By Carol Stiffler
Jason and Jessica Stickney wanted to buy the Tally Ho bar and restaurant in Curtis from former owner Kim Bushey. They’d talked about it with her, but the timing wasn’t right.
The Stickneys, who lived near Ludington, Michigan, at the time, were spending as much time in Curtis as they could. Jason owned a home repair business and Jessica worked from home in the healthcare field.
As the suburban area around the Stickneys swelled with people fleeing cities during the COVID-19 pandemic, it felt less like a community to them.
That’s what they found in Curtis: community. “The way they look out for each other is very community oriented,” Jason said. “It’s not me, myself, and I.”
The Stickneys kept visiting Curtis, more frequently, and staying longer. Now married for 26 years, their three children have grown up.
“Any time I had a break in the action after she got out of work, we’d pack up and do a long stay” in Curtis, said Jason.
Bushey died in 2021, and her business eventually sold to Chris and Loren Symonds.
“We kept watching and watching,” Jason said. “When the time was right, we jumped on it and made a deal.”
They’ve worn many hats over time – Jessica dealt cards at a casino and worked at a bank for years – but this is their first restaurant venture. They shadowed the Symonds for a few months to learn the ropes. The Stickneys closed on the building on April 12.
Because Curtis already has options for pizza and bar food, they opted for something new: BBQ.
Jason and Jessica don’t smoke cigarettes, but they are willing to smoke almost any kind of meat. They once special ordered a 27-pound alligator and smoked it to serve at the Tally Ho BBQ.
“For four hours, you couldn’t get a seat in the place,” Jason said. “But almost no one ordered the gator.”
Portions of the novelty meat were tender like fish and tasted great, but some areas were rubbery, he said.
“Some people said it tasted like chicken,” Jessica said.
Their regular menu offers classics like brisket (their most popular smoked dish), chicken wings, pulled pork and “twinkies” – bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers. Not everything they make is smoked. Smashburgers and mac and cheese, for example, aren’t smoked.
Jason fires up the smoker around 11 p.m. or midnight, and lets the meat cook rotisserie style until up to 4 p.m. the next day. The scent drifts through town a bit and works better than advertising could to attract hungry customers.
The Stickneys want to focus more on food than alcohol, they said, so they close at 10 p.m. They’re firm believers that nothing great happens late at night, and closing earlier establishes the Tally Ho as more of a restaurant than a bar.
The interior looks and feels much the same as ever; the Stickneys updated lighting and removed carpet to expose the hardwood floors. The staff is treated more like family, they said, and they’ve tried to build a business where employees like to work. The restaurant will be closed the week before and the week of Christmas for a deep clean and to give employees family time. They’ll close in the spring for another week of deep cleaning.
“We’re a lot of ‘What you see is what you get,’” Jessica said. “But with that said, we aren’t flashy people.”
Jason and Jessica describe themselves as hard workers who muscled their way into business
