'We're super excited': Three families purchase Sans Souci Bar on Harsens Island
A popular community hub on Harsens Island is coming back to life.
Three families with residences on Harsens Island purchased the Sans Souci Bar Wednesday. Suzanne Norton Maxwell and her husband Tim Maxwell, who live in Bloomfield Hills but have a cottage on the island, were one of the couples to purchase the bar, the other two being their neighbors.
Norton Maxwell said they want the bar to be a space for locals to create new memories. With Harsens Island being so close to Detroit, Norton Maxwell said they also want to bring in outsiders to enjoy the island.
"It's been here forever. It's like a landmark," Norton Maxwell said. "So we're super excited to get it moving."
The bar closed in June 2020 due to COVID-19 gathering restrictions after nearly 40 years of serving customers.
They hope to open by St. Patrick's Day next year. Norton Maxwell said many locals have already offered suggestions or volunteered to help remodel the restaurant.
They hope that the bar will help revitalize San Souci and provide a place for the community to gather. The island has few other restaurants that are open year-round.
"We really want to see the city come to life," she said.
Other than some necessary remodeling and building updates, Norton Maxwell said they plan to keep the same feel and atmosphere of the bar.
"(Locals) want to go back and create new memories in the space that they're used to," Norton Maxwell said. "So we're definitely going to bring it up to date and modernize it as much as we can. But we really want to keep that local town restaurant bar feel to it."
The property sits on a beautiful spot on the waterfront with spectacular views of freighters, Norton Maxwell said.
"It's a great spot to sit and have a meal and watch the freighters go by," she said.
Norton Maxwell and her husband celebrated the closing of their first cottage on the island with a perch dinner at the Sans Souci Bar. She spent girls weekends there listening to music, and her children spent hours there playing pool.
When it was open, the bar was a community hub where everyone knew you, Norton Maxwell said.
“Everyone has a funny story, everyone," she said. "It was just a fun place.”
Contact Laura Fitzgerald at (810) 941-7072 or lfitzgeral@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Sans Souci Bar on Harsens Island reopening
