Top Ten

from Northern Express / Special Double Issue / Dec. 20 - Jan 02, 2022

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this week’s top ten

Lake Erie’s Win Shows Promise for Our Shores

One of the Great Lakes got a big win late last week. Gov. Whitmer released the final adaptive management plan to help state-led and partner-supported projects reduce the amount of phosphorous entering Lake Erie.

Of all nutrients, phosphorus poses th highest risk to the Great Lakes (and Michigan’s inland lakes) because it limits biological activity under most any condition, fueling dangerous levels of algae growth, i.e. scum on the water surface that ruins recreational and property values, clogs water-intake pipes, and can harbor bacteria that are harmful to humans, pets, and wildlife.

The latest iteration of Gov. Whitmer’s overall plan — to cut total phosphorus and soluble reactive phosphorus by 40 percent by 2025 — focuses on Lake Erie, which is the most troubled lake, showing levels about twice that of Lake Michigan’s in the last decade. However, as those along our northwest Lower Michigan coast know all too well, algae blooms along Lake Michigan are none too rare.

At least seven lake sturgeon — a fish currently listed on Michigan’s threatened species list — were found washed up on the Lake Michigan shoreline within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in April 2020. Their deaths were thought to have been caused by type E botulism from cladophora algae mats and had caused similar die-offs in Lake Ontario, Lake Erie and Green Bay.

“Michigan has already reached its target of a 20 percent phosphorus load reduction by 2020, but we have a way to go yet to meet our overall 40 percent goal,” says Gary McDowell, director, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD). “By partnering with our sister agencies, local conservation districts and continuing our outreach with farmers, I’m confident we will make a quantifiable improvement to water quality in the state.”

tastemaker Salted Cashew Caramel Baklava

The Baklava Shop launched in Lewiston in 2011 for one reason: The community couldn’t get enough of the Prince family’s specialty sweet. “When my kids brought treats to school, [ours] was always baklava,” says shop owner and family matriarch, Georgette. Built around goodies made from and inspired by her Lebanese grandmother’s original recipes, the bakery boasts a rotating array of both seasonal and standard bakes. But it’s their Salted Cashew Caramel Baklava that puts hum-drum holiday platters to shame. The brainchild of Georgette’s daughter Sarah, this sumptuous blend of sweet and salty begins with 10 layers of flaky phyllo, each separated by a thin coat of butter. From there, Georgette adds one pound of carefully ground and toasted cashews — “Too big, and the baklava falls apart,” she warns — before sandwiching the whole shebang between another 10 sheets of her paper-thin pastry. Brushed with butter and baked to golden perfection, this ooey-gooey holiday treat is doused in scratch-made simple syrup, which they’ve infused with caramel and brown sugar, and finished with a sprinkle of toasted nuts. At only $20 a dozen, we dare you not to eat the box. $20 for 12 pieces. 2889 Kneeland St., Lewiston. Ordering ahead is recommended: (989) 785-5438, baklavashop@frontier.com 4 • December 20 & 27, 2021 • Northern Express Weekly

Music, Mystery, and an Unmasked Livestream Option

On the Winter Solstice, presented by Blissfest, will feature jazz, folk and roots music in the spirit of the season. Don’t miss Rachael and Dominic Davis, Hadassah Greensky Trio, Djangophonique, and The Hype at Crooked Tree Arts Center in Petoskey on Tuesday, Dec. 21 at 7pm. And, in a much better version than your office’s Secret Santa, audiences will be gifted with a mystery guest host — and the option to buy livestream tickets if in-person performances aren’t your thing. $25 members, $30 general admission, and $10 livestream access only.

4 Hey, read it assembly

The unnamed protagonist of Natasha Brown’s “Assembly” appears to have crested the peak of success. She’s a high-ranking finance executive, her plush apartment is full of investment art, and she’s “in” with her boyfriend’s highfalutin family. But the precariousness — and outright prejudice — that comes with being a Black woman in Britain seems to render her hard-fought victories void. A sudden cancer diagnosis is all the push she needs to pull at the threads of her patchwork identity, start unraveling her painstakingly assembled life, and wonder: Is it one she actually wants to live? A scathing account of societal exploitation, Brown’s debut tears contemporary colonialism to shreds, before literally closing the cover. Just over 100 pages in length, this book will stay with you for years.

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Celebrations New Year’s Eve DOWNTOWN PETOSKEY Three-course Prix Fixe 4 – 10pm A la Carte All Night in Bar EVENING GALA 10pm – 2am Upstairs Celebration | $5 Cover 231.348.3321 Champagne Toast, Featured Cocktails, Party Favors Classic Lunch Menu 11:30am – 4pm Three-course Specialty Menu 5 – 9:30pm A la Carte Menu in Bar 5 – 9:30pm NYE BASH 10pm – 2am DJ Bill the Cat | No Cover Champagne Toast, Party Favors

231.347.0101

Park it (not on the couch) Jan. 1

Resolve to start your new year off right: Whatever time you get up, get outside and hike, run, snowshoe, cross-country ski, or even straddle your horse or fat-tire bike for the nation’s First Day Hikes celebration. America’s State Parks are the hosts, and they’ve got hundreds of self-guided routes and distances you can use to put your best foot forward on New Year’s Day. The ultimate goal? 2,022 miles of course. (And if a nation of hungover people can’t manage to tally that together in 24 hours, we’ve got bigger problems than ignoring our parks.) RSVP for the virtual event in our Great Lakes State by searching “First Day Hikes” at Michigan.gov.

Best Wednesday Night of the Year

Before you slam the door on 2021 (like, didn’t we already try that at the end of 2020?), give the year a chance to end on a high note — specifically, your own hysterical laughter. Great Lakes Center for the Arts will make it more than possible; it’s bringing one of our favorite comedians, Todd Barry, to the stage Dec. 29. A master of deadpan and nuance in any role he plays — think: the bongo-playing “Third Choncord” on HBO’s unforgettable Flight of the Chonchords and Mickey Rourke’s “deli boss” in the Oscar-winning The Wrestler — Barry boasts three one-hour stand-up specials (warm up with his latest for Netflix, Spicy Honey) and has had a hit performance on just about every late show of note — The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Late Show with David Letterman, Conan, and Late Night With Seth Meyers. Tickets are $25. Translation: Don’t dilly-dally. www. greatlakescfa.org

casual worship @ 9a | traditional worship @ 11a ONLINE ANYTIME AT: tccentralumc.org | facebook.com/cumctc

Stuff We Love: Showing up at Your Door

Want the world’s easiest last-minute Christmas gift? How’s about gifting a Northern Express subscription for your housebound grandma, your homesick best friend, or your next-door neighbor who unexpectedly brought over a nice gift and believed you when you said you just hadn’t wrapped hers yet? Save them all a trip to one of our hundreds of locations across 13 counties in northwest Lower Michigan and have a subscription to Northern Express delivered directly to them each week. The price? $110 per year — $104 of which covers postage! Interested? Order up at www.northernexpress.com/

NORTHERN express norther nex press.com

let’s Let’s shred1 shred!

• 8 Board-lovin’ resorts • 20 Years of Gerber Strings • Hot gear for big chills

NORTHERN MICHIGAN’S WEEKLY • dec 13 - DEC 19, 2021 • Vol. 31 No. 50

bottoms up City Park Grill’s Awesome Coffee

Admit it. The holiday season is fun, but it is exhausting. Somewhere between the building of gingerbread houses, shopping for gifts, and decking of halls, you must take time for you. And while a nap is ideal and, quite frankly, delicious, attaining rest in the place you make your endless to-do lists is an exercise in futility. We suggest an equally invigorating, albeit upright, alternative: an hour perched on a stool before the elegant 32-foot solid mahogany bar Frank J. Gruclich installed in his then windowless, gas lamp-lit Petoskey haunt, The Annex, in 1888. Today, sunlight trickles in, and gas lamps (and, well … Frank, of course) are long gone, but as we inch toward 2022, the place — now City Park Grill — remains a respite for the weary (young Ernest Hemingway included). Belly up and take a breather. Your only company need be a snifter of the eatery’s own Awesome Coffee. Made from City Park Grill Blend coffee (specially house-roasted by sister restaurant Roast & Toast), this elegant and toasty upper is enhanced with a rich combo of Grand Marnier, Bailey’s, and Kahlua; topped with whipped cream and a whisper of organic cinnamon; and finished with a caramelized rim. Consider yourself restored. Find it at 432 E. Lake St., Petoskey. (231) 347-0101, www.cityparkgrill.com Northern Express Weekly • Decemeber 20 & 27, 2021 • 5