Lie in bed late, perk up with a cup of locally roasted Joe then go be your best brunch self at one of these on-point Northern Michigan restaurants. Read on as we follow our morning hunger to some of the North’s best brunch spots.
Sugar 2 Salt | 1371 Gray Rd., Traverse City
S2S brunch is all love and synergy. It’s the delicious dialogue between a fish cake, bacon marmalade, confit’d fingerling potatoes and a sunny side egg. It’s a palate cleanse of citrusy single-origin coffee after a rich bite of scone. It’s the chemistry between sweetheart co-proprietors and chefs Stephanie Wiitala and Jonathan Dayton as they bring their culinary creativity and passion for good food driven by local farms to bear each morning on the breakfast tables at their stylish micro-eatery in The Village at Grand Traverse Commons. The brunch menu’s offerings are seasonally fluid and non-traditional in all the best ways: One day might bring cellar vegetables like butternut squash cooked in a savory morning risotto with oyster mushrooms and bacon or 10-grain porridge slowly simmered with buttermilk, farmer’s cheese, spiced nuts and last autumn’s apples.
Find out which restaurants are open for dine-in and which are offering takeout during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sugar 2 Salt’s spent grain pancakes: lemon curd, preserved and fresh fruit, whipped cream, cranberry simple syrup, apple butter.
Cafe 106 | 106 N. Rath Ave., Ludington | 231.425.3669
If barn building is on your Saturday agenda, tuck into 106’s Country Benedict: grilled biscuits with poached eggs, sausage and, yes, sausage gravy. Better schedule a nap between roof joists.
Crystal Cafe | 1681 Benzie Hwy., Benzonia | 231.383.4395
Benzie’s hungry masses flock to caramel-slathered bananas foster waffles and breakfast burgers stacked with ham, egg and cheese.
The Tribune | 110 E. Nagonaba St., Northport | 231.386.1055
An early spring wander to the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula is rewarded with an airy sugar loaf cake or legit huevos rancheros with salsa verde and Mojo pork.
Benedict | 405 S. Union St., Traverse City | 231.421.1000
Riffs on the eponymous brunch staple include a version with seasonal veggies and a proprietary ‘Northerner’ wherein eggs, thick-cut bacon and tomato cherry jam get piled on house biscuits and doused with hollandaise.
The Towne Plaza | 203 Cass St., Traverse City | 231.929.0900
Chef Chris Hoffman’s unbridled pork evangelism extends to the breakfast table with his Surf & Turf: TP’s piece de resistance built with fried oyster, pork belly and poached eggs covered in red-hot vinaigrette and served over cornbread.
Palette Bistro | 321 Bay St., Petoskey | 231.348.3321
Spike your morning blood sugar with brioche French toast slathered in apple maple syrup or be responsible and order a Caprese omelet stoked with tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil.
Small Batch at The Cupola | 340 State St., Harbor Springs | 231.242.4686
This decadent Harbor Springs dining room serves up lemon-glazed ricotta pancakes and an incarnation of avocado toast on grilled focaccia with pickled onions and fried eggs.
