See also Gladstone, Rapid River. Restaurants here are arranged starting downtown and going west and north.
FERDINAND'S
(906) 786-8484
Downtown Escanaba's popular Mexican restaurant has many rooms for accommodating every size of group: couples, small groups, larger family celebrations, and meetings or events in the banquet hall. It's known for pork enchiladas, chile rellenos, and fajitas, but all the Tex-Mex favorites are here, plus cheeseburgers and meat-and-potatoes dishes for those with unremittingly Midwestern palates. There's a weekday lunchtime buffet for downtown businesspeople, and daily dinner specials. Lunches average $7, dinners $10. Customers love Ferdinand's margaritaswith fresh fruit, with or without alcohol. Its salsa (mild or hot, not green) is sold in jars. It has such a distinctive flavor and texture that customers spread it around the world. It's in the small gift shop. Not available mail-order.
Pamela Mitchell, owner since 1979, became interested in Mexican food and culture growing up in multi-ethnic Omaha. At that time, many kinds street vendors set up outside the stockyards, and sold food at special events, too. She worked at the Mexican food cart of her girlfriend's mother. (Ferdinand, incidentally, is the peace-loving Spanish bull in The Story of Ferdinand, the classic picturebook.)
1318 Ludington, north side of street, 2 doors from 14th St., downtown. Open Mon-Sat 11 a.m.-10 p.m., closed Sun. Kids' menu. Handicap-accessible. Full bar.
DELONA'S
906-786-6400
For great breakfasts at budget prices, try Delona's, a family restaurant with bakery. It's in a house that grew into a restaurant, so the rooms are cozy. Homemade pies are a big thing here, along with daily specials (typically $4-5 at lunch, $5-8 at dinner) like fresh smelt Wednesdays from late January through March. Thursdays and Sundays the roast turkey and homemade stuffing is a favorite. You can order off the soup and sandwich menu any time.
On the east side of U.S. 2/U.S. 41 between Escanaba and Gladstone. It's north of the Escanaba River between two motels. Open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, to 9 in summer. Handicap accessible. Family-friendly. No alcohol.
HEREFORD & HOPS
(906) 789-1945
H&H has become a big hit and downtown anchor since two local couples founded it with a bang in 1994. They renovated the 1914 Delta Hotel, putting 32 apartments on the 2nd through 5th floors and a brew pub/grill-your-own-steak restaurant on the first floor. Gus Asp, the liquor and cigar store next door, has become a butcher shop, too, selling the same beef served in the restaurant. Reservations are advised on weekends. A soup and sandwich menu (served all the time in the pub) and desserts invite anytime snacking. Not serving super-premium beef keeps prices in a range local people are happy to pay. Beers are brewed for broad appeal. Customers can choose to stand around a big circular grill, fired by a ton of Tennessee hickory briquettes a week, and grill their own steaks, if desired with the help of a chef who directs the spectacle. A grill-your-own 18-20 oz. N.Y. strip steak costs $18.95, including baked potato, fresh bread sticks, and an excellent salad bar featuring tasty original variations on familiar themes. Alone the salad bar could keep vegetarians happy. There are also vegetarian pastas, pita sandwiches, and large salads.
Downtown at 624 Ludington at 8th Ave. Mon-Sat 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun 4 p.m.-9 p.m. Eastern Time. Handicap accessible: 8th Ave. door. Family-friendly. Full bar.
HOUSE OF LUDINGTON
(906) 786-6300
At this historic hotel, the more elegant dining room overlooks the bay. The other is more casual. Both serve the same wide-ranging menu. Now there's also an Irish pub toward the back with booths. At lunch, strawberry-cashew salad is a favorite, but you could get a hamburger, too, or one of many entrées. Dinners include pasta dishes, duck, steaks, mostly from $13 to $20, with $14-$15 typical. Friday night fish fries are $8.95-$11.95. This is the place to eat and then have a pleasant after-dinner stroll in the park.
223 Ludington. Lunch Tues-Fri 11:30-2 Eastern Time. Dinner Tues-Thurs 5-8, Fri & Sat 5-9. Closed Sun. Handicap accessible. Family-friendly. Full bar.
PACINO'S
(906) 786-0602
The best chef in town, by general agreement, is Robin Holmes at Pacino's in the Best Western Pioneer Inn west of town on U.S. 41. "I have been to some meals he has done that were just fantastic," comments a well-traveled executive. "The benefit dinners are events." As for every day, "ask what's good on the menu," he advises, and get the seafood dishes on special. He likes the rack of lamb, specialty steaks, and salmon dishes on the regular menu. Newer pastas and other Italian dishes are good, too. There are 8 to 10 specials daily. Dinners are mostly from $15 to $20. The huge Caesar and cobb salads are lunchtime hits. Vegetarian and special diets prepared by request - local doctors from India eat well here. There's a wine bar and 20 wines poured by the glass. Reservations are suggested.
Pacino's used to be called the Carriage House. When the owners noticed how many pizzas were delivered to hotel guests, they introduced their own pizzas and Italian specialties, first in the casual downstairs pub (evenings only). Then they redid the entire restaurant with an Italian theme. It was supposed to be more rustic, but huge exterior columns have created a more elegant, overblown effect.
In order to raise the bar for cooks in the Upper Peninsula, Robin has organized the American Culinary Federation for the Upper Peninsula, with cooking competitions. He himself enters statewide competitions.
2635 Ludington/U.S. 2/U.S. 41 on the west side, one light beyond the intersection of M-35 and U.S. 2. From June through October open daily 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., 5 to 9 or on weekends 10 Eastern Time, closed for Saturday breakfast, Sunday breakfast from 8. In the off season closed on Sunday evening and Monday lunch and dinner. Wheelchair-accessible. Family-friendly. Full bar; extensive wine list
STONEHOUSE RESTAURANT AND CARPORT LOUNGE
(906) 786-5003
The Stonehouse has long been a favorite for business lunches and nights out. It's one of the real culinary standouts in a town with surprisingly good food. Broiled whitefish and perch ($14-$15 as dinner entrées) are favorites, as is the bacon-wrapped shrimp appetizer ($7.50). Veal ($16-$18) and prime rib are other specialties. Chef Rob Ekberg has been at the Stonehouse since 1985. He has created "Blackjack Ekberg" ($24), a chargrilled New York steak flambéed with Jack Daniels and sautéed with green and black peppercorns in a demi-glacé. For vegetarians there's a sandwich at lunch, and dinner entrées by request. Lunch entrées are from $7.50 to $11, with a daily special ($7.50 or less) and a $5.75 soup and sandwich or salad and fruit plate.
2223 Ludington at M-35. Mon-Fri 11 a.m.-2 p.m. for lunc., Mon-Thurs 5-9:30, Fri & Sat 5-10 p.m. Eastern Time. Closed Sun. Wheelchair-accessible. Family-friendly. Full bar.
SWEDISH PANTRY
(906) 786-9606
Customers of this downtown touchstone comment, "Full all the time." "They serve things you don't get just everywhere." "All homemade." "I love the chicken cordon bleu on homemade focaccia and the cardomom bread pudding with custard sauce." These words are from younger folks. The large number of retirees who come here keep the prices here eminently affordable. The food is mainstream American home cooking, sans fry basket, with some Swedish dishes and touches like limpa bread (a medium-dark rye flavored with anise) and lingonberries.
Perennial favorites are things like Swedish sampler (potato sausage, meatballs, cole slaw, and potato dumplings with rutabaga, $9), perch ($10), and potato pancakes ($5.49). These prices are for plates with a potato and vegetable. Dinners ($10-$13) include soup, salad, vegetable, potato, and dessert. Sandwiches are $4.50-$6 with vegetable, fruit cocktail (that canned American classic), or chips. Roast turkey appears as a very popular open-faced sandwich, as a dinner or lunch plate, and in some of the homemade soups - six kinds a day, $2 a cup, $2.50 a bowl. In The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand, author and food lover Jim Harrison praised the pea soup as "the best pea soup I had ever eaten, . . . accompanied by limpa bread and side of herring."
Desserts ($3) include baked apple dumpling, sour cream walnut pie, and mile-high lemon meringue pie. It's fine to come in for coffee and dessert. Breakfast and Sunday brunch are hugely busy here. Note: be prepared to be surrounded by dozens of ticking clocks on the walls, all for sale. Smoking permitted in rear of the single large dining area.
819 Ludington between 9th and 8th streets. Park on the street. Open Sun-Fri from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 8-3 Eastern Time. Wheelchair-accessible. Family-friendly. No alcohol.
