Updated Sept. 10, 2026: Ludington Street is almost done. The Daily Press reported Sept. 4 that the final blocks are being paved and the road should be fully open to traffic before Sept. 15. The restaurant has not said publicly whether the shuttle will keep running after the street reopens, so call (906) 786-9606 before you go.
An Escanaba pancake institution would rather give you a lift than lose you. With Ludington Street torn up for a summer-long rebuild and no parking out front, the Swedish Pantry, 47 years of Swedish pancakes, meatballs, and cinnamon rolls the size of your hand, has started shuttling customers from the city lots straight to its front door. Park, call the restaurant, and someone comes to get you.
Downtown Escanaba has spent the summer in a months-long rebuild. Crews began milling Ludington Street in April and closed it from 6th Street to 14th, later extending the closure to 16th, while they replaced water and sewer lines that are more than a century old. The main detour runs along 1st Avenue South, and the storefront parking regulars counted on has been gone for the summer.
A lift to the front door
The shuttle is just what it sounds like. Park in one of the city lots behind the downtown businesses, call the Pantry, and they will run you to the door so you never have to pick your way through a construction zone. It is a small-town fix to a big inconvenience, and so far it is keeping the booths full. The restaurant is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., seven days a week, and the owners say the menu and the recipes are not changing one bit. Talk of adding dinner service is on hold until the street reopens.
Forty-seven years of cardamom and caramels
The Swedish Pantry opened in 1979, built on the recipes of Betty Maycunich, a lifelong Delta County resident who ran it with her husband Steve. It changed hands more than once over the decades but never lost the formula: made-that-day breads, lemon-poppy and carrot muffins, melt-in-your-mouth caramels, and the pancakes that made its name. The dining room doubles as a gift shop full of Swedish trinkets and musical clocks, the kind of place built for luncheons, reunions, and a slow cup of coffee. Its reach is bigger than you would guess. Back in 2003, 22 members of a Swedish motorcycle club from the Stockholm area, in the States for Harley-Davidson’s 100th anniversary in Milwaukee, spotted a billboard and rode all the way up to Escanaba to taste a bit of home. They left happy.
The part the headlines skip
It is easy to read "downtown torn up for the summer" as nothing but bad news for the shops still open. Here is the piece that gets lost: the city says downtown will come out of this with more parking than before, not less, as it reworks curb cuts and shifts some spaces to side streets, and the century-old pipes under the road finally get replaced. In the meantime, the practical move if you are craving pancakes is simple. Park in a city lot behind the Ludington Street businesses, take the 1st Avenue South detour into downtown, and call the Swedish Pantry at (906) 786-9606 for a ride to the door. The yellow-and-blue awnings are right where they have always been.
Plenty of places would hang a "closed for construction" sign and wait it out. This one decided that if customers cannot easily get to the pancakes, the pancakes, and a ride, will come to them.
More worth reading
Golden 25 trust review · #8
Verified context for this Yooper Hub story
- Evidence refreshed
- July 13, 2026
- Source readiness
- Evidence package still has unresolved requirements.
- Corrections status
- A material correction or update note is published in this article.
- Image rights
- Featured and in-story images have documented rights records.
Sources, credits, and reporting details
Sources & accountability
How this story was reported
Editorial methodService and public-interest reporting
Accountable editor:Keegan O’Brien, publisher and editor.
Last verifiedSep. 10, 2026
Corrections statusA material correction or update note is published in this article.
AI assistanceResearched and drafted with AI tools. Reviewed and approved by editor Keegan O’Brien. Tool: Claude Max.
Verification note: Rechecked Sept. 10, 2026. The restaurant's phone and hours are unchanged. Ludington Street was expected to reopen before Sept. 15, so the construction lines were updated. No public source since June 22 says whether the shuttle continues after the reopening.
Primary sources
-
Contact Swedish Pantry — Swedish Pantry
Accessed Sep. 10, 2026.
Supports: Primary business source for current location, contact information, and hours.
-
About Swedish Pantry — Swedish Pantry
Accessed Sep. 10, 2026.
Additional reporting
-
Shuttling to pancakes (and other original recipes) — Daily Press (Escanaba)
Published Jun. 22, 2026. Accessed Sep. 10, 2026.
-
The end is in sight (Ludington Street nears reopening) — Daily Press (Escanaba)
Published Sep. 4, 2026. Accessed Sep. 10, 2026.
-
Main Escanaba street to close for construction — WLUC TV6
Published Apr. 9, 2026. Accessed Sep. 10, 2026.
-
Escanaba gives update on Ludington Street construction — WLUC TV6
Published Mar. 30, 2026. Accessed Sep. 10, 2026.
-
Come hungry for simply the best home-cooked Swedish and American dishes — Visit Escanaba
Accessed Sep. 10, 2026.
Photo and media credits
-
Pannkaka.jpg (featured image) — stu_spivack, via Wikimedia Commons
Featured image record. Accessed Sep. 10, 2026. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Supports: Featured image, credited on the page as "Photo: stu_spivack / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)."
Resized for the site.
