Here are five standout Northern Michigan restaurants where local foods inspire daily menu delights.
Arcadia Bluffs
14710 Northwood Highway, Arcadia 231.889.3009
Stare hard at the blue-green beyond to glimpse those silvery whitefish swimming straight for your plate. Harnessing the vegetable bounty of Bear Lake’s Loving Dove Farm, Arcadia Bluffs offers a contemporary steakhouse menu studded with Great Lakes fish, grass-fed beef and the full spectrum of local summer vegetables.
The Riverside Inn
302 East River Street, Leland 231.256.9971
Surrounded by Leelanau County’s artisan farmers, The Riverside buys heritage Kurobuta hogs for confited pork belly and housemade coppa and sweet candy beets dug from local farms to pair with arugula and fresh chèvre. Sip racy riesling fermented nearby.
Roquette Burger Bistro
103 Park Avenue, Charlevoix 231.237.9016
Kiteley Farms yields grass-fed beef for a pot roast sandwich garnished with Michigan cheddar, baby kale, and fennel mayo; four blocks away John Cross Fisheries fillets Lake Michigan whitefish for the fish tacos.
The Garden Café at Pond Hill Farm
5581 South Lake Shore Drive, Harbor Springs 231.526.3276
Pond Hill Farm offers a locavore lunch where the future housemade sausages and burgers are grazing on a bucolic hillside, the salad greens and wax beans are photosynthesizing in the sun, and last year’s harvest turns up as pickles, jams and preserves.
Learn about how Pond Hill Farms grows healthy, crunchy greens all year round.
Pellston Market
230 US-31 North, Pellston 231.539.7100
Summer produce from Bill’s Farm Market is writ delicious in a fluid seasonal menu informed by Chef Nancy Kelley’s culinary forays in Italy, France and North Africa. Find fresh pappardelle with a ragout of summer mushrooms, roasted salmon with summer sugar snap peas and lemon tarragon beurre blanc or soft meringue with crème Anglaise and Emmet County raspberries.