Residents and visitors to the county have not one, not two, but three chances to catch one of the region’s favorite bands this coming week. The little big band Tundra Tones, f.k.a. Jazz North, will be performing Aug. 28 at Leland, Aug. 29 at Music in the Park in Northport, and Aug. 31 at Little Traverse Inn.
Come enjoy “Bubbling Up,” an evening of tales of water told live on-stage at the Little Traverse Inn on Saturday, April 27, at 7 pm. A $10 voluntary donation at the door goes to support the nonprofit Leelanau Clean Water. Emcee Taylor Moore will invite six storytellers to share true personal stories about water.
A St. Patrick’s Day Pub Crawl today, March 17, begins at 1 pm. Kick off the afternoon by stopping at M22 Glen Arbor for Shamrock Sparkler, a festive wine drink special; at 2 pm, head over to Glen Arbor Wines for green wine and good times; at 3 pm stop at Boonedocks for complimentary snacks; at 4 pm visit Cherry Republic’s Pub House; at 5 pm the Pub Crawl ends at Art’s Tavern, for good times, great music, and green beer. Up M-22, the Little Traverse Inn hosts Rigs & Jeels from 4-7 pm in a concert to benefit the Empire Area Emergency Fund.
“Wow, this is good! I did this?” exclaims Michelle Leask, after writing a poem as part of the Consenses art project, a multi-genre game of telephone hatched by the Old Art Building in Leland. Starting with the purple glass Infinity Disk in front of the OAB, artists were invited to take inspiration from and respond to the creation of only the previous artist in the series, resulting in multiple expressions in a linear creative conversation. The show opened in July, and viewers can walk from work to work to see the multi-media series as it was created, one art form at a time. Michelle’s poem is her response to “a nice soft watercolor of flowers in a vase. The poem is called Beauty in Brokenness, because I saw so many contrasts of old and new.”
Maggie Maclellan (above) has been working at Art’s Tavern in Glen Arbor for 14 years (except for the winters when she left). An Empire local, Maggie has worked as a bartender, waitress, and hostess at Art’s, and this year she worked 70 hours during the Fourth of July week. “Generally I work 50 hours a week, and that’s not bad. That’s typical.” This summer Art’s has been short “maybe 20 people,” Maggie says. Usually we employ 60-70 through the summer; this year it’s around 40 or 50,” says Maggie as summer winds down: “I would like some time off. I’m gonna go camping one night, just by myself.”
Many a Friday night over the past decade, patrons at the Little Traverse Inn have finished their fish n chips and listened to the affable, often kilt clad owner Scotsman Graeme Leask roar out the lyrics to Donkey Riding by Great Big Sea, or Mary Mack by the Clancy Brothers, backed by whatever local band was in the house that particular Friday. Blessed with a big laugh, a soul full of poetry and music, and a gift of the gab, Graeme has nurtured the burgeoning popularity of the old inn along M-22 across from Little Traverse Lake that folks like to call Leelanau County’s living room.
The restaurants are open for outside dining, the visitors are returning, and around Leelanau the dunes are alive with the sound of music. Several venues, from restaurants to bars to wineries, are offering live music in our area this summer. They include, in Glen Arbor, Boonedocks, Cherry Public House, M22 Wine, Glen Arbor Wines, and Whiskers at The Homestead, and elsewhere in the County, Hop Lot, Rove Estate, and Little Traverse Inn. Here are some of the wheres, whats, and who’s playins’.
Little Traverse Inn, on M-22 between Glen Arbor and Leland, kept busy during the coronavirus stay-at-home lockdown this spring by preparing “Feed the Community” meals which customers picked up curbside. The Inn reopened on Memorial Day weekend, to scotch, beer, pub food and good cheer. Now live music is back, too.
From staff reports They are doctors, nurses and healthcare workers. They stock the shelves, slice the deli meat, and run the registers at grocery stores, they deliver your meals curbside, delicately pinching the paper bag between gloved fingers. They are the EMS first responders, the firemen and the cops. They are the distilleries that turn […]
How many waiters can recite an Emily Dickinson poem to you while serving you haggis? Paul Baumbusch at the Little Traverse Inn can. Originally from Washington, D.C., Paul graduated from the creative writing program at Interlochen Arts Academy in 2004, then attended Northwestern University and graduated in 2008. His teacher at Interlochen was Michigan’s local “Notable Writer” Anne-Marie Oomen, from Empire.