Craig Manning | Author

The Filling Station’s Union Street Vanilla Brown Ale

March 11, 2023

The brown ale has fallen by the wayside a bit as far as beer styles go, a victim of the wild popularity of IPAs and some impressive growth in the specialty barrel-aged stout market. These days, it’s not even a guarantee that there will be a single brown ale on a brewery’s tap li… Read More >>

Hop Lot’s Tilted Radars American Stout

Feb. 25, 2023

Hop Lot Brewing Company is a great place to spend a winter day in northern Michigan. While the brewery’s big outdoor space is certainly a blast in the summertime, we have a special fondness for the igloo lifestyle that Hop Lot embraces in the winter. (Those igloos are heated and furni… Read More >>

Restaurant Round Table: Turning Up the Heat

Feb. 11, 2023

An extinction-level event: That’s what some experts predicted the COVID-19 pandemic would prove to be for the restaurant industry. Take a look back to March 2020, as restaurants shut their doors and the world went into lockdown, and you’ll see more than a few nightmare headlines… Read More >>

Five Shores Brewing’s Bear Dozer Stout

Feb. 11, 2023

One of the joys of winter for us beer enthusiasts is kicking back with a big, flavorful imperial stout. These beers don’t typically match well with hot summer days, but they sure taste good on winter evenings. Sometimes, though, even we are overwhelmed by the heaviness and booziness o… Read More >>

The Well-Groomed Gentleman

Feb. 4, 2023

The stereotype used to be that men could roll out of bed and be ready to head out the door in five minutes flat. But according to a new survey, the times they are a-changin’. And by “the times,” we mean the number of minutes it takes the average dude to get all gussied up … Read More >>

Jolly Pumpkin’s iO Saison

Jan. 14, 2023

If you want to experience the most creative, interesting, and all-around best beers that a brewery has to offer, you’ll often find those on the rotating seasonal release calendar. Such is the case, we think, with Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, whose recent seasonal beers have all been ho… Read More >>

All in the Family

Dec. 24, 2022

“This year, I’m going to take better care of myself.”

When it comes to setting New Year’s resolutions, many people return to some version of the above statement every December or January. But how about this version?

“This year, we’re all g… Read More >>

The Cocktail Calendar

Dec. 3, 2022

Calling all cocktail adventurers: Are you looking to concoct something new from what you have stashed in your liquor cabinet? Are you getting fatigued with your usual go-to cocktails? Do you want to wow your friends and family this holiday season by becoming a master mixologist with a reper… Read More >>

31 Days of Giving

Dec. 3, 2022

Giving Tuesday, which falls every year on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, is typically a busy day for northern Michigan, given the region’s many nonprofit organizations. This year, Giving Tuesday was extra special for Cherry Republic, which, though not a nonprofit itself, celebrated t… Read More >>

The Artists Behind Your Favorite Beer Labels

Nov. 26, 2022

A Jeep Wagoneer driving down a wooded dirt road with a red canoe strapped to the car top. A mustachioed man in an airborne snowmobile, flying high above the town of Bellaire. An anthropomorphic peanut with its eyes popping out of its head. A bow-tie-wearing man tearing through the night on … Read More >>

Farm Club's Czech Dark Lager

Nov. 26, 2022

While we love our chocolate imperial stouts and milkshake IPAs, we’ll acknowledge that, sometimes, we just want a simple, classic-style beer. Fortunately, northern Michigan has several brewers that specialize in making precisely that type of beer, one of which is Farm Club. Though it&… Read More >>

James Earl Jones: The Man, the Voice, the Legend

Nov. 26, 2022

Do a Google search for “most distinctive voices in Hollywood history,” and you’re likely to see one name pop up repeatedly: James Earl Jones, the renowned actor and voiceover artist known best for voicing Darth Vader and The Lion King’s Mufasa. While you surely know … Read More >>

Hall of Fame Coach John Lober

Nov. 19, 2022

News broke this week that John Lober, a coaching legend at Traverse City Central High School, would be inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association (NHSACA) Hall of Fame. Lober oversaw the boys track and field team at Central for 52 years, from 1977 until his retireme… Read More >>

Bee Well Mead & Cider’s Comfortably Plum

Nov. 12, 2022

As British rock legends Pink Floyd once sang, “I have become…comfortably plum.” Oh wait. That’s not quite right, is it? Forgive us for the slip-up; we’ve been drinking quite a lot of the Floyd-themed Comfortably Plum cider from Bellaire’s Bee Well Mead &… Read More >>

Local Medical Heroes in Ukraine

Nov. 12, 2022

Let’s have a big round of applause for Todd Stone and Rob Garvin, a pair of healthcare professionals from Traverse City who recently traveled to Lviv, Ukraine, as part of a relief mission trip. While there, the two joined a team of other volunteers working to help restore mobility to … Read More >>

On Tap in the World of Craft Beer

Nov. 12, 2022

For years, craft beer was a niche—an emerging segment of a global industry that showed significant potential for disruption. Now, according to the Brewers Association, craft beer accounts for nearly 27 percent of the $100 billion United States beer market. What was once the exception … Read More >>

TC Whiskey Co. to Grow

Nov. 5, 2022

Northern Michigan’s biggest craft distillery is about to become even bigger. Traverse City Whiskey Co. has announced plans to turn the former Cherry Growers Inc. facility in Elmwood Township into its new headquarters. That $20 million expansion will generate an estimated 100 jobs and … Read More >>

A Big Win for Michigan Rockhounds

Oct. 29, 2022

If you’re a rock collector in Michigan, chances are you’ve heard of Michigan Rockhounds. Founded just two years ago as a hobbyist Facebook group with a mere dozen members, the organization has grown to nearly 100,000 members and is perhaps the state’s top convener for peop… Read More >>

Inside Election Day with a City Clerk

Oct. 29, 2022

What goes into planning and pulling off a local election? For Benjamin Marentette, who serves as city clerk for the City of Traverse City, election season is 90 days of hard work, a few sleepless nights, and a lot of attention to detail. From tedious ballot testing procedures to the coordin… Read More >>

Riley’s Candles

Oct. 22, 2022

What do you call a dog who starts his own business? Doggypreneur? Riley the beagle is one such dog and the namesake of Riley’s Candles, a business “on a mission to save as many dogs who need emergency surgeries to save their lives as possible.” As Josh Hart (Riley’s … Read More >>