Len Barnes

Features Len Barnes As we enter Fischer’s Happy Hour Tavern near Northport, our eyes are drawn to the large picture showing the Straits of Mackinac, with a line of cars in the foreground snaking around to get on the ferry to the Upper Peninsula.
The picture is titled “The Deer Hunters’ Lineup,” describing the three-mile long traffic jam in the days before the Mackinac Bridge opened 50 years ago in 1957.

Dining Len Barnes At Arizona Steakhouse, beef is our business,” says owner Frank Saco on the restaurant’s website. “We age all of our beef to ensure tenderness and we also cook over hickory wood to give our beef a unique flavor and sear in all the natural juices. While other steak houses spend money on peanuts or memorabilia, we spend money on our food.”
Saco, 37, is an Iraq-born Chaldean Christian who came to the U.S. with his parents when he was two to escape Saddam Hussein’s government. Saco has worked with his older brother Nader, age 44, who runs White’s Steak-N-Ale in Kalkaska with lots of Middle Eastern cuisine. They settled first in the Detroit area and came north to the Grand Traverse area 23 years ago.
To attract children and families to the Arizona Steakhouse on M-72 in Williamsburg, Saco installed a 30-foot-long, 1,200-gallon fish tank separating the bar from the dining room. The tank is filled with over 300 exotic fish for a breathtaking backdrop to your meal.

Dining Len Barnes “It’s a frolic in fantasy,” Judy Hauser says of her gift shop and mini-eatery that celebrates all things Scandinavian. We went for a visit to Punzel’s Scandanavian Palace midway between Interlochen and Buckley, and as we drove into the parking lot we found the Scandinavian imprint on many signs: “Finns only... all others will be towed,” “Norwegians only,” Danes only,” “Germans only,”, “Swedes only” and “Troll inside.” You get the idea that everyone who visits gets to be Scandinavian for a day, no matter what their heritage.

Dining Len Barnes Wander towards Lake Michigan, a block north of downtown Glen Arbor at the end of Lake Street, and you’ll find the new LeBear Club Luxury Spa along with the revitalized Windows at LeBear restaurant looking out on Sleeping Bear Bay’s boat launch.
This 40-person restaurant on Lake Michigan is white-walled with lots of glass and white-clothed tabletops, offering gorgeous vistas of a waterscape as far as the eye can see.
Executive Chef Randall Chamberlain, who came here from three years at the nearby Western Avenue Grill, presides under the supervision of restaurateur Phil Murray who owns Windows on Grand Traverse Bay between Traverse City and Suttons Bay, which he opened in 1986.

Features Len Barnes Traveling to the Upper Peninsula and the Soo Locks is a snap today. It’s an easy drive of about three hours from Traverse City, or two from Petoskey, with pleasant stops along the way. My Aunt Mary used to tell us that at the beginning of the 1900s it took as long as 12 hours to get from the family farm in Elk Rapids to Traverse City by sleigh in the winter... She didn’t remember how long it took to get from St. Ignace to Elk Rapids.
We made the trip to commemorate the 150th year of the opening of the locks and the establishment of Sault Ste. Marie. If you’re interested in a road trip, Labor Day weekend marks the final locks celebration of the summer.

Features Len Barnes It was in 1839 when a missionary erected a wigwam on Old Mission Peninsula as part of the first white settlement in the Grand Traverse area.  By 1850, the settlement hosted the region’s first general store as well as the first post office north of Muskegon and south of the Mackinac Straits. During the Civil War the store was moved to its current location in the town of Old Mission, up from the beach. 
Today the center portion of the building remains as the original store with an aura of the distant past. The post office left in March of last year, but owner Jim Richards, 52, still sells .37 cent stamps for .36 cents.
This general store with old wood floors doesn’t sell feed, paint or martinis, but it does sell lots of Cracker Jacks and dried cherries, strawberries and blueberries by the pound along with pistachios and barrels of trail mix. And it has lots of glass jars of soft and hard candy plus pretzels and dried apples.

Dining Len Barnes Windows has been a winner with Northern Express readers every year since the Best of Northern Michigan survey began, and 2005 continues a winning run for the popular Leelanau County destination restaurant, which was voted “Best Place to Splurge.”
That probably comes as no surprise, because the restaurant at 7666 W. Bayshore Drive, midway between Suttons Bay and Traverse City, has been renowned throughout the region as a “must-do” dining experience for many years.
Windows brims with atmosphere and elegance, featuring American cuisine that draws on French and Cajun influences with an extensive wine list. Every window looks out on Grand Traverse Bay from the dining area, and the food is as attractive as the view.

Features Len Barnes Now in its 85th year, the Sugar Bowl in Gaylord is one of the state’s oldest family-owned restaurants.
Although its exterior indicates an Alpine or Bavarian theme, the Sugar Bowl’s menu includes Greek and American selections, with such popular choices as ribs, whitefish, perch and prime rib. With a population of 3,681, Gaylord “has a Swiss essence which pervades the community activities throughout the year, with nearly 150 inches of snow on nearby slopes and cross country ski trails, plus the nearby Call of the Wild Museum with more than 150 North American wild animals and game birds displayed”.
This downtown Gaylord business opened in 1919 by George and Harry Doumas whose son now owns it. At age 11, the father immigrated to the US from Greece and came to Gaylord after serving in the military as a sergeant and personal cook under General John Pershing in New Mexico during the search for Mexican bandit Pancho Villa.

Features Len Barnes When a restaurant is rated Traverse City’s best breakfast for at least 17 years in a row, you know it has entered the realm of local legend. Such is the case for the Omelette Shoppes, located in downtown Traverse City on Cass Street and at the Campus Plaza location across from the Civic Center.
“We serve the best omelettes in the world,” say owners Jack Lobdell and Scott Parkhurst, who bought the eateries in October 2003 from the man who founded them nearly 30 years ago, Dick Dell’Acqua.
“We serve only breakfast and lunch because we know what we are and what our identity is and that’s enough,” Parkhurst says. “That’s why we concentrate on those two meals exclusively. We want to improve on a good product served in an updated decor. One day we hope to open new places elsewhere.”
This is a restaurant filled with a sense of community. It’s always packed on Sunday with a bustling after-church crowd, and it’s the kind of place where locals bring their out-of-town visitors to get a glimpse of Traverse City’s inner life.

Features Len Barnes Step inside the Maple Leaf Restaurant and you’ll step into Leelanau County’s past. The building which houses the Maple City restaurant was built in 1866. It got its start as a factory that made pegs from maple timber. Eventually, a schoolhouse was built on the site, which eventually became the Maple Leaf.
The Maple Leaf Restaurant was established just outside of this town of 1,040 persons in 2001 by the Glen Noonan family who own it.
Chef-manager is John Hardy, age 39, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. and roomed with famed Rocco DiSpirito during his first year there. Hardy’s first job was as banquet chef of Nashville, Tennessee’s Opryland Hotel. After working for Marriott Corporation, he joined the Maple staff. Hardy describes his menu as “regional American fused with Mediterranean and Southwestern flavors.”

Features Len Barnes The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island is wrapping up the second year of the Masco Cottage, a four-bedroom luxury suite in a renovated two-story cottage that is as old as the hotel itself.
I’ve stayed at the Grand Hotel at least two nights each year since 1972, but no stay has been as nice as the one in the Masco Cottage which we occupied with our family to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary.
For those who can afford $2,850 per night for up to eight persons ($17,500 weekly or $55,000 per month), the Masco Cottage aims to please, including a full American Plan that includes breakfast, lunch and five-course dinner each day. Kids under 11 stay free, with special rates for teens.

Features Len Barnes If you find yourself far over the Big Mac Bridge all the way to Copper Harbor this summer, or during the fall color season, then you’ll also find that the Harbor Haus is well worth the trip.
The Harbor Haus is set among the pines at a choice spot on the shore of Lake Superior. It is a delightful dining spot near the tip of Michigan’s Keewenaw Peninsula, offering a rare blend of fine food, breathtaking scenery and old world charm.