Pegtown Station in Maple City will host an open house celebrating 20 years of ownership for Mary & Dave MacDonald on Tuesday, Sept. 24 from 4 to 6 p.m. with live music and refreshments.
“It’s hard to believe,” Dave said.
Dave didn’t initially want to own a restaurant, but after learning from his businessman father and many years working in the restaurant industry the young married couple purchased Pegtown Station in 2004. Twenty years later, Pegtown is still thriving in the metropolis of Maple City.
“Everybody knows. We always knew of this place we’d come down and get a takeout pizza or whatever. One day, (Dave) drove by and saw that it was for sale,” Mary said.
Dave had been working at the Early Bird in Leland at the time and Pegtown had already been open for four years.
They both have been working in restaurants their whole lives. The road wasn’t easy, especially being a young family. They were raising a child while raising a restaurant with a six-month-old daughter.
“It was stressful (at the beginning) especially finding daycare. We have family in Suttons Bay, and so having to get up early in the morning and drive to Suttons Bay to my parents or my sisters was challenging. I appreciated their help and then we found a nice family down the road, the Mustard family,” Mary said.
Mary is turning 50 in October and they recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary earlier in September.
They will be celebrating by going to Scotland in April — to celebrate three big anniversaries in 2024.
The restaurant has always been their second child.
“I had an attitude that I was not going to fail because their was a lot riding on it, you know, and it wasn’t gonna be for lack of work or effort or any of that. I was always pretty confident that we were gonna make a go of it,” Dave said.
Mary and Dave were candid and said only in the past five years has been the time where they truly felt more comfortable in the business, and got over the hump.
They recognize there will always be challenges in the future.
The traffic gets busier for the local diner. 2024 has been a typical year with a general uptick since the pandemic.
“When we first moved here, there weren’t a lot of young families and now we’re seeing families with young children and kids running up and down the street. Even though it’s a small town, it’s just a lovely community,” Mary said.
They don’t know exactly what the future holds but retirement and hopefully a lot of traveling are involved over the next 20 years. Mary has also been dabbling in floral design for weddings and more that she may want to pursue.
“We really appreciate the community. It’s not just Maple City. We get people from Suttons Bay, Northport, Traverse City, Glen Arbor, and many more. The school community (Glen Lake) has been amazing … We love this community. We’ve made a lot of good friends,” Mary said and Dave added. “No regrets, that’s for sure.”
