A New Start, With Heart, For Pleva’s Meats And Omena Bay Country Store

The iconic Pleva’s market building — under the Polish-red awning in the village of Cedar — is under contract, with future owners David and Theresa Gersenson telling the Leelanau Ticker that inspections are complete as of this week and they are anticipating a smooth closing.

The building was the longtime home to the family-owned and run Pleva’s Meats — known for its Plevalean cherry burger and cherry sausages — which closed in February 2020. 

The Gersensons, Cedar residents who co-own Broomstack Kitchen & Taphouse and Leelanau Curling Club in the old schoolhouse in Maple City, and operate M22 Inn properties in Suttons Bay, Empire and Glen Arbor,  and Sylvan Inn of Glen Arbor, say fellow Leelanau innkeeper and Realtor Drew Warner of Blue Lakes Real Estate Group gave them a heads-up that the property was relisted this month by Lisa Rossi of RE/MAX Bayshore at an asking price of $255,000.

“Drew [Warner], who is a close friend, knew this fit the scope of what we do, and we acted on it,” says David Gersenson. “The deal is happening.”

The Gersensons do not yet have a concrete timeline for what’s next, “but it’s more than likely going to be a high-quality food and beverage establishment, that will be beneficial to the community.”

The Pleva’s Meats business was not included in the sale. Lifelong Cedar resident Ray Pleva, who operated Pleva’s for decades alongside brother Andy and wife Marge, says of David Gersenson’s high-end food endeavor: “he’s gung-ho, and I will be his biggest supporter.”

Gersenson says, “Pleva’s tradition and longevity is as rooted as you get around here. The tradition we want to keep on carrying. Ray’s support is huge in Cedar and in Leelanau County. For sure it being a historic place is a huge benefit, and a big challenge, in building a business. We are taking over a landmark.”

He adds, “That it’s been in the family forever shows, with how meticulous everything is inside.” A combined .80 acres consist of two parcels and two commercial buildings: a retail market, with an attached smokehouse and a pole building.

The retail market was built in 1974, next door to Pleva’s general store, which Ray’s father opened in 1919. “The general store was where the Polish Art Center is now,” says Pleva. “My dad had groceries, dry goods, shoes, kerosene and women’s corsets — one size fits all. My brother Andy didn’t start the sausages and meat until 1946.”

Pleva adds, “In our family, if you can walk you can work, so I grew up in the business. Brother Andy was 17 years older, and when I became his partner, we were then partners for another 17 years.”

Ray and his wife Marge ran Pleva’s Meats until 2002, with 11 employees working for them their last summer. Daughters Cindy Pleva Weber and Dr. Ramona Pleva also grew up in the business.

Says Pleva, “They grew up twisting hot dogs and working in the store. Our daughter was the 1987 National Cherry Queen and at the supper table one night, she said, ‘Dad, can’t you put cherries in meat to help the industry?’” Pleva innovated with cherry-laden burgers and sausages, and Plevalean was patented in 1995.

Pleva-laden memories, of course, belong to the whole village. For one, Bologna Day.

“The first thick sticks of bologna that came out, we put one on a table, and everybody would stop, and we’d have buns and rolls to make a sandwich, and just take a moment to talk to our employees,” Pleva says. “By 7:30am we’d have the bologna out, and we’d have old timers stop by in the morning and cut off a little chunk.”

Elsewhere in the county: After a 42-year run with the Colling family of Omena, the Omena Bay Country Store on M-22 has changed ownership. July 2020 marked the end of an era for former operators Cheryl and Richard Huffman (Cheryl grew up in the store, which her parents Richard and Sunny Colling bought in 1978).

Now Don and Betsy Leathery — who own the Columbus-based real estate development and property management firm The Leathery Company, and have strong ties to Omena — have purchased the property, which includes the 1500 square-foot store with an apartment above it, and an attached three-bedroom house. They plan to renovate and return the entire property to its original 1891 glory.

Don Leathery tells the Leelanau Ticker, “I have been coming to Omena for most of my life, and my entire family loves Omena. Since I develop and manage commercial real estate for a living, it was an opportunity I could not pass up. We will restore the property, so it can be enjoyed again for years to come.”

Leathery says the hope is that the building will continue to operate as a general store, “We have heard feedback from the community and friends the importance of still having the general store in Omena. People miss having a place to go for a quick grocery run, or to get a quick cup of coffee.”

The store, house and apartment will be completed spring of 2021, and the new owners are looking for someone to take over and run the entire property as the Omena Bay Country Store.

The new tenant/manager of the property would have the option to sublease the house and apartment or personally occupy one or both. A Class C liquor license is also available for purchase by the new operators of the store.

Meanwhile, Cedar’s Meg Paxton continues the rehabilitation on the former Gabe’s Country Market building in the village of Maple City, which she renamed The Blue Maple.

Paxton, a professional photographer, shares on a Facebook page dedicated to The Blue Maple that what had first been the Flaska Maple City Garage, then an old-fashioned grocery store with a dance hall above, is now to become a coworking and educational space, with micro-offices and a community library. “It’s the ultimate want,” she says, “with the number one goal to save the building and take it back to what it was.”

As Paxton addresses structural issues and interior projects this winter with the intent to use what’s salvageable, volunteer consultants and preservation activists from the Leelanau County Historic Preservation Society, Steve Stier and Barbara Siepker, are advising on restoring the building with historic accuracy. “I love that they’re interested,” Paxton says. “That they get excited about what I am doing gives me hope.” Paxton says exterior work on The Blue Maple — which is in progress of being painted blue — is to resume in spring 2021.