Leelanau County property owners looking to rent their homes each summer have a new alternative, thanks to Northland Vacation Rentals, a new Glen Arbor-based business.
Tim Barr and Bonnie Nescot, who own Glen Arbor’s world famous Art’s Tavern, were honored with this year’s Leelanau Peninsula Chamber business of the year award. The award was presented at the Chamber’s annual dinner on Oct. 25. This is the third year in a row the award has been issued. Previous winners include the Bahles in Suttons Bay and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians’ Economic Development Corporation.
Graeme and Judy Leask, with daughters Chelsea and Gemma, have resuscitated an old county landmark and gathering place: the Little Traverse Inn. Most recently the restaurant North, and for many years before that the Leelanau Country Inn, this cozy glass-porched B&B and eatery has, as the menu recalls, “an incredible history.”
Check out this great video from Detroit Public Television’s traveling “Under the Radar” series. You can stream the owners of Cherry Republic and Art’s Tavern, the Deputy Superintendent of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and Glen Arbor artists Becky Thatcher and Beth Bricker into your homes, thus satisfying your wanderlust.
Cherry Republic will host a fall celebration at its Glen Arbor location on Saturday, Oct. 13 from 2-5 p.m., as it hosts acoustic folk rock guitarist Eric Nassau and The Lord of the Gourd carving colorful pumpkins and gourds. Children’s activities will include pumpkin and cookie decorating, spit the pit into the giant pumpkin, pumpkin ping pong ball toss, donuts on a string etc.
When you walk through the dining room at the Cedar Rustic Inn (by the blinker just north of Cedar) on a warm evening, you pass through the back door into a cozy and charming courtyard that is shaded with umbrellas amid young maples and birch trees surrounded by tomato and lima bean plants, peonies, hydrangeas, and flower baskets mounted on the wood walls. If it’s a Wednesday night you’ll probably see Bob Smith of Glen Arbor sucking on his fingers as he polishes off the full rack of ribs. (He claims that some of his charter-fishing customers from Florida recently brought some of those leftover ribs out on the Mariah for their lunch. When they threw the bones over the side it must have attracted the salmon, because the next several fish they caught had rib bones in their mouths! But that’s a fish story.)
Katy and Matt Wiesen, owners of Crystal River Outfitters, the Cyclery and the M-22 Store in Glen Arbor were named among the region’s 40 most influential people under age 40. The honorees were treated to an exclusive fete hosted by Northwestern Michigan College inside its Dennos Museum Center, as reported this morning by the Ticker.
Being a waitress is like being a duck. That’s right, a duck. You may look like you are gliding along a placid pond, but underneath the surface you are paddling frantically. No matter how fast the food may fly out of the kitchen you must be there to calmly escort it to the table with a carefree smile. This is not to say that waitressing is a horribly hard job only for the fearless. No, during my time at work I have met some of the most amazing people just by taking their orders. You get to know a person intimately and quickly by what they choose to order. You can tell a person’s temperament by how impatient they seem for their food. You can judge character by the way that they treat the waitress, me.
Does Glen Arbor truly embrace bikers? These citizens on two wheels represent a growing share of our tourism pie, as northern Michigan appeals to both recreational and athletic bikers. They represent an active lifestyle that fits our outdoor attractions like a glove; they don’t clog roads or parking lots; they don’t consume fossil fuels and pollute our air, and their leisurely pace makes them ideal targets to visit and financially support our shops, galleries and eateries.
Guillaume and Brook Hazael-Massieux are spreading their wings. The owners of the legendary La Becasse (“the woodcock”) French country restaurant in Burdickville are humming this week into their second nest at 118 Cass Street in downtown Traverse City named Bistro Foufou (“hummingbird”). Their new eatery is the fruit of a three-year process that finally ripened last winter when they negotiated the purchase of Hanna Bistro, a prime location just a block off Front St. in the busy center of Traverse City.