Let’s Go Eat … Where??

By Norm Wheeler
Sun editor

You are on vacation, so don’t cook! There are plenty of choices for dining out right here in this corner of Leelanau County, from breakfast to late-night munchies, from take out to slow food, from American to French to Italian, from quick and easy to refined and elegant. Most of the culinary choices at your disposal have ads in these pages where you can find opening hours and phone numbers. But to tantalize you to visit the villages, check out the avenues, and eat your way around the lakes, here’s a quick primer.

BREAKFAST & LUNCH

A few eateries specialize in breakfast, including The Foothills (east side of Glen Lake) where Don Sielaff features his popular Eggs Benedict, great French toast & waffles, huevos rancheros, and the new hit, Cherry Pancakes. (All day lunch choices include a redolent Reuben!). A new morning choice this summer is at the Leelanau Coffee Roasters (downtown Glen Arbor) with fresh breakfast sandwiches on bagels or muffins featuring sausage, Canadian bacon, and revolutionary “steamed” scrambled eggs. John Arens says “the eggs go POOF!” They also have fresh baked goods to accompany your organic Guatemalan coffee. Fresh pastries to get your day started can also be found at Laker Shakes (Burdickville) featuring Bay Bread scones, muffins, cinnamon rolls, sticky buns, and local fruits and vegetables. If you’re up early and hungry in Empire, stop by Gemma’s for homemade scones and cookies, as well as sandwiches fixed fresh every morning. (I’ll get to All Day restaurants that have a breakfast menu later!) Riverfront (Glen Arbor) features deli lunches from 11-3, with Sue Nichol’s Cherry Chicken a favorite among several salads along with fine homemade soups on a menu that changes weekly. Dune Dogs (Glen Arbor) provides Chicago style hot dogs with the works accompanied by authentic blues music, and Deerings Market (Empire) has ready-to-go lunch specials including pizza, chicken, and sandwiches.

LUNCH & DINNER

When the sun reaches the zenith, your eating choices abound. Chris Roberts opens The Grand Café at Cherry Republic (Glen Arbor) with lunch specials, including cherry chicken salad, and dinner specials like cherry pulled pork BBQ. They continue the popular Rib Night every Friday, and Sunday brunch with cherry ice cream waffles, huevos rancheros, or biscuits with sausage gravy. Cherry Republic now offers FUDGE, including the bold Pirate Fudge, a smooth cherry fudge with cherry sour patches. Their winery has added a Cherry White Pinot Grigio and a Balaton Cherry Wine, and the store is featuring a new Hikers Trail Mix that comes with a compass so you don’t get lost. Boondocks (Glen Arbor) has daily food and drink specials and features their porcupine chicken, ring-tailed Reuben, and perch sandwiches, as well as BBQ ribs, a 20 oz. T-bone steak, parmesan crusted walleye, salads that can have chicken or whitefish added, interesting appetizers, and burgers cooked to order. There is also live music seven nights a week with New Third Coast, Cabin Fever, the Boondoggies, or Chris Skellenger & the Good Boy Band. The Manor on Glen Lake offers different lunch specials daily including salads and sandwiches on the lighter side, and there’s a lovely Sunday Champagne Brunch. Their popular whitefish and salmon dinners are always available along with broasted chicken dinners or buckets to go. Every night there’s a complete five-course meal, and there are monthly wine dinners with 5 courses and 5 wines.

DINNER

Elegant and affordable dining is close by! Nonna’s (Homestead Village) Chef John Piombo (from Italy!) just won the Northern Michigan Chef’s Challenge Cookoff. He concocts original pastas, gnocchi, and original fish dishes including his popular cedar planked Arctic Char, Sauteed Halibut, or Grilled Silk Snapper. Leelanau County and Michigan produce is featured fresh daily, and Manager Jon Kloo says “We live the dream every day so you can experience one day of that dream!” On Sleeping Bear Bay in Glen Arbor is the elegant blu. They offer a daily early bird 3-course prix fixe menu. A house specialty is the amazing Duck Confit, and there is always super fresh fish, homemade desserts, and a seven-page wine list. Blue lump Crab Cakes are a popular appetizer, and Randy’s Opera Torte that features an espresso and coffee layered butter cream ganache, the French version of terramisu, is super rich and to die for! A “blu pac” of truffles from Grocer’s Daughter Chocolates is also new on the menu. Glen Arbor’s Western Avenue Grill features fresh whitefish from Leland, as well as walleye and perch, great prime rib, and a seafood ravioli. Chef Shane Jackson’s Parmesan Whitefish is a favorite. Around Big Glen Lake in Burdickville are two more great dinner choices. Legendary La Becasse has homemade prosciutto, “Inevitable” Duck, daily specials like grilled Tasmanian Salmon, Veal, and Hangar Steak, and it is the only local restaurant to win a Spectator Wine List Award. Just down the street is Funistrada, featuring five-layer lasagna with six different meats, hugely popular Veal Saltimbocca, Bistecca Balsamico, and a tantalizing salmon with lemon asparagus sauce. Great produce from the local Sweeter Song Organic Farm is also featured, along with local rhubarb and strawberries.

BREAKFAST, LUNCH, & DINNER

You can’t go wrong with a visit to any of the “all day every day” heavy lifters of the local restaurant universe. Art’s Tavern in downtown Glen Arbor is a perennial favorite with specialty burgers, white fish in a bag on Fridays, Chicken jalapeno soup on Wednesdays, shrimp dinners, and now eggs benedict, and apple white cheddar omelet added to the expansive breakfast menu. The home of the Nightly Resurrecting Pool Table, Art’s keeps their grill going into the wee hours for late night munchies. The Good Harbor Grill is known for their Crab Cakes Benedict or Crab & Avacado Omelet for breakfast, for soups like the Seafood Mediterranean with lots of garlic and kalamata olives for lunch, and for fresh and unique salads with an emphasis on local, organic food. Some featured entrees are Mahi-Mahi, or Lamb with a mint pesto topping. Cos is now making in-house pies, including Strawberry Rhubarb and Chocolate Bourbon Pecan. The Friendly Tavern in Empire is famous for their Burgers, but they also provide great breakfasts, local perch, salmon, blue gill, and lake trout dinners, sweet potato fries and nachos, and chocolate cherry bread pudding. At the Glen Lake Narrows is the new Melbe Ann’s Restaurant. They offer breakfast all day anytime, nightly dinner specials including pasta on Saturdays and meat loaf on Thursdays, as well as homemade soups, baked goods, and ice cream. Across the scenic Co Rd 616 in Cedar is the Cedar Rustic Inn. With a new patio and carpet, the Inn features a Sunday family style breakfast. Popular dinner highlights are Pot Roast, Perch, and Seafood Pasta. There’s plenty of variety!

PIZZA

The Bear Paw in the middle of Glen Arbor has hot slices of pizza all the time, as well as subs and salads. Both traditional and deep-dish pizzas include the popular Pepperoni Bacon, and the Hula Bear (ham, pineapple, red & green pepper, and tomatoes). Their Carnivore Sub has a half a pound of meat. Riverfront (Glen Arbor) has a great Greek pizza, but Tim says the most popular continues to be the basic Pepperoni. He is working on a gluten free crust for his pizzas, so ask about that. In Empire check out the Village Inn. You can get their famous Mediterranean with feta, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, and spinach, and wash it down with homemade Hardtimes Root Beer. Five percent of all root beer proceeds go to the Roy Taghon Music Scholarship.

So you see, you can explore the area by just going to a different place to eat every meal! Get out of that condo or up off that beach and EAT! After all, you’re on vacation!!