Ryan's Lookout restaurant for sale in Henderson

Oct. 10—HENDERSON — Ryan's Lookout, a restaurant that has been a staple in Henderson for almost 20 years, is for sale.

Owner Mary Lou Ferry bought the restaurant from Cindy and Lynne Shaw in 2002 and has decided now is the time to sell the business.

In 2002, Ms. Ferry was leasing the GillHouse and running both the GillHouse and Ryan's Lookout for a year before she stopped running the GillHouse.

Ms. Ferry purchased the restaurant, then called Verrilli's Lakeview, for $80,000 in December 2002 from the Shaws. She said she decided to name the restaurant Ryan's Lookout after her son and an old restaurant that she used to go to as a child in Henderson, the Lookout.

"You could see all of the islands, I mean you could see Canada," Ms. Ferry said of the Lookout. "It wasn't a fancy eatery, but they had good food, people went there, it was fun."

The 68-year-old is now looking to relax after years of lifting cases of beer and moving everything out of the building into storage as the summer turns to fall.

"So back and forth I go every season," she said. "So it's a lot of work."

She said she wants to go out "on her own terms."

"I don't want to get hurt, or have it not be my decision," she said.

When the business is sold, Ms. Ferry is selling everything.

"It will be a turn-key operation," she said.

In a perfect world, she wants the person who takes over the business to have the same passion for the restaurant as she does, but said she thinks the name should be changed.

"I think that the new owner should have a new name," she said.

Ms. Ferry said the people were her favorite part of owning the restaurant.

"I have help that's been with me since day one; in fact they worked for me down at the GillHouse some of them," she said. "There's maybe four of them I think that have been with me over 20 years ... they are absolutely family, I'm not kidding, some of my best friends are the people that I've had in that business."

She said she is "prepared" to continue to own the restaurant into next year if it isn't sold by the time they open next spring.

If the restaurant isn't sold in a few years, Ms. Ferry said she may look at doing something else commercially with the building.

"I don't mean in the near future, but it is a commercial building ... especially the banquet facility, that big room is 40 by 90 (feet), and that absolutely could be something different," she said.

There was a time years ago where someone had floated the idea to put business offices in the building, but she turned it down because she wasn't interested in selling.

The business has been on the market since December, but the sign went out in front of the building in July.

"It's been a tremendous thing for me to be able to experience with the people," she said. "It's the people that make it and the people that work for me ... In so many businesses ... you always have a chance to have bad experiences but I am telling you, boy, there haven't been very many in my life."

She said even though she feels good, she thinks it's time for someone younger to own the business.

"It's not an easy business," she said. "But I love it."