The season is ON. Downtown–aka the Mann’s Store parking lot–is jammed with Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota license plates. There’s an all-island potluck at the Red Barn park this afternoon, followed by a parade, which steps off from the Legion Hall at 7:45, and fireworks at the ball field after dark.* Tomorrow night the Island Players’ production of Oliver beings a three-show run at the performing arts center; earlier, at noon,  the Lutheran pastor presides over the annual blessing of the fleet in Detroit Harbor. It’s all very Garrison Keillor.

Things really kicked off on Wednesday, with the 25^th anniversary bash for KK Fiske and the Granary–the agglomeration of businesses run by fisherman/farmer/bon vivant Ken Koyen under the opaque rubric “the Koyen Collection.”

My understanding of the chronology of his business empire is a little fuzzy (this happens when Ken starts telling stories) but I think he started KK’s to serve the booming sport fishing traffic in the 80s (K.K. = Ken Koyen; “Fiske”= fish). On a good day, he says, 17 long tables would be piled high with salmon to be gutted. But over the years “the walls have moved a lot” and the ramshackle building’s also been home to a deli, a jewelry store, and a real estate office–I think all at the same time. He added a bar, the Granary … a dozen years ago?

In any case, nowadays KK’s is a homey restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner—one of the few full-service spots on the island that’s open year-round. Ken provides the fish but doesn’t have his hands so much in the day to day operations. On weekend nights, though, you can usually find him in the bar holding court.

The rough-hewn walls that run the length of the rustic front room (once a screened-in porch) are a gallery of island wheat paraphernalia: press clippings, posters, Capital swag, and luscious color photos shot by Peggy Olson, Ken’s girlfriend, who also runs the bar.

So it wasn’t surprising that Brian Ellison, Kirby Nelson, and Capital president Carl Nolen flew up from Madison for the party—held in a ginormous tent staked just down the hill from KKs, with brats and baked beans aplenty, it doubled as the island launch of the new Rustic Ale. (Which is pretty good, I can now say with authority, having had three.)

At some point the band broke and Nolen called Kirby, Tom, and Ken up to the stage. The brewers presented the farmers with a ceremonial pair of six-packs, the first off the line, as well as a collector’s item. “All things being perfect,” said Nolen, “when you’re ready to launch a new product you spend a lot of time on everything that goes into it—the packaging, the research and development, the marketing…. But, uh, we’re not perfect. By any means. The very first run of the packaging they put the word ‘Ale’ upside down.” He handed off two blooper sixes to Tom and Ken, to scattered catcalls and applause. “We appreciate you so much. We love you guys—and Peggy and Sharon, and all of you up here on Washington Island.”

Then Kirby took the mic, waxing enthusiastical. 

“We are a Wisconsin brewery—and we’re very proud to be representing our state by making beer, which is what our state is KNOWN for, and very frankly is the MOTHER of civilization and I think DEFINES the term ‘leisure with dignity’ . . . But anyways, we were fortunate to get hooked up with Tom and Ken, and the fine folks at Washington Island Brands, and learn about Washington Island and get to hang out and watch our wheat come up here and get to follow throughout the whole process–literally talking to it the whole time–so that we can make this liquid that we’re so proud of, called BEER.”

With that he stepped down, and the band launched into “Desperado.”

 

* And if you don’t know where that is you’re on your own. Last night’s WJMN-TV newsroll of Door County and U.P. pyrotechnics listed the Washington Island display as simply “near the ballpark.”**

** I should point out that this is s.o.p. Notices in the Washington Island Observer routinely direct readers to enterprises at “the end of East Side Road” or “the former home of Bob and Mary Smith.” I was sort of surprised to see the relativism of island geography on the 10 o’clock news though.