Recognizing a decade of sustainability, conservation efforts
Seeing is believing for one area doctor
April 6, 2026
LITTLE CHUTE – Local entrepreneurs, Ryan and Jamie Richeson, said the opportunity to take over The Heiting Place came at a perfect time, as its previous owners desired to step aside.
Ryan Richeson said the previous owners – Priscila Benacio and Alexandro Karavacilis – are now leasing the restaurant and bar space located at 1101 W. North Ave. in Little Chute to them.
Transitioning The Heiting Place – which had been around for about nine decades – to The Duchess Eatery & Spirits, he said, involved more than just a name change.
“The Heiting Place has been a fixture in Little Chute for a very long time,” he said. “It’s served as a supper club all this time, but upon taking over the building, we rebranded the space to a sports bar.”
Richeson said The Duchess – open seven days a week with varying hours – continues to feature elevated menu items that set it apart from other establishments.
“[This includes] sous vide short ribs and a few Dutch dishes, like bitterballen – some unique things like that,” he said. “We’ll still do a tenderloin steak and fish on Fridays and Saturdays, [respectively].”
Richeson said being open every day allows them to grow the business.
“We are also the owners of Bean City Bar and Grill in New London (N2505 Bean City Road),” he said. “That’s how we run Bean City, so that’s also our plan for The Duchess – be open seven days per week.”
Another change, Richeson said, is the addition of seven TVs to the space, compared to just one at The Heiting Place.
“The addition of seven TVs makes it more of a sports bar,” he said. “Before we took over, we pretty much knew we wanted to rebrand to a sports bar.”
Some work to be done
With The Heiting Place closing on Valentine’s Day, Richeson said the roughly month-long gap before reopening as The Duchess was spent preparing the building.
“The kitchen needed some work, so we literally spent two weeks gutting and scrubbing that,” he said. “In the bar area, we put in new lighting, redid the walls, put in a new bar face and added new flooring – the main bar area received a facelift.”
Richeson said some new equipment was also added in the kitchen.
“We were supposed to open on Monday, March 16, but with the massive snowstorm we got, we pushed it back a day until St. Patrick’s Day,” he said.
One Facebook user on St. Patrick’s Day said she enjoyed the renovated space.
“Wow, it’s so much brighter when you walk in and it looks really amazing,” she wrote. “We ordered food to go, and we should have taken a picture. It was great seeing familiar faces – well done.”
A unique menu
Richeson said The Duchess pairs its unique Dutch dishes with a burger lineup that ranges from classic cheeseburgers to more unusual creations, like its Western-style option.
“We [also] have a campfire burger with chocolate marshmallow and graham cracker,” he said. “We also have a blueberry burger, where we add a blueberry sauce and pickled onions. We’re known for our very unique hamburgers – flavors you wouldn’t think would go together very well, but when you eat it, you’re like, ‘Holy cow, this is crazy good.’”
Richeson said the hamburger menu at The Duchess is similar to what you’ll find at Bean City.
“About this time last year, we also started BC Burgers,” he said. “The idea behind BC Burgers was to break away the burger menu portion from Bean City and run it as a standalone. BC Burgers is a food truck that sits at a stationary location in Greenville [at W6916 Wisconsin Ave.] and will open again in April.”
The Duchess’s full menu, Richeson said, is available on its Facebook page.
An entrepreneurship background
Having already owned and operated Bean City and BC Burgers prior to opening The Duchess, Richeson said he and Jamie come from more of an entrepreneurial background than a traditional restaurant one.
“Bean City was the first restaurant we bought,” he said. “It has been open since the 1950s or ’60s, but we bought it in 2021.”
After opening BC Burgers, Richeson said they were looking for an opportunity to open another restaurant, finding the right fit in The Heiting Place when it became available.
“We were looking for the perfect spot to start a third [business], so that’s how The Duchess was born,” he said.
Richeson said finding a new location involves weighing a number of important factors.
“We were looking for a higher-traffic location and something where there wasn’t an oversaturation of existing restaurants or bars,” he said. “When the space in Little Chute popped up, it fit the bill for everything we were looking for. After we came and looked at the property, we decided this is where we wanted to make a go of it.”
What’s in a name?
Though neither he nor Jamie is Dutch, Richeson said Little Chute has a strong Dutch influence dating back to the 1840s.
“We wanted to tie the Dutch history in with the community, so that’s why we named it ‘The Duchess,’” he said. “[And] that’s why we also have a couple of Dutch food offerings.”
