Farm to table is a popular concept and a strong rebuke against processed foods. Of course, factory farms are still called farms, but the point is there, nonetheless. But what do you call a meal at an actual farm? I’m thinking “table on farm,” and remember, you heard it here first. So, when I paid a visit to Pond Hill Farm on the outskirts of Harbor Springs, Michigan, it was quite a delight to eat food around animals that could probably be classified as pre-food.

By far, the best unvegan option on the menu was the Farmhand Burger, made with local beef, pulled pork, bacon-tomato jam and a fried egg. As the farm doesn’t have a deep fryer, they do a rotating menu of sides instead and on this day I went with the spicy peanut noodles.

The burger was a beauty and had a nice balance of the ingredients despite weirdly not having cheese. I found the pulled pork to be a bit dry, but that was possibly because it had been pulled off a squealing pig moments earlier. Aside from that, there was nothing I could conceivably complain about. In fact, I can even do the opposite and proclaim that more restaurants need sides like spicy peanut noodles to go with their burgers and whatnot. Seriously, there are enough fries, salads and slaws out there that the side game could use some real disrupting. Who’s with me? Anyone?

I should also add that Pond Hill Farm is more than just a place to grab a burger carved right off of a cow. There’s a petting zoo, playground and other fun family activities, with vineyards in the works. So go for that, but definitely stay for a bite of the good stuff.

As you drive through the Tunnel of Trees in Northern Michigan, you get the feeling that it could go on forever, that there could literally be no end to the trees. And most likely that was actually what Michigan was like a few hundred years ago. But, the tunnel ends eventually and the light at the end of that tunnel is the Legs Inn, which feels out of place in what can easily be referred to as the middle of nowhere.

You see, Legs Inn was put together by a guy who immigrated from Poland to Michigan back in the 1920s and was even adopted as an honorary Indian by the local tribe. The Inn has had ups and downs, including an unfortunate period as a biker bar (and not one of the cool ones), but is currently a beautiful sprawling complex with a hell of a view of Lake Michigan. Oh, and the food is all about those Polish origins.

I ordered up the Old World Sampler from the appetizer menu for myself, because it looked too damn good. It came with three pierogies, kabanosy (kielbasa’s skinnier cousin), bigos (hunter’s stew) and a couple of koytka (potato dumplings). For my pierogies I opted for two classic potato and cheese and one ground beef.

My dish arrived and almost looked perfect. I say almost because the bigos looked like more of a gatherer’s stew than a hunter’s, with much more sauerkraut than ground up meat and sausage. And while the meat was good, the stew left a lot to be desired. Thus, I was left spending most of my stomach space on the pierogies and kabanosy. The pierogies were nothing short of delicious, hitting all the right spots. I was glad I went with two potato and cheese as opposed to ground beef despite my blog’s name because it just tastes right. As for the sausage, I enjoyed it, but it was plain to see how kielbasa became the dominant Polish sausage in the zeitgeist. Oh, and the kotyka were essentially gnocchi and that meant they were delicious despite there only being a couple of them.

The Legs Inn is a special place, serving up some special food. While I appreciated being able to sample a few different dishes, on my inevitable return I’ll dive head first into pierogies and kielbasas, leaving the rest of the Polish world behind.

There are a few things I like to take pride in when it comes to food. The first is that it’s hard to pressure me to order something once I’ve set my mind on something else. Call it stubborn, but it’s gotten me this far. The other is that I basically avoid fish at all costs. Yet, in two sittings I managed to break both of those rules at The Villager Pub in Charlevoix, Michigan.

On the first visit, it took a bit of convincing, but I was unable to not order the Chicken Pot Pie. This was partially because I love chicken pot pie, partially because it was only served on Thursdays and mostly because I was told to by my mother, my wife and my waitress. I’m sure if my son could have, he would have told me to as well. It came out just like a chicken pot pie should, with a flaky crust on top and scalding innards. Within the innards were delicious, tender chunks of chicken and gravy that was plentiful and delicious. The view veggies that were in there were manageable, but this wasn’t a veggie pot pie with chicken, it was a chicken pot pie through and through.

On my return to The Villager Pub (which, admittedly, was not my idea, but I could not argue considering the delicious pot pie I had eaten), I opted for the Great Lakes Whitefish and Chips. This is a Great Lakes twist on the classic, with whitefish snagged from one of the Great Lakes (well, obviously not Erie) and fried up in a light batter. Some prefer cod, I honestly don’t know that I can tell the difference and am simply happy to know that the fish isn’t fishy. This fish sure wasn’t, and the batter was quite good as well. The fries, or chips as the Great Lakes Brits say, went well with the whitefish.

The lesson from The Villager Pub is to not always be so stubborn. Could I have been happier sticking to my usual path? Perhaps, but now I know that you can’t go wrong with Chicken Pot Pie or Great Lakes Whitefish and Chips when you pay a visit to The Villager Pub.

It’s hard to go wrong with bar food, but it’s usually pretty heavy stuff. So, when I entered East Park Tavern in Charlevoix, Michigan with a stomach that knew it needed to eat something for dinner, but wasn’t especially hungry, I hoped there would be something I could find. Instead of making my way to the full on entree menu, I went for the appetizers and the wings caught my attention.

They came tossed in either a maple sriracha sauce or house BBQ. As much as I love BBQ, I have a hard time turning down a mix of sweet and spicy flavors like maple and sriracha (while recognizing that, of course, there are BBQ sauces that are both sweet and spicy, sheesh). Like a good human, I went with the blue cheese dip instead of ranch and even though I saw there was celery, I let it fly because I thought someone I was eating with might enjoy it. Plus, celery on the side of a dish is never nearly as harmful as several other veggies.

The wings had a glisten to them that intimated that they were a lot more maple than sriracha, but I let my mouth be the judge of that. It turned out that while there was plenty of sweetness to the wings, this was balanced out by the spiciness of the sriracha, while the blue cheese dressing added a sour taste that melded well with the wings. The wings themselves had a nice crispiness on the outer edge to go along with the tender, juicy meat inside. All I really could have asked for was more meat on the bones, and perhaps just a classic wing sauce. Regardless, these wings delivered, continuing to prove that it is still tough to go wrong with bar food.

It would have been much more convenient to go to Blue Tractor BBQ in Ann Arbor. After all, I seem to get there about once a year. The trouble is that every time I’m there I can’t help but stop at Zingerman’s, with an occasional other restaurant thrown in once every blue (or maize) moon. Instead, I went to the location a number of hours further away in Traverse City, Michigan, not far from Sleeping Bear Dunes.

It began with Tractor Twists, which are not at all your typical BBQ food, but that should in no way cheapen their deliciousness. These are twisted bread sticks that are stuffed with monterey jack cheese, coated with garlic and herb butter and served with marinara sauce. You could basically call them deconstructed pizza twists, and that would sound and taste just as good as these did.

I kept the twist theme going with my main course, which was the Pork Mac & Cheese (get it? the macaroni noodles are twisted!). This meant that the mac, which was cheesed up with a smokey gouda bechamel sauce, was topped with smoked pork shoulder, which was then topped with tangy BBQ sauce, kind of like an inception situation. And while the portions were impressive, to be honest, my first bite was disappointing. The bit of pork shoulder that I got was dry and the mac and cheese wasn’t creamy at all. But as I dug in, I realized that the creaminess had settled towards the bottom of the bowl and just needed my assistance for proper dispersion, while the pork shoulder was plenty juicy on the interior. My theory is that the dish was simply plated a little too quickly compared to my eating companions and spent a little too long under the heat lamp or elsewhere. It’s situations like these in which I wish we didn’t just wait for all food to be ready to be served. Alas, this is America, and for some reason this is a custom that lives in.

But I digress. Once I got into the thick of my meal, it was super delicious. It combined basically everything you need to survive – meat, cheese and carbs – and did so well, at least after a bit of stirring. It’s definitely a place I would recommend for someone looking to get smoked up in Northern Michigan.

The world has a few different styles of pizza: New York, Italian, Chicago, Detroit, etc. Yet, it takes a bold pizza purveyor to deliver something that doesn’t quite fit into a predetermined style. Mancino’s Pizza, which seems to have a series of somewhat affiliated locations around the midwest, has done just that. It was in Petoskey, Michigan that I snagged one of these pizzas for the first time.

I went with the Buffalo Wing Pizza, which could have probably been better named the Buffalo Chicken Pizza, since it was topped with slices of grilled chicken breast, then doused with cheese and buffalo sauce. And by doused, I mean there was an insanely thick layer of cheese on this pizza. This alone seemed novel, but the crust is what made Mancino’s pizza so much different than expected. It seemed to skirt the very thick line between New York Style and Chicago Deep Dish, meaning the crust seemed to serve as a means of keeping the ingredients in, but foregoing the full casserole route.

I was surprised by just how spicy the sauce was, but otherwise I was very happy with Mancino’s pizza. I mean, it’s hard to go wrong with a boat load of cheese and solid sauce and toppings. And while I was impressed by the pizza’s audacity to not be classified, it also didn’t break barriers in a way that made me feel like it is going to change the world like the aforementioned pizzas may well have. Regardless, it’s worth grabbing a slice.

At 8 miles around, Mackinac Island is known for a few things. A beautiful hotel, horses, bikes and even some food. That food is fudge, so I’ll not bother with writing about how Murray’s Fudge is the best, but the island is not without other restaurants catering to the throngs of tourists that make their way and need something to eat. On this visit, we left the main drag and found Ice House BBQ.

We started things off with an order of their Crunchy Deviled Eggs because apparently deviled eggs are what my wife craves when she is pregnant. Unlike normal deviled eggs, these are coated in panko crumbs and fried before getting the yolky mixture back in the whites. They were certainly tasty and nice twist on the usual deviled eggs, with the crunch of the crumbs almost making up for the lack of crunchy bacon.

For my main course, I ordered the Baby Back Ribs. They were said to be dry rubbed and slow smoked, and came with two sides and corn bread. I picked mac and cheese for my side and got potato salad so my wife could enjoy it. The ribs came out pre-sliced, which was certainly surprising. But this didn’t stop me from digging in. These wings weren’t fall off the bone, but instead seemed to adhere to the bite mark method of smoking. The flavor was pretty decent, but not exactly something special. On the other hand, I could really appreciate the char on the outside of the ribs and the flavor it brought. The mac and cheese was pretty solid, and made for a nice accompaniment.

Ice House didn’t exactly serve up the finest BBQ in the world, but it was unquestionably a solid choice for a meal on an island made for tourists.

Harbor Springs in Northern Michigan is a long way from Japan, but that doesn’t stop a place called Vernales from sporting a Wagyu Brisket Burger. You see, Vernales is kind of a sports bar masquerading as an upscale restaurant, so it only makes sense that if they are going to serve a burger, it’s going to include some fancy beef. And after a long time looking over the menu, I knew that burger was what I had to have.

I should say, in addition to being topped with BBQ brisket, it also had cheddar cheese and onion straws on a kaiser bun. It was also served with fries, but there was no warning that pickles would also be alongside the burger on the plate. Fortunately the juices didn’t do any damage, but that’s always a tough thing to see.

As for the burger itself, unfortunately it did not quite live up to its perfectly unvegan description. I mean, yes, it was plenty unvegan, but the ingredients really lacked any sort of pop of flavor. Perhaps Vernales leaned too heavily on the fact that this was Wagyu beef and assumed that all the flavor would come from those tasty Wagyu fats. But The fact of the matter was that there seemed to be little seasoning on the patty and just not a lot to the brisket either. The fried onion strings and cheese tried to compensate, but unsuccessfully.

I can’t say that the Wagyu Brisket Burger was bad. It definitely was not. On the other hand, it really struggled more than it should have to be good.

Petoskey is a lovely little town and the main drag of it is even lovelier. Situated in the middle of it is a coffee shop and sandwich place appropriately named Roast & Toast. It, too, is lovely. And while I’m no fan of coffee or ampersands, I do appreciate a good toasted sandwich. Seeing as it was lunch time, it seemed a wise choice.

So I went with the Blackwich, a sandwich whose name was intriguing, but ingredients were welcoming. It consisted of Cajun-seasoned chicken, bacon basically from down the street at Plath’s, avocado from definitely not down the street, lettuce, Swiss cheese undoubtedly from somewhere other than Switzerland, bleu cheese pesto mayo spread and some toasted white-ish bread.

I ordered without the lettuce and tomato like a good unvegan and the results were something of a beauty. The Cajun chicken was more the cold cut sliced variety, but that didn’t stop it from being delicious. The avocado was fresh and the bacon was nice and thick and crispy. There was even pineapple on the side for garnish where you would ordinarily find a stupid pickle spear. And, perhaps most importantly, the toasted bread was superb, ensuring that Roast & Toast could continue using the latter part of its name.

Roast & Toast definitely knew how to construct a sandwich, and to garnish it the right way. It’s the kind of place that everyone wishes they had around the corner from home, and at least for my brief week in Northern Michigan it served that purpose well.

Harbor Springs is a lovely little town up in Northern Michigan, and yet between it and Petoskey (another lovely, somewhat bigger town), there isn’t much beyond trees, condos, lakes and a couple of ski mountains. Oh, and there’s also Teddy Griffin’s Roadhouse, which has been situated there as long as I can remember. They serve up a combination of bar food, fancier European-style food, Great Lakes food and some of the most delicious bread in the world.

One of their specialties is prime rib, and I just had to have it. I ordered it medium rare and it came out looking like a dream, well aside from the random green beans it came with. On the other had it also came with a pleasant surprise of au gratin potatoes, so I thought they kind of canceled each other out.

Alas, the prime rib was cooked perfectly and was even tastier with a dip of the horseradish sauce. The seasoning was subtle, but enough to bring out the beefy flavor, and I have never seen a juicier plate of beef. It was almost enough to make me forget about the green beans.

In fact, in the week we spent Up North, we returned to Teddy Griffin’s and this time around I went with the Pesto Chicken, which was made with a creamy pesto sauce on angel hair pasta. While this dish was also quite delicious, it was also held back by being served with unwanted green vegetables. This time they came in the form of asparagus and the rich, creamy sauce and tender chicken breasts could only do so much to gloss over that egregious error.

Teddy Griffin’s was a great way to bookend the trip Up North, but they have got to get their vegetables in order. Until they do so, they will always have an asterisk next to their otherwise delicious dishes.