Tourists and Traverse City transplants will head to dinner at Sorellina at 120 Park Street and not think twice. But longtime residents might recall the many iterations of the building over the years. Nestled between Front and State streets near the Park Place Hotel, the building has been home to pubs, cafes, and restaurants that have been sold or bankrupted dating back at least six decades.

The building was first used commercially in the mid-1950’s as Bill Thomas' Thomas’ Coffee Shop and dining area known as the Redwood Room. Thomas’ advertised its “famous modest prices” -- in 1962, the price of a Sunday brunch was $2.50. After some 20 years of service and “making somewhere in the excess of three million blueberry muffins,” the eponymous owner sold his business.

In 1977, just months after the sale, Steve McClain, Thomas’ manager and executive chef, renamed the space. Called Chutney’s Olde English, the menu focused on English fare with dishes such as kidney pie and Yorkshire pudding.

Chutney’s was short lived, and opened as Nicky’s North in August 1979, owned by Mitchell Pierce, the son of the Chairman of National Bank & Trust (NBT). NBT was quickly tied up in a series of lawsuits, including allegations of conflicts of interest with Nicky’s, and was in financial trouble within a year of its opening. Nicky’s was out of business after 22 months.

Perhaps the most notorious of the 120 Park iterations was Billy’s, known as the spot to let lose in the 80s. Four partners, including Bill Stireman, leased the building, obtained a liquor license, and opened up the bar and restaurant to the public. Rumors of Billy’s as a hot meeting spot with wild antics spread quickly, and the place became an instant success.

“We had a stable of hermit crabs, and once a month we would have hermit crab races on the bar at cocktail hour. They would race, people would pick a number and the first crab to the finish line was the winner,” says Stireman. With a free hors d’oeuvre buffet most afternoons, the buzz and good food still couldn’t sustain the business. “We were a lot younger in those days, we had a lot of fun and didn’t care if we made any money, but then we were losing.”

Next came Dan Kelly, who opened up DJ Kelly’s as a full service restaurant in 1986. Kelly’s was known for bringing in menu items Traverse City patrons hadn’t seen before, like fondue and ceviche – items Kelly discovered from his travels. Though the restaurant was successful for over a decade, Kelly decided to focus on his catering business, Williamsburg’s Catering by Kelly’s.

Kelly retained the real estate license for the building itself, but sold it to a number of businesses that were unable to find the same niche or success of DJ Kelly’s. Park Street Deli, Left Bank Café, Pete’s Pub & Grille, and Catch Island Grill each had limited runs beginning in 2000 until Kelly again took over the reins, opening up The Bay Leaf out of necessity in autumn 2010.

“Those failing businesses, the bankruptcies were killing us… we had to get it up and running and show that we could market it as a successful location,” said Kelly. The Bay Leaf, serving farm-to-table fare, was a success critically and financially, and did prove the location was viable.

Returning to catering full time, Kelly sold the building to Glen Harrington and John McGee, who purchased the property and transformed it into the 110-seat Italian eatery Sorellina in April 2012. McGee admits to some trepidation early on due to the revolving door of restaurant failures, but says the location sits between popular happy hour locations and “traffic breeds traffic.”