Outdoor Dining on Sleeping Bear Bay
One of the best-kept secrets in the North is the intimate patio at upscale blu restaurant in Glen Arbor. Take a seat at one of the bistro tables and you are practically on the beach of Sleeping Bear Bay. While owners Randy and Mari Chamberlain prefer that people make reservations for eating inside the restaurant, they don’t take reservations for porch dining because of the variability of the weather. So that means that if you find yourself anywhere in the vicinity of Glen Arbor on a balmy evening (or even a crisp one if you have a sweater in the car) between 5 and 10 p.m. you can drop in and see if there is a table open.
I’ll talk about blu’s inspired cuisine below, but let me take a moment to rhapsodize about sunsets over Sleeping Bear. Blu’s porch faces almost due west, so the nightly show is center stage. Every night is different. Sometimes the sun sinks sweets as a just-ripe peach into a placid bowl of blue. Other times it leaks out in streaks and swirls atop wild waves—like some wild child got into the fingerpaint. Here’s a picture Randy took awhile back:
Back to the food. The cool thing about the casual patio is that you don’t feel like you need to order a full dinner. Maybe just do wine (order from blu’s 7-page wine list) and appetizers (I’m partial to the escargot and Swiss onion soup) or coffee and dessert (Opera Torte with espresso butter cream, bittersweet chocolate ganache and coffee soaked joconde is a house specialty).
That is not to say you shouldn’t have a full dinner. Randy and Mari post their menu each day at 4:30 p.m. so everything is fresh. Expect artful dishes like Beef Tenderloin with Wild Mushroom Demi-glace and a Grilled Shrimp Skewer and Duck Confit with fresh Black Mission Fig Jus.
Take your seat by 5 or 5:15 and you can order the 3-course Pri-Fixe for $26. Or go all out and order the 7-course Chef’s Tasting Menu for $66 (add $50 for the wine) that celebrates local in-season foods. This week Randy’s focus are Northern Michigan's famous (and best in the world) strawberries.
Watch a video of Randy cooking up morels gathered fresh from the forest this spring:
Click to find out more about Sleeping Bear Bay and the magnificent Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
I’ll talk about blu’s inspired cuisine below, but let me take a moment to rhapsodize about sunsets over Sleeping Bear. Blu’s porch faces almost due west, so the nightly show is center stage. Every night is different. Sometimes the sun sinks sweets as a just-ripe peach into a placid bowl of blue. Other times it leaks out in streaks and swirls atop wild waves—like some wild child got into the fingerpaint. Here’s a picture Randy took awhile back:
Back to the food. The cool thing about the casual patio is that you don’t feel like you need to order a full dinner. Maybe just do wine (order from blu’s 7-page wine list) and appetizers (I’m partial to the escargot and Swiss onion soup) or coffee and dessert (Opera Torte with espresso butter cream, bittersweet chocolate ganache and coffee soaked joconde is a house specialty).
That is not to say you shouldn’t have a full dinner. Randy and Mari post their menu each day at 4:30 p.m. so everything is fresh. Expect artful dishes like Beef Tenderloin with Wild Mushroom Demi-glace and a Grilled Shrimp Skewer and Duck Confit with fresh Black Mission Fig Jus.
Take your seat by 5 or 5:15 and you can order the 3-course Pri-Fixe for $26. Or go all out and order the 7-course Chef’s Tasting Menu for $66 (add $50 for the wine) that celebrates local in-season foods. This week Randy’s focus are Northern Michigan's famous (and best in the world) strawberries.
Watch a video of Randy cooking up morels gathered fresh from the forest this spring:
Click to find out more about Sleeping Bear Bay and the magnificent Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
Tags: dining, gen arbor blu, patio, sleeping bear bay, sleeping bear dunes nationa...
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