Saturday, February 08, 2014

R.I.P. LIL' CHEF

I've read that sometimes if you stay at a place long enough it becomes you. Certain places on this stupid little planet I have spent so much time at that its hard to imagine a world where that place is no more. Certainly one of those places for me was Lil' Chef Restaurant, located at 1720 South Mission St in Mt. Pleasant, MI... my hometown.


 Lil' Chef was a place where I hit it for regular meals with friends, loved ones, did most of my studying for college there, drew comic pages, read a book and so much more. After late nights working at the McDonalds, we'd all go and have breakfast there and fill up on coffee and eggs. They had immaculate hash browns too. After hitting the bars late into the night, we'd stop off at lil chef to eat some grub and soak up the booze we were filled with. There were many fights that broke out there. I think I have a memory of sitting at every table in the place. In fact, when I made my comic "Pleasant Life," which took place in Mt. Pleasant, Mi... I put the place in the book. It appeared several times and its the place where Mortin had his first date with Kelly. You'll see in the reprint I am doing this year.

The restuarant was remodeled in 2009 and changed around a bit, but the essense was the same. They took my favorite meal off the menu (Roast Sirloin of Beef) but I always stopped in there when I was in town after my big move to southern Michigan. Now I live an hour away and its been a year or so since I hit the place. I got the news yesterday that the place is closing for good. New owners own the property and are likely going to open a new restaurant in its location. It kills me to think I'll never set foot in good ol' Lil Chef again.

There was a small circular clock above the salad bar that has the Lil' Chef logo in the middle. For a while they sold exact copies of them. I got one hanging in our house. Its a reminder of what the place meant for me at one time in my life. That clock isn't the best. It rolls slow and is often off by 5 minutes or so. But it hangs proudly in my home and it will never come down, even if it breaks. My shrine to the past.

People grow older, places change, people move on, and in their head they like things to be remembered exactly as they were. It will indeed be strange to visit Mt. Pleasant again knowing that yet another thing I loved about the town will be no more. Seems every favorite place I had there (New Moon Records, #1 Comics, Galaxy Comics, Cinema Four, Warehouse Records, my old McDonalds on Pickard St...) They are all gone now. There's not much left there that excites me to return and do some shopping. All I have now are the memories of these places and the things I did there with trusted friends and loved ones. I guess thats all I need.

R.I.P. Lil' Chef and the staff. Thanks for it all.





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