There's a story that gets told at Dick's Pour House about a bullet hole in the wall of the building down the street, left behind, depending on who's telling it, by Al Capone himself during the building's Prohibition-era run as the Dew Drop Inn. The building at 104 Main Street has worn a lot of names since then. Dan's Powerhouse Tavern. Bella Fortuna North. Keys to the County. For five years it was Nittolo's Seafood & Pizza, a fixture good enough that people drove up from Traverse City for it. As of this month, the space is dark again, and the reason has nothing to do with the rest of the village.
Walk two blocks in any direction from that address and Lake Leelanau's food scene looks stable. Dick's Pour House is still doing its Friday fish fry the way it has since the Plamondon family opened the place in 1935. Capital Dog is still slinging hot dogs from its spot on St. Mary's Street, just easing into shorter fall hours. Locals Lake Leelanau, over on Philip Street, spent its first year fighting for a liquor license and came out the other side thriving. One address on Main Street is the outlier. It's worth understanding why, because it changes what "eating in the village" actually looks like this fall compared to a year ago.
A Fixture, Then A Lawsuit
Nittolo's opened in Lake Leelanau in 2021, running two concepts, Nittolo's Pizza and Nittolo's Seafood & Social, under one roof. A third concept, a Spanish tapas and wine lounge called The Social, got added in 2023 but didn't last. The restaurant closed for what was described as a planned break in October 2025, the kind of seasonal pause it had skipped in years past when it stayed open through winter. The pause never ended. By February 2026, owner Eric Nittolo confirmed to the Leelanau Ticker that the Lake Leelanau location wasn't coming back, and a press release began circulating that put the building on the market for sale or lease.
The Leelanau Ticker reported that building owner Roger Colburn and Nittolo were involved in a federal trademark dispute. Nittolo filed suit and demanded a jury trial over rights to the Nittolo's name. On February 3, 2026, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office refused Nittolo's trademark application on the grounds that the mark was primarily just a surname. Colburn said he had put up the money to start the business and held the doing-business-as registration throughout.
"We had a planned closure in October, and it turned into more."
That's how Nittolo described it to the Ticker. The legal dispute continued while the building sat empty through the winter.
Two New Names, One Patio
The Leelanau Ticker reported that Colburn announced two new tenants for 104 Main Street on March 31, 2026: Leelanau Steakhouse, Seafood & Pasta, and a revived version of Nittolo's Seafood & Pizza under new management, with no involvement from Eric Nittolo. By the time doors actually opened that spring, the second concept had changed shape. Instead of a new Nittolo's, the building's second tenant became Tapas & Tacos Beer Garden, a Latin-inspired patio concept built around calamari, chorizo nachos, and tacos, sharing the same outdoor space as the Steakhouse next door. The Steakhouse itself leaned into the same Latin fusion thread, folding Cuban dishes like Ropa Vieja and Vaca Frita in alongside its hand-cut steaks and house-made pasta.
For a few months, it worked. Tapas & Tacos had its grand opening in June 2026, and the shared patio gave the building something it hadn't had in years: two working restaurants under one roof again, the way Colburn had described wanting when he first talked about the space having room for three concepts if the layout allowed it.
The Leelanau Ticker reported that both restaurants closed permanently around Labor Day after a single season.
Colburn donated the leftover food to Leelanau Christian Neighbors, which said the total came to well over 1,000 pounds. The building is back on the market for sale or lease, and Colburn told the Leelanau Ticker he's in talks with a potential tenant who might open something simpler for winter, a pizza and light meals spot.
Here's the quick version of what that address has been through:
| Period | What was in the building | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Before 2020 | Dew Drop Inn, Dan's Powerhouse Tavern, Bella Fortuna North, Keys to the County | Cycled through several identities long before Nittolo's arrived |
| 2021 to October 2025 | Nittolo's Seafood & Pizza and Nittolo's Seafood & Social | Ran five years, then closed for what was announced as a seasonal break |
| February 2026 | Vacant | Nittolo confirms he isn't returning; building listed for sale or lease; trademark lawsuit filed |
| March to June 2026 | Leelanau Steakhouse, Seafood & Pasta and Tapas & Tacos Beer Garden | Two new concepts open, sharing a patio |
| September 2026 | Vacant again | Both concepts close permanently after one season; owner in talks with a possible winter tenant |
One Block Over, The Opposite Story
While all of that was happening on Main Street, Philip Street had its own restaurant transition, as reported by the Northern Express. Locals Lake Leelanau opened in the old Thunderbird building in May 2025 and spent 347 days waiting on its liquor license before finally getting approved this spring. Owner Tony West threw a grand reopening party in May 2026 to mark the milestone, and the restaurant has since settled into a partnership with the Leelanau Historical Society, with menu items and decor built around local history. It's a different story with its own detail worth reading on its own, but the short version for anyone tracking the village's food scene is that these restaurant transitions overlapped.
What's Actually Open Right Now
If you're planning where to eat this fall, here's where things stand:
- Dick's Pour House (103 W Philip St) is open Tuesday through Saturday, still running its Friday fish fry and Saturday prime rib specials, a fixture since 1935.
- Capital Dog (106 St. Mary's St) has scaled back to Wednesday through Sunday, 11:30am to 9pm, for the fall, and typically wraps its season in mid to late October.
- Locals Lake Leelanau (112 E Philip St) is open daily and running full service, now with a liquor license and a live music setup on its back patio.
- 104 Main Street is empty. Whatever opens there next, watch for an announcement rather than assuming the Steakhouse or Tapas & Tacos signage is still current.
The Restaurant Timeline At 104 Main Street
The timeline at 104 Main Street stands apart from the broader dining scene in Lake Leelanau. Dick's has run continuously since 1935, Capital Dog has held steady since 2022, and Locals worked through a licensing delay. At this address, Nittolo's departure was followed by the brief run of two new concepts and another vacancy. The changes are concentrated at one location, whose history of changing names goes back to its Dew Drop Inn days.
That's a useful distinction if you live here. The village isn't thinning out; the restaurant turnover described here is concentrated at one address, with a history that predates this year's news cycle.
If you're the kind of person who tracks which building on Main Street has a liquor license this month, you probably already have opinions about what belongs in that space next. If you're also thinking about what it would mean to actually own a piece of this village, or anywhere else on the Leelanau Peninsula, Peter Fisher spends his time paying attention to exactly this kind of detail. Reach out when you're ready to talk about what life here actually looks like, block by block.
