The owners of The Local Eatery are trying to sell the restaurant. 

“We never intended to own it our whole life,” owner Jason Walters said. “Actually we would have been content with owning the real estate and renting it out or leasing the space to a restaurant owner.”

Walters is a third-generation owner of the building on Howell Street in downtown Hillsdale and has operated the breakfast restaurant with his wife, Dena, for the past four years. He said there are no interested buyers yet and the restaurant will run as normal until it’s sold.  

“The restaurant industry is hard and people don’t want to work hard anymore,” he said. 

Junior Phoebe Vanheyningen said she is sad The Local Eatery is for sale because she loves the food. 

“The Local Eatery is one of the cultural institutions that I go to after church,” she said. “I really hope it doesn’t change the quality of the food.” 

Walters said his grandparents owned the building when it was The Palace Cafe. 

“My grandfather came in every morning and made donuts and he set the donut display up in the front window,” he said. 

Walter said his grandmother ran the restaurant but his grandfather would make donuts in the morning before he went to his mechanic job in the afternoon.

In the 1940s, the building was a candy shop and faculty at Hillsdale College nicknamed it “the palace of sweets.” When it became a restaurant, The Palace Cafe was named after this original nickname. 

Walters’ grandparents owned the building in the 1960s before his aunt and uncle bought it. He said there have been many owners in between the three generations. 

Walters said his favorite thing about owning The Local Eatery is getting to know and recognize people from the city and college. 

Senior Justin Doughty said he is optimistic about the future of The Local Eatery.

“Maybe with the sale of the eatery they’ll be able to get more people in there helping out and provide more customers with great food,” he said.