Food
May the Parsnips Be with You in 2025
Inside the Ingredients
By Nora Rae Pearl | Dec. 21, 2024
This holiday season we know one thing for sure: The snow has arrived and it is here to stay...at least for a while. For winter cooking, let us look to the parsnip. One of their little-known secrets is that as the weather gets colder, they get sweeter. Let that be a metaphor for us in 2025; to let the cold (and the parsnips) build us up. Enjoy parsnips during the peak of … Read More >>
Gilchrist's Mac 'n' Cheese Bucatini
Tastemaker
By Anna Faller | Dec. 21, 2024
Does it get any more decadent than a piping hot bowl of cheesy pasta? Gilchrist Farm Winery & Restaurant in Suttons Bay is cranking out Mac ’n’ Cheese Bucatini ($21) just in time for cozy season, and trust us when we say it’s pure pasta perfection in a bowl! This elevated take on everyone’s favorite comfort food starts with homemade bucatini—a thicker spaghetti noodle—which chefs toss in a peppery bechamel sauce spiked … Read More >>
TC Whiskey's Harvest Cream Liqueur
Bottoms Up
Dec. 21, 2024
Need something to make your cocktails shine this holiday season? We’re all in on the Harvest Cream ($29.99) from Traverse City Whiskey Co., a rich bourbon cream liqueur made with the distillery’s own XXX Straight Bourbon and seasonal notes of vanilla, caramel, and cinnamon. This treat made its debut in November 2023 and has become a gifting staple. TC Whiskey experts say it’s best served neat or on the rocks. We happen … Read More >>
Serving Up Community by the Slice
New Suttons Bay pizzeria aspires to create community hub
By Ellen Miller | Dec. 14, 2024
For Kristine Ingrao and Desmond Berry, running a business is all about family. First the owners of Suttons Bay’s Bay Burrito, the two recently took on a new local restaurant, opening up Bay Pizzeria in September. Ingrao and Berry have owned Bay Burrito for a few seasons. They got into the restaurant scene, Berry explains, because “we wanted to have a place for our children to work. My son had been working … Read More >>
Poppyseed Bakery's Vanilla Cranberry Cheesecake
Tastemaker
By Anna Faller | Dec. 14, 2024
’Tis the season for festive treats, and it doesn’t get any sweeter than Poppyseed Bakery’s Vanilla Cranberry Cheesecake. Inspired by the season’s staple flavors, this mini delight stacks baker extraordinaire Maggie Hardy’s rich vanilla bean cheesecake atop brown-sugar spiked graham cracker crust and a layer of scratch-made cranberry sauce. Topped off with whipped cream and house-candied cranberries, each bite is tart-meets-creamy perfection. And at just a few bites each, there’s nothing stopping … Read More >>
Water Bearer Coffee's Sugar Cookie Latte
Bottoms Up
By Anna Faller | Dec. 14, 2024
The holiday magic has officially hit downtown Traverse City, and it’s got us feeling that childlike glee—especially when we’re sipping a Sugar Cookie Latte from Water Bearer Coffee! The adult-ified (and caffeinated!) version of everyone’s favorite seasonal treat, this dessert-worthy brew combines house roaster Stockist Coffee Co.’s Heights Espresso Blend with homemade sugar cookie syrup (think: butter and almond meet caramelly brown sugar). Each cup is finished off with steamy whole or … Read More >>
Connecting Family and Culture through Food
Bushell’s Kitchen + Cocktails brings Southern and Nigerian dishes to TC
By Greg Tasker | Dec. 7, 2024
Traverse City enjoys a well-deserved reputation as a foodie destination. No wonder—restaurants embraced the farm-to-table movement long ago, and the dining scene is expansive, embracing everything from Asian to Italian. Still, there’s always room at the table for another restaurant, another style of food. The recently opened Bushell’s Kitchen + Cocktails is the newest guest at Traverse City’s dining table, offering a diverse selection of comfort food staples and southern-inspired dishes, along … Read More >>
Dog Bakery’s Holiday Treats
Tastemaker
Dec. 7, 2024
It’s our annual Pets Issue, so we’ll take a break from human food for this week’s Tastemaker with the help of our friends at Dog Bakery by Pets Naturally in Traverse City. ’Tis the season, and these pup-friendly snacks are just right to celebrate. The limited edition treats for December include a 5-inch “Beefed-Up” Hanukkah Bone ($5.99), which is coated with yogurt and carob candy to get its beautiful blue hue. There … Read More >>
Short’s Holiday Battle Plan Variety Pack
Bottoms Up
By Craig Manning | Dec. 7, 2024
We adore this holiday variety pack from Short’s Brewing Company for three reasons: A) the beer is terrific. Whether you’re looking for simple styles (“Thirsty for More,” a refreshing New Zealand-style lager, or “Oh-Kay,” one of the best Short’s IPAs in years) or more adventurous picks (“Junk and Rubbish,” a double chocolate stout brewed with cocoa and marshmallow, or “Silver Tuna,” a festive cranberry orange sour), this box has something for you. … Read More >>
More Than Just the Booze: What Makes a Great Cocktail?
Low Bar’s mixologist shares the ingredients and techniques behind out-of-this-world drinks
By Karl Klockars | Nov. 30, 2024
What makes a great cocktail? If you were to judge by the array of hundreds of bottles of spirits behind the bar at Traverse City’s cocktail lounge Low Bar, your first instinct might be to name any number of high end whiskeys, rums, gins, vodkas, or other liqueurs. And sure, every great cocktail does start with a pour of something that may have been resting in a barrel for years, even decades, … Read More >>
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