Page 14 - 2023 LAKE ST CLAIR GUIDE

the next Minnowfest! Thanks Sara Potter from Fair
Haven for taking the Minnowfest challenge and
Thanks yes! I’ll have sharing your experience No official start time,
a beer and a side of from last season’s event! but unofficially the
-----------------------
minnows please! The Raft name dates back Minnowfest toast
to 1976 when current own- is usually between
Minnowfest TODAY by Sara Potter er Howard Chartrand purchased 3-4pm!
Known for their famous Raft burger, each year on
Good Friday it’s about Minnowfest!
Good Friday 2022 was the typical Michigan spring
weather anytime you plan an outdoor event, with gale-
force winds causing whitecaps to roll ashore through The
Raft’s outdoor beer tent and backyard and the occasional
rain shower. Despite Mother Nature, no one cared, the
place was packed, the beer was flowing, the Jell-O shots
were popping, the
minnows were plen-
ti- ful, and Dude and
the Abiders
played on.
Minnowfest
was hatched - Minnowfest -
decades ago Raft Bar 2022
and has be-
come a kick-off
the Spring festivities the building. According to the Images of Ira Township His-
in the area. It’s not tory Book, the
about the “running building has
of the minnows” like been there since
some have thought, but around 1910
rather the opportunity and was a barn.
to walk on the wild side, When the inter-
swallow one of these urban railroad
slippery little suckers, or was most popu-
possibly claim victory for lar in the 1920s,
chugging the most of these the building was
little fellas. Are you down for a hotel and boat
the challenge? If so, “let min- livery, with an Father & Son owner’s Howard &
now” and we will see you at ice cream parlor Jacob Chartrand 2002
and lunchroom.
Continued page 22
ICE FUN January on Lake St. Clair -
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