Maribel's Cedar Ridge to reopen under new name

By Steve Arveson, Herald Times Reporter

MARIBEL — It's been about 18 months since the abrupt closing of Maribel's Cedar Ridge Restaurant and Banquet Hall on State 147 near the Interstate 43 overpass, but in a couple of months the site will reopen for customers and eventually weddings and gatherings.

A group of about 10 investors are finalizing plans to reopen the former Cedar Ridge under a new but familiar name — The Ridge.

Matt Loerke is one of the partners who will be the new face of The Ridge. He has attended the hospitality and tourism program at Fox Valley Technical College and was a banquet manager at the Holiday Inn in Appleton.

"This is going to be a restaurant with a bar in it versus a bar with a restaurant in it," Loerke said.

Loerke worked with The Bar of Appleton for six years, which is how he became affiliated with the Miller Family, which runs The Bar franchise with locations in Green Bay, Appleton, Wausau, and Oshkosh. Three members of the Miller family, Mark, Jess and Bill, are also investors in the project.

"Nothing is finalized yet as far as the investors in the property and the building yet," Loerke said.

The group does have the ball rolling though.

"We got approved for the liquor license which starts May 1 and right now we're just getting signatures from all the people who are involved to take to the bank so we can start getting bank stuff going in the next two weeks," Loerke said. "Then we can actually get inside here and decide what we want to do."

What they want to do is a renovation of the building's façade and revamp the menu.

"We really want to focus on the outside — a deck for sure — but we don't know how extensive of a deck. We talked about doing a two-level deck but we're going to get people in here who know what they're talking about and see how much it's going to cost," Loerke said. "We're definitely going to do something with the pond area. We talked about a fountain, lighting and definitely some landscaping."

The goal, he said, is to make The Ridge an attractive setting for weddings. The site won't likely host any weddings this summer but will gradually ease into that phase of service as the months go on.

"We definitely want to hit on that and that's why we want to put some time and effort into the outside," Loerke said. "I think that would be a really good selling point with weddings with a nice pond and outdoor seating."

The tentative goal is to have at least part of The Ridge open by May with a full grand opening sometime in June.

"We want to get this (lower) level open first and get the bar and the kitchen going and do burgers and fried stuff out of here, just to get our feet wet and get the doors open so people can come in for interviews for the restaurant." Loerke said.

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