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FOUR SEASONS TEA ROOM
(906) 482-3233
When Andrea Schuldt and her mother, LaVerne Witto, opened this charming little oasis in 2002, they filled a yawning gap in local eating establishments that approached being remotely feminine and not geared to 20-year-olds. Bone china and a retro 40s theme (Big Band music and old family snapshots) create a pretty, relaxing, unrushed atmosphere. Many customers stay over an hour. Repeat customers include MTU students and faculty, with a surprising number of men. Some come to meet and discuss things (the ambient noise level allows discussion, not always possible in bars) while others sit and read or bring a laptop. (Two male Ann Arborites posted the glowing reviews on www.teamap.com , a state-by-state directory with map. "If only Ann Arbor had something like this!" they yearned.)
Many varieties of teas here: 25 black flavored teas, 11 classic black teas, 15 green teas, 2 white teas, 10 herbal teas.
Teas are set prices. All feature fresh brewed looseleaf tea in an individual pot. The "Lady Ethel tea" for lunch ($7.95) is a pot of tea plus soup and quiche, lasagna, or tuna salad croissant. "Full afternoon tea" ($14.95 for one, $23.95 for two) brings pots of tea and soup with three tiers of food: finger sandwiches, scones, sweets, plus quick, lasagna, or tuna salad croissant, and cream & lemon curd. "Cream tea" ($5) is tea and scones. "Dessert tea" brings tea with a special dessert. All scones are served warm with preserves, Devon cream, and homemade lemon curd. The "Lord Stanley is a hearty soup in a sourdough bread bowl ($7.95). A dessert with tea is or scones and tea breads plus cream & lemon curd is $6.50.
Loose teas, teapots, and tea accessories for sale along with chocolate truffles and gifts are displayed in the antique apothecary cupboards in the front shop. Evenings and weekends the tearoom can be rented for showers, parties, and meetings. —8/2010
606 Shelden, next to City Hall, right by the "Welcome to Houghton" footbridge entering downtown. Open Tues, Thurs & Sat 11-4. Wed & Fri 11-5. Wheelchair-accessible. Well-behaved older children welcome.
VICTORIA'S KITCHEN
(906) 482-8650
The menu—an eclectic and inspired mix of Middle Eastern, vegetarian, deli fare, and American home cooking—is a godsend for vegetarians or for anyone homesick for the Middle Eastern restaurants of Detroit. Victoria Williams can turn out meat pies and spinach pies like a good Lebanese housewife. The #1 seller is the Siberian turkey sandwich ($6.40) with homemade Russian dressing, Swiss, and coleslaw, on grilled challah bread). The breakfast special (two eggs with homemade toast and terrific spicy-hot potatoes) is a great value at $2.79. Other breakfast favorites are the Lebanese omelet with sausage in an open pastry shell 5.69 and stuffed French toast with strawberries and bananas ($5.50). Victoria's can supply a fabulous picnic: Lebanese-style spinach pies (no rich phyllo dough), tabooli, hummus, chicken salad, broccoli-cauliflower salad, and over a dozen other salads. Popular lunch buffets on Wednesday ($5.50) and Friday ($6.75) are worth going out of your way for. The price includes two main dishes, salads and soups, and dessert. Baked dessert items are another favorite, especially Chocoalte crumble, which is like a chocolate fudge bar ($1).
Victoria's offers table service both in the front deli booths and the rear dining area with a view of the Portage Waterway. Portions are large, with ample leftovers. —8/2010
519 Shelden two doors east of the Lode Theater. Mon-Fri 6-4, Sat 7-4, Sun 9 to 1. Family-friendly. Wheelchair-accessible. No alcohol.
LIBRARY RESTAURANT, BAR & BREW PUB
(906) 487-5882
Rebuilt after a fire destroyed its original quirky digs, The Library is now much larger and more impressive, thanks to shiny fermenting brewery tanks by the entrance and its big window-wall with a great view of the Portage Waterway and the mansions of East Hancock. "It's where students would like to eat if they had the money," says one Michigan Tech professor, who recommends the Swiss onion soup au gratin, fresh catch of the day, and beer fries. Some like the sushi. Soups and creative seafood specials can be very good. The wide-ranging menu is more creative than most in the area. A favorite sandwich is Sicilian steak. Some complain about the slow, indifferent service. —8/2010
Downtown at 61 Isle Royale St. (west side) just downhill from Shelden and the light. Kitchen open Sun-Thurs from 11:30-10, Fri & Sat 11:30-11. Wheelchair-accessible. Family-friendly. Full bar.
SUOMI HOME BAKERY & RESTAURANT
(906) 482-3220
This unpretentious diner is known for its homestyle cooking, low prices, the area's widest selection of Finnish specialties, plus a very friendly atmosphere and constant refills on coffee. The clientele cuts across every social group—town, gown, transplants, fourth-generation locals, tourists. "Great people-watching!" comments one patron. There's a back room for non-smokers, but most of the action is out front, especially when old-timers get together for morning coffee. Breakfast is served all day; prices include coffee. Especially recommended: pannukakku (a custardy, oven-baked pancake with fruit sauce, $4.05), a big, airy pancake the size of the big platter it's served on is $3.35, homemade pies, nisu toast with cinnamon and cardamom ($1 for 2 slices). For lunch there are pasties ($4.35), burgers, homemade soups, and daily special. It's a plain place from an earlier era, with lots of old photos and mining and logging equipment on the walls. No credit cards; out-of-town checks OK. —8/2010
54 N. Huron off Shelden/U.S. 41 downtown. Turn left a block past the light. Mon-Sat 6 a.m.-3 p.m., Sun 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Closed major holidays. Wheelchair access: two steps. Family-friendly. No alcohol.
J J's WOK & GRILL
(906) 483-5596
JJ says he serves "home cooking" stir-fries — "mom's recipes," old favorites with a touch of Liaoning Province (where he and his wife, Bo Qu, are from), "some [dishes], just crazy." They are not dishes evolved in the hundred-year-old Chinese restaurant tradition. JJ, who came to Houghton to study at Tech, and Bo Qu had been partners at the former Ameurasia in the Best Western Franklin Square Inn. Customer favorites (most under $8) are sesame chicken (quite sweet), curry chicken, and lots of tofu dishes. Chicken with mushrooms is a JJ creation. So are spring pancakes filled with bean sprouts and pork served with cichuan paste. Five tables. Big takeout business. —8/2010
300 Pearl off U.S. 41/College Ave. by Wells Fargo, Domino's and Jim's Food Mart. Open daily. Mon-Thurs 11:30-8, Fri til 9. Sat & Sun 12-9. Wheelchair-accessible. No alcohol.
KEEWENAW BREWING COMPANY
(906) 482-5596
The well-deserved collegiate hot spot and social pub is the Keweenaw Brewing Company with 9 cheap, interesting beers on tap and no food at all except peanuts. The company, started by Colorado beer-lovers, one of whom went to MTU, is the first Upper Peninsula microbrewery to distribute cans and kegs of its products, now available in the Western Upper Peninsula. All the beers made here have their fans: the dark, the light, the hoppy, the not-so-hoppy. For $1 your can sample 5 of them.
Get your 64-ounce growler filled with any of the beers for $7.50. While drinking a beer you're welcome to bring in your own food to eat or have it delivered. —8/2010
Downtown at 408 Shelden Ave/U.S. 41. Open Mon-Wed 3-10, Thurs-Sat 11-11, Sun noon to 8.
PILGRIM RIVER STEAKHOUSE
(906) 482-8595
Good if not great steaks and prime rib have made this a local destination, a roadhouse that attracts a good number of older patrons. Filets, rib-eye, strips, T bone, Delmonico—there's quite a variety, ranging from $12 to $25. Prime rib, always offered, is a big draw. It comes with soup, salad, and potato.
This steakhouse is about more than meat: good homemade soups, especially mushroom, spinach salad, interesting lunch options, homemade fries, things like bourbon sauce on filets. Dinners, served all day, range from $13 to $24.
The recent emphasis is on changing specials like whitefish with citrus cilantro or trout Italiano. Friday's seafood platter is a great value. Diagonal wood siding and booths give the place a cozy ski lodge feel. There's now enough seats to reduce the need for reservations. But reservations for weekends still are a good idea. —8/2010
On U.S. 41 (side away from water), 1 mile south of MTU campus, 5 miles north of Chassell. (906) 482-8595. Mon-Sat 11-10, Sun noon-9. Wheelchair-accessible. Full bar.
SHELDON'S BAKERY
(906) 487-6166
Good sandwiches and pasties here are made to order on your choice of bread. Turkey, chicken salad, garlic pepper beef, hot Italian beef, veggie avocado. The soup is very good, too. Most business is takeout, but there are a few tables for eating in.
This bakery turns out an impressive array of bread, the area's best: crusty French bread, the best-selling 10-grain bread, true sourdough bread, even sourdough bagels that are boiled and baked. Come early for best selection, or get day-old bread for half off. The pecan rolls—big, rich sticky buns famous in Copper Harbor, where the original Bakery used to be—are just as gooey and rich as ever. Coffee cakes, Danish, muffins, cinnamon rolls, and doughnuts also satisfy the local taste for sweet rolls to go with lots of coffee. —8/2010
901 Sharon in the Sharon Centre strip mall just east of the M-26 strip (away from Shopko) at the Shopko blinker light. Behind Pizza Hut and Blockbuster Video. Mon-Fri 7 a.m. to 6 p.m, Sat 7-4. Call ahead for special-order pickup at other times; someone's always there. Closed Sunday. Wheelchair-accessible.
HARDEE'S
(906) 482-9374
National fast-food chains are not reviewed by us, but this fast-food hamburger place gives diners an exceptional view, the best of any restaurant in town. Its big front windows look out at the Portage Lift Bridge and Quincy Hill, with downtown Hancock and its landmark church below and the Quincy No. 2 shafthouse and hoist house on top of the hillside. When the mines were producing, a row of shafthouses topped the hill, which was bare. One Quincy Hill resident recalls that goats just outside downtown Hancock were used to keep vegetation down as late as the 1950s. —8/2010
Just west of downtown on M-26 before it goes up the hill.
DOWNTOWNER LOUNGE
482-7305
Enter the non-descript front door in the building at the very west end of downtown Houghton and you enter a dual universe: a darkish bar that leads out to a spacious outdoor deck with great views of the bridge, waterway, marina, East Hancock's hillside mansions, and Mt. Ripley. Well-prepared food here, from a variety of salads, burgers, and sandwiches to tasty chili and chicken noodle. Lots of draft beer choices, only $1 between 4-6 p.m. Monday-Thursday. On Friday from 4-7 there's "double-bubble": for an extra 50˘ for drinks costing less than $3 you get an extra beer or shot ($1 for drinks over $3). —8/2010
100 Shelden Ave., just before you reach the bridge on one-way Shelden. Parking lot is immediately after the building. Open 11-2. a.m. Mon-Sat, Noon-2 a.m. Sun.
MING'S SUPER BUFFET
(906) 482-9888
The vast buffet here ($7.49 until 3 p.m.) has lots of fans in the area. It's not gourmet Chinese, but many of the selections are tasty. The dinner buffet, with additional seafood and barbecue dishes, is $10.49. —8/2010
In the Sharon Center east of M-26 at the Shopko light. Open daily 11-9.
AMBASSADOR RESTAURANT
(906) 482-5054
The historic barroom is the most beguiling in Copper Country. It has its original booths and stained glass windows. Many murals show Germanic gnomes cavorting and carousing by beer barrels in Old World settings, extolling the pleasures of drinking beer in verse and saying things like, "We won't go home til morning!" The artist is thought to have come from Milwaukee, and the paintings were rolled up during Prohibition and discovered much later. Read the story on the menu.
The Ambassador is a favorite student hangout, great for atmosphere and for healthy, moderately priced bar food—nothing fried, just crusty subs, thin-crust pizza, big salads like beef vinaigrette or Italian tuna, nachos and other Mexican favorites. Just don't try to have a conversation with more than three or four people—it's a convivial place and the acoustics don't help. To sit in the beautiful barroom, you have to put up with some smoke. Big windows in the smoke-free rear dining room look out onto the Portage lift bridge and the mansions of East Hancock. Garlic chicken pizza is a customer favorite; so is the veggie pizza with zucchini, broccoli, carrots, and garlic olive oil. Italian sausage is made on the premises. —8/2010
126 Shelden/U.S. 41 near the Lift Bridge, kitty-corner from the Best Value motel. Plenty of parking down along the waterfront. Kitchen open Mon-Thurs 11-10:30, Fri & Sat 11-midnight, Sun 4:30-10:30. Wheelchair access: not men's room.
NOTE: Five Keweenaw Restaurants or Bars with Original Mining-era Interiors
482-2003 & 482-5054
One of the glories of Copper Country is the number of taverns and restaurants with original interiors from the mining era. They're a must-see for fans of stained glass and historic architecture. Two are in downtown Houghton: the Douglass House Saloon and the Ambassador, with its German-style murals extolling the delights of beer-drinking. The others are Shute's 1890 Bar and the Michigan House restaurant in Calumet, and Lindell's in Lake Linden. —8/2010
Both Houghton places are in downtown Houghton.
