OUR SCENE | TRAVEL
Iliana and Anna Regan Milkweed Inn – These Trees Dream in Technicolor BY ANDREW STARK | PHOTOS BY SARA STATHAS
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is a wild place, rivaled in its wildness— in my personal experience, if we’re talking North America—by the Canadian Yukon and Alaska. The U.P. is Ernest Hemingway’s turf, Jim Harrison’s (who both seemed to favor the central U.P., which is largely wooded and flat and desolate, especially as US-2 meanders through Blaney Park and Naubinway, or the “Seney Stretch” along 28 just north). But Jim Harrison, in his exquisite Brown Dog, pretty much nailed its confounding appeal: “Some are plain addicted to the north despite its absolute inhospitality.” But this region remains wild, mostly ungentrified, a place that draws the intrepid tourist, the tough and the endlessly curious—those daredevils and headlong adventurous types looking for a new safari. It takes another sort altogether, though, to up and move there for half the year. Enter Milkweed Inn, super-lauded passion project of Michelin-
starred chef and award-winning author Iliana Regan and her wife Anna, a certified wine expert. While elements of luxury and artisanal culture (the odd boutique hotel, fine dining establishment, winery, etc.) have in recent years sewn themselves into the U.P.’s widespread wilds, none—to my knowledge, and I’m a Yooper—have debuted with such force and critical acclaim as Milkweed. Milkweed asserts itself as “a small inn/bnb located within the Hiawatha National Forest,” which is both accurate and not particularly: they can accommodate up to 10 guests among three in-cabin rooms, an Airstream and a wall tent. And these guests dine very well—think locally foraged (by Chef Regan herself) everything, moose tartare, smoked lake trout, fresh nettle pasta with kale pesto, and all manner of unspeakably delicious fare in a setting that is nothing short of magical. All told, this is basically immersion therapy in the deep woods—akin Continue on page 18
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LAVENDER FEBRUARY 10-23, 2022
