The Stable Making a Comeback: Management Team Working on Re-Launch

By DOUG DONNELLY

Advance Editor

Corrinna Cavasos worked at the Hathaway House and restaurants all over Michigan.

Peter Gaiefsky has been hooked on the food industry for years. 

And, Maria Carrico is a Blissfield native who can’t wait to part of the reopening of The Stable restaurant.

Those three started recently as the management team at The Stable and are working now toward getting the well-known Blissfield establishment back in business. 

“I think we have a great balance of experience from here and outside of Blissfield to bring in some new ideas,” said Randy Brenke, a member of the American Farm Museum and Education Center board of directors. “It should be exciting.”

AFMEC has formed The Stables LLC to operate the restaurant. Gaiefsky, Cavasos and Carrico are now working on cleaning the kitchen, updating fixtures and machinery, setting the menu and putting a plan in place to reopen the restaurant. No date has been set.

“It’s always been a passion of mine to reopen this,” Carrico said. “I know it is something that Blissfield loved. This place had its own community here. We laughed, we cried, we hugged – we did everything in this restaurant. To bring that back is something I’m really looking forward to.”

Carrico worked at The Stable for 18 years before leaving around 2019. She has remained active in the food industry with her own bartending business and has worked in social work, which is what her college degree was in.

In her role, she will be overseeing the bartending staff, servers and the host and hostesses at The Stable. She said hospitality is what she is emphasizing. 

“The things I learned while I was here was hospitality and treating your customers, employees and each other with respect, dignity and warmth,” she said. “That, in my opinion, is exact same environment and feel that I want to create here. You always felt welcomed, like your table was the most important table.

“Creating that same type of hospitality and atmosphere is what I am aiming for.”

Gaiefsky will be the general manager. He’s a Dearborn native who has lived in the Tecumseh area for the past 12 years.

“The food world is where I have been here forever,” Gaiefsky said. 

He most recently worked at Chartwells, the food service provider at Siena Heights University. When he was approached by the AFMEC board, he initially hesitated.

“The bug was in the brain,” he said. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The more I learned the more attractive it was.”

He will be the point person between the AFMEC board and the restaurant and oversee all aspects of the Stables, from budgeting to training. Right now, he’s focused on making sure the kitchen is ready when the restaurant opens.

“The kitchen has to be cleaned,” he said. “We know things work. We know there are things in place that we can use, but it’s been four years since close. There are some things to do. We’re getting things done. Everything is moving. It’s good.”

Cavasos will be the head chef. She’s an Adrian native who worked locally and in places like Grand Rapids in a variety of restaurants, even the Hathaway House. She’s now going through the menu, choosing dinner ware and thinking about specials.

“I’m very excited,” she said. “I think the menu will have some new things, but a little bit of things from the past, too.”

AFMEC board member Melissa Tsuji said the restaurant will be operated as a separate entity from the museum, which is now being prepped to display thousands of farm toys that was the impetus behind the creation of the museum. She said the community is excited to see The Stable coming back.

“I believe it’s the nostalgia, right?” she said. “When museum announced they were moving the toy museum to the Hathaway House, the reaction was, ‘Oh, that’s great. When is the Stable going to be open?’ That was the next question.

“All over the region, they want the Stable back.”