BOYNE CITY — In an unexpected turn of events for both employees and customers, Friggy’s SOBO Pub at 5 W. Main St. in Boyne City permanently closed last Saturday.

Friggy’s staff were informed on Friday morning that Saturday would be their last service. According to general manager Katrina Dietze, Friggy’s owner Jeff Leppala made the decision to close the restaurant due to, “a lot of factors,” which Dietze declined to go into detail on.

“My staff is awesome, we're like family,” Dietze said. “We were sad, it's our second home. We're all very close and they all stuck it out with me to the bitter end and even came and helped me on Sunday after we were closed. We all kind of just bonded together with it.”

More:Muskrat Distilling opens in Boyne City

After hearing the news, Muskrat Distilling General Manager Roger Fruin decided to put together a fundraiser from 6-11 p.m. on Friday to help the Friggy’s employees while they look for and transition to new jobs.

“It's definitely a small bandaid, but hopefully every little bit helps. It's a tough time to lose a job in the service industry in a slow month like this right before the holidays because nobody's hiring right now,” Fruin said.

“Even if people had something right off the bat, it's still usually a two (to) three week turnaround before you get that first paycheck. So it’s just something to hopefully kind of keep everybody afloat while they're all there transitioning because it was pretty out of the blue.”

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A portion of all drink sales will go to Friggy’s employees. There will also be a 50/50 raffle and karaoke hosted by DJ T-Bone Thompson.

Anyone interested in making a donation to Friggy’s employees can write a check to Katrina Dietze with “Friggy’s Employee Fund” on the memo line. Checks can be dropped off at Muskrat Distilling.

“I was blown away at (Muskrat Distilling’s) kindness and the community that has been created in the service industry in our town. Which is exactly what we tried to do with Friggy’s is bring (the) community together,” Dietze said. “From all of us at Friggy’s, we’d just like to thank everybody for all of their patronage and support through all the years.”

— Contact reporter Tess Ware at tware@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @Tess_Petoskey.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Muskrat Distilling to hold fundraiser for former Friggy's workers