New Plans Cooking at Walbridge Skillet

WALBRIDGE – Heather Socie swears she can’t flip an egg and she can’t cook small.
Those two admissions probably played a role in her success running the Village Inn in Elmore for the last
21 years. She recently signed on to manage the Skillet in Walbridge.
Socie knows what she excels in and what to hand off to others.
Her mother, Carolyn Byington, makes the pies for the Village Inn, when she’s not wintering in Florida.

Socie concocts the soups – "all your basics" – including potato, cheesy hamburger and cabbage
cheese ("It sounds horrible but it’s good").
She plans on putting those on the Skillet menu, along with her famous Lake Erie perch and "major
comfort foods."
The opening date for the Skillet, which closed under a previous manager last year, is still up in the
air, Socie said. She just received the necessary permits, but is waiting on a special-ordered
stove-oven.
Socie said she and the property’s owner, Sue Windom,
gutted the restaurant, putting in new air-conditioning and windows. Windom also owns other businesses on
that Main Street block, including a bar and gun shop.
"It’s going to be totally different and brand new. It’s not going to look like the same place at
all."
Skillet regulars are chomping at the bit to resume daily breakfasts and gossip sessions at the corner
diner.
Longtime Walbridge resident Glenn Hecox said when the Skillet was open, he ate breakfast there everyday,
usually eggs and potatoes. He’s lost a few pounds since it closed, but is anticipating reclaiming a seat
at the restaurant.
"I’m looking forward to it opening," Hecox said.
The Skillet has quite a history in the village, he said. During the blizzard of 1978, the restaurant
stayed open and fed the National Guard troops who were sent in to dig Walbridge out. Some of the guard
members continued to patronize the Skillet after the snow melted, Hecox said.
Steam Train Maury, known as "Grand Patriarch of the Hobos," once ate there, he recalled. And
some of the most popular items on the menu were the "grill cleaner" and sausage gravy and
biscuits.
Marv Savage, another Skillet regular who is somewhat of a village historian, said the diner first opened
in February 1953 and has had a dozen different managers.
Mayor Dan Wilczynski said the Skillet doesn’t produce a huge income tax revenue for the village.
"But what it really brings is a place for the community," he said.
Socie said her customers feel more like family. At the Village Inn, she said her regulars come in the
back door and start making coffee if she’s running late in the mornings.
When the Skillet became available, she jumped at the chance to run it.
"I was thinking that I’d like to try it, maybe it would be something I’d retire into," she
said, adding that she has no plans to sell the Elmore restaurant right now.
Socie lives in Walbridge and the Skillet is right around the corner from her home. Her "significant
other," Mike Adler, owns the transmission shop across the street from the Skillet, and his mom runs
the 7-Eleven down the street.
The Skillet used to be open for breakfast and lunch, but Socie wants to try staying open later.
"It’s just home. They’re great people," she said of Walbridge. "It’s not going to be like
work."