in the New Miner’s Castle

By Danielle Horvath 6/15/09

Almost everyone who lives or visits Northern Michigan makes a visit to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and many make the trek up the popular Dune Climb to take in the expansive views at the top. But not many have had the chance to see the “front door” of the massive shoreline. Beginning this summer, they will get that chance with a new boat cruise that will offer twice-daily trips along the coast from Frankfort to Empire, aboard the “Miner’s Castle,” a twin-diesel passenger vessel.

Dining Danielle Horvath So what do you do in this economic downturn in the automotive industry if you are a former auto salesman? If you are Paul Schell and Rich Lewis, you buy a shuttered bar/restaurant in Benzie County and bring it back to life. Thus, the former Sleepy Bear Lounge on US 31 in Honor has been reinvented as Lumberjack’s Bar & Grill.
The bar/restaurant has been an Honor institution for decades. The original building was the town hotel for years and was rebuilt after having endured three fires in 20 years, the last in 1984.
Schell and Lewis, along with their wives, Mindy and Tina, met 10 years ago. Between their friendship, business experience and desire to get involved in the community, they have remodeled, refurbished and opened for business on February 27. They picked Lumberjack’s as a reflection of the lumbering history of the area.

Music Danielle Horvath Rhyme-master B. Jenkins beat out 12 other artists to win his third Self-Inflicted 8 competition for a coveted spot to open for Paul Wall when he performs at Streeters Ground Zero this Tuesday, Dec. 16.
“It’s a great opportunity as an independent artist to be exposed to a new audience and I’m also very grateful to Streeters who gave me my first chances to perform a few years ago,” he says.
When most other 15-year-olds were playing video games or hanging out with their friends, Brandon Jenkins was writing song verses and turning them into raps. At 16, he was spending every weekend and vacations at the recording studio of Saginaw-based rapper/producer Astray, whom he impressed with an original rap when he met him at a local mall.
“It was a lot of time away, and my parents made it clear I had to keep up with school if I wanted to pursue this dream,” Jenkins said. “They got a lot of negativity at first from people who thought rap was a bad environment for me to be in so young, but I became more determined than ever to keep at it.”

Features Danielle Horvath While everyone’s complaining about the high gas prices, people like Bruce Leach are doing something about it. Leach has spent the past two-and-a-half years and several thousand dollars to convert a 1983 Mercedes 300 turbo diesel to run on filtered vegetable oil.
A retired systems analyst who admits to “getting ideas and having to know if they work or not,” Leach began the process by researching the idea on the Internet. “I looked into bio-diesel at first, but didn’t want to mess with the chemicals that are needed in the process,” he says. “This is a pure vegetable oil alternative and the oil is waste that can be recycled.”
In his research, Leach learned that converter kits were available for most diesel cars, so he decided to look for a reasonably-priced used Mercedes in good condition. It took more of a search than he expected.
It is recommended that you convert a car that is in good running condition, he says. “They’re hard to find in this area. We ended up buying one off eBay and going to Maryland to pick it up.”

Features Danielle Horvath Since 1924, the Garden Theater in downtown Frankfort has been an entertainment spot for local families, seasonal residents and tourists by offering first-run movies, live concerts, plays, recitals and even hosting town hall meetings and community gatherings. As of July of this year, a group of investors and community members are breathing new life into the old venue, which had fallen into disrepair and had been open summers only for the past five years.
The community effort is being led by Rick and Gennie Schmidt and Marci Brooks, who are both raising families in Frankfort and wanted to invest in the future of the area.

Features Danielle Horvath Looking for a piece of Great Lakes memorabilia or an authentic signed Fred Bear hunting bow? Or maybe you’re a comic book collector in search of that one special issue? Chances are you can find all that and more at Myers Granary & Antique Market in downtown Beulah.
A “must stop” for many collectors on the Northern Michigan antiques trail, the building is as interesting as its contents. The massive wooden structure, just a block off downtown and Crystal Lake, was built in 1907. At one time it included a feed and grain mill with a milk house and artesian well “cooler” in the front portion. It housed coal that was brought in by rail from the 1920s to ‘40s, and in its later years it was a farmers cooperative. In the 1970’s the building operated as the Beulah Lumber Company.

Features Danielle Horvath Can you picture the holidays with-out twinkling lights gracing the streets of your town? Well, Benzonia hasn’t had that treat for quite awhile. But thanks to the efforts of Marley Demers-Jablonski last year, the village of Benzonia put up holiday decorations for the first time in 20 years.

Features Danielle Horvath College student Brenin Wertz-Roth followed his passion this summer, sailing Lake Michigan by himself to spread awareness about the lakes and their fragile eco-systems.
Piloting a 25-foot Catalina named “Friendship,” Brenin, 22, stopped in on communities along the way around Lake Michigan to speak to community and civic groups at state parks, maritime museums and anywhere people are concerned about the health of the Great Lakes. A student at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, he has created a website for those interested in keeping up with his travels, at greatlakesodyssey.com.

Dining Danielle Horvath Can a coffee shop survive in a small tourist town in Northern Michigan? That was the question Cortney Miller-Lamb and her family asked themselves and anyone who would listen when they were thinking about opening one. That was four years ago; fast-forward to now and she would give you a resounding “Yes!”

Dining Danielle Horvath Mike Elwell is a happy man. He has managed to combine two of his loves - fishing and smoked fish - into a business. Elwell and his brothers took an old car wash/gas station in Frankfort and after extensive renovations turned it into the Port City Smokehouse, which they opened on the main drag heading into town in June.
”Smoked fish and Frankfort are like fudge and Mackinaw City -- they go hand in hand. It’s part of the Up North experience,” Elwell says.

Features Danielle Horvath From shredded paper from Munson to apple mash from Cherry Growers, a new Benzie county business is using red worms to recycle 300 tons of organic waste each year that would have otherwise gone to a landfill.Benzie Organic Solutions and Benzie Bait are in their third year of raising worms for fishing bait and turning out some of the best organic fertilizer available.
The business began when owners Tim Quick and Howard Kennedy answered an ad to grow red worms for waste reduction. When that turned out to be a scam, they decided to pursue the idea anyway and began raising European red worms,
which are excellent for bait and for pro-ducing compost.

Art Danielle Horvath “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place; from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” ~Vincent Van Gogh



By Danielle Horvath

Self-expression has long been used to “unlock” emotions, resolve conflict, reduce stress, increase self-awareness and gain personal insight. In Benzie County, self-expression and the healing power of art are themes of a new show focusing on mental health.
Art as therapy is used to help children deal with grief; it is used in hospitals to aid patients in the healing process; in prisons to help inmates see another side of themselves; as a treatment in halfway houses and homeless shelters.

Features Danielle Horvath The renovation of an industrial wasteland is sure to be the talk of Northern Michigan in 2007 when the small town of Elberta undergoes one of the largest waterfront renovation projects to be seen in the region in years.

Dining Danielle Horvath I feel more like the chairman of the board than the new owner,” Steve Tebo says with a smile. “The customers and community are so vested in this business that they wanted to have a say in who the new owner was going to be. At first we were worried, but I think we passed the test!”
The Coho Café has been a downtown Frankfort mainstay for locals for several years, and a summer destination for tourists looking for quality Northern Michigan fare. Steve and his wife Kristin Glass purchased the Coho Café last year and have kept much of the same food and atmosphere that customers have grown to expect.
“We will make decisions based on what the people in the Frankfort area want, we hope to stay open longer each season if we can survive,” he says. “We know this is a favorite place for many and we will make changes a little at a time.”