The Seabiscuit Café

Oct. 7, 2016

Horse-Themed Restaurant Bets on a Good Time

Mackinac Island’s The French Outpost was recently sold to the Grand Hotel, but many members of its old staff remained dedicated to their island home — and former Outpost owners, Debra and Sandra Orr.

Together, the crew is quietly turning another Mackinac Island dining destination into a legend of its own: The Seabiscuit Café.

Inspired by the true story of the champion racehorse, is housed in a former 1800s-era bank near the waterfront.

HORSING AROUND Its owners, sisters and lifelong Mackinac Island residents Debra and Sandra Orr, have a familial tie to the restaurant equine theme: Their father was a horse veterinarian on the island, and his favorite horse was Seabiscuit.

In addition to the horse décor that runs throughout the restaurant, the most recent Seabiscuit movie (the 2003 version starring Tobey Maguire and Jeff Bridges) plays on a continuous loop on one of the televisions

peppering the eatery. As you might expect, the cafe swells with patrons during the Triple Crown horse races.

“We have parties for all three of the races,” said Karl Thalacker, a former Outpost employee who serves as Seabiscuit’s manager and food and beverage director, “the biggest party being the Kentucky Derby, complete with horse racing trivia and mint juleps. You can’t even get through the front door for that one!”

HOUSE SPECIALTIES Seabiscuit’s cool vintage style and celebratory vibe is a huge draw, but its food is truly the foundation of the eatery’s success — and it’s served starting first thing in the morning. “We have great breakfasts,” Thalacker said. “The island gets moving early, with couples, families, field trips — so we have a good breakfast menu available.” One of the house specialties is Stuffed French Toast, which starts with thick slices of banana bread, stuffed with cream cheese and covered in banana slices and maple syrup. The Sausage and Egg Breakfast Skillet is

another popular choice, featuring scrambled eggs mixed with sausage, red skin potatoes, red peppers, and cheddar cheese. Covering the gap between breakfast and lunch are specials like the Deep Fried Peanut Butter Balls, peanut butter rolled up in pastry shells and deep-fried, served in a dish of Smucker’s strawberry jelly and dusted with powdered sugar.

A similarly quirky dish is available on the lunch menu too: the Painted Pony Macaroni, which are deep-fried macaroni and cheese balls rolled in artisanal breadcrumbs and served in red tomato cream sauce with grated parmesan on top. The lunch menu expands further with items like the World Famous Derby Burger with bacon, barbecue sauce and American cheese; and the Triple Crown sandwich, featuring white meat turkey, Tavern ham, sweet smoked apple bacon, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo, all stacked “hands high” — the traditional units by which a horse is measured.

LATE NIGHTS Dinner selections include ribs — “Those are literally fall-off-the-bone tender,” Thal acker

said — French Creole Jambalaya, spicy Salt and Pepper Fish and Chips with Sriracha mayo and seasoned haystack fries, and another of the house specialties, whitefish. “We always have fresh whitefish, on ice and ready to be cooked,” Thalacker said. “We serve it up in fish tacos, our whitefish Reuben, our Caesar Smoked Whitefish salad, Smoked Whitefish Nachos — it’s all so good.”

After dinner, stick around for the desserts, all of which come from the Orr sisters’ recipes, and enjoy the Seabiscuit’s busy late night scene, which includes theme nights and other crowd-pleasing activities. “One of the most popular is Mustache Mondays,” Thalacker said. “Come on in at 10pm, get a mustache painted on, and enjoy the specials! The Seabiscuit is really chill and fun, especially at night — we’re just a positive, awesome group here. It says ‘Bet on a good time’ on our menus for a reason!”

The Seabiscuit Café is located at 7337 Main St. on Mackinac Island, open daily 7am–2am. For more information, visit seabiscuitcafe. com or call 906-847-3611.