When she wakes up next Monday morning, it will be the first time in 40 years that Vickie Clawson won’t have to think about running her namesake restaurant.

Clawson announced Friday via Facebook her plans to retire. Vickie’s Place, on the Fox River in downtown McHenry, is closed through Christmas Day and will reopen for the last times Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 26-28.

She’s looking forward “to being a little more free, mentally. The freedom of not having to worry about it. It is like worrying about a child,” Clawson said.

When she was 27, Clawson, a now-ex husband and her parents went in on the restaurant at 1211 N. River Road. She didn’t know much about running a restaurant, but her ex had a background in fast food, Clawson said. She retained ownership after the divorce and later bought her parents out.

“We kinda jumped in with both feet first and never looked back,” Clawson said.

Once she’s not coming in every day, what she might miss more than the people is the view.

“It has been 40 years of looking onto the river, at the boaters in the summertime. It has been home to me. I have spent more time there than anywhere else,” she said. Leaving her second home behind “is like retiring and moving all at the same time.”

Clawson could have walked away and retired three years ago. During a cold snap over Christmas 2022 – when Vickie’s was closed for the holiday – a water pipe burst and flooded the building. With construction delays, it was August 2023 before she could reopen.

“I did have an offer at that time” that would have allowed her to retire – something she’s thought about doing since COVID-19. “But I wanted to reopen and do it again. I think I would have ... been letting myself down if I called it quits because something bad happened,” Clawson said. “I didn’t consider not reopening.”

Now that she’s made the call to retire, Clawson is not really sure what her plans are, other than spending more time with her blended family and grandchildren.

“Got any ideas?” she laughed.

Travel is on the to-do list, but with limitations. Her husband, Bernie Allison – they met when he was a customer at the restaurant – is also retired. But due to kidney failure, Allison has dialysis three times a week. That reality will keep them close to home until Allison can find a kidney donor.

“We are staying in town and staying part of the community. We are not going anywhere, just retiring,” Clawson said.

She’s also happy to announce that the restaurant has been purchased and will continue to serve the community and not become housing.

She’d put the restaurant on the market and over the summer, a developer approached McHenry to see if there was interest in razing the building and putting up condos. Clawson was not aware of the proposal before the pitch to the McHenry City Council, which was not supportive of the plan.

The new buyer is restauranteur Niko Kanakaris, owner of Niko’s Red Mill Tavern in Woodstock and other restaurants in the region.

The name is still up in the air, but he’s leaning toward Niko’s on the Fox, Kanakaris said. He’s planning to “freshen it up” with a new look, updating the interior bar area, the kitchen and the exterior and redoing the bathrooms.

“There will be some renovations inside,” he said, but he plans to “concentrate on the outside” with new boat slips, an outdoor bar and a renovation of the entire patio area. Kanakaris hopes to be ready to reopen by May.

After Clawson’s retirement announcement, customers came in to say goodbye, she said. She expects more of those next weekend – although she does not promise an extensive menu as she finishes up their inventory.

What she’s found since the announcement is how much the spot has meant to her customers.

“Since I put the Facebook post up, so many people have reached out – people who have moved away and ex-employees who have not worked here for years,” Clawson said.

“It means so much more to them than I realized,” she said. “It means a lot to me, but I didn’t realize how much it means to a lot of people.”