Dave Sjuts
York News-Times
The Chances âRâ Restaurant has been a staple of the downtown York business community since the mid-1960s when Raymond and Shirley Reetz opened the iconic restaurant.
They then entrusted the restaurant to the hands of their daughter Suzanne along with her husband, Tom Vanous.
Tom and Suzanne Vanous have decided to sell the popular restaurant to another husband-and-wife team, Renee and Bryan Jantz, who will take over this fall. They didnât have to look far for the buyers.
Renee Jantz has been an employee of the restaurant since 1992 and most recently served as the general manager. Bryan Jantz will be retiring from his current position at Penner Manufacturing in Aurora and will join the Chances âRâ team full time. He has been working in the kitchen on a part-time basis.
YORKÂ â âChances are weâll make it, chances are weâll go broke.â
That was the sentiment of Ray and Shirley Reetz in 1964 when they took a leap of faith and expanded the little Cozy Lunch diner in downtown York.
They even used their mantra in the new restaurantâs name â Chances R.
The Reetzes spent many long hours transforming a small business into what became a legendary Nebraska eatery.
Ray Reetz died May 20 at the age of 87 in Phoenix.
In 1931, Hiney Nuefeld opened The Cozy Lunch. And in 1937, Roy and Robert Schultz (Shirleyâs father and grandfather) purchased the cafe. Over the next 20 years, the business thrived.