Beloved local restaurant Stockers on the Park is under new management, with Anne Pohto taking over from previous owner Anita Stocker Jan. 1.
Beloved local restaurant Stockers on the Park is under new management, with Anne Pohto taking over from previous owner Anita Stocker Jan. 1.
The Stocker family, who owned the restaurant for around 40 years, announced the change in a Facebook post Dec. 26.
“We are putting this building into the best of hands and we know you will show Anne the same community support we have always received, as she faces the challenges and rewards of being a business owner in a small town,” they wrote, thanking the community for their support and teasing Pohto’s plans for the future.
Upon the first of the year, a second change to the business was announced via Facebook — Pohto updated the name to reflect both her new management and the history of the business.
“Within the next few weeks, you may notice a slight name change. I really wanted to keep it the same with my own, as I plan to do with the entire restaurant,” Pohto wrote of the change.
The restaurant now goes by Stockers by Anne. The logo features a flower design, meant to harken to flower displays Stocker created in the front of the restaurant around Labor Day.
“I just feel like if I could piece (former owner Barbara) Stocker’s last name with my name and Anita’s flowers, it kind of holds us all together,” she said in a Jan. 6 interview.
Pohto expressed her gratitude for the opportunity.
“I am very thankful I had the opportunity to get the restaurant,” she said, recalling asking Stocker several years ago if she was interested in selling.
“Anne has been with us since she was a girl,” Stocker said in an interview Jan. 6. “She was 14 years old when she first started working for us. She’s been with us 16 years. She’s part of the family.”
They couldn’t have been more thrilled when she said she was interested and wanted to be considered as a buyer, Stocker said.
“We are just thrilled. My mom and I, the girls who work there, the customers, everybody’s very happy that she’s making the plunge,” she said.
Being a part of the business’s long history herself, Pohto said she was and wasn’t nervous to be be stepping into Stocker’s boots.
“I feel a little intimidated, but I feel like I’ve got a really good support system backing me up,” she said.
Pohto recalled starting at the restaurant as a dishwasher before eventually getting two more jobs and then going on to college.
“I went to college for parks and recreation management and I just realized I loved it so much more here,” she said. “The family, the background of all of it, and just that comfort and closeness with everybody involved. I wouldn’t have gotten that by myself in the park district.”
Customers can expect to see changes to the hours and some small remodeling changes, Pohto said.
The business announced Jan. 5 it would once again be open Wednesday and Saturday evenings, and the men’s bathroom is currently being renovated.
While Pohto said she has some ideas in the back of her head regarding the menu, she didn’t want to reveal them just yet.
Stocker praised Pohto’s work ethic and called her a wonderful soul.
“You know, you worry when you have a lot of people and a community that wants everything to continue and no change,” she said. “But, you know, it has to change, things have to go on. I don’t know if we’d have sold it to somebody who didn’t think of the town and of the community and the people in it as a real important component, as opposed to a fancy menu.”
Pohto will run it knowing it is a community resource, Stocker said.
While the restaurant may be under new management, the Stocker family will be sticking around per Pohto’s request.
“We don’t want there to be a disruption in either recipes or the food preparation or the service or anything. We don’t want any interruptions,” Stocker said. “We will stay until everything is passed down to her satisfaction.”
Other members of the family are not ready to retire and will stay on, she noted.
They have enjoyed having the restaurant, Barbara Stocker said.
“It was the best thing that happened to me,” she said.
