Tri-Cities people and businesses take advantage of unofficial last day of summer

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — People and businesses took advantage of the Labor Day holiday.

For many, the holiday marks the last day of summer and the beginning of fall.

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Jeff Barger took a break from boating to grab a meal at Jay’s Boat Dock.

“Oh, we’re enjoying the last weekend on the lake…here at Jay’s, one of our favorite places,” said Barger. “We’re going to get all we can get in today.”

People put in their last orders for meals at the restaurant which closes for the season Monday. The restaurant will reopen in mid-May.

Manager Cindy Light said customers have asked for the restaurant to stay open longer. The dock still sells fuel through October.

“Most of my employees are in school either teaching or taking classes,” Light said. “So this is a hard time to get people to work. We’ve done well to stay open through Labor Day.”

When the restaurant closes at 9 p.m., Light has a long closing list to get to.

“We’ve got to do something with all of our leftover food for the restaurant,” Light said. “Things that have been put off like accounting kind of things.”

Essential workers still labor on Labor Day

Coffee Town owner Phillip Edwards closed the shop after a busy day of holiday business.

He made plenty of the shop’s summer drinks like dirty sodas, along with pumpkin spice drinks. Edwards said he’s noticed an exponential increase in requests for pumpkin spice drinks in the last few weeks.

“A lot more people coming in,” said Edwards. “A lot more people excited for the holiday drinks.”

The shop’s pumpkin spice drink is a secret menu item, because, Edwards said, it can be made year-round.

“How we do it is a lot different than most places do it,” said Edwards. “We do it a little bit nontraditionally. We have our proprietary blend of pumpkin spices that we steep into the espresso, before we put it into the drink.”

Customers can expect fall baked goods to be added to the list of items to purchase at Coffee Town.

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