Maybe your dream menu features the kind of soul food served up at the new Bushell’s Kitchen in downtown Traverse City. Or maybe you savor the Sichuan spice of TC’s Crocodile Palace.
If you love to pair farm-to-table bites with a glass of northern Michigan wine or explore Native American culinary heritage, you can do that when you visit the Traverse City area, too.
Come and taste the eclectic assortment of delectable flavors in one of Michigan’s top dining destinations during the upcoming Traverse City Restaurant Week, Feb. 23-March 1. All week long, more than 50 participating eateries will offer special prix fixe menus with multi-course meals at set prices of either $25, $35 or $45 per person.
Mark your calendars and prepare to embark on this mouthwatering journey through the Traverse City area.
How to Participate
For starters, sign up for the Traverse City Restaurant Week mobile passport. That will give you menus, pricing, and location information right in the palm of your hand. There’s no app to download. Just have the passport sent via text or email and save it to your phone’s home screen for easy one-tap access.
Then, whenever you go out for a meal during Restaurant Week, you can check in using your passport and be entered into drawings for $50 dining gift cards. If you have at least two check-ins, you’ll automatically win a Traverse City Restaurant Week-themed potholder.
Speaking of prizes, when you stay overnight at a participating lodging property in the Traverse City area during Traverse City Restaurant Week, you’ll be entered to win a food-themed vacation package to TC!
So, sign up for the Traverse City Restaurant Week mobile passport, book a place to stay, and then make your dining reservations before all the tables are gone! Browse this list to see every Traverse City Restaurant Week destination and contact them directly for reservations.
Whether you plan just one dinner or several during the week (and maybe some lunches, too), it’s fun to discover a new restaurant such as NoBo Riverside. A handful of eateries including Farm Club and Brengman Family Wines are participating for the first time.
Traverse City Restaurant Week is also a great time to try a new dish at one of your favorite restaurants. Sorellina, Red Ginger, Amical, and Trattoria Stella are among the many dining establishments that will offer menus with fresh, inventive dishes they may never have prepared before.
At Stella, for example, you can pair lobster and cream soup with wild-caught Atlantic hake and apple spice cake for $45 per person, or opt for butternut squash, boneless Angus beef short rib, and chocolate budino for dessert. There are nearly 100 different course configurations to choose from, so you could even eat at any one place every day of the week and never have the same meal!
Turn Dining Out Into a Winter Getaway
In addition to being the Most Exciting Foodie Town in Michigan, the Traverse City area also is a delightful place to hang out for a few days in winter. You can have a blast with the region’s wide range of winter recreation, for example, or discover cute little shops at every turn. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is just a short drive away, as are a handful of historic lighthouses, while small towns including Frankfort and Suttons Bay dot the area.
Plus, there are wineries and breweries galore to supplement your Traverse City Restaurant Week dining adventure.
There’s so much to see and do (and taste!). And you get to enjoy as much of it as you’d like before the spring and summer crowds arrive.
