Muskrat Distilling sends off former Friggy's employees with fundraiser
BOYNE CITY — After Friggy’s SOBO Pub at 5 W. Main St. closed unexpectedly, the staff of Muskrat Distilling at 121 Water St. held a fundraiser last Friday to offer support to Friggy’s employees as they search for new jobs.
Friggy’s staff were informed on the morning of Friday, Nov. 11 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.
After hearing about the sudden closure, Muskrat Distilling General Manager Roger Fruin and owner Augie Engelhart decided to hold a fundraiser on Friday, Nov. 18 to help cover expenses as the employees transitioned to other jobs.
“It was really neat to see everybody come together for us. It was very humbling and kind of bittersweet. I did like to do the community thing, take care of your neighbor kind of thing and for everybody to come and do that, I thought that was really, really awesome,” Dietze said. “It was a lot of mixed emotions, bittersweet. Like this is really kind of everyone, at the same time, that goodbye is happy and sad at the same time.”
More:Muskrat Distilling to hold fundraiser for former Friggy's workers
According to Engelhart, the event raised about $3,000 to be split among the six staff members. Muskrat donated part of the drink sales, there was a silent auction for Friggy’s merchandise and memorabilia, and a 50/50 raffle.
“I would say we were expecting a bittersweet mood, but it seemed like everyone was just happy to be able to celebrate with the employees, their friends,” Engelhart said. “There was an undertone of ‘This is a fundraiser and we're trying to generate money for these people,’ but also we're just here to celebrate them and thank them for everything they've done for us over the years.”
According to Engelhart, Muskrat had its busiest Friday night since July, but the summer crowd tends to be full of unfamiliar faces, while on Friday, Muskrat was full of people from the Boyne City business community.
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“There was a much bigger sense of camaraderie. Everyone was there for the right reason. We did benefit from (the fundraiser) but being able to do good and donate that amount of money was special,” Engelhart said.
With over 300 cocktails poured, Engelhart estimates that about 200 people passed through Muskrat on Friday to send off the Friggy’s employees with positivity and some extra money to help get them through the job hunt/onboarding process.
“(I want to add) how thankful we are to Muskrat especially and the rest of the community,” Dietze said. “What a really neat, wonderful thing Muskrat did and what a good addition to the community they are. If you haven't been there yet, you should probably go.”
— Contact reporter Tess Ware at tware@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @Tess_Petoskey.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Friggy's employees sent off with fundraiser at Muskrat Distilling
