Clarissa Kell | Daily Press Troy and Amanda Veraghen, owners of R Place in Spalding, pose for a photo. The bar and restaurant recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, but the location itself isn’t new and has been a staple in the Powers-Spalding Township area.

Editor’s note: The Daily Press features a profile of an area business each week. This week’s featured business is R Place in the Powers-Spalding area.

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By Clarissa Kell

ckell@dailypress.net

SPALDING — R Place is located in the middle of Powers-Spalding Township and in the hearts of the community members. R Place might be new, but the building itself has been a part of the area for a very long time.

Troy and Amanda Veraghen bought the building, located at W3707 U.S. 2 and 41, Spalding, last year after the previous bar — known as LaBelle’s — had closed. The new name for the bar and restaurant has deep family and community ties.

“His (Troy’s) parents and grandparents used to own what is now the SideTrack,” Amanda Veraghen said. “The old Big R.”

Troy Veraghen said the Big R was in the family since around the 1920s and was a family business for about 60 years.

“We chose ‘R Place’ with the same logo and everything as the Big R Cafe,” he said. “We aren’t a cafe — we are not open for breakfast or coffee and obviously it is a new venue, so with the minor change we decided it was more ‘R Place’ rather than the ‘Big R Cafe.'”

The Veraghens and the community celebrated the recent one-year anniversary of R Place being open. The celebration had a Halloween theme with live entertainment, a costume competition and free food.

“The place was packed. I think it is going to be an every year thing. Free food, giveaways, live music. We would just like to throw a party every year,” Veraghen said.

Troy Veraghen said when they learned the location was for sale, they had to buy it because LaBelle’s had been such a staple for the local community.

“There were a lot of fundraisers, benefits, things that were always held here,” he said. “Major community events were always pretty much here. Being that it shut down for a year, the community was kind of missing a piece, so we wanted to bring that back. The town was pretty dark without it.”

Veraghen said the community support for the R Place has been amazing. He said not only has the Powers-Spalding community really shown its support, but other communities in the area as well.

“We have been getting a lot of people from the surrounding communities as well,” Veraghen said. “Hermansville, Carney, Stephenson, Bark-River and Norway.”

Amanda Veraghen runs the kitchen. Her speciality is creating from-scratch food, opting out of the pre-packaged and frozen foods that other bars and restaurants dish out. The fish are fresh and from the Great Lakes and the beef is all certified Angus.

The future has a lot in store for the R Place, with new additions coming to the menu and in the form of a salon attachment that will be run by Amanda Veraghen. The salon will be called the Beauty Bar.

Troy Veraghen said they are also looking to get more fundraisers going in the community and that they have been talking with local organizations.

“To us, that is what local business is really about. It’s getting lost, more and more — towns in the U.P. are turning to ghost towns. Without local businesses you don’t have youth sports because it loses funding. There are so many different things that we donate to for the local community, mostly for kids,” Veraghen said.

He said one of the benefits of living in a small community is people support each other if someone is in need.

“Make our place, your place,” Veraghen said. “This was the gathering place for everyone. This is the place for our community, it’s ‘R Place.'”