Tony’s Place to become “Tony’s Garage” Put-in-Bay’s oldest treasured Island hang-out (commonly known as Tony’s Place) is getting another chance to play a big part of island life this year… The new owners and general manager are excited about bringing both the rich past island history of Tony’s and the new renovations together for one of the island’s best fun spots to visit again and again.

New owners and partners of the Tony’s Place business venture: Mike Rouen, Tom Schlachter, and Paul Avery along with General Manager “Crazy Bob” Turner are excited about the challenge this opportunity presents and are busy getting all the elements in place for a May grand opening with official date and time to be announced in the May Put-in-Bay Gazette. The interior has been basically demolished. The building will undergo a complete upgrading and refurbishing from the bathrooms to the kitchen, to the main floor area. Extra efforts were taken to retain the original back bar and the beautiful front customer bar in the new plans. It is scheduled to seat 100 people in the main dining area and will feature a small entertainment stage area as well.

A new surround outside deck will be in place with seating for an additional 45 people and handicap accessibility. The front outside façade will still retain the same familiar shape with five added roll-up glass garage doors that can be opened or closed depending on weather conditions. The restaurant and bar’s food and drink menu are still being secretly developed (even the Editor could not get this information out of “Crazy Bob”). The food menu will feature delicious diner comfort food combined with bar favorites and nouveau specialty items as well! You can watch progress in the very near future on a fun and interactive blog.

Tony’s Place needs everyone’s help! It is our intention to decorate the place with antique garage items as well as pictures and items of historical value from Tony’s Place Island history over the years. If you or anyone you know might have something for us to feature in the venue (be it photographs, fliers, posters, short stories or whatever) we are very interested in making this the main part of Tony’s Place experience. Part of this exhibit will also include space for a monthly revolving glass-enclosed bulletin board Best wishes to all for a successful summer season and looking forward to making your next Tony’s experience a happy memorable one.