Small store serves up good barbecue

Editor's Note: This review originally apppeared on the blog Small Town Girl Foodie World and can be found here in its original version.

A friend from the Munising area told us about this great place serving up smoked barbecue over a year ago, and I'm sad to say I had completely forgotten about it until we decided on a whim to go and try it this past weekend. It, for us, is completely in the middle of nowhere, and not on a drive to anywhere we normally go, so after deciding to drive all the way there, I was hoping it wouldn't have been for nothing.

The store was built in 1922, and purchased by Louis Mikulich in 1925. In 1927 he became the postmaster and opened an office in the store, moving his family to the second story. Back then, this store was considered one-stop shopping for the town. The Mikulich General Store was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. In 2013, David and Laura Coleman reopened the store as a restaurant, serving up some amazing pit-style BBQ, pizzas, sandwiches and even Tex-Mex.

From the outside, I'm not sure what I was expecting to find on the inside exactly, but I know it wasn't this. The ceiling and walls are a crisp white, which makes the small store feel huge. Everything is spotless, to the point that you could probably white glove the floor and end up with very little dirt on them. There is a small seating area for people to sit and eat. I'm assuming most people who eat here usually get takeout unless they are from out of town and are making the trip, like we did, just to eat here.

There were so many items on the menu to choose from that I would need a good month to try everything that I wanted to. I had heard their portions were huge, but I couldn't choose just one type of meat so I ordered the two-meat plate option. Now, most people are going to look at the prices for some of the menu items and try and call the place pricey, but I'm telling you the portions are well worth it, and none of us left hungry. In fact, most of us had a to-go container with over half of our meat left.

I ordered the chicken and pulled pork, with a side of corn off the cob and cold macaroni salad (also served with Texas toast). The corn was amazing, and had sweet pepper and onion mixed in. I don't normally like cold macaroni salad because most places put way too much mayo in it, but the ratio of ingredients in this one was perfect and just enough sauce to cover the noodles. I need to make a point to mention, that if you do not like smoked meats, or that smokey flavor, order something else on the menu. The chicken was slightly on the dry side, the pork was cooked perfectly and you could see pieces of what once was a smoke line, and after covering the meat with their homemade BBQ sauce, it was all amazing.

It is a shame that we don't live closer, because if we did we would eat here often. With the wide variety of everything from smoked meats to hot dogs, sandwiches, soups, ribs, loaded baked potatoes, salads, burritos, nachos, pizza and even more, you could eat here every day of the week and never have to eat the same type of food twice. This is worth the side trip to come here and eat. We were definitely not disappointed and will be back again.