
Zella Dubois and her husband, Ernest, were the original owners of the Chuckwagon Restaurant from the early 1950s until 1974. During her tenure she rented the building from Bob and Arlene Chambers.
Jessie Hart started working for Zella at the age of 18. A year or so before Zella retired, she started grooming Jessie to take over the restaurant. Jessie bought the restaurant from Zella 1974 when she was only 21 and renamed it Jessie's Chuckwagon. At the time coffee cost a dime and a piece of pie was $.35. Zella Dubois passed away in 1982 at the age of 76 in Iron Mountain, Michigan.
After 38 years of operating the Chuckwagon, Jessie sold it to Sharon Reurink in 2009, and Sharon changed the name back to The Chuckwagon. Read about Jessie leaving the Chuckwagon in the Mackinac Island Town Crier.
Sharon and Jessie had worked together at the Omelette Shop in Grand Rapids. Sharon and Donny Keith run the restaurant together, and their daughter Chantel also works with them. The building is now owned by Frank Nephew and Bob Benser. Read about their purchase of the Chuckwagon in the Mackinac Island Town Crier.
Located between the Main Street Inn and the Haunted Theatre, the Chuckwagon remains, after almost sixty years in business, a popular breakfast and lunch destination for locals and visitors. Its unique old-time diner atmosphere encourages social interaction among friends...current and future! |