The Marquette area lost another long-time eatery when the Bonanza Steakhouse along US-41 West shut down its doors after 37 years in business. The restaurant's closing has taken many by surprise, especially the sudden nature of the closure. Bonanza has been open my entire life, and I remember many visits to the establishment. Even during the most recent years, it seemed as if the restaurant always had a good crowd taking in their food. The service from the staff was always top notch and the food was just as good. And now, the restaurant becomes all but just a memory.
One of the first times I visited Bonanza was when I was just a little boy. I believe my sister had a birthday party there because I remember her getting a cake with a sparkler for a candle, a staple for a Bonanza birthday celebration. She had her friends there and she even received a goldfish for a birthday present. I don't remember a whole lot more about the experience, but I can recall the fun atmosphere of that day, the attentiveness of the staff, and just the overall good time that we had. There were a number of times afterwards that my family and I visited the restaurant; most recently in December for my mom's birthday meal. I ordered the signature angus burger with the salad bar. It certainly did not disappoint. And to have my sisters, my parents, and I there will be a great memory to cherish of my last visit to the restaurant before it closed.
Always a highlight to the restaurant was the soft-serve ice cream you could dispense yourself in a small dish and eat up. I always made myself a hot caramel sundae during most visits there. Over the years they added other desserts to the salad bar that were hard to turn down. Muffins, lemon bars, pudding - you name it. Next to the ice cream, they would be difficult to pass up. It was so easy to over eat! Another neat feature of this Bonanza restaurant was the large cheese block as part of the salad bar. You'd be able to scrape however much cheese you wanted out of the cheese block with a utensil. I know when I was little, that was such a fun thing to do and I loved the taste of that cheese. Unfortunately most recently, the health department told the restaurant staff to do away with the cheese block due to health and safety concerns. So one small part of the restaurant had to change, and not by their choosing. Still, it wasn't enough in my view to stop visiting the establishment.
Owner Mitch Lazeren cited a changing economy as one of the primary reasons for the closure. Increased wages, higher tax rates throughout the years and ever increasing food costs also made the difficult decision a reality for Lazeren. The closure announcement came out on Friday, January 24 and by the next day, the restaurant was already out of food and was shut down, even though it was supposed to be opened one more day longer. And just like that, another long-time eatery in Marquette is all but just a memory. I think if you asked a lot of people around Marquette and the surrounding communities which restaurant would be the next to close in the area, you'd get little if anyone to guess Bonanza. It's why many in the community were shocked of the announcement and how some even days later are still surprised that it's closed.
It's easy for us to speculate and to ask ourselves why management could no longer make operating the restaurant a viable option for the community. But we are not the ones having to manage the finances, the payroll, and the mortgages/property taxes. Mitch and his team had an amazing run operating his Bonanza Steakhouse in this community, outliving other similar restaurants such as Ponderosa and Ranch Steak & Seafood that closed up long ago. And you'd have to think that the building will not sit empty for long, sitting alongside the busy US-41 corridor in Marquette township. Still, whatever goes in there next will never live down the memories that we all have of the Bonanza Steakhouse that sat in that building for so long.
