Category: The Mess Deck
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Near Beer, Cont’d: Frankfort Beer Week
Frankfort holds its first-ever Beer Week the second week of Hoptober, Monday through Saturday, celebrating our new deeply local beer scene (thank you, Stormcloud Brewing Company). More than a dozen restaurants will be participating, creating unique items just for this event, made with Michigan beer. Stormcloud will tap their annual…
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Bayview Grille Celebrates 4 Years on the Bay
By Ann Sinclair Located on beautiful Betsie Bay in Frankfort, Bayview Grille has earned its reputation as a popular destination for great made-from-scratch home-style food and Michigan-made beers and wine. Located in the building that once housed Celia’s by the Bay, Bayview Grille is the pride and joy of Dale…
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Gourmet Community Dinners Taunt Winter Storms
The Northern Michigan Culinary Arts Community makes a second attempt to kick off its community dinner series at Grow Benzie on Sunday, February 9 at 5 pm. As with all NMCAC events, menus are volunteer-made from scratch and feature locally produced ingredients. Dinner is served at 5 and runs until everyone is…
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Wine and Song: Trina Hamlin Performs at Conundrum Café Aug. 16
On August 16, percussionist and harmonica player Trina Hamlin will fill the Conundrum Café with her passionate ballads and bluesy sounds. An hour prior to the 8 PM concert, St. Ambrose Cellars, known locally for their delicious meads, will be offering a tastings of their meads, red and white wines…
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The May Farm: Greener Pastures
During my three years in Ithaca, New York (which must have one of the premier farmers’ markets in the country), I was spoiled by delicious organically raised dairy delivered to a porch around the block from where I lived every week, in addition to abundant options for nitrite-free, free-range, organic,…
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11th Annual Solstice Festival on Saturday!
Each June since 2002, the Elberta Solstice Festival has brought masses of people to this tiny village nestled amid the dune bluffs on the shores of the Betsie Bay and Lake Michigan for a free festival of local food, beer, games, crafts, and fantastic live music, all capped off with…
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7 Questions for Stormcloud Brewing Company Kitchen Master John Snyder
1. So you’re the new chef at Stormcloud Brewing, and you’re a 1999 Kalamazoo College English major with a music minor. Does your cooking have a deep structure to it? And how does that relate to a universal grammar, if such exists, of breweries? Well, I am heading up the…
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Petals & Perks: The Europification of Main Street Continues
Alert reporter Chip Marks spoke with Chris and Victoria Mekas about their new combination coffee and flower shop, which opened for business May 15 in the old Java 429 spot on Main Street. Chip got this response and some great photos. We took occupancy of the commercial space at 429…
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Psst…Party at Juliet’s House
By Emily Votruba On May 25 at 7 pm, Frankfort–Elberta’s very own Lakeside Shakespeare Theatre company will transform Oliver Art Center into the House of Capulet for “An Evening in Verona”—a fun theatrical party with a purpose. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door, which gets you local food…
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Food Trucks at Elberta Beach?
By Emily Votruba At the February Parks and Rec Commission meeting last night there was some discussion of food concessions down at the beach. Nobody in the room could remember a time when snacks were sold down at the beach, though Katy denHeeten recalled the swingsets and picnic tables she…
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Notable Upcoming Chili Cookoffs
FEB 1 THE FRANKFORT COAST GUARD STATION CHILI COOKOFF who: Competition is open only to public safety officers (police, fire, EMS, Coast Guard), but anybody can come to the station and eat some chili. A panel of judges including Sheriff Ted Schendel and some members of the Chamber of Commerce will judge…
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Near Beer: Stormcloud Brewing
The official announcement finally came today, January 15, 2013, over Facebook: This summer a little light industry rolls in to 303 Main Street in Frankfort. The Alert spoke with Stormcloud Brewing Company owner-operators Brian Confer and Rick Schmitt about their project, which will occupy the former site of the Caddy…
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What’s Eating the Local Food Movement?
By Emily Votruba EVENT Tuesday, December 4. The Northern Michigan Culinary Arts Community invites the public to a talk by Patty Cantrell, “Local Food: A Prescription for National Healing.” With free, locally sourced appetizers made by SEEDS kids and some of our area’s most talented chefs. 7 pm to 8:30…
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Redistribution of Turkeys 2011
Once again, the Community Spirit Food Source will facilitate the arrival of turkey dinners into the homes of our neighbors in need for the Thanksgiving holiday. Last year the program handed out 85 spreads, each including a 10- to 12-pound fully cooked turkey, potatoes, dressing, rolls and beans, and each…
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Foghorn: Sell Your Stuff at E²: Eclectic Elberta
E²: Eclectic Elberta! For the third year, Conundrum Café and Park and Rec are running a free market day on Labor Day Sunday (Sept. 4). Do you have something, anything, you want to sell? (Food, crafts, vintage items, et cetera…) Booths are free. Call 231-352-8150 to reserve a spot. Or…
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Chris Bedford Was Here
The filmmaker Christopher Bedford, who passed away this week, made a visit to the Elberta Farmers Market on May 26. Amid a driving, chilly wind that blew stacks of morels and vases of lilacs off the picnic tables, Chris spoke about the possibilities for local food systems. Later that day…
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Filmmaker to Speak at Elberta Farmers’ Market
This Thursday at 10 AM at the Elberta Farmers’ Market Pavilion, come and listen to Michigan filmmaker and local-food activist Chris Bedford speak about how we can jack our economy and become food secure by high-tailing it back to the way things were as recently as thirty years ago, when…
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The Busiest Weekend Ever
March 17–20: Possibly the Busiest Four Days in Elberta–Frankfort History…for more details on the first annual Benzie County Water Festival, see the official site. THURSDAY, MARCH 17 4 pm–10 pm St. Patrick’s Day Party, Mayfair Tavern 7 pm Elberta Village Council Meeting, Village Community Building FRIDAY, MARCH 18 6 pm…
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Vertical Thinking: Elbertian Proposes to Change Elberta’s Name
During the initial public comment period at the Village Council meeting last night, Kelli Stapleton, Elberta resident and planning and zoning committee member, presented a proposal to change Elberta’s name to Heaven. Among Stapleton’s stated goals was the preservation of our local post office (no plans to close the office…
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Potluck Gardening Workshops Build Soil-Esteem
Vegetable gardens are sprouting up all over the country in unexpected places, from the White House front lawn to city rooftops, in response to the economic crisis and concerns about nutrition and food safety. Some prominent Frankfort and Elberta residents are on the front lines of this trend, participating in…
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Stop Whining and Start W“h”ining: After-Party Will Warm the Shiverers
Diane “Jinx” Jenks, on the first annual wine festival in the Elberta terroir, Saturday, February 19, from 5 PM… The idea came from my personal winter sport, which is winter “whining.” I whine about the cold, stay in, drink wine, and read. I’m getting quite good at it, and it takes…
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Keep Turkeys Flying out of Glen’s
Each year, Community Spirit Food Bank produces 10- to 15-serving Thanksgiving gift packs for area families facing a lean holiday. This year, as may be expected with our continued crap economy, the demand is very high. Melanie Herron, a nurse at Paul Oliver and a Community Spirit volunteer, fielded a…
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Don’t Care Where You Get Your Appetite, as Long as You Eat Locally
The local food movement has made its way to Northern Michigan. You may be asking yourself, “What is the local food movement?” In a nutshell, it is a locally based effort to make food grown and processed locally available for purchase. So instead of your food traveling via container ship…