travelMode: Traverse City, Like a Local

Hmm? It’s late July. If you haven’t yet blasted from Southeastern Michigan like a bat out of hell up I-75 or US-23, you probably have a hankering to do so. But maybe you want to ditch the crowds at the freeway exit and discover a less predictable Northern Michigan – one where you don’t feel like just another tourist.

If so, Traverse City probably isn't what you had in mind. Come summer, this town gushes with predictable vacation pleasures. The packed sidewalks of Front Street are notoriously filled with dripping ice cream cones, trinket and t-shirt shops, cafés swamped with downstate tourists, and cherry this and cherry that. But beyond "tourist row" are plenty of local haunts worth visiting by the more inquisitive traveler. Here’s a native’s guide to where year-round residents gather for breakfast, beer, lowbrow art and music. 

Bad-ass Breakfast

At the funky Round’s Restaurant on 8th Street, locals enjoy diner-style food and plenty of it. Corned beef hash, biscuits and gravy and apple dumplings satisfy the bellies of college students, retirees and neighborhood families. A sign by the cash register reads: "Tourists treated same as home folks." Scribbled below, an engraved plaque warns: "No out of town checks."

Visitors will also want to bring hard cash across the street to Ham-Bonz, a tiny diner that has more omelet choices than seats. The pit grill fries up ham, smoked meats and barbeque. Folks sitting at one of the five counter seats can watch the cooks in action and leave smelling like Easter dinner.

Donuts are not discounted in this seemingly fit and outdoorsy town as evidenced by a busy, 77-year-old donut shop, also on 8th Street. At Potter’s Fine Pastries, attendants fill bags of apple-cherry fritters, jelly Bismarks, Danish, glazed twists, and the eaten-but-never-forgotten turtle donut.

Avant-garde Art

Like many beautiful places off the beaten path, Traverse City has attracted its share of artists and art lovers and consequently, many galleries. The most engaging and outwardly incongruous gem is Inside Out Gallery on Garland Street, just west of downtown. Travelers weary of pristine bays and gorgeous scenery are awakened to an urban blast of reds and oranges when they step into this warehouse choked full of outsider art.

Mutilated dolls, found art, breasts, bronze, and bright and bizarre acrylics pervade every foot of Inside Out, creating the largest selection of underground art in the Midwest – go figure! It’s an amazing collection of urban, surrealist works by unschooled artists, making admirers think twice about replacing that Van Gogh print above the fireplace. The back half of the warehouse is a performance space where locals gather for folk/alternative music and films in a cavernous, way-cool lounge filled with couches and mid 20th century accessories. Now and then the local public radio station broadcasts live from Inside Out’s  backroom.

More tame and straightforward, but worth the 30-minute drive from town, Bella Galleria on Old Mission peninsula features local artists who work in acrylics, watercolor, fiber art, bronze and glass. The sculpture garden in the back offers a mellow resting place to replenish the soul. Bella Galleria’s mission is to offer art to folks who are culturally aware, but not “necessarily the wealthiest.” The drive out here is lovely, passing cherry orchards, vineyards and old barns; true, visitors might find themselves feeling like a tourist here, until they lift a pint with a local cherry farmer at the lovely Old Mission Tavern that adjoins the gallery.

Locals call it the "old state hospital" (Traverse City Regional Psychiatric Hospital), but developers of the "Grand Traverse Commons" have a different image for the large cluster of blonde brick buildings. At Building 50, a number of hallways are dedicated to showcasing local art and crafts at Gallery 50.  Prints and paintings grace the walls, respecting the history of the 19th century building, but not its former function as an insane asylum. Also in Building 50, the garden-level Stella restaurant, offers a high-brow, pricey dinner menu in a cellar-esque setting with brick archways – worth the splurge!

Meat Markets (no insinuation here)

At Deering’s Meat Market on Union Street, locals, many of whom arrive by foot, are known by name, or at the least by their favorite sausage or beer preference. With more varieties of jerky than can be listed in a reporter’s notepad, it is truly jerky paradise. Jerky varieties like Cajun chicken, elk, buffalo, horseradish beef, and Russion classic are dried and seasoned on site, and the brat assortment is nothing to snub either. Ukranian sausages and a little Ukranian delicacies section are indicative of who’s working in the back room. Deering’s employees are famously friendly and are known as community supporters. This long-time family of butchers has been on the same corner since the 1930s.

Burritt’s, west of downtown on Front Street, is always jumping. At this market of delicacies, with an intriguing deli, visitors will find some of the best whitefish paté west of I-75. The Burritt folks smoke their own fish at a nearby site on the water; the smoked whitefish, smoked lake trout and smoked fish sausage are out of this world.

Pubs, Dives and Microbreweries

The permeating smell of greasy food alone is a sure sign that Brady’s does not draw tourists with Ralph Lauren polo shirts to its smoky bar and grill. With a kitchen open until 1:30 a.m., Brady’s on South Union Street is the place for late-night bar food – its burgers, Mexican wings, fries and specials like walleye subs – are wickedly good. Brady’s, the last “townie” bar downtown, has a working class clientele, a couple of pool tables, and no pretension.

One of the best places for local color and decent music is The Loading Dock. It’s your basic bar in a big space, but with a small-town atmosphere. Locals congregate at this Lake Street dive for weekday happy hours, and nightly live music which runs the gamut from Celtic night to DJ funk. And, if you can believe there is a Traverse City-based glam band (yep, there is), The Loading Dock is where it will be rocking. No tourists here, but plenty of dancing.

Right Brain Brewery may prove to be a great place to run into local beer lovers. Slated to open late August, the microbrewery and brewpub will be barebones, located in an old furniture warehouse (next to Inside Out Gallery). Right Brain Brewery will boast an industrial feel and put its focus on beer (BYO food). That said, opening simultaneously in the back of the brewpub will be Bloodletters Barber Shop – just the place to enjoy a lager with a trim. Already operating at the front of the warehouse is Salon Saloon, with a two-way mirror that allows beauty shop patrons to watch pub action while sipping cool suds under the heat of a blow dryer.

For travelers heading to northern Michigan’s biggest city, the temptations are many (admittedly, wineries and ice cream parlors have their merits). But visitors who sidle up to a townie at the local watering hole, chat with a fellow jerky lover at the corner meat market, or share buttermilk pancakes alongside a working class Joe, might uncover a different, less transparent side of Traverse City.