Please be seated for this abbreviated version of the restaurant profiles we’ve featured since our Summer Restaurant Issue. Bon appetit!
Grand Traverse Salad Co. Traverse City It’s not a straight line from the gas station to restaurant, nor is it a direct route from doughnut shop to salad emporium. But it’s the path John and Jan Sheill embarked on, and they’re more than happy with the result: Grand Traverse Salad Company. “This is all I’ve ever done,” says Jan. A Michigan restaurant industry veteran, Jan worked in many high-end establishments in the Detroit area before moving north, where she hooked up with Apache Trout Grill on West Bay. She worked there as general manager until it was sold in 2018. After years of helping restaurateurs achieve their dreams, she wanted to do something in the area’s vibrant culinary scene that was her own. But what? She wasn’t entirely sure herself, but tells Northern Express, “I just felt there was a niche for something a little different.” On the Menu: Star of the show is the salad bar in the front. Five different greens selections are complemented by a farm full of ultra-fresh goodies you won’t find at your standard restaurant salad bar, items like rainbow carrot slices, chopped eggs from cage-free chickens, grilled peppers, garbanzo beans, and feathered Monterey jack cheese with jalapenos. Then you come to your proteins — bacon, chicken, turkey, or tenderloin — and several premium add-ons: feta, blue cheese, avocado, dried cherries, even nuts. Then you can choose from a dozen dressings, all of which are made in-house. Building your own salad is simple and sanitary. You point at each ingredient you want, and your gloved server scoops in your choices as you move down the bar together; no patrons touch the good stuff. Want to do even less? Turn over the decision-making altogether. The menu at GT Salad Co. includes several excellent signature salads, such as Quinoa Chicken Salad with marinated kale and red grapes. Chopped salad with chicken or turkey and the usual suspects, plus quinoa and broccoli. Spinach Black Bean Salad is their high protein vegetarian specialty, with black beans, edamame, roasted sweet
potato, buckwheat, and sunflower seeds. Signature sandwiches tempt the palate, too, like the loaded BLT (bacon, romaine lettuce, tomato, red onion, cheddar cheese, and chipotle aioli). Or the Tenderloin Panini, which is packed with tenderloin tips, blue cheese, mushroom, and spinach. All sandwiches come on a rustic baguette. Two wraps are available, too: chicken salad or turkey. If you’re craving a hearty bowl of comfort, consider the grain bowls. Jan says the Tenderloin Bowl and Super Crunch Bowl are the most popular items on the menu, and they are also her favorites. The former includes hand-cut tenderloin, a warm blend of ancient grains and kale, grilled Brussels sprouts, and cured backon grilled in balsamic, and all of it drizzled with a chipotle aioli. The latter features warmed seasoned rice, a blend a green and red cabbage, shaved Brussels sprouts, organic carrots, and cucumber, topped with peanuts and fresh grilled chicken, all topped with a drizzle of spicy peanut sauce. Find Grand Traverse Salad Company at 2500 South Airport Rd. in Traverse City. gtsalad.com One Thirty Eight Cocktail Lounge Harbor Springs When Steve and Victoria McDiarmid were considering ideas for a new Harbor Springs restaurant, their love of excellent cocktails made with premium ingredients was foremost in their minds. The couple envisioned a subtle but classy joint where they could showcase parts of their extensive whiskey collection, a place where both unique and time-tested compotes could be quaffed by discerning guests … a place where people could start and end their evenings in style. That’s exactly what they got when they opened One Thirty Eight Cocktail Lounge, on the northwest corner of 3rd and State streets in Harbor Springs. Once the home of Collins Corner Cafe and Johan’s Pastry Shop, the location sat vacant last winter. The moment the McDiarmids saw the For Lease sign, they went to work developing
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their concept: a whiskey-forward restaurant featuring small plates, tapas, and other gourmet appetizers. While this place doesn’t technically “do entrees,” an individual or a couple could easily make a meal out of a few small plates. That’s why the McDiarmids think of One Thirty Eight Cocktail Lounge as a place to both start and finish an evening. They envision a place where people can enjoy pre-dinner cocktails and snacks; have a full meal elsewhere; then return to the Lounge for end-of-evening fare. On the Menu: The first course in our tasting session yielded a tiny iron skillet with short strips of utterly sinful Candied Maple Bacon ($12). These thick, meaty strips of Plath’s bacon were slathered, but not drowning in 100 percent Michigan maple syrup. Lightly peppered and cooked with care, the meltin-your-mouth morsels paraded a decadent balance of sweet and savory. Some of the other menu options include Roasted Oysters in Bloody Mary Compound Butter, the Village Salad (a hearty bowl of chickpeas, feta cheese, red tomatoes, kalamata olives, cucumbers, red onion, and fresh herbs with creamy Greek dressing), Naan and Hummus ($9), Fried Chicken n’ Waffle Sliders ($12), Pimento Cheese Beef Sliders ($14), the Dilly Melt ($14), Potato Donut with Matcha Cream Sauce ($10), and a Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwich ($6). A variety of cocktails are available as well — all $12. Whiskey Flights, featuring both well-known and exotics selections, are also available. The Economy Flight is $15 and features David Nicholson 1843, Old Tub, and Bower Hill Reserve. At the other end of the spectrum, the Private Flight costs $50 and includes samples of Blanton’s, Michter’s 10-Year Single Barrel, and Kentucky Owl Confiscated. While One Thirty Eight Cocktail Lounge has limited interior seating, there is also ample outdoor dining space on both the front and back of the building. The McDiarmids plan to be open year-round and will offer a rotating, seasonal menu. Carry-out is available, and reservations are not required. Find One Thirty Eight Cocktail Lounge at 138 W. Third St., in Harbor Springs. www.138harborsprings.com
Don’s Drive-In Traverse City It’s hard to determine exactly what it takes for someone or something to be dubbed an icon. Yet it’s clear that whatever those requirements are, Don’s Drive-In has met them. Located on US-31 in East Bay Township, the eatery opened in 1958. While the world around it has changed in the 60-plus years since then, the feel of the place hasn’t. Hamburgers, fries, and real milkshakes harken back to classic ’50s fare while the diner-style décor and old-fashioned service — think: pink walls, boomerang-patterned Formica countertops, and smiling carhops who’ll walk up to your car window to serve you. Owner Mike Maddasion bought the East Bay landmark in 2017. When asked why not modernize things, or change the name to reflect the new ownership, he suggested one think of the old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” On the Menu: The restaurant offers staples such as grilled cheese, tuna fish, charbroiled chicken sandwiches, Reubens, footlong hotdogs, Coney dogs, chicken fingers, and coffee. But if you want the best of what it has to offer, you’ve got to try its most popular meal: the quarter-pound cheeseburger, French fries, and a medium shake — a combo that makes up 85 percent of the restaurant’s total sales. Credit for their big-winning burgers — with cheese or without — goes to the burger meat itself. “We just have excellent beef, from Louie’s of Traverse City. It’s consistent and has the perfect beef-to-fat ratio. We’ve run out of it sometimes, and I’ll have to buy some at the grocery store just to get through the rest of the day.” If, God forbid, you are on a diet at Don’s, turkey burgers and veggie burgers are on the menu; as is a hamburger steak, served sans bun. Those not on a diet might like to try the Breaded Clams Basket, Big D half-pounder, or the “Monster” burger weighing in at three-quarters of a pound. All burger eaters can choose from four kinds of cheese, everything “for the ask’n” (mayo, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard,
