Former Tecumseh resident gifts sign to newly-opened Rosie’s Café

Even though he’s lived and worked in Florida for more than 40 years, Terry Akens always has a place in his heart for Tecumseh — his hometown.

“My heart, man, heart and soul are right here (in Tecumseh),” he said last week while visiting.

And even though he relocated south for work in the commercial sign industry, Akens makes it part of his yearly routine to come back home to Tecumseh a handful of times. His visit last week was coupled with a gift for a newly-opened local restaurant.

After business hours on Wednesday, July 9, Akens met up with Rosie’s Tecumseh Café owner Bill Leisenring to congratulate him on the May 30 opening of the breakfast and lunch restaurant downtown and to gift the restaurant with a specially-made LED, neon replica sign of the Rosie’s Café logo.

The interior wall-hanging sign was put together by Akens at his sign shop, Southern Sign Industries Corp. located in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., which serves the northwest Florida and southern Alabama regions.

But this isn’t the first sign specially-made for a Tecumseh business by Akens. His first locally donated sign was back in the mid-1980s when Akens was still fairly new in the sign-making profession. He donated the exterior sign that still sits in front of Brownie’s House of Pizza, 1002 W. Chicago Blvd.

“This is my hometown and it always will be,” Akens said, who graduated from Tecumseh High School with the Class of 1973. “This little town has some awesome people in it, and it always has had some awesome people in it.

“…Overall, I’ve seen so many good people come from this town, and they appreciate the fact that they’re from this town.”

Akens learned about the commercial sign/design craft in 1973 while taking classes at what used to be Vo-Tech (the current Lenawee Intermediate School District TECH Center). He got hired into an Adrian sign company in 1973, but an energy crisis during the mid-1970s resulted in him leaving the sign industry for a job with the Ford Motor Co. from 1978-1980.

He was laid off from the motor vehicle factory, which was when he accepted a job down south and moved to Florida.

Nowadays, Akens said he prides his business on being one of the few in the Florida Panhandle to still have a neon sign shop.

“We manufacture the neon,” he said. “Because when LEDs came in, neon went out. But since we are on the Gulf of Mexico, we still get a lot of tourism.There’s a lot of tourism and neon going on still. So, neon is never going away, it’s just getting cut down a lot. It’s still nostalgic and it looks cool.”

The sign’s nostalgia vibe will fit in almost perfectly with the restaurant’s interior at Rosie’s Café. Vintage décor can be seen inside the restaurant and is a main theme throughout the Rosie’s experience.

Leisenring’s great-aunt, for example, collected salt and pepper shakers, which can be found lining one of the walls inside the café at 111 W. Chicago Blvd.

Rosie’s sign aims to evoke “grandma” vibes, Leisenring explained, through a throwback, retro look and color scheme. An online design contest allowed artists from all over the world to submit designs for Rosie’s signage.

The genesis of the Rosie’s name and the concept for the restaurant is to feel like you are going to your grandma’s house where you are loved and spoiled with hospitality, comfort and good food, Leisenring said.

And while his dog’s name is Rosie, Leisenring said that’s not the namesake of the restaurant.

“It’s maybe just an influence,” he admitted, explaining the name of the restaurant is more or less the “idea of a loving, welcoming feeling you get when you come into this place.”

Leisenring, the CEO of Ring Restaurant Group, purchased the building that previously housed JR’s Hometown Grill & Pub at the end of December 2024. Restoration work on the restaurant took place “in record time,” Leisenring said. It took five months before the café officially opened at the end of May.

“The goal of this restaurant is to provide a place for connections to happen and for people to talk, enjoy a cup of coffee, enjoy each other’s time and kind of put the worries of the world behind them,” he said.

After being open for business for about 1 1/2 months, Leisenring said the community reception has been wonderful with “some great feedback.”

“We’ve been blessed. So far, it’s been so good,” he said. “We really try to prioritize hospitality and service. In our training we tell the staff we are a hospitality company that serves food. Everybody takes their part in making sure customers are taken care of.”

The news of being open for business traveled all the way down to Florida — with almost 14 1/2 hours separating Rosie’s Café from Southern Signs Industries (according to a Google Maps search).

“I think the sign is great but what I’m even more thrilled about is that I connected with Terry and that it’s a gift from the Class of 1973,” Leisenring said. “We have a lot of customers in that age group, and it’s wonderful that they feel connected to this building and this space. We have certainly been taking it very seriously to honor that heritage here.”