Meet the fresh faces giving a refresh to Bahle Farms; plus read on for more restaurant and retail buzz from the peninsula.

Longtime Leland summer residents, Crosley Duckmann and his father Mark Duckmann of Chicago, purchased the 18-hole Bahle Farms Golf Course on Otto Road in Suttons Bay, which is open for its 20th season.

The Bahle family listed the 200-acre public golf course for sale last fall.

Erik Bahle, former general manager, passed that torch to Crosley Duckmann, 24. “I’m thrilled to transition ownership to someone who also understands and appreciates the Northern Michigan culture,” says Bahle, who is staying on for the 2021 season to ensure a smooth transition. Mark Duckmann, a semi-retired financial accountant, is assisting behind the scenes. Crosley’s girlfriend, Melissa Obis, has also relocated from Chicago to be the marketing and events manager. Nearly all of last season’s staff has returned under the new ownership.

Crosley Duckmann tells the Leelanau Ticker he dropped everything to commit to the opportunity when it popped up: “I was going toward my CPA. When I saw the listing, I knew I could spend 3 to 5 hours a day studying for the CPA exam or spend 3 to 5 hours trying to figure out how to make our dream possible.”

With golf seeing its biggest resurgence in over a decade — and 2021 promising to be a record year on local courses — it couldn’t have been better timing, says Duckmann. “We’re getting this huge boost in people coming out to play, and I love to see it. Golf is going crazy right now since the pandemic. And it’s a lot more inclusive to every single person who wants to try it.”

The Duckmanns and Obis have the immediate goals of bringing back the full grill, on hiatus last season, by Father’s Day weekend; augmenting the current beer menu with local wine; and giving the facilities an overall spruce-up.

“Sometimes people are afraid of change, so coming in with me being the change, I didn’t know what to expect,” the younger Duckmann says, “but people are very supportive in the things we’ve been implementing.” Adds Obis, “Passholders and longtime customers care about the course; I think they recognize our care and our passion.”

“People are very glad we are keeping it a golf course,” notes Duckmann. “I know a couple of courses in the past 10 years in this area that shut down and turned into developments.” He says this course “represents Leelanau County very well — with the elevations changes, views of Suttons Bay, and one of the holes running right through a cherry orchard. We want it to be a beautiful golf course and keep it as it is.”

The new team is looking to ramp up events in the future, increasing opportunities for weddings held on the property. “That’s next summer,” shares Obis, but adds that the Big Hole tournament at Bahle Farms will return in late September 2021. “We’ll definitely put our touch with social events and golf outings here or there, with the main goal to amplify the experience on the golf course and to make it a place with great sense of local community around it,” she says.

Other openings and changes across the county:

Abby Foster, maker and founder at Toile and Stripes, opened her first brick-and-mortar storefront at 412 N. St. Joseph Street in Suttons Bay to showcase the sustainable, hand-made clothing brand and made-in-house body scents.

Husband-and-wife team Charynn and Mitch Meoak, who operate an Aveda salon and home décor shop in Suttons Bay, recently launched a new apparel line called Leelanau Local with a commitment to donate 10 percent of annual proceeds from the brand to the Traverse Bay Children’s Advocacy Center “to help kids in the community who had experienced abuse and violence get a new foothold on life.”

As the TC Ticker reports, fans of shuttered Suttons Bay restaurant Gold Baby Biscuits can find the company’s famous biscuit sandwiches at a new location this summer: a food trailer on the Dockside Market property in Greilickville. New Dockside manager Scott Swanson added the custom trailer to the site as an auxiliary kitchen for the store, then invited Gold Baby Biscuits’ Lyndsey Egli and Alicia Manson to use the space. Manson says Gold Baby Biscuits will operate out of the trailer most weekends all summer (hours are posted weekly on Instagram). “The Gold Baby community is being reborn, and it feels so good,” she says.

New owners at Paradise Cove (formerly South End Tiki), Todd, Barb and Jerry Kleinfeld, announced Friday they are now serving beer and wine in addition to the food menu and mocktails at the South Lake Leelanau tiki bar destination, which includes a campground and marina. A full bar is expected in the coming days; stay looped in on Facebook. 

Blu in Glen Arbor will be opening for the season for the second time, after an early morning blaze in mid-May caused a temporary closure of the beachfront LeBear property where the fine dining restaurant is located. Chef/Owner Randy Chamberlain shared in a Facebook post that the summer season relaunches this Tuesday (June 15). Chamberlain tells the Leelanau Ticker the staff he had already assembled “stuck with us…I’ll be relieved to see their faces.”

Northport Pub & Grille (NPG) celebrates bringing back a year-round eatery, boutique bowling alley, sports bar, and event space to the village with a grand opening this Friday (June 18). Owner Michelle Hemeyer will open the venue — including a new bank of garage doors that allow for a convertible open-air bar — for indoor dining, but tells the Leelanau Ticker that the first dishes are already going out the door as carryout. Chef Bryon Figueroa, who is helming the new NPG kitchen along with his former Fig’s Sous Chef Nikki Scott releases the full menu Friday.

Lake Leelanau’s Nittolo’s Pizza and Nittolo’s Seafood & Social debuted in March and April, respectively, and quickly became destination dining in the heart of the county. Both share the same restaurant space; Chef-Owner Eric Nittolo says to accommodate the growing clientele, he has converted the on-site bocce court to a pizza patio with 14 additional outside tables. He has also added champagne brunch on Sundays.

Outdoor-only dining continues to have its day in the sun — and shade — in Leland, where The Bluebird proprietor Skip Telgard and staff will be welcoming guests to the eatery’s patio/tent area on the Leland River all summer, Thursdays through Mondays. “In the event of inclement weather, we will open the tavern for service,” he says.

Telgard also shares that the previous Early Bird space will be reopening as a brunch spot helmed by Leelanau Coffee Roasting founders: “We have leased the Early Bird to Steve and John Arens, Leelanau Coffee Roasting owners, who will be offering a full breakfast menu and coffee bistro,” he says. “We are more than excited to have their energy and coffee expertise here in the heart of Leland.” 

Pictured: Bahle Farms Golf Course General Manager Crosley Duckmann and Marketing and Events Manager Melissa Obis