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RECESS on the Bay on August 25!

Please plan to join us for our monthly Recess after-work party, this month at Scott's Harbor Grill on Wed., August 25 from 5-8pm. Summer on the Bay in Traverse City. Come mix and mingle with the business community, enjoy food and drink, and live music by Leelanau County's Cabin Fever – for just five bucks! Lots of fantastic prizes!

Current Issue

July 2010 • Vol. 16 • Number 10

Entrepreneur

Start-up of the Month: Wiggle Wags

Technology

Commentary

The Right To Work

5 Questions

Q&A with Carrie Jones

Agriculture

Food & Drink News

TCBN Contests

Biggest Energy Loser Contest: And the Winner Is

Film Industry

Northern Michigan's Movie Moguls

Indiana Company Buys
Tilestone Imports

Miles Distributors, a 37-year-old tile company headquartered in South Bend, Ind., has purchased Tilestone Imports, a Traverse City-based tile importer and wholesale distributor founded in 2000 by Brad Jurik.

Tilestone Imports will retain its company name and the employees and operation will remain the same, with Jurik working as manager.

The acquisition will allow both companies to continue to grow, says Jurik, and will improve Tilestone’s ability to provide an “exceptional variety of quality products at competitive prices.” Miles has six locations in Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky.

Stratus Marble & Granite, the natural stone fabrication and installation business Jurik founded in 2000, will remain a separate corporation. Jurik will continue to own, operate and expand the company.

Frankfort Restaurant to Move; New Eatery to Open

The owners of The Fusion, a contemporary Asian restaurant in downtown Frankfort, have purchased Rhonda’s Wharfside, also in Frankfort, and will move their operation there.
Kuisine Inc. principals Va Chong Ku and Bobbiesee Ku plan to completely remodel the 5,800 square-foot building that overlooks Betsie Bay and move The Fusion there in the spring once the liquor license transfers.

At the same time, they will reopen a second restaurant—yet to be named—in the old Fusion location at 411 Main St. They’re still working out the details, but hinted it would combine their passions for French and Italian cooking.

“We both attend the Culinary Institute of America in New York City and we’ll finish in February, so we hope to utilize the skills we’ve learned there,” Bobbiesee Ku said.

Chef Rhonda Nugent owned Rhonda’s Wharfside for nine years and was known for her eclectic cuisine. She first placed her restaurant on the market in 2004 and fielded several offers that didn’t result in a closing, according to Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors. She was happy when the Kus made an offer.

“It’s exciting news and, for me, it’s a relief because they’re great business people and it’s what that location needed—something that will turn and burn. In my restaurant, people liked to stay forever—which was great. But in this economy, it wasn’t working.” Nugent will focus on her line of sauces, “Saucy Jane,” and is “open to anything that comes along.”