After nearly 40 years in the food service business, Junie Bevan has decided it’s time for a new adventure.
She’s not certain what that adventure will be, but one thing for sure is she won’t be behind the cash register at Junie G’s. After 14 years running the Mountain Top restaurant, she’s decided to sell the popular eatery. The buyer is Jerry Seiwell, owner of the Brass Buckle, a well-known Mexican restaurant in Conyngham. The sale is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.
Bevan and her fiancé, Emil Guziejka, opened Junie G’s nearly 14 years ago in a retail strip along South Mountain Boulevard near the Crestwood Pharmacy, not far from the present location. They subsequently bought the former Tony’s Pizza restaurant building, just a short distance away on North Main Street, and moved the restaurant there.
“I’ve loved the restaurant and the people,” Bevan related. “I loved making people happy when they ate my food. My customers and my staff, they’ve become family. That’s what I’m going to miss.”
Bevan discounted rumors about why she decided to sell the restaurant.
“The business certainly is not hurting,” she emphasized. “We’re doing well. And as far as my health, I feel better than I’ve felt in years.”
She explained that her fiancé recently received a promotion at his job and the couple moved to Dingman’s Ferry to be closer to his work.
She also conceded that after 40 years in the food service industry, she’s gotten a bit tired. Mentally tired is how she described it. Bevan said she started working in restaurants when she was 17 years old. Over the years she also worked at Nesbitt Hospital and the postal service, but always kept her fingers in the restaurant business.
“Restaurant (business) is in me, but I’ve just gotten tired,” she offered.
She and her fiancé’s home is on a lake and she is looking forward to waking up in the morning looking out her bedroom window at the water.
“Maybe I’ll take up fishing,” she quipped.
Bevan said she feels very comfortable selling the restaurant to Seiwell and the Brass Buckle.
“They are very family oriented,” she said of the Brass Buckle and its owners.
Seiwell has indicated he plans to continue offering breakfast, a staple of Junie G’s business. Bevan said her daughter, Tash Bevan, expects to stay on to oversee breakfast.
“She’s the creative one,” Bevan noted.
