March 29, 2024

Something for Everyone at the New Cherry Republic

June 26, 2015

Traverse City’s new and expanded Cherry Republic now boasts an impressive dining facility with the ability to satisfy the urge for something cherry and so much more.

Grand Café, which opened in May, invites guests to relax and refuel in an open, airy room under sturdy northern Michigan pine beams.

"The Café will showcase all of our food year round, but we’re not just dumping cherries on everything," said Corporate Chef Tony Finnestad. "We’re doing subtle things like glazing some menu items with our cherry white wine."

Finnestad spent more than a decade training chefs across the country while working for a resort/hotel chain before he joined Cherry Republic in April 2014. His travel schedule had gotten to be a bit much.

"We moved 11 times in 10 years," he recalled. "Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Indianapolis, New York, Taos, Sante Fe, Jackson Hole, Austin, Dallas, Nashville and now northern Michigan. But we’re here to stay."

The Scene

The Grand Café sits at the rear of Cherry Republic’s expanded retail area, which offers a mind-boggling assortment of cherry products, an elegant wine bar and even a cherry pit bin where youngsters can play. Sturdy, dark wooden tables and comfortable chairs offer a variety of flexible seating options in the 10,000-square-foot eatery. It’s a fresh, welcoming dining area lit by hanging lamps with Up North motifs. When Front Street’s summer hubbub gets to be too much, the Grand Café offers a pleasant refuge.

An ice cream bar is tucked in one corner of the café, tempting visitors with an assortment of 16 flavors. In addition to Monster Sundaes, it offers floats, shakes, malts and smoothies to cool off the summer heat. Next to the ice cream counter sits the bakery and its selection of pastries, fresh daily from Cherry Republic’s new production facility in Empire, also overseen by Finnestad.

Rene Radzicki-Builes is Grand Café manager, leading a café staff of nearly 50, most of whom are new to Cherry Republic.

"I’ve been working in restaurants since I was 11," she said. "When I saw this opportunity, I jumped at it."

The Menu

Morning visitors can try the quiche of the day, a rotating selection of homemade creations made with local products and served with a small side salad. There’s also a health-conscious parfait with crunchy cherry maple granola, fresh strawberries and bananas layered in Greek yogurt.

The bakery offers muffins, brownies, biscotti, scones, freshly-baked pies, coffee cake, cupcakes, banana bread, chocolate cake, Wonderbars and Cherry Republic’s popular Boomchunka cookies.

For a quick nosh or a starter, there are six appetizers to try. Most popular are the crispy black bean cakes served with a creamy cilantro sauce and topped with a sweet pineapple pico de gallo and chimichuri rojo. For salad lovers, there are five fresh meal-size selections, including a fruit-filled cherry fig apple creation featuring crumbled blue cheese and fresh-sliced granny smith apples tossed with homemade cherry fig jam vinaigrette and served over a spring mix with romaine lettuce.

The eatery’s lunch selections include arguably the best Cuban sandwich in Traverse City’s downtown. It features a healthy mound of shredded smoked pork, shaved ham, melted Swiss cheese and thinly sliced homemade pickles. It’s topped with cherry mustard and pressed between two slices of Cuban bread. Six other sandwiches are also available, including a black bean burger, roast beef and cheddar, parmesan-crusted grilled cheese, pulled pork, roast turkey and a cherry chicken sandwich. All come with Great Lakes Potato Chips or your choice of sides: veggie du jour, black bean and corn salad, cherry coleslaw or a cherry corn muffin.

You can wash down your lunch with one of Cherry Republic’s thirst-quenching Boom Chugga Lugga beverages: cherry soda, cherry cola, cherry root beer, cherry ginger ale or black cherry cream soda. There’s also cherry lemonade and cherry iced tea.

Grand Café’s Healthy Schmealthy Veggie Pie is the pizza most guests are ordering. Blanketed in a tasty homemade Alfredo sauce, it’s topped with red onion, oven-roasted kale, a blend of provolone and mozzarella cheeses, arugula, green chilies, cherry tomatoes and fresh herbs. Five other pizzas are available, including a more traditional pie featuring thick-sliced pepperoni, provolone, mozzarella and grated parmesan. More adventurous pizza lovers might want to try the distinctive bacon and blue fig jam pie.

A just-for-kids assortment includes a Big Cheese pizza, grilled cheese sandwich, grilled ham sandwich and a PB, B&J – white chocolate cherry peanut butter, bananas and cherry jelly on two slabs of white bread.

The Skinny

Breakfast baked goods start at $3. Appetizers range from $7 to $9. Salads and sandwiches are $9 to $11. Pizzas are $11 to $14. The Grand Café is open seven days a week from 9am to 9pm.

Grand Café is located inside Cherry Republic at 154 East Front Street in Traverse City. For more information, call (231) 932-9205 or visit cherryrepublic.com.

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