Northern Michigan Dining, Breweries, Wineries, Happy Hour, and more!

August 2018

We visited Suttons Bay and Traverse City two different times in August (7 nights total). This post covers some new beverage and dining venues we discovered. I will have separate posts about recreation and other topics. We learned about some of these places from the Visitors Centers, and some from What's Up Michigan's website. I am not sure how well the What's Up Michigan site is maintained, as I also found several expired or invalid links within their site. Make sure to check dates when looking for information.

Blue Tractor Slider for $3 ~ delicious!

Dining and specials

We visited Blue Tractor Barbecue in Traverse City because we had a coupon for a free slider. We were surprised when we arrived and saw this is a restaurant/bar. For some reason, we had expected a food truck. We also ordered a Bloody Mary, and learned when we received the bill, that Bloody Marys are on special for only $1.50 on Sundays!

Blue Tractor menu

The slider was amazing, and the regular cost is only $3. We had planned to stop again during our second visit to the area; my husband wanted another BBQ, and I wanted to try the Tractor Salad. Unfortunately, things did not work out for us. The service was excellent, as well. We thought Blue Tractor Barbecue was an excellent find, definitely worth visiting again.

Blue Heron 2 menu

We visited Blue Heron 2 for breakfast in Traverse City. If you do not mind the wait, the food is very good. We were the only table before 9:00 AM on a Sunday (only 3 of us), and it took us an hour to have breakfast. We waited to order, we waited for our food, and then we waited for our check. The breakfast meat we had ordered was incorrect, so the server wanted to take our plates back, when we noticed this. After waiting 30 minutes for our food, I was not about to wait again. She then brought us the correct meat in a side dish. The bread, bacon, ham, and potatoes all had amazingly great flavor. I thought the cost was a bit high, and I thought the condition and cleanliness of the menus, and other areas of the restaurant, needed a bit of attention. Overall though, it was a good visit, and we had a coupon from the Visitors Center for half off one entree.

Rare Bird tacos

We took advantage of a What's Up Michigan special at Rare Bird in Traverse City: pork and mahi mahi tacos (not together!). I liked the fish tacos, although my son preferred the pork ones. Rare Bird also has a 10% off brews coupon in the Michigan BrewVine Passport. We had great service, food, and beverages.

123 Speakeasy logo

Finding Traverse City's 123 Speakeasy, and then getting inside, is an adventure in itself! Watch for the logos and hints about town. A coworker wanted me to provide all the details, so her and her husband could visit; however, I told her that would spoil the fun! She agreed, and after their visit, it sounded like they had as much fun as we did.

Plate of cheeses at 123 Speakeasy

We visited 123 Speakeasy twice, and had cheeses with our beverages during our second visit. We learned about this place from What's Up Michigan.  

We used a 50% discount in the Michigan Brewvine Passport for Flatbread Pizza at The Filling Station in Traverse City. They have several delicious and unique choices!

Boone's Happy Hour info

The only place we dined in Suttons Bay was Boone's Prime Time Pub. The visit was disappointing, and I doubt we will visit again. If you want to take advantage of their Happy Hour food and beverage specials, they run daily from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. You may have to specifically ask about this, because it is not on their website, nor on the menus, and we were not told about it. We learned about it from menus available in Suttons Bay Visitors Center.

Cheese plate at Brys Estate

Wineries, breweries, and more

We visited Brys Estate for the first time because I had won a prize package from them via Michigan By The Bottle. We had actually tried to visit once before during the off-season, and were not able to arrive before closing. 

View from the deck at Brys Estate

We did their tasting tour, and we each got a glass of wine and shared a cheese plate. The self-guided tour for the tastings was fun, the wine was very good, the cheese plate was delicious, and the view was fabulous! We visited on a drizzly Friday afternoon, and it was quite busy. We got one of the last seats on the deck after ordering our wine and cheese.

Peninsula Cellars

We visited a few more new wineries on Mission Peninsula because they are in the Michigan Brewvine Passport: Bonobo Winery, Peninsula Cellars, Bowers Harbor Vineyards, and Chateau Grand Traverse. We ended up with a few bottles of wine, and in addition to our fabulous visit at Brys Estate, two others stood out to us: Peninsula Cellars because the tasting room is uniquely located in a schoolhouse, and Bowers Harbor because the service was so awful, I will never visit there again. There are plenty of wineries and breweries in this great state to choose from without having to visit places where we are treated rudely.

North Peak sampler

We stopped to fill our growler at Jolly Pumpkin using the 50% off discount in the Michigan Brewvine Passport. We had gotten the North Peak sampler on an earlier day using the 50% discount in the Michigan Brewvine Passport. Jolly Pumpkin and North Peak have the same brews, and our experiences have been better at Jolly Pumpkin. 

Workshop Brewing Company

Workshop Brewing Company

We used a couple more discounts from our passport at Monkey Fist Brewing in State Street Marketplace, and at Workshop Brewing Company. We like the brews at both of these locations. Workshop Brewing Company is always quite full every time we visit, so I guess we are not the only ones who like this place! This is the first time I noticed cards on the wall that can be purchased for $5 (kind of a "beer-it-forward," as one of my friends proclaimed), or redeemed, if you match one of the descriptions. 

We also discovered Mammoth Distilling Cocktail Lounge located in the same building as Workhorse Brewing for the first time this visit. A bit pricey; however, the Moscow Mule I had there was the best one I have ever had--delicious!

We visited Hop Lot Brewing in Suttons Bay. I wanted to get the sampler; however, they do not serve samplers after 5:00 PM. This location has mostly outside seating, and it was busy during our visit. We did not have anything to eat, although some patrons we chatted with said the food is very good.

We have definitely gotten our money's worth ($26.50 with tax) from the Michigan Brewvine Passport. Of course, we would not have spent the time and money to travel and visit several of the places we did without the booklet, so it did come at a cost. It has been a fun adventure though, and it is not over yet!

Please let me know if you have any questions, as I did not write about everything we experienced. I will have a recreation post for the area, next. Feel free to share!