boudreaulicious wrote:Heading to this area for a little R&R next Sunday-Thursday--any recs (food, of course, but would love to hear about things to do as well) will be appreciated. TIA!
Cabbagehead and I just returned from a long weekend in TC, where the weather and the food were glorious.
Food recommendations--
As several have noted above,
Cooks' House is excellent. If you want to go there, call asap for a reservation. Even with a few tables on the porch (it's a small old house converted to one eating space with an open kitchen), it seats a max of 28 or 30. We very much enjoyed the five-course tasting with wine pairings ($82 per person). The menu changes with the seasons. Ours included a terrific asparagus soup with morels that was like sipping spring, so green and fresh we could hardly believe it; pig's tail with scallions on steel cut oats with bee pollen (mentioned in a post above), my least favorite as someone who doesn't care for oatmeal, no matter how elevated its presentation; choice of a beautifully seared piece of whitefish served with crisp pancetta bits, tiny mustard greens, wild roasted parsnips, and cranberry beans--totally delicious in every way--or of a marinated hanger steak with roasted wild sunchokes, puntarelle, and chimichurri sauce, also wonderful; a simple but satisfying salad of romaine with polenta croutons, shitake mushrooms, a slice of local Leelenau Cheese raclette, and a mild pumpkin seed oil vinaigrette that worked with the Pinot Grigio paired with it; and a wine frozen parfait, served as a slice with an amazing "humming bird nectar sauce" they make themselves. It's a berry sauce, but far more complex, but that was into the fifth wine pairing, so I'm afraid I'm a little hazy on the details now. All the wines as well as the ingredients are local. Service is friendly, and the meal was surprisingly quick. We were in and out in under 2 hours.
Ham Bonz, also recommended earlier in this thread is a MUST. Go for breakfast! It sounds strange to recommend a barbecue place for breakfast, but they aren't open past 3 pm on weekdays, 1:30 pm on Sundays. Another small place with an open kitchen, run by the improbably named Bo Uzzle, a Mississippian in Northern Michigan. The ham is great, the pit beef is amazing, the corned beef and pulled pork are excellent (didn't try the turkey). Their omelettes are tender, folded ones, filled with meat goodies. Their menu reminds me of the Monty Python spam skit; menu items seem to have more and more meats in them as you continue reading through! I'm sure the lunch sandwiches are great too. We brought home a pound of ham and a pound of pulled pork in our cooler. I'm already wishing we had bought more.
We do recommend the cherry and strawberry shakes at
Don's. Get the ones with "real fruit" in them (the others use just syrup). The hamburgers are decent but not the reason to go.
Speaking of ice cream, we did drive out to
Moomer's, which sits on a rise above its dairy farm so you can see the cows. We thought the ice cream was fine but not outstanding. I like Jeni's better.
One of the hot new places in TC is
Georgina's, another tiny place downtown, which calls itself an "Asian and Latin Taquería." This fusion place was quite busy on a Sunday night (another place to make reservations). After some chicken dumplings (Asian) as an appetizer (fine), we went "Latin" with carne asada (him) and shrimp in wine sauce with onions and green peppers (me). The soupy black beans served with both were excellent, the rest quite good but no more. No alcohol is served, so it keeps things cheap.
We had a good breakfast at
Green House Cafe in downtown TC, but it fades in comparison to Ham Bonz.
Other recommendations--I wrote some years ago in this thread that the
Music House Museum in Acme (just east of TC) is worth going to if you are interested in musical instruments. The most amazing thing there is hearing their automated piano play Gershwin's own version of Rhapsody in Blue. It's as if he is there playing. We also thought the
Dennos Museum at Northwestern Michigan College was great. Their collection of Inuit art is amazing and unique. Well worth an hour and cheaper than shopping on Front Street!
Speaking of shopping, there are a few kitchen/houseware shops downtown and a branch of the marvelous
American Spoon jam empire. At the American Spoon shop, you can taste a couple dozen jams, preserves, conserves, butters, and sauces. Their stuff is great.
Finally, you can do a lot or a little wine tasting at the numerous wineries up and down both the Old Mission Peninsula and the Leelenau Peninsula. Some are bigger and fancier than others. We found the Chateau Chantal empire (winery, restaurant, B&B) too much, but liked the older, more modest places such as
Peninsula Cellars more to our taste. Seems as if the sweet wines are the most popular, but there are some good dry ones being made up there too. We brought back some and are looking forward to drinking them.
Enjoy your trip! It's just great up there. The water is too cold for swimming, but the beaches are beautiful, the biking fun, and the air clean and cool. We wished we had more time there.
Cooks' House
115 Wellington St, Traverse City, MI 49686
(231) 946-8700
thecookshouse.net
Ham Bonz
1108 E Eighth St, Traverse City, MI 49686
(231) 929-9288
ham-bonz.com
Don's Drive In
2030 U.S. 31, Traverse City, MI 49686
(231) 938-1860
donsdriveintc.com
Moomer's Homemade Ice Cream
7263 N Long Lake Rd, Traverse City, MI 49685
(231) 941-4122
moomers.com
Georgina's
439 E Front St, Traverse City, MI 49686
(231) 943-1555
http://www.georginastaqueria.comGreen House Cafe
115 E Front St, Traverse City, MI 49684
(231) 929-7687
greenhousecafetc.com
Music House Museum
7377 U.S. 31, Williamsburg, MI 49690
(231) 938-9300
musichouse.org
Dennos Museum Center
1701 E Front Street
Traverse City, MI 49686
231.995.1055
dennosmuseum.org
American Spoon Foods
230 E Front St, Traverse City, MI 49684
(231) 935-4480
http://www.spoon.comPeninsula Cellars (Old Mission Peninsula)
11480 Center Rd, Traverse City, MI 49686
(231) 933-9787
peninsulacellars.com