Xapa to the World

Category: Restaurants

  • Fresh Friday – Foodie/Wander Edition (Traverse City Food Stops)

    To continue with the Traverse City recap, I’m sharing some of the places we stopped for food in the and around the city.  Of course, being northwest mitt-Michigan, you can expect lots of cherries featured on the menus. Some of my favorite things I tried was special-made cherry chipotle humus and cherry barbecue sauce.

    House of Doggs140607 - TC House of Doggs

    Website

    120 S Union St, Traverse City, MI 49684
    (231) 922-1348

    ***UPDATE (1/3/16) The only location for House of Doggs is now in the Mall.  Here’s the address: 3200 S. Airport Rd., Traverse City, Michigan***

    Now, if you want to talk about chili dogs, you talk about Cincinnati. That’s a firm statement and fact. I don’t even know why I bothered getting a Cincy-style chili dog outside of Cincinnati, but they did only alright. I’ll share that my companions LOVED their dogs, though. Matt’s mom heard that this place was on one of those foodie TV shows and so, it was our first stop the very day we got there. It was very good, and I enjoyed the theme of the joint – all dogs have their own quirky regional name, like: Be-Bop, Grand Funk, Disco, James Brown, etc. The brother in law got a real strange one, I think it was the HOD Fusion, which included crushed potato chips.

    The Underground Cheesecake Factory140608 - TC cheesecakes

    Website

    1375 Yellow Drive, Traverse City MI 49684
    231-929-4418

    The Huz and I stopped in here because, hello, it’s cheesecake! We were in the area called The Village, which includes the renovated Old State Hospital grounds (apartments, shops, restaurants) for the annual Traverse Colantha Walker Dairy Festival. Naturally, they are incredible for their cheesecakes, but they also serve soups and sandwiches. We got our cheesecake to go but ate our lunch outside. So good!

    Higher Grounds Trading Co

    Website

    806 Red Dr, Suite 150, Traverse City, MI 49684
    877.825.2262

    It was a little chilly on the day of the Traverse Colantha Walker Dairy Festival. Of course, Michigan is a little further north than southwest Ohio, so we should have been prepared. We welcomed a stop into this coffee shop, which is just around the corner from Underground Cheesecake Factory.  This place has all the earmarks of a great local coffee shop, which I love! One super-cool thing is that they gave us our coffee in real ceramic mugs. The catch? We could bring them back when we were done and they’d be cleaned and reused, or we could take them if we really wanted. We returned ours, but mine had a Santa on it, which was fun. The mugs are donated to them and it would definitely reduce the waste from the shop. I’m pretty sure I saw that they offer the used grinds to small-garden farmers. Here’s the description they post on their website about who they are:

    Higher Grounds Trading Co. roasts fair trade and organic coffee from around the world. We stick to high standards not only for ethical and environmental reasons, but also because we’re obsessed with quality: we believe these standards produce the best-quality coffees around. Our close relationships with farmers help us bring delicious coffee from the field to your cup.

    Millie’s on Main – Mackinac Island140609 - Millies on Main

    Website (couldn’t find a true website, so this is their Yelp page)

    7294 Main St, Mackinac Island, MI 49757
    906.847.9901

    If I’ve been walking a lot before eating (which is all you really do on Mackinac Island), I am not usually up for a big meal. So, yes, I did go to a nice restaurant on Mackinac and only got chicken tenders and fries. But they were so good! Also, the special chipotle lime bbq sauce was amazing!! I loved it. I don’t think I would’ve thought to put lime in a bbq sauce, but I’m so glad THEY did because I could have probably drank it and been just fine. I can’t remember much else about the place, though, except that I had to take a pic of the bathroom. There were paintings in them by a guy with the same name as one of my friends, which was funny to me. Anywho, check them out. There isn’t a huge variety of food options on the Island, but this was probably one of the better options minus the Hotel.

    North Country Grill and Pub140611 - suttons bay cherry chipotle humus

    Website

    420 N Saint Joseph St, Suttons Bay, MI 49682
    231.271.5000

    I’m jumping around, but I had to put this place in here. We stopped here for lunch one day on our way up to Fishtown (back from? I can’t remember which came first) and, again, we had been doing a lot of walking, so I went light on my meal. I snagged the Cherry Chipotle Humus. If you know anything about Michigan, it’s that it’s Cherry country. They did not disappoint. It was fruity, spicy – everything they promised. The inside of the place is amazing too; lots of beautiful wood, fireplace, giant bar. It was gorgeous.

    The Cherry Hut

    140613 - TC cherry hut 03Website

    211 N. Michigan Ave. (US 31), Beulah, MI 49617
    (231) 882-4431

    I was told to stop here by a customer. The Cherry Hut was also featured on a reality foodie show, so we figured we had to check it out. They are, as the name would imply, all things cherry. The Huz had a burger with cherries mixed into the meat. I had a regular burger with cherry barbecue sauce – soooo good. The father-in-law ordered a “Complete Dinner” which came with just about everything on the menu. It was unreal how much food he had, and he loved every bit of it. They have a store of take-home treats that is very comprehensive. I bought some chocolate-covered cherries and gummy cherries to bring back to the office. They were gone within a few days. I would highly recommend a visit here for lunch or for dinner. The decor is real sweet too, like a 50’s dinner with cherries!

    Moomer’s Ice Cream

    Website

    140608 - TC moomers

    7263 N. Long Lake Rd., Traverse City, MI 49685
    231.941.4122

    There are a few different spots where you can find Moomer’s Ice Cream. We stumbled upon it at The Village in the downstairs of the State Hospital (don’t let that scare you) and also at their main store, which sits next to a dairy farm. I love local flavor and you don’t get much more local than ice cream from local dairy farms and other local ingredients. If you like Moose Tracks ice cream, you will love their Cow Tracks blend (pictured to the right).

    Union Cantina

    Website

    UClogo

    127 South Union Street · Traverse City, Michigan · 49684
    (231) 941-5038

    This is a great little Mexican bar in downtown Traverse City. My biggest takeaway was that I could actually order a DR. PEPPER and it came FROM THE TAP! Yeah! it is so hard to go through northern states sometimes. I must live right on the line where Dr Pepper stops being a thing in the north. The food was pretty good, but seriously, I can only remember the Dr Pepper. 😀 Oh, and there’s a crazy massive antique mall on the same block.

  • Getting Married: 38 Weeks – Road Trip

    I met up with some friends last year in Indianapolis and it was my first time to explore the city. I loved it! (You can find my posts about THAT trip here. Sorry Erik, I still don’t have a review up of your seminars.) Matt and I both had Labor Day off work, so we took off early Monday morning and drove over to Indy for a fun day trip.

    It was a rainy start, but we made our way straight over to The Children’s Museum. I went there on my last trip and their big exhibit was something on Barbie. My friend Audrey and I were not compelled at all to go check it out. This time, the special exhibit was “Hot Wheels for Real!”

    Matt was so super excited about this exhibit. I had seen that it would be there ahead of time, but Matt didn’t know. He must have said 10 times that his brothers would LOVE to see all of it too.

    Pretty Green Camaro…that’s all I’ve got. Oh, and something about the chrome being tinted, instead of it actually being paint.
    I’m pretty sure this kid is livin’ the dream – a super cape and a hot wheels track.

    There were quite a few boys running around with super-capes tacked onto their shirts. I hold to The Incredibles’ theory on capes though…they sure look impressive, but then they get sucked into an airplane engine and where does that leave you? Not very pretty.

    The dino dome really impresses me. I used to love dinosaurs until I saw Jurassic Park and it gave me nightmares until…last week. Just kidding! (I might not be…)

    Oh look! There’s Barbie, afterall…

    *sings* I am a paaaaa-leon-tooooo-logist.
    We may have been distracted here for a full 5 minutes when we got to the hands-on discovery center…and then again on our way out.
    Mirror Maze!

    After the museum, we drove over to one of my favorite shopping districts. If you’ve never been to Indy, then you should go to Massachussetts Avenue. If you have been to Indy, but haven’t been to Mass Ave, consider this your invitation. It’s much like Hillsboro Village in Nashville and just a lot of fun. There weren’t nearly as many shops open as the last time I was there. Something about it being a holiday… The toy store was open and we found some really fun things in there. The owners were running the registers and commented that they realize just how much they need their regular cashiers. I guess they decided to open that day on a whim and were really pleased with the amount of business they were getting. I asked the wife where we should get our lunch and she recommended Bru Burger Bar across the street. We were starving so off we went.

    In the last few years, I have really come to appreciate signature burgers from different restaurants. I never was a burger gal, but I’ve crossed over and was so excited to try one of Bru’s Chef Burgers. I went for the basic called “The Beginning.”

    They call it The Beginning. I call it Delectable.

    It quite literally melted in my mouth. What would take me back to Bru’s, though, is the ketchup – or what they call ketchup. It’s an amazing mix of ketchup, brown sugar, minced onion, and crushed red pepper. I think Matt and I both ran out of the stuff before we were done with our fries. The waitress said she thinks the restaurant was built around the ketchup because you’re always looking for something else to put in it.

    Pensive face over how amazing his blackened mahi-mahi sandwich is.

    After we stuffed ourselves and decided to move on, we walked over to one of my favorite shops, “Silver in the City/At Home in the City.” It’s actually two shops in one and is full of some incredibly witty, sarcastic, and sometimes irreverent material. Here are a couple of things we found:

    Marcel the Shell with Shoes On: Things About Me

    Have you ever seen Marcel the Shell with Shoes On? No? You must!  Go here and then here. We were *thiiiiiiis* close to buying one. He talked about the many large monuments in his hometown (hint, they’re athletics trophies) and what his breadroom is like. Yes, his breadroom. If you’re still confused, then go back to where I said “here” and “then here” and go there. Seriously, why are you still waiting?

    Reading is Sexy and Knitting is Knotty.

    The only thing that kept me from buying one of these is that they’re plastic. Other than that, we thought these were hilarious and very fitting…for me. 🙂

    —————————–

    I’m getting married to my, you guessed it, best friend on June 1st, 2013! Matt and I are super-excited and since we have quite a bit of time to plan this thing, I decided it’d be fun to blog about it. Well, maybe not always fun, but at least informative and it might give me a welcome distraction. You can find all the posts by clicking the “Getting Married” tab on the right of this page, or by clicking here. Thanks for stopping by!

    My Pinterest Wedding Board

    Our Wedding Website on WeddingWire.com

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  • Review: Massachusetts Avenue, Indianapolis

    This is part of a series of reviews from my time in Indianapolis this past weekend.  There’s nothing so fun as a quirky, hipster, neo-boho shopping district in a big city.  Nashville has its Hillsboro Village, but in Indy, why keep the joy to just a couple of blocks?  Massachusetts Avenue stretches, at 45 degrees, across 7 intersections – fully walkable and chock-full of great shops!

    Here are the specs:

    Massachusetts Avenue
    Entrance to the South begins at the corner of Delaware St and New York St.
    Indianapolis, IN 46204
    317.637.8996 ext.202 – Riley Area Development Corp.
    Facebook

    There are too many shops to see in one visit or to write about in a blog (I count 71 listed on the map), so I’m going to only put up the places I visited with a short description. First up!:

    Stouts Footwear
    318 Mass Ave – 317.632.7818
    Oldest, coolest shoe store in the nation, holding fast to personal service, quality shoes, and tradition.

    This place is pretty fab.  It’s basically the first shop you encounter if you choose the Japanese route of going up the left side of the street first.  We only went inside because of the cool sign out front telling us that it is, in fact, the oldest shoe store in the nation.  You can see why when you go in.  The shoes they sell are great quality, and they built their reputation on custom fitting shoes from the manufacturer for their customers.  But this isn’t the only cool thing about the place.  First, there’s a parrot who is semi-friendly.  It let me pet it until it apparently had had enough and didn’t want any more.  Second, there is a pulley and basket contraption that spreads from a crows nest in the center of the shop to various spots in the rest of the store.  The floor staff puts the shoes in the basket, pull a cord, the basket lifts up to the top, they pull the cord again, and the basket flies off to the crows nest.  There, another attendant carefully removes the shoes from their box, checks everything out and, I only assume, wraps it up to send it back down, the same way, to the cashier.

    At Home in the City/Silver in the City
    434 Mass Ave – 317.955.9925 – Website | Facebook
    Jewelry, gifts and home decor. Voted Indy’s Best 2006-2008.

    I went to Silver in the City/At Home in the City some years ago when they still had a store in Lafayette, IN. This place is a great combo of jewelry, Eco-friendly home furnishings, and the ridiculous novelty items. They carry one of my favorite silly/awesome brands, KnockKnock. They also have Jesus Bandaids, which feel like they work faster than other brands. There’s just a plethora of items; I highly recommend a stop through bc its next to impossible to really describe all of it. BTW, this is their only store now. I’m not really sure how Lafayette is surviving without them.

    Global Gifts (Fair Trade Shop)
    446 Mass Ave – 317.423.3148 – Website | Facebook | Twitter
    Fair Trade store providing hope and opportunity for artisans from 35 countries.

    This shop is excellent. Tons of artsy and unique home furnishings and they are, wait for it…fair trade! I was told that a lot of the work comes from rescued victims of human trafficking. They have all sorts of goodies – home decor, fashion, chocolate, etc. Everything is priced very reasonably, so be sure to stop in.

    Best Chocolate in Town
    880 Mass Ave – 317.636.2800 – Website | Facebook | Twitter
    Hand-made chocolates, specializing in truffles and locally made gelato.

    Ok, so I definitely pulled an Elf with this one. We walked in and all I wanted to do was say, Congratulations! Indy’s best chocolate! But then I saw them. Sitting there, in perfect little rows, hundreds of them. Truffles. Gobs of them. And the Cinnamon ones were calling my name. After having a great discussion on the health benefits of cinnamon with the two staff members, I went ahead and bought one. It was $2+ for one, but it was so worth it. It took 4 bites to finish, partly because I was trying to savor the amazingness of it. It’s a definite top on my list.

    Aesop’s Tables
    600 Mass Ave – 317.631.0055 – Website
    Mediterranean restaurant. Fifteen years on the avenue.

    We had just been saying how we wanted to find a good Mediterranean restaurant for dinner and our answer was Aesop’s Tables. Unfortunately, by the time we got back to the restaurant, we weren’t all that hungry. We stuck with some appetizers, and sorry, I didn’t catch any pics of the food. The service was lacking though. The place wasn’t packed, so I’m unsure what his issue was. The food was pretty good, but not the best I’ve had. I would recommend it though if you’re in the area. There are other restaurants too, though, so be sure to check the map (view online or get one from any of the Mass Ave stores).

    Market

    We also managed to get there while an Artist/Food Market was going on. Lots of different items: bath products, hair and fashion accessories, organic teas, jewelry, and, my personal fave, worm poop. Check out on the website for any other cool events that might be happening.

    Here’s the breakdown:

    The Street:  Very fun. Lots to check out. The website lists a lot of the events going on.  There are also some comedy clubs and such there, and restaurants have offer live music too.
    For kids: There’s a toy store.  Enough said.
    For pets: There are some doggie/pet specific shops on the street as well.  If you are curious, go to the website and check out all the shops on the list. You’ll be amazed at what they’ve come up with.
    The cost:  Moderate to high-priced.  If you’re going to shop, you’ll spend a good amount.  Window shopping is fun too though.
    The food: Tons of restaurants there, running the gamut of styles and tastes.
    The help:  Most of the places we stopped into, the staff was helpful and accommodating.  They would usually tell us of another shop up the street where we could find such and such and was run by a friend of theirs.  They really put a lot into the community-feel of the place.
    The parking: There is parking along the street and on adjoining streets.  If you’re like me and enjoy walking, you can park somewhere downtown and walk all the way there.  Just a few blocks away and it’s all flat.
    The accommodations: There’s a B&B right on the street!  I so want to stay there some time.  Like most B&B’s expect to pay more than you would for a hotel, but it looks totally worth it.
    Returnability:  This is definitely on my Favorite Places list (which I guess I should post at some point on here) and whenever I’m in Indy, or even passing through, I know I will try to get in there for a quick walk and peruse.

    I’ll try to get some more pics up, but I just don’t have them right now.  Enjoy the review anyway!