Ada, Michigan dining room with an engagement-night tradition
445 Thornapple River Drive SE, Ada, MI 49301
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Upscale Ada-area dining; check the current restaurant operator (most recently the Gilmore Collection's RiverHouse Ada / Bistro Chloe Elan line) for hours and menu.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Standard restaurant access
Equipment
Photos OK
The restaurant at 445 Thornapple River Drive in Ada, Michigan opened in the late 1970s as the Thornapple Village Inn and won Grand Rapids Magazine's Restaurant of the Year award during its early years. The Gilmore Collection, the same Michigan hospitality group that owns several other Grand Rapids-area restaurants, has operated the building under multiple names including the Thornapple Village Inn, Bistro Chloe Elan, and RiverHouse Ada.
Ada is a Kent County community along the Thornapple River, just east of Grand Rapids. The restaurant sits on the river bluff and features an interior elevator and basement-level dining areas.
Sources
Local Ada tradition holds that an engagement dinner was held at the restaurant in its early years and that the bride-to-be died unexpectedly afterward. She is reported to appear in the women's-restroom mirrors in the basement, to ride the elevator on her own, and to manipulate other electrical equipment in the building.
Managers and wait staff have described seeing her silhouette in the dining room and have reported working alone after closing in the bar area until they were unwilling to do so anymore. One manager publicly stated that after multiple nights of seeing the elevator operate on its own she stopped working alone. The presence is described in regional Michigan paranormal writing as gentle and inquisitive rather than threatening.
Eat at the long-running upscale Ada, Michigan restaurant that opened in the late 1970s as the Thornapple Village Inn and has subsequently operated under multiple names including Bistro Chloe Elan and RiverHouse Ada. The Gilmore Collection owns the property.
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