Previously home to Jerry's restaurant, the building is owned by Haney Properties, a firm with long ties to the Yuba-Sutter area. An adjoining motel is scheduled for groundbreaking by spring 2002, said Mark Turner, director of development with Haney-Turner LLC, a subsidiary of Haney Properties. To characterize the new complex, Turner decided on a sportsman's theme with local appeal. He will begin asking area hunters and fishermen to donate photographs, he said, which will decorate the curved wall in the diner's entryway. Hunter's Grill has a unique profile that sets it apart as a sportsman's diner with urban surroundings, he said.
People pride themselves on their hunting skills, their fishing exploits.
There's not any restaurant with a special menu for sportsmen. Turner's grandfather, Milton P. Haney, built the restaurant facility in 1968, he said, and the property, which stretches east from the corner of Colusa Avenue and Olive Street to the Washington Mutual building at 540 Colusa Ave., has been owned by the family ever since. Haney Properties manages land holdings as far away as San Francisco, Reno and Lake Tahoe. After placing employment ads at culinary institutes, Turner hired Marie Weddle from Sacramento as the restaurant's operations manager and lead chef. A 30-person operating crew was added.