Michigan: New Buffalo, Benton Harbor, Empire and Glen Arbor

On the way out for our camping trip without the kids, I took a listing of places described here for western MI, but somehow managed not to grab anything from New Buffalo, except that Redamak's was overrated. Since we weren't really interested in burgers anyway, having a few nice patties chilling in the cooler, we tried Hannah's for our first evening stop on Friday:

Hannah's
115 South Whittaker St., New Buffalo, MI 49117
888.877.1440 / Local 269.469.1440
http://www.hannahsrestaurant.com/home.html

Very supper-clubby: nothing on the menu is going to astound you, but well done overall. I had the Apple Brandy Pork Chops, which were very sweet, but perfectly prepared: juicy, meaty, with pecans and apples. MrsF had a chopped salad that was more like a sliced salad: big pieces of apple, avocado and chicken breast made it a knife-and-fork kind of salad. Tasty, and probably a better presentation, but not really a chopped salad, now is it?

As an appetizer we had their "Crabbys" which look like mini eggrols, filled with their "crabby" stuffing they use in steak, seafood, etc. Hard to say, but probably was "krab" not crab. Still very tasty, and a better filling for deep fried snacks than the molten-lava effect of crab rangoon. Served with "Barney's Sauce" which the waiter described as a dark french dressing with red onions in it. This was tasty but sweeter than we like: a little kick of cayenne would really help balance it.

After a night in probably the world's worst Best Western, in Benton Harbor, we had a big breakfast at Sophia's House of Pancakes:

Sophia's House of Pancakes
(269) 934-7688
1647 Mall Dr
Benton Harbor, MI 49022

$5.95 special gets you two eggs, and choice of pancakes, french toast, waffles, plus hash browns (nicely done), juice, and choice of bacon or sausage. Sausages were tasty with a reasonable amount of spice, and extra credit goes to them for well-browning my scrambled eggs.

A tire change and a 2-hour stop in Grand Haven to fix the resulting rear axle seal leak, we made it to our campground by 7PM. The next two days we cooked for ourselves, although one warm evening we went to Tiffany's Ice Cream

Tiffany's Ice Cream
(231) 326-5337
10213 W Front St
Empire, MI 49630

Locally-made ice cream was very good: mine had cherries and fudge chunks in it, beating my fave Cherry Garcia by a couple of points, MrsF had cookie dough and "cow tracks" that had nice soft peanut butter in it.

The last full day we spent in Glen Arbor, starting with a kayak trip down the very twisty Crystal River. Lunch was had at Cherry Republic:

Cherry Republic, Inc
6026 South Lake Street
P. O. Box 677
Glen Arbor, Michigan 49636-0677
Phone: 231/334-3150
Fax: 231/334-6425
Toll Free: 800/206-6949
Hours: 9 A.M. - 9 P.M. Eastern time
Email: info@cherryrepublic.com
http://www.cherryrepublic.com

Everything there has cherries: cherry hot dogs, cherry chicken salad, etc. etc. Their BBQ is the real deal, although rife with puns (cooked in The Cherry Pit, indeed). The Cherry Pulled Pork sammy had nice chewy ends mixed in, good smoke. The cherry BBQ sauce was sweeter and milder than I'd prefer, but I knew what I was getting into when I ordered.

Topped off with an excellent Cherry Ginger Ale (bottled for them by Sprecher's -- although surprisingly containing natural and artificial cherry flavor), a great lunch. Their barn of a cherry gift shop includes four soda flavors, salsas (we took home a hot variety, good heat with the sweet, plus a sixer of the cherry ginger ale), jams, jellies, malted milk balls, dried cherries, t-shirts, hats, etc. etc.

Cherry wine.... eh. They all tasted too sweet, too weak. The cherry port was kind of port lite.

A little time on the beach at the nearby maritime museum in Glen Haven, then back for dinner:

Boone Dock's
(231) 334-6444
5858 S Manitou Blvd
Glen Arbor, MI 49636

With its huge patio, this place is obviously designed to feed a lot of tourists. But the food was quite good: my Canadian Lake Perch was crisp and mild-flavored (curses, foiled in getting a decent baked spud, though), and MrsF's fried chicken was also crisp -- a very different breading with a decent amount of spice, the leg and thigh were great cold the next day. Prices were kind of touristy, but not outrageous.

Glen Arbor has a couple of other spots I enjoyed. The Good Harbor Grill looks like it would be the sort of place thats serves mediocre quiche and that cherry chicken salad that is hard to avoid in Northern Michigan, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it serves an earnest ear of corn, well-prepared fresh salads and entrees, and has a daily selection of very good pies. A family-owned establishment open only during the warmer months, the Good Harbor Grill has a clone in Florida during the winter.

La Becasse is a good French restaurant located in a converted filling station down a country road away from the center of Glen Arbor. The interior is all whitewashed beams and feels like it could be in France (the presence of a table of diners all speaking French did not hurt, either.) I had a lobster bisque, confit and magret de canard, and an Australian sticky date pudding. All delicious. You would definitely need reservations. Open during the season only.

Labecasse Restaurant
9001 S Dunns Farm Rd
Maple City, MI 49664
Phone: (231) 334-3944