JACKSON, MI - After 24 years, Dianne Weems of Airport Restaurant and Spirits is taking off toward retirement.
The 65-year-old, who started as a dishwasher in 1986, plans to pass the keys of the restaurant at 3608 Wildwood Ave., at the Jackson County Airport, to Anthony Riddle, before the end of the month. The Jackson County Commission, which owns the airport, approved the lease agreement on Oct. 1.
Riddle, a former U.S. Marine sergeant, will change the name to The Apron Restaurant and Spirits and add a bar with an outdoor patio next to the airfield. A patron since childhood, he wants to ensure his additions enhance the experience for longtime customers rather than disrupt it.
“The thing I’m doing right now is just talking to the regulars that come in here,” he said. “I want to keep them. They have some loyal customers that are coming in every Saturday, every Sunday...So I want to keep some things on the menu, but not everything.”
He noted some potential changes are adding draft beer, wine and “working professional” cocktails such as old-fashioneds and martinis. Riddle said Michigan rocker Ted Nugent demanded in no uncertain terms: “Don’t change the steak.”
Riddle graduated from Vandercook Lake High School in 2000 before enlisting in the Marine Corps. He deployed to Iraq in 2003 with 1st Battalion 7th Marines as an anti-tank gunner.
He came back to the Jackson area to work for the federal government. He said he noticed a lack of sit-down restaurants downtown, so he sought to own one to change that. His vision led him to the airport just a few miles from his home in the city’s historic district.
“We have an opportunity to do something different, and where else can you get this view," he said while pointing to the airfield. “You have fighter planes out there right now. Where are you going to see that while you have dinner or while you’re out in our patio area having a drink?”
He stated he wants renovations to start once he takes over.
For Weems, the timing seemed right to sell the business she’s been associated with for more than three decades. She expects to miss her customers and co-workers, who she likens to family.
She calls herself a worker, so one of her fears is not having enough to do in retirement. She plans to fill her time with her love of cooking.
“I love to cook and it affords me to experiment and be creative with things,” she said, adding that her husband Jeff will be one of her only food critics going forward.
Among the different suitors for her restaurant, she choose Riddle due to his “no-nonsense attitude.”
“He loves this community,” she said. “He wants to own something in this community that he lives in, and when you talk to him, I think you’ll understand why I thought he would be a really good fit for this place.”