Food
Nocturnal Bloom Is Blooming
Sharing a beer with brewer and owner Justin Rivard
By Karl Klockars | Dec. 20, 2025
What do you do as a brewer when you’ve made beer all over Michigan, taken your brewery skills to California, earned an Advanced Cicerone certification (one of just 200 in the world), consulted on new breweries, trained brewers to open places of their own, and studied your craft under brewing legends like Jolly Pumpkin’s Ron Jeffries? If you’re Justin Rivard, you come home. That’s how Traverse City happened to end up with … Read More >>
Right Bower’s Bower Breakfast
Tastemaker
By Anna Faller | Dec. 20, 2025
It’s all about the experience at Right Bower Kitchen & Coffee in Traverse City, from the elevated café classics to boutique shopping (featuring Michigan makers!) in their Seven Hills space shared with Old Mission Distilling. A day of local discovery, though, demands tasty fuel, for which our first order of business is the signature Bower Breakfast. This flavor bomb sandwich starts with fluffy eggs soft-baked with white cheddar cheese and spices and … Read More >>
Sisters’ Princess Mimosa
Bottoms Up
Dec. 20, 2025
If you were to pick a Disney princess, which one would you choose? Elsa, for her powers over the incoming winter weather? Rapunzel, complete with long hair and a frying pan? Moana, to explore the Great Lakes with a (somewhat) trusty demigod at your side? Well, whichever you choose, opt for the Princess Mimosa ($14) when you head to brunch at Sisters in Traverse City. The crown jewel of the mimosa menu—there … Read More >>
Cozy Up at Babcia’s Corner
This hidden Traverse City gem offers authentic pierogi and other Polish delights
By Geri Dietze | Dec. 13, 2025
Pierogi is special in so many ways: It’s Polish comfort food, a centuries-old tradition, and it even has its own patron saint. (St. Hyacinth is credited with distributing the beloved dumpling during times of famine or siege in 13th-century Poland.) There’s no danger of the pierogi becoming a lost art, at least in these parts, thanks to Zack and Amy Henley, grandson and daughter, respectively, of Mary Karbowneczk, in whose memory Babcia’s … Read More >>
Holiday Tradition Bakers
Inside the Ingredients
By Nora Rae Pearl | Dec. 13, 2025
Traditions are what we keep coming back to in the colder months, and this year we are going to give you two twists on holiday pie favorites that will become new traditions for years to come. While we all have our favorite apple and pumpkin pies, we’re shifting our attention to pecans, pears, cranberries, and chocolate. For chocolate, we recommend shopping at the Grocer’s Daughter in Empire for their 70% Cacao Bars. … Read More >>
Michigan Bee Co.’s Creamy Honey
Tastemaker
Dec. 13, 2025
Creamy honey, you say? Sign us up! This made-in-Michigan honey brand comes not in a squeeze bottle but a jar (and, as you can see, ours is already half-empty). Dip in a knife—or a spoon, if you’d prefer to cut out the middleman—and you’ll get a warm-butter-like consistency that spreads beautifully on your morning toast or pumpkin bread. The ingredients are simple: pure, raw honey. According to the label, this honey is … Read More >>
Petoskey Farms' Christmas Coffee Flight
Bottoms Up
By Anna Faller | Dec. 13, 2025
There’s nothing like a cozy drink to complement a winter flick—even better if it matches the theme! Enter: the Christmas Movie Night coffee flight at Petoskey Farms. Brewed in homage to a quad of holiday classics (bonus points if you can name them!), this seasonal sip features Cheboygan Coffee Roasters espresso as four fun-sized lattes: there’s the Fragile – Must Be Italian, a mocha spiked with Northwoods peppermint syrup; the soul-warming butterscotch … Read More >>
Farm to Glass with Ethanology
“Beverage is agriculture” says co-owner Nick LeFebre
By Rachel Pasche | Dec. 13, 2025
When Elk Rapids distillery Ethanology committed to locally-sourced ingredients for their products, it seemed like they’d have an uphill battle ahead. But eight years into the business, one hundred percent of the plants and honey they use still comes from within a 50-mile radius. Talk about being rooted in northern Michigan. “Growing up in the area, there was a constant exposure to the food from our region. Whether it was picking asparagus … Read More >>
Idyll Farms’ Goata
Tastemaker
By Anna Faller | Dec. 6, 2025
As we settle in for this year’s long winter’s nap, our visions won’t be occupied by dancing sugar plums but decadent wheels of cheese—specifically, the Idyll Goata from Idyll Farms in Northport (which just won a 2025 World Cheese Award!). Each creamy, Gouda-style wedge goes back to this regenerative farm’s pasture-raised goats, whose fresh milk fuels the dairy train by way of slow-vat pasteurization, meaning it’s warmed and cultured to create curds, … Read More >>
Iron Fish’s Ice Storm Whiskey
Bottoms Up
Dec. 6, 2025
When the trees fell during the 2025 Michigan ice storm, maple syrup producers saw their livelihoods fall too, as over 100,000 sugar maples were destroyed. Iron Fish Distillery’s latest release, the Ice Storm Whiskey, was crafted in partnership with the Michigan Maple Syrup Association to help raise awareness and funds to restore sugar bushes in the region. The campaign included a series of dinners around the state from Petoskey to Detroit to … Read More >>
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