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empty_2 1 year, 6 months ago.
Thank you! I’ve never managed to take enough pictures or take enough notes to write a report before, so this time I told the Guy I absolutely had to do it. Still missed a few, but the only thing I didn’t include was the night we were tired and hungry and the first two places we tried either didn’t actually serve food or were closed so we ended up at Hardee’s. Which we then made better by going back to Mo’s, where I finally met a friend I’ve known only online for almost 10 years.
Now I want to travel more so I can write more! [:)]
Did you have to pretend you didn’t know what for?[;)]
I have no idea to what you might be referring. [:p]
New day, new adventure! We were sticking close to home since we’d done a ton of driving the last few days, so we had dinner across the street from our hotel at the https://www.thefamilyinn.net Family Inn. Nothing but good, satisfying, perfectly cooked, flavourful homestyle breakfast here, and exactly what we wanted.
Did you have to pretend you didn’t know what for?[;)]
Great report and pictures Felix.
Did ChiBears15 show you how to do it? It’s a service he offers.
Since I got the pictures to work, this post is silly. So I’ll throw in a couple of places we stopped on our way back home even though they’re downstate instead of across the Bridge.
First up, https://www.shortsbrewing.com/visit-us/pub Short’s Brewery Pub. I’ve enjoyed their beers for ages, but never had a chance to drive the 3+ hours from home to go there. We took a more scenic route home along the coast of Lake Michigan and stopped for lunch.
I had a wonderful sandwich they call the Old Man Thunder. Braised beef shoulder, roasted peppers and onions, beer cheese sauce, and roasted garlic mayo. The beef was a little dry on the edges, but overall fantastic. Their house-made chips are very tasty as well. I accompanied it with the best amber ale I’ve had in my life, that they call Queen Bee.
We also had an order of soft pretzels, which I forgot to photo. They’re made with cast-off grains from the brewing process, and served with an excellent spicy mustard, beer cheese sauce, and peanut butter and jelly. Fabulous!
Finally, we stopped at the https://www.dublinstore.com Dublin General Store for jerky. They are known at least statewide for their jerky, if not further. They do beef, chicken, turkey, pork, venison, duck, rabbit, elk, moose, bear, pheasant, and almost any other animal you can think of. Different marinades, different flavours. I tend to stick with the original more often than not. This time I got the original duck, rabbit, venison, and pheasant, along with some maple elk. Best. Jerky. Ever.
New day, new adventure! We were sticking close to home since we’d done a ton of driving the last few days, so we had dinner across the street from our hotel at the https://www.thefamilyinn.net Family Inn. Nothing but good, satisfying, perfectly cooked, flavourful homestyle breakfast here, and exactly what we wanted.
The coffee was bottomless, the American fries were tender with crisp edges, the sausage was probably commercially made but done to perfection, the eggs were fluffy, and the toast was done exactly how I like it. There’s something to be said for a basic breakfast platter.
From there, we decided to try more beer, so we headed to the http://www.upperhandbrewery.com Upper Hand Brewery.
Our first flight, which I forgot about photographing until we’d already finished one and started another, was (left to right) Yooper Ale, Rescue Annie, New Sun, and Laughing Fish Ale. I was a big fan of the Yooper Ale, but the rest were fine but not spectacular. The New Sun had an odor that made me think it was skunked, but it didn’t have the corresponding taste.
Second flight (left to right): Escanaba Black, UPA, Yooper Ale, Light Lager. It turns out one pour of the Yooper Ale was all I really wanted, but it still wasn’t bad. The UPA was surprisingly less hoppy than I was expecting, and the light was so nondescript I could have been drinking any given light beer. The black was tasty, but the short pour was plenty.
That ended our stay in Escanaba, along with the western half of the Upper Peninsula. Next stop: Sault Ste. Marie!
We stopped at Kitch-iti-Kipi on the way there (a must see beautiful place), and by the time we were nearing the hotel we were done with driving. A friend had recommended we eat at https://www.facebook.com/PicklesBarAndGrill Pickles Bar & Grill in Brimley, so we took a short detour and went. Again, one of those places you think you’ve gone completely wrong while driving, but eventually the road ended in their parking lot. They are located right on the waterfront of Waiska Bay, and also have a boat dock so patrons can arrive for dinner that way. They have interior seating, but we opted for the upper level of three on the back deck overlooking the water.
With a name like Pickles, we of course were obligated to start with deep fried pickles. They offered both chips and spears, but our waitress told us they’d run out of chips and weren’t making any more since they were gearing up for dinner service so we got the spears.
The batter was very light and crunchy, and had dried dill added for flavour. A couple of the spears were a bit too thick so the juice squirted out and burned, but for the most part were good. A single order was a good size to share between two people without being too much pickle.
I ordered the fried whitefish basket, which came with fries and coleslaw. It was fine, but I can’t understand why you would deep fry whitefish when it already tastes so good. It was left without much flavour other than the breading, which was very crisp. The fries were acceptable, and the coleslaw was meh. In retrospect, I should have avoided the fish and gone with a burger, which my friend said were excellent. Live and learn!
Our first runout from Sault Ste. Marie was down to St. Ignace, which other than going to Leh,29,884095.002,1,16060,68.40.0.224
884100,882741,884034,2019-08-01 18:13:41.957000000,Re: The Official 2020 All-Encompassing Food Crawl Thread Sponsored by Taco Bell”
This summer my other half and I decided to spend our vacation touring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. When I was a kid, we spent a lot of summer trips there, but he’d never been, so we combined revisiting my favourite spots with going to a few I always wanted to but never was allowed, and also checking out foods and craft beer we haven’t tried before.
First stop, just across the Mackinac Bridge in St. Ignace was https://www.lehtospasties.com The Original Lehto’s Pasties. If you’re in the UP, you have to have pasties, and if you’re going to have pasties, you have to have Lehto’s. They’re located right on the side of Highway 2, with a dirt driveway and picnic tables under the trees for dining.
The original location only serves the traditional style with beef, potato, rutabaga, and onion, optional gravy on the side. Which was perfectly fine with me, because that is exactly what I wanted. They came wrapped in waxed paper, almost too hot to eat right away, so we enjoyed the breeze while they cooled.
First bite was heaven, and my childhood came rushing back to me! Perfectly done vegetables, tasty meat, and just a hint of sauce to keep it from being dry. The pastry was solid enough to hold onto, but also flaky enough to melt in your mouth. Adding a bit of gravy later on was also delicious, but completely unnecessary.
After finishing our pasties, we headed for our first home base of the trip, Escanaba. By the time we got there we were tired and hungry and didn’t really care what we ate, so we landed at https://mospub.net Mo’s Pub primarily because they were open and still serving food. What a lucky choice! It’s definitely a bar, with regulars, but they also don’t make tourists feel unwelcome. We started with some fried cheese curds, and they were excellent! Perhaps left to fry a little too long as many of them were losing their cheese filling, but still very tasty.
I tried what I thought was a local craft beer called Mango Gold, which turned out to be from a brewing company less than five miles from my house in Grand Rapids, The Mitten. After that I had a beer whose name unfortunately escapes me that was brewed specifically for Mo’s, which was also an excellent choice. Unfortunately, no pictures of either beer.
We got a Black and Bleu burger and a Bacon Cheddar Pulled Pork sandwich to share, along with a single order of fries. The burger was fantastic! Actual bleu cheese crumbles in addition to bleu cheese dressing, perfectly seasoned meat, and a bun that was either made fresh in house or from a local bakery, soft with just the right amount of chewiness. The pulled pork was decently smoked with a tangy sauce, thick bacon done just right, and perfectly melted cheese on an onion bun of the same quality as that of the burger.
The next day we went exploring, with no particular destination in mind other than a couple of towns whose names made us giggle. We ended up sharing a sandwich for lunch from http://www.crispignasitalianmarket.com Crispigna’s Italian Market that I completely forgot to photograph. It was a four meat Italian sandwich on a tasty (but verging on stale) bun with incredible pickled peppers and onions. One sandwich was enough for two people to share for a light meal that didn’t ruin our appetites for dinner.
Dinner that night was again in Escanaba, coincidentally,29,884095,0,16060,68.40.0.224
884094,881361,884092,2019-08-01 16:48:58.457000000,Re: The Impossible Whopper”
Great start to your report.
I’ve been curious about going to the upper reaches of the continental U.S. for a while.
Damn.. …between the food and the beer my mouth won’t stop watering!
Just WOW WOW WOW! FELIX!!! Besides all of the glorious food, you are a master with the words! What an excellent, fun trip report! I’ll never get to pretend I’m a Yooper but I just got to live it through your eyes and taste buds. Thank you!
PS: Bravo!
Great report!
Great report – thank you for writing it! I love smoked whitefish, but out here in the Bay Area, I rarely see it.
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
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