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Still baking: Former Fob’s owners Fabbri, daughter remain with business

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FROM LEFT, FAYE and Chester “Chetti” Fabbri, original owners of Fob’s Restaurant in Crystal Falls, remain regular figures at the restaurant though it has since changed hands. Chetti Fabbri still bakes there seven days a week. (Theresa Proudfit/Daily News photo)

CRYSTAL FALLS — Chester “Chetti” Fabbri remembers the conversation well.

He and his brother-in-law, Tom Williams, were sitting outside looking over the tennis courts on Williams’ property when Fabbri mentioned an idea he’d been considering.

“You know what? A new restaurant in this town would be very nice,” Fabbri recalls telling Williams. “You have to go a long way to get a cup of coffee around here.”

Williams responded, “I’ll put up the building, you run the restaurant.”

Fabbri thought his brother-in-law was kidding — until a construction crew showed up a few months later to raze the tennis courts and build the Williams mini-mall at 1353 U.S. 2 in Crystal Falls.

FOB’S RESTAURANT HAS been in business in Crystal Falls since 1978. (Theresa Proudfit/Daily News photo)

“I asked Tom, ‘What’s going on?’ He said, ‘That’s the building for your restaurant,'” Fabbri said.

Thus was the origin of Fob’s Restaurant in 1978. The new mall also housed a candy store, Radio Shack, a dress shop and a florist.

“It was booming back then. You could hardly find a parking place,” said Nancy Bunno, who has been with the restaurant 38 years.

Fabbri worked as a barber, milkman and a bus driver before becoming a business owner and baker at the restaurant. His wife, Faye, became a full-time caregiver for their son, James “Fob” Fabbri, after he was paralyzed in a car accident. Fob’s was named in his honor.

Having never baked before, Fabbri picked up his skills from a few of the previous bakers at the restaurant “on a wing and a prayer.”

At age 84, he still bakes seven days a week at the restaurant, though the business now is owned by Bunno and her husband, Jeff, of Bates Township.

They take pride in featuring food prepared on site in a family-friendly atmosphere.

“Everything is homemade — nothing out of a bag or a can,” Bunno said.

Williams died in 2014 and his children now own the building. In the late 1980s, the Fabbris sold Fob’s to their daughter and son-in-law, Robin and Eric Hagglund. The Hagglunds turned it over to Bunno just two years ago, though Robin Hagglund still bakes at the restaurant along with her dad.

Fabbri credits good, reasonably priced food, excellent help and location for the restaurant’s success. Fob’s is open from 5:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day.

“We get a lot of people from Iron Mountain and Iron River. Fob’s is the halfway point between the Copper Country and the Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center, so we get a lot of veterans stopping here,” he said.

Popular items are Swedish pancakes in the morning, broasted chicken, pasta with their signature sauce and chili. Fabbri’s custard and lemon meringue pies get rave reviews, but Fabbri said the raspberry pie is the best dessert on the menu.

“That’s my daughter’s specialty,” he said.

Many of the restaurant’s other original recipes belonged to Bunno. “Nancy is a friendly person and she does a great job with the menu,” Fabbri said.

Although the restaurant doesn’t officially offer catering, they will do large to-go orders. “Different churches will order Nesco’s of rigatoni or broasted chicken and they come to pick it up,” Bunno said.

While Bunno may have gotten a few more gray hairs after taking over the restaurant, she was grateful for the opportunity.

“It’s different, it’s a challenge every day, but it’s fun,” she said, adding, “I make soups in the morning or cook on the grill, and in the evening I come out into the dining room. I get a little bit of all of it, and I like that.”

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