Janice Binkert | Author
Tucker's of Northport
Feb. 1, 2020
It’s winter now, and the snow isn’t going away for a while. But you have choices: You can hibernate at home and wait for the thaw, or you can take advantage of all the fun things to do — and fun places to eat — during this quieter season in northern Michigan. O...
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Jan. 18, 2020 It’s not always easy to be the new kid on the block, but Judson Market & Restaurant, which debuted in Kingsley on Nov. 4, has been welcomed into the community with open arms. The ...
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Dec. 21, 2019 On an early December morning, the outdoor temperature at Crystal Mountain Resort in Thompsonville registered 22 degrees (minus wind chill). Snowmaking machines on the slopes above Kinlochen Lodge roared like jet engines, spewing curtains of white powder on the natural base that had al...
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Dec. 7, 2019 Located in a historic three-story yellow brick structure that has been a landmark in Traverse City since 1904, when it was built to house the Big Daylight Candy Factory. North Peak Brewing Company established its own place in the town’s history in 1997 when it opened as one of the t...
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Nov. 30, 2019 Just in time for the holidays, this package could be exactly what you’ve been wishing for. Wrapped up right now in festive garland and lights, the cozy Park Street Café is a welcome oasis for gourmet coffee drinks and high-quality breakfast and lunch offerings – and...
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Nov. 23, 2019 We are among those crazy (or not so crazy?) people who love the combination of chocolate and beer, who crave that play of rich and sweet against refreshing and bitter. And when it comes together in liquid form as a stout? Sign us up. But Right Brain Brewery’s Naughty Girl Stout (ABV...
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Nov. 23, 2019 Harbor Springs is the quintessence of a traditional Northern Michigan resort village. With its quaint downtown streets and shops, its sheltered harbor, and its stately “cottages” tucked away in wooded waterfront enclaves, it evokes a vintage Currier & Ives print. And i...
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Sept. 21, 2019 Opened just short of a decade ago in downtown Petoskey, Palette Bistro was recently named one of 2019’s “Top 9 Best Small Town Restaurants in Michigan” by the online magazine Only in Your State. That came as no surprise to the many full-time and seasonal residents of...
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Sept. 14, 2019 Even the name conjures up cozy images: The Riverside Inn. And this historic inn and restaurant in Leland, housed in a classic Northern Michigan-style white clapboard “cottage,” delivers plenty of cozy, no matter the season. The banks of the winding Leland River outside its...
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Aug. 10, 2019 Burgers, brews, bacon and brooms — curling brooms, that is — turned out to be the stuff of restaurant dreams come true for Joey Reutter of the Broomstack Kitchen & Taphouse in Maple City. Reutter co-owns Broomstack with his wife, Jen, and their friends — and now ...
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June 22, 2019 Rising up and out from Traverse City for 18 miles between East Bay and West Bay, Old Mission Peninsula offers breathtaking blue water vistas that stretch for miles in each direction. But the landscape surrounded by the water is equally noteworthy: a unique microclimate with a bucolic ...
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May 25, 2019 Just a few short weeks ago, Chef Randy Minish, a Bellaire native and 2011 graduate of the Great Lakes Culinary Institute in Traverse City, launched his first restaurant, Terrain, with his sisters, Jenna Minish and Shana Minish, in his hometown — in the same building that housed the ...
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May 18, 2019 Sooner or later, the weather in northern Michigan will warm up! And when it does, you might want to beat the summer crowds and head over to the Towne Plaza in Traverse City, where you can enjoy casual fine dining alfresco for breakfast, lunch, or dinner at one of the prettiest outdoor...
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May 4, 2019 Pasties have a longstanding tradition ...
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April 27, 2019 If Adam McMarlin had continued on the path that most everyone around him expected him to take, northern Michigan would have missed out on one very talented chef. Those who have already discovered Wren, the new restaurant he opened in Suttons Bay in August of last year, must certainly ...
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April 20, 2019 In spite of the catchy yellow, red, black, and green logo sign on the front of the historic building it calls home “at the top of the hill” in Benzonia, the Roadhouse sometimes fails to catch the attention of people driving by. Fortunately, enough of them find their way he...
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April 13, 2019 It’s a paradox: For two cooks whose cuisine speaks volumes, they prefer not to. They just want to cook. Eric Patterson and Jen Blakeslee, chef-owners of The Cooks’ House in Traverse City, celebrated the 11th anniversary of the restaurant on April 1 – not with champag...
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March 16, 2019 How can you not love a place “where people have come for over a hundred years to eat, drink beer, tell lies and kiss the moose”? Sleder’s Family Tavern — the oldest continually operating restaurant in Michigan — not only has a sense of humor but also a st...
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March 9, 2019 Without a lot of vision and a big leap of faith, this well-loved and highly respected Traverse City eatery would never have come to be. Opening back in 2004, it was the first and only business in Building 50, part of the former State Hospital — also known as the Northern Michiga...
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Feb. 23, 2019 The ultimate Sunday Funday starts with a stellar brunch. Turns out, so does any day you want to make extraordinary. Here, we profile five Northern eateries taking the art of brunch to new levels. Brunch is a time-honored tradition in America, but most historians put its o...
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Kingsley's Judson Market & Restaurant
The Thistle Pub & Grill
North Peak Brewing Company
Park Street Café
Right Brain Brewery's Naughty Girl Stout
Harbor Springs' Willow
Palette Bistro
The Riv is Back!
Broomstack Kitchen & Taphouse
Mission Table
Terrain
The Towne Plaza
Cousin Jenny's
Wren
The Roadhouse
The Cooks' House
Sleder's Family Tavern
Trattoria Stella
Elevated Brunch