Lost City: Wisconsin Edition: Jumes Restaurant Is Dead

Back in 2008, I posted a short item about Jumes, a wonderful old corner diner in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. I swung by the place earlier this summer to sadly find it out of business.

As I wrote back then, it once called itself the oldest continually operating restaurant in the city, having begun life in 1929. Jumes actually opened its doors on Oct. 1—just daysbefore Wall Street took a dive. George and Ted Jumes were Greeks; George came over to America when he was merely 14. Their first Sheboygan restaurant was called the Coney Island Restaurant, for some reason. It was renamed Jumes when it moved in 1951 to its present—and now final—location. A fire gutted the place in 1990, but it soldiered on.

Jumes apparently closed in July 2011. Owners Louis and Mary Jumes—third generation Jumeses—told the press at the time that the economic downturn and a drop in customers, combined with the continued cost of upkeep, utilities, insurance and other expenses, caused them to throw in the towel make the toughest decision of their lives in closing the business. 

Two years later, no one has taken over the location. Downtown Sheboygan is a pretty sad looking place in general, with many empty shops.

What will become of the wonderful sign, I wonder.