ST. JOHNS — By the time Dana Swanson joined the staff at 310 N. Clinton Ave. nearly 40 years ago the building had already been home to a bar for about 50 years.
Swanson, 60, came on board in 1988 when it was home to Bob’s Bar. After that it became the Full Moon Saloon, but its history as a watering hole dates back to the 1940s, when the property was occupied by Mac’s Bar. Back then it served alcohol and ice cream, she said.
Swanson served as a jack of all trades.
“You bartended, cooked and waitressed all at the same time then,” she said. “Unless it was a Friday or Saturday night it was only you on.”
Swanson didn’t plan on owning the business but in 2005, 17 years into her stint there, she bought the bar and renamed it Swany’s Pub & Grub.
Swanson has been at the helm for just over two decades. Known now as more of a family restaurant than a bar and loved for its roast chicken dinners on Sundays and burgers all week, Swany’s Pub & Grub is about to change hands yet again.
In April Swanson will retire and long-time employee Megan Burk-Swartout will take over. The restaurant will get a new name, Swany’s Turk’s Tavern, but much of what’s made the business successful, including its menu and staff, will remain the same.
That’s intentional, Burk-Swartout said.
“Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and things work here,” she said. “I’m taking over something that’s just thrived through this community for years.”
‘I’ve met and made all kinds of new friends’
Swanson’s mother taught her how to cook before she entered high school. They made meals together in their kitchen and she never forgot what she learned.
When she bought Swany’s years later those recipes became the backbone of the restaurant’s menu, which includes dishes like smothered chicken served over rice, patty melts, hot turkey sandwiches and house-made soups.
The business weathered a state-wide smoking ban in the early 2000s and a global pandemic in 2020. Along the way, Swanson invested more than $90,000, buying the adjacent building in 2015 to expand the restaurant, doubling its size to 5,000 square feet and remodeling it.
People have always been her favorite part of the job, Swanson said. That includes the customers she’s gotten to know and the employees she’s worked with.
“I’ve met and made all kinds of new friends,” she said. “My employees have become friends and all the customers have been just wonderful.”
Deciding last year that she wanted to sell the restaurant and retire was “a difficult decision,” Swanson said, but she admits the physical demands of running a bar and restaurant are becoming too much for her.
“My body can’t run around like it used to,” she said.
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‘It’s a family-oriented place’
Like Swanson, Burk-Swartout, 47, never envisioned eventually owning Swany’s when she started working there in 2018.
She had plenty of restaurant experience before getting hired, having started working at the former Wheel Inn when she was 14 and staying for about a decade. She learned to value a “work ethic” at the now closed restaurant, Burk-Swartout said.
Her responsibilities at Swany’s progressed gradually, from serving to bartending and then managing.
“You know everybody by name” at Swany’s, Burk-Swartout said. “You get to know everybody and when the regulars don’t come in you wonder why, and if they’re doing alright. It’s a family-oriented place.”
So last year when Swanson told her was planning to retire and put the restaurant up for sale, Burk-Swartout said she immediately wondered what a new owner might mean for the business.
“It could be anyone from Grand Rapids to Florida coming in and buying this place and changing everything,” she thought. “And I just, I didn’t want to see that happen.”
Buying it seemed crazy and out of the blue at first, Burk-Swartout said, but when she shared the idea with family they offered support.
“I never really would’ve thought this was my future,” she said. The goal now is to change as little as possible.
The sale should happen in April, and other than the new name – Swany’s Turk’s Tavern is a nod to the nickname Burk-Swartout’s father gave her when she was a baby, she said – customers can expect to see the same staff and enjoy the same food.
Burk-Swartout would like to eventually offer a breakfast menu on the weekends. Beyond that, she hopes Swanson will become a regular customer once she hands over the reins.
“We’ve become really good friends,” she said. “After she retires, she can expect a phone call probably every day from me.”
Contact Reporter Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on X @GrecoatLSJ.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: St. Johns mainstay Swany’s Pub & Grub getting new owner
Reporting by Rachel Greco, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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