Autumn is here, the nights are getting colder, and the first traces of fall color are starting to paint the leaves of local trees. With peak summer tourism season a mere memory, the Leelanau Ticker has your guide to the county’s seasonal businesses and if/when your favorites plan to pack it in for the offseason.

>It’s officially corn maze season at Jacob’s Farm. This year’s maze – an “alien invasion” themed design that marks the 16th version of the seasonal tradition for Jacob’s Farm – opened on August 26. The maze will remain open 10am-6pm daily through the remainder of the regular Jacob’s Farm season, which runs through the end of October.

>Paradise Cove Bar & Grill (formerly South End Tiki) closed out its season last week, with Sunday, September 17 marking its final day of summer 2023 service. The business typically reopens for the summer in late May.

>Bulldog Berries, a popular U-pick blueberry farm at the south end of the county, had its final day of picking on September 9 and is now closed for the year. “We are already getting to work, prepping for next season,” the business shared in a Facebook post last week.

>Suttons Bay's Bay Burrito Company is having a (brief) second wind this week. Desmond Berry, the restaurant’s owner, announced in July that he would be cutting the summer season short and putting the business up for sale, citing staffing challenges as the reason behind both decisions. The buisness has been closed ever since, but Bay Burrito announced on Facebook over the weekend that it would be coming back for a “last hoorah of the season” this week. The restaurant is open 11:30am-3pm today (Wednesday) through Saturday.

>The Empire-based boutique Field Trip Goods closed its shop for the season effective September 9, but will still be running its online store throughout the offseason.

>According to owner Lori Buchan, the future is up in the air for Scoops 22, which had its last day of the season – and its last day ever at its 403 N Saint Joseph Street location – this past Sunday, September 24. “Our landlord has decided to rent [that space] to his daughter and son-in-law, because they want an ice cream store,” Buchan tells the Leelanau Ticker, noting that she made the new tenants an offer to buy Scoops 22, including all equipment, but was turned down. Buchan is now looking for a new spot in Suttons Bay to reopen Scoops 22 next spring. “We are actively searching for plan B, and there are several people who own buildings [in the village] that have contacted me about potential spaces,” she says.

>In the meantime, Buchan has transferred some of the Scoops 22 staff over to her other Leelanau County business, Buchan’s West Bay, and is planning a more active offseason there. “Last year we stayed open through Christmas,” she says. “This year, we're going to try to stay open longer than that. It's going to depend on staffing, of course, and whether we’re busy, but we did add pizza this season, so hopefully that helps us over the winter.”

> Crosley Duckmann, owner and general manager of Suttons Bay’s Bahle Farms, says the golf course “will begin aerating the greens” on October 9 “to help heal and strengthen them for the next season.” Depending on weather, the course will stay open for play as late as October 31. Duckmann adds that it’s been an even busier summer at Bahle Farms than 2022, and that he’s “happy to have seen any increase at all this year, because many golf courses hit a large peak during COVID, and have been starting to see a slight decline in golfers this year.”

>The traffic light hung on the exterior of Capital Dog is no longer glowing green, which means the Lake Leelanau eatery is officially closed for the season. Capital Dog offered its final day of service for the year this past Saturday.

>Bad news, good news for fans of the long-running Knot Just a Bar. The business recently announced that it has officially the closed doors of its Bay Harbor location after 24 seasons, but also promised to keep its Leelanau operations up and running. “Come see us in Omena, where The Knot lives on!” the business said on Facebook.

>Leland’s Village Cheese Shanty has not yet publicly announced a final day for the summer 2023 season, and the restaurant did not respond to a request for comment on the matter from the Leelanau Ticker. Last year, though, the Cheese Shanty stayed open until October 21.

>The Riverside Inn “will be open through the offseason this year for the first time ever,” according to Kelsey Duda, whose Fernhaus Hospitality Group has been managing the Leland dining, lodging, and events spot since spring 2022. Per Duda, The Riv will be “launching a more casual tavern-style menu for the offseason,” with more details coming soon. Dining hours throughout the offseason will be 4-9pm Wednesday through Sunday, with lodging open Thursday through Monday. A brief fall closure is scheduled for November 13-23, to allow for “exterior touch-ups.”

>The Mill Glen Arbor, which Fernhaus also manages, is entering its first-ever offseason since opening this past April. Duda says the business plans to stay open throughout the fall and winter, and will be launching a brand-new 12-date “supper club” event series starting October 13. Held each Friday and Saturday evening through December 18, that series of intimate, family-style “ticketed dinners” will offer seating for up to just 50 people each night. Per a press release, the idea is to pay tribute to The Mill’s “roots of midwestern hospitality” by reviving the tradition of supper clubs – restaurant-meets-social-club hybrids once popular “in the upper Midwest states on the edges of rural towns.”

>The Mill will also now have a presence in downtown Traverse City, in the form of The Mill Outpost. That “pop-up bakery” will open its doors in the old Brew space at 108 E Front Street starting October 6, with a menu featuring “all the Mill's pastries and breads, along with baguette sandwiches and coffee by Panther.” Duda says that pop-up will run through March, with plans for “ramping up around the holidays with Thanksgiving and Christmas preorders, along with holiday gift boxes and additional retail offerings.”

>The Mill’s other extension – Millie’s, the pizza-and-ice-cream restaurant Fernhaus opened in Glen Arbor in August, will also stay open all fall and winter, per Duda, with offseason hours of 4-8pm Thursday and Friday and 12-8pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

>This past Saturday, Glen Arbor’s Good Harbor Grill held its last dinner service of the season. According to owner Cady Hall, the restaurant will continue serving breakfast and lunch through October 29 before closing until spring. Hall adds that Good Harbor will be marking the end of the season with a special Thai takeover menu for October 19-21.

>Food truck season is winding down all over northern Michigan. The Corn Dog Company left its spot at Glen Arbor’s Crystal River Outfitters Recreational District in mid-August, and Josh Deters, who owns Fiddleheads in Lake Leelanau, says the restaurant’s new food truck – 2nd Fiddle, which opened this summer – has also closed up shop for the season. Owners of the Polish Countryside Kitchen truck, meanwhile – which operates in the rear courtyard of the Polish Art Center in Cedar – say they will likely keep things running until Halloween, though they note it will depend on fall weather and “on how much business we’re getting at the window.”