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Our Up North series highlights good eats to seek out on your weekend roadtrips as you head Up North – that ambiguous, nebulous region in Michigan where everyone has, or has a friend that has, a cottage on a lake somewhere.
It is hard to go wrong when picking where to spend a weekend along
Lake Michigan in the summer. For our first summer getaway this year, we
headed to Saugatuck/Douglas for a weekend of summer fun and good food.
First,
your daily dose of trivia: As soon as we got into town, I made a
pitstop at the grocery store where I picked up a 4-pack of New
Holland’s Paleooza and a 6-pack of Saugatuck’s Singapore IPA. Why did
they name a beer after a small Southeast Asian country, I wondered. The
blurb on the side of the 6-pack talked about the lost city of
Singapore. Assuming this was some bit of local mythology, I turned to
Wikipedia and was surprised to find out that Singapore, MI actually existed.
It was one of many towns along Lake Michigan to supply lumber to
rebuild Chicago after the Great Chicago Fire. Without the protective
tree cover to prevent erosion, the town was buried by sand.
Phil’s Bar & Grille
Saugatuck, MI
 With
appropriate rations for late-night drinking on the porch of our
B&B, we headed to downtown Saugatuck for dinner. We settled on
Phil’s Bar & Grille, which lured us in with a menu of upscale pub
fare like ancho citrus broasted wings and potato encrusted walleye. I re-discovered “broasted” chicken last year and I am now singing its
praises to anyone that will listen. The pressure-frying of broasting
(versus regular deep frying) yields an insanely light and crispy batter
and leaves the chicken dripping with juice. I suspect the shorter frying
time required by broasting as opposed to frying helps keep in the
moisture, which should be of particular importance to you white meat
fans.
We ordered a batch of the hot ancho-chile citrus wings.
First bite was crispy crunch from the batter, juicy wing meat, and nice
chile-citrus sauce. I didn’t get a lot of heat though. By the time we
were onto our last wings though, my mouth was tingling – that’s my
favorite kind of spicy, the kind that sort of sneaks up on you that you
don’t taste at first.
We had trouble deciding between the walleye and
perch, but I couldn’t have it be a weekend at the big lake without some
fried perch. Served with a housemade tartar sauce that was more on the
mustard side of things instead of mayo – a major plus in my book.
I
would be remiss if I did not dock Phil’s a couple points for their
drink menu. Only three Michigan beer selections – Oberon and two from
Founders – and zero Michigan wines offered by the glass (you can buy a bottle of L. Mawby
sparkling wine). Do you really need every imaginable awful mass produced
beer on the menu?
I thought it was also just poor form to not support the thriving
Michigan beer & wine scene. For the record, I had two Founders All
Day IPAs.
After dinner, we strolled down Butler St. and ended at the patio at
The Butler for a drink overlooking Kalamazoo Lake. (Again with the poor
beer selection, Oberon was the only craft brew option).
M&M’s Blue Star Cafe
Douglas, MI
A Saturday morning full of garage sale and thrift store shopping builds up quite an appetite. Pregnant Mrs. T played the iron card again, demanding burgers for lunch. We went to our favorite pitstop we used to make driving to/from Chicago – M&M Blue Star Café.
It’s actually more
than just a burger spot, they have a full diner menu and seem to do a
solid brunch business, but Mrs. T and I go there for the burgers.
While
the burgers are nothing too sexy, they always hit the spot on those
sunny summer days. While the beef is not ground on-site, the patties are
not frozen. The irregular-shaped patty and solid browning
bear all the signs of a properly griddled and hand-formed burger.
M&M also has a walk-up ice cream window for all your malt &
shake needs if the burger wasn’t enough. We had some afternoon shopping
to do downtown, so I grabbed my ice cream at Charlie’s Round the Corner.
Charlie’s serves up Sherman’s Ice Cream - a favorite of mine. I opted for cake batter this time.
Salt of the Earth
Fennville, MI
For
dinner, we ventured inland(!) to downtown Fennville for a place I have
been meaning to get to for years. Salt of the Earth is a restaurant
& bakery focusing on local farm-to-table dining. I realized that
this was not your typical locavore restaurant when I parked the car around
the corner from the restaurant.
A quick glance of the menu and
it is clear that this is not the type of place you’d expect to find in
rural Middle America – or maybe it is. They try to source everything
within 50 miles of the restaurant, which really should not be difficult
since the 9-mile trip from Douglas to Fennville brought us past dairy
farms, apple orchards, blueberry farms, farm market stands, etc.
I
had a hard time deciding which cocktail to start with and finally
settled on the Sage Rub – gin, sage, lime sour, passion fruit liqueur.
Amazing. I will be officially declaring a challenge to my mixology snob
friend CLB to try to replicate this. Mrs. T also had rave reviews for
her virgin mojito.
For starters, we got the crispy pork belly
appetizer and roasted radishes. My first bite of the pork belly
confirmed that these guys knew what they were doing – the fat spread
like butter on the bread from the bakery. I have been on a radish kick
lately – the lowly radish is a throwaway item when raw, but transforms
into a delicious starchy bite when roasted.
For the main event,
we decided to split the roasted confit chicken with a side of the
balsamic fried brussel sprouts – the house specialty. Two more home
runs. The chicken was tender, the skin was crisp – the simple roasted
chicken is tough to beat when done right. The sprouts were on another
level from the meager roasted sprouts I cook at home. Fried until the
leaves turned a dark green, they were topped with housemade bacon and
drizzled with balsamic.
I could have ordered another round of
the sprouts for dessert had I not heard about the wood fire-roasted
s’more with housemade marshmallow and salted caramel. This thing was
just ridiculous.
New Holland Brewing Company
Holland, MI
The
plan for Sunday was to stop by Holland on the way home, walk around
downtown to do some shopping, and grab lunch at New Holland. Apparently
the city of Holland has not got the memo that people like to walk around
and spend money on weekends in Michigan – downtown was a ghost town and
everything was closed. We killed some time and finally headed to New
Holland where we were both excited to munch on some White Hatter
mussels. Predictably, the waitress informed us that they were out of
mussels. I drowned my sorrows in some Black Tulip Trippel Ale.
Aside from the hiccups in Holland, the trip was another excellent excursion to Lake Michigan.
Phil's Bar & Grille
215 Butler St.
Saugatuck, MI
M&M Blue Star Cafe
141 Blue Star Highway
Douglas, MI
Charlie's Round the Corner
132 Mason St
Saugatuck, MI
Salt of the Earth
114 E Main St
Fennville, MI
New Holland Brewing
66 E 8th St
Holland, MI
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Our Up North series highlights good eats to seek out on your weekend roadtrips as you head Up North – that ambiguous, nebulous region in Michigan where everyone has, or has a friend that has, a cottage on a lake somewhere.
It is hard to go wrong when picking where to spend a weekend along
Lake Michigan in the summer. For our first summer getaway this year, we
headed to Saugatuck/Douglas for a weekend of summer fun and good food.
First,
your daily dose of trivia: As soon as we got into town, I made a
pitstop at the grocery store where I picked up a 4-pack of New
Holland’s Paleooza and a 6-pack of Saugatuck’s Singapore IPA. Why did
they name a beer after a small Southeast Asian country, I wondered. The
blurb on the side of the 6-pack talked about the lost city of
Singapore. Assuming this was some bit of local mythology, I turned to
Wikipedia and was surprised to find out that
Singapore, MI actually existed.
It was one of many towns along Lake Michigan to supply lumber to
rebuild Chicago after the Great Chicago Fire. Without the protective
tree cover to prevent erosion, the town was buried by sand.
Phil’s Bar & Grille
Saugatuck, MI
With
appropriate rations for late-night drinking on the porch of our
B&B, we headed to downtown Saugatuck for dinner. We settled on
Phil’s Bar & Grille, which lured us in with a menu of upscale pub
fare like ancho citrus broasted wings and potato encrusted walleye.
I re-discovered “broasted” chicken last year and I am now singing its
praises to anyone that will listen. The pressure-frying of broasting
(versus regular deep frying) yields an insanely light and crispy batter
and leaves the chicken dripping with juice. I suspect the shorter frying
time required by broasting as opposed to frying helps keep in the
moisture, which should be of particular importance to you white meat
fans.
We ordered a batch of the hot ancho-chile citrus wings.
First bite was crispy crunch from the batter, juicy wing meat, and nice
chile-citrus sauce. I didn’t get a lot of heat though. By the time we
were onto our last wings though, my mouth was tingling – that’s my
favorite kind of spicy, the kind that sort of sneaks up on you that you
don’t taste at first.
We had trouble deciding between the walleye and
perch, but I couldn’t have it be a weekend at the big lake without some
fried perch. Served with a housemade tartar sauce that was more on the
mustard side of things instead of mayo – a major plus in my book.
I
would be remiss if I did not dock Phil’s a couple points for their
drink menu. Only three Michigan beer selections – Oberon and two from
Founders – and zero Michigan wines offered by the glass (you can buy a bottle of L. Mawby
sparkling wine). Do you really need every imaginable awful mass produced
beer on the
menu?
I thought it was also just poor form to not support the thriving
Michigan beer & wine scene. For the record, I had two Founders All
Day IPAs.
After dinner, we strolled down Butler St. and ended at the patio at
The Butler for a drink overlooking Kalamazoo Lake. (Again with the poor
beer selection, Oberon was the only craft brew option).
M&M’s Blue Star Cafe
Douglas, MI
A Saturday morning full of garage sale and thrift store shopping builds up quite an appetite. Pregnant Mrs. T played the iron card again, demanding burgers for lunch. We went to our favorite pitstop we used to make driving to/from Chicago – M&M Blue Star Café.
It’s actually more
than just a burger spot, they have a full diner menu and seem to do a
solid brunch business, but Mrs. T and I go there for the burgers.
While
the burgers are nothing too sexy, they always hit the spot on those
sunny summer days. While the beef is not ground on-site, the patties are
not frozen. The irregular-shaped patty and solid browning
bear all the signs of a properly griddled and hand-formed burger.
M&M also has a walk-up ice cream window for all your malt &
shake needs if the burger wasn’t enough. We had some afternoon shopping
to do downtown, so I grabbed my ice cream at Charlie’s Round the Corner.
Charlie’s serves up Sherman’s Ice Cream -
a favorite of mine. I opted for cake batter this time.
Salt of the Earth
Fennville, MI
For
dinner, we ventured inland(!) to downtown Fennville for a place I have
been meaning to get to for years. Salt of the Earth is a restaurant
& bakery focusing on local farm-to-table dining. I realized that
this was not your typical locavore restaurant when I parked the car around
the corner from the restaurant.
A quick glance of the menu and
it is clear that this is not the type of place you’d expect to find in
rural Middle America – or maybe it is. They try to source everything
within 50 miles of the restaurant, which really should not be difficult
since the 9-mile trip from Douglas to Fennville brought us past dairy
farms, apple orchards, blueberry farms, farm market stands, etc.
I
had a hard time deciding which cocktail to start with and finally
settled on the Sage Rub – gin, sage, lime sour, passion fruit liqueur.
Amazing. I will be officially declaring a challenge to my mixology snob
friend CLB to try to replicate this. Mrs. T also had rave reviews for
her virgin mojito.
For starters, we got the crispy pork belly
appetizer and roasted radishes. My first bite of the pork belly
confirmed that these guys knew what they were doing – the fat spread
like butter on the bread from the bakery. I have been on a radish kick
lately – the lowly radish is a throwaway item when raw, but transforms
into a delicious starchy bite when roasted.
For the main event,
we decided to split the roasted confit chicken with a side of the
balsamic fried brussel sprouts – the house specialty. Two more home
runs. The chicken was tender, the skin was crisp – the simple roasted
chicken is tough to beat when done right. The sprouts were on another
level from the meager roasted sprouts I cook at home. Fried until the
leaves turned a dark green, they were topped with housemade bacon and
drizzled with balsamic.
I could have ordered another round of
the sprouts for dessert had I not heard about the wood fire-roasted
s’more with housemade marshmallow and salted caramel. This thing was
just ridiculous.
New Holland Brewing Company
Holland, MI
The
plan for Sunday was to stop by Holland on the way home, walk around
downtown to do some shopping, and grab lunch at New Holland. Apparently
the city of Holland has not got the memo that people like to walk around
and spend money on weekends in Michigan – downtown was a ghost town and
everything was closed. We killed some time and finally headed to New
Holland where we were both excited to munch on some White Hatter
mussels. Predictably, the waitress informed us that they were out of
mussels. I drowned my sorrows in some Black Tulip Trippel Ale.
Aside from the hiccups in Holland, the trip was another excellent excursion to Lake Michigan.
Phil's Bar & Grille
215 Butler St.
Saugatuck, MI
M&M Blue Star Cafe
141 Blue Star Highway
Douglas, MI
Charlie's Round the Corner
132 Mason St
Saugatuck, MI
Salt of the Earth
114 E Main St
Fennville, MI
New Holland Brewing
66 E 8th St
Holland, MI
With
appropriate rations for late-night drinking on the porch of our
B&B, we headed to downtown Saugatuck for dinner. We settled on
Phil’s Bar & Grille, which lured us in with a menu of upscale pub
fare like ancho citrus broasted wings and potato encrusted walleye. I re-discovered “broasted” chicken last year and I am now singing its
praises to anyone that will listen. The pressure-frying of broasting
(versus regular deep frying) yields an insanely light and crispy batter
and leaves the chicken dripping with juice. I suspect the shorter frying
time required by broasting as opposed to frying helps keep in the
moisture, which should be of particular importance to you white meat
fans.
Thanks for the recommendation. Stopped at Salt of the Earth and was blown away.
ReplyDelete-AnthonyC