Change Your Way Of Life In Quaint Traverse City
Midwest Adventures by MIKE MICHAELSON
Traverse City---Michigan's quintessential city on the bay---is a nice place to visit and you probably would want to live there. At least, it's easy enough to imagine that you would, based on the number of "transplants" who gave up careers, moved to the Northern Michigan city (pop. 14,468) and now make their living at something quite different, usually something more desirable and less stressful. Maybe that's why strangers greet you on the streets---and you find yourself returning their smiles.
Actually, this lively town is on two bays along the Lake Michigan shoreline---the West Arm and the East Arm of Grand Traverse Bay. It's where accountants and stock traders choose to become wine makers or cheese makers, innkeepers or restaurateurs.
If you're interested in meeting some of these people as you combine shopping, wine tasting and fine dining with "quiet time" spent outdoors, head for the Village of Grand Traverse Commons. There, you'll discover an innovative adaptive-use project where an abandoned mental asylum is becoming a hot destination as a "walkable, mixed-use village." It offers almost 500 acres of forested hills, spring-fed streams, flowery meadows and winding trails---plus the castle-like buildings of the asylum itself (think Central Park meets Castle Dracula). You'll find there an intimate Italian eatery, a winery, wine-tasting room, and a bakery that creates hearth-baked organic breads and a "fair trade" coffee purveyor.
The Village also is the setting of numerous fun events, ranging from live jazz at Trattoria Stella and a variety of music presented on the deck at Left Foot Charley Winery to "Hands-On" gatherings with painting, knitting, beading and playing musical instruments with impromptu instruction freely given. You can tour an arboretum planted in the 19th century and try your hand at a bocce court. On Fridays, the Village Farmers' Market on the Plaza (2-6 p.m.) brings produce, preserves, herbs and other foods directly from the people who grow them.
With its magnificent century-old Victorian-Italianate architecture, quiet woodland and expansive lawns served by pedestrian walkways, the Commons is offered as a "beautiful solution to urban sprawl". Opened in 1885 as the Northern Michigan Asylum, the mental-health hospital closed in 1989 and lay vacant for many years.
Including its esteemed foodie" stops, the Commons houses 67 businesses with approximately 300 employees. These include many fashion boutiques and galleries and shops offering a variety of one-of-a-kind artwork and crafts. This unique locale is regarded as one of the most extensive historical restoration projects in America.
A boutique hotel is on the drawing board as a logical expansion of the growth of this village. Meanwhile, just about all of the 60 residential condos have been sold and many are placed by their owners in a rental pool. Size ranges from a compact 260 square feet to an expansive 3,800-square-foot loft. Rental costs range from $100 a night for a studio apartment to $3,500 a week for a two-to-three bedroom apartment.
Of course, visitors also have a wide choice of lodgings, from beachfront resorts along the bays to downtown hotels. All are readily accessible to the Commons, which is located within one mile of downtown Traverse City.
Adaptive use is the keynote of development at the Commons. The former laundry now houses a winery, while the old firehouse is home to an artisanal bakery. What once was the potato-peeling shed now houses The Underground Cheesecake, producing more than 40 flavors of its eponymous dessert. It also offers bite-size cheesecakes (in cupcake form) and five flavors of cheesecake on a stick.
At Pleasanton Brick Oven Bakery, hand-shaped loaves are baked in a wood-fired brick oven. It uses natural leaven as it makes breads from Michigan-grown organic grains. Parmesan-olive-herb bread is a good loaf to try, as is cranberry-pecan---along with standard (but, by no means ordinary) whole wheat and rye.
The Commons' signature eatery is the stylish Trattoria Stella, offering contemporary Italian cuisine prepared from the freshest available local ingredients. Menus are changed daily and lead with a listing of the local farms contributing to that day's preparations---the likes of maple syrup, blueberries, heirloom tomatoes, pears and peaches, ground beef and trout. Fresh fish is flown in several times a week, while regional and local wines figure prominently on the wine list and are priced by the glass, half-liter and bottle.
Start with pan-seared scallops, chicken liver pate or classic Caesar salad. Move on the red or white pizza or perhaps cornmeal gnocchi.
Entrées might include pork tenderloin, lamb shank and salmon with fresh fettuccine. Finish with house-made gelato, with flavors that include cranberry, blackberry and rhubarb.
Featuring labyrinthine cellars fashioned from handsome yellow brick Stella is the ultimate location for a romantic dinner, with its archways and secluded alcoves. Jazz is performed in Stella's handsome barroom.
Left Foot Charley is a fun spot for wine tasting and touring and for buying table wine by the refillable "growler." While it doesn't grow grapes on premises and thus can't offer "estate wines," it works with a select group of local growers who produce the grapes used for its acclaimed Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Grigio. "We don't have one estate," the winemaker likes to tell visitors. "We have 14."
If you go:
Information: The Village Grand Traverse Commons www.thevillagetc.com; Traverse City Convention & Visitors' Bureau (800) 940-1120, www.VisitTraverseCity.com; Travel Michigan (888) 784-7328, www.michigan.org.
Mileage: Traverse City is approximately 320 miles northeast of Chicago.