Food on the Road

Hudson's

In the course of a week on vacation, we ate in new places and plenty of familiar ones... I'm not going to recount every meal but wanted to share the highlights of food on the road.

 

Marquette, Michigan

Hudson's is located on a campus in the middle of three hotels, all owned by the same hospitality group.

 

After a long day's drive it was nice to walk across the parking lot to eat instead of driving looking for a spot.

Hudson's is a classic sports bar and grill with a family feel.  The food is good - from the chips and salsa to hearty burgers and a delicious shake.  The Hudson was a classic car produced in Michigan from 1909 to 1954 most of the signage is related to travel and cars.  There are Hudson car bodies inside and out.

It was very good; it attracted us while also offering reliable choices for travelers looking for a meal.

Houghton, Michigan

The Ambassador

 The cities of Houghton and Hancock Michigan are home to two colleges - Michigan Tech and Finlandia University.  We expected that to mean a large pool of restaurants to consider Saturday evening.

 The areas of town we drove didn't offer much to choose from, in fact it wasn't until we were leaving town that we saw Culver's where we grabbed lunch.

 The night before we enjoyed the Ambassador.  According to its website, it was voted the 8th most beautiful restaurant in Michigan, known for its murals, bright colors, and light fixtures.  We ate in a booth near the bar enveloped in a red glow from a neon light and warm tones reflecting off a large mural on the wall above us.

The food was excellent and the portion size was perfect.  We didn't know what to expect while waiting to be seated; the Ambassador was easily the most surprising dining experience we had on our trip.

Ironwood, Michigan

Ben's Place

We wanted to try a pasty for lunch at Joe's Pasty Shop in Ironwood.  It was closed on Monday with no sign indicating if or when they would re-open.

As we were about to search for another lunch spot, we saw a sandwich board advertising Cedar Crest ice cream in Ben's Place.

A classic stainless steel ice cream cooler and counter lined one wall, booths lined the other and a lunch counter was squeezed into the back.  It was a quintessential downtown diner.

The bacon was crisp, lettuce and tomato fresh on toasted bread.  The fries had actual potato you could taste and stood up to an ample dollop of ketchup.  I stopped back an hour after lunch for a Mackinaw Island Fudge malt, it was great!

Bayfield, Wisconsin

At the Pier Plaza hotel

We spent three nights in Bayfield.  On our last night we dined in the cozy lakeside restaurant that was part of the Pier Plaza hotel.

 

The Pickled Herring is a nice restaurant with an outdoor deck and sun-lit dining room.  It has a wonderful menu and atmosphere that makes an evening meal memorable.

There are several very nice restaurants to choose from in Bayfield; I doubt you could make a bad selection and could do well to try a different one each meal.  

Madeline Island

Whitefish from the Lake

 At the Beach Club on Madeline Island we enjoyed the local delicacy, whitefish straight from the local waters in Lake Superior.

 It was quite good.  Even higher on the local menus are the whitefish livers, let's just say I wasn't willing to dive that deep into the local cuisine.

 The Beach Club was our only choice for lunch we could find in late September.  We enjoyed the local flavor.

There is one more restaurant I want to tell you about, but so much happened there, it deserves a blog of its own, look for it next week.

All photos by David Mossner 9/16 to 9/22/2022