Sailing Into History

On shore

Of course, you could spend all your time on the water, but Saugatuck — with its enchanting shops, restaurants, wine tasting rooms, coffee bars, live music, plays and art galleries — beckons.
The lake effect from Lake Michigan creates a lush growing area. The result is a bounty of local farms, vineyards and orchards.

Two shops, side-by-side on Butler Street, have corralled the flavors of the region into delicious food products. Before there was farm-to-table, there was Justin Rashid, avatar of local, foraged and handcrafted, who founded American Spoon, a paean to artisanal Michigan foods, almost 40 years ago. The American Spoon in Saugatuck features an extra bonus: A gelato shop. Wines made from cherries, blueberries and raspberries, picked at the peak of ripeness, are among the specialties of Fenn Valley Vineyards, a small hamlet about 10 miles away.

Samplings of these wines, as well as its reds and whites, are available at its Saugatuck tasting room. Just down the street, Tabor Hill Winery also has a tasting room.
At Good Goods, a two-story gallery featuring the works of over 140 artists, look for high-quality crafts, furnishings, sculptures, ceramics, paintings, woodworks, yardbirds, functional and sculptural handcrafted glass, jewelry, bags, among other items.

Eat

A few years back, James Beard Award nominee Mark Miller opened The Southerner on the Kalamazoo River, a homage to the food he grew up eating. Call it Appalachian by way of Detroit cuisine. Using long-cherished family recipes and local ingredients, specialties include his fried chicken soaked overnight in buttermilk. Other southern-style specialties include shrimp and grits, pimento cheese and goat cheese topped with slow-cooked red pepper jelly. The latter two are accompanied with saltines. Forget the diet and spread an extra thick layer of honey butter on piping hot laminated biscuits (and yes, you’ll want to order extra). All this wonderfulness comes with free river views in a retro ambience that’s both comfy and downhome.

Uncommon Grounds Roaster Cafe — located in a charming cottage accented by masses of colorful blooms and outdoor tables topped by bright red umbrellas — takes its coffee as seriously as oenophiles take their wine. It sources freshly picked single-source beans from sustainable small farms and cooperatives throughout the world and then roasts them in small batches. On-tap coffees include nitro brews, Sacred Springs kombucha, Bodhi Tree Switchel and 18th Amendment barrel-aged nitro cold brew coffee. On occassion, they also offer seasonal cold brew mocktails!

Decisions, decisions, decisions. What do you order at Cookies on Call with such temptations as chocolate caramel, dark and white chocolate chunk, oatmeal cranberry and walnut? Then there’s also the sophisticated options, such as The Butler Pantry cookie, which includes chocolate chunks stuffed with caramel sprinkled with Himalayan pink sea salt, or the Ray & Shine cookie, which has chocolate chunks glazed with maple honey and then topped with bacon. The cookie fame is such that founder and owner Franny Martin was featured in USA Today as a successful entrepreneur over 50 years old and has appeared on CNN and NBC Nightly News.

Coral Gables has long been the go-to place in Saugatuck. Built in 1906 and encompassing two-and-a-half blocks of waterfront in downtown Saugatuck, there’s seasonal outdoor dining on the patio overlooking the harbor and indoor seating year-round. Every Thursday, enjoy burger night, and come on Friday for the perch fry.

Rest your head in style

Wickwood Inn, a 1940s Colonial Revival-style home just steps from the downtown, now houses a bed and breakfast that’s highly rated. Owned and operated by Julee Rosso, cofounder of the Silver Palate line of foods and also the coauthor of the Silver Palate cookbooks, the place is a delight for both culinarians and those just wanting a little luxury at the end of their day.

Want palatial accommodations? Built in 1912 by an associate of Frank Lloyd Wright, the Belvedere Inn and Restaurant was once the summer home of a wealthy Chicagoan. Set on five acres of lushly landscaped lawn, it’s now a richly furnished bed and breakfast with an on-site restaurant located two miles from downtown.

Beach it The only problem with the area’s golden beaches is trying to decide which one to hit first.

Oval Beach — named by Conde Nast Traveler as one of the Top 25 beaches in the world and National Geographic Traveler’s Top Freshwater Beaches in the USA — is open year round. Douglas Beach is a small neighborhood beach just south of Oval snuggled between summer homes. Or enjoy 200-foot-tall sand dunes, walking trails winding through woodlands and 2.5 miles of Lake Michigan shores at Saugatuck Dunes State Park.

If you want to explore the sandy landscape of Saugatuck from the comfort of a vehicle, check out Saugatuck Dune Rides, one of the top attractions in the area. The 40-minute ride winds passengers through the area’s forest and sand dunes, stopping at certain points to offer historical insight on the area, including when crossing over the buried town of Singapore.

Cross over the bridge into Douglas

Just off of Blue Star Highway, Douglas’s Center Street, a wonderful mix of pre- and post-Civil War Greek Revival, Italianate, Arts & Crafts, Victorian and Colonial Revival, runs for eight or so blocks before ending in a small park fronting Wade’s Bayou. Built in 1866, the Old School House, one of the country’s oldest surviving multi-classroom school buildings and among the finest examples of 19th century school architecture in America, is now the Douglas-Saugatuck History Center. Intriguing both indoors and out, it features exhibits and multiple garden areas, including the Life Boat Exhibit & Back-in-Time Garden.

If you like peanut butter, order a glass of the Peanut Butter Porter at the Saugatuck Brewing Company. Stop by for free tours with samples every Saturday at 11:30 a.m.

The downtown Douglas Everyday People Café is so popular that it has been written up in the New York Times more than once, offering tapas, live jazz music and seasonal outdoor dining. Its food — including roasted gorgonzola pork chops, white truffle prosciutto pizza and burrata roasted-tomato salad — is sophisticated but not stratospherically priced.

A curated collection of 100-plus artists working with varied mediums, hand-poured chocolates, wines by the glass and bottle are all part of the eclectic offerings at J. Petter Galleries.
When Singapore, Saugatuck and Douglas sent all those trees to Chicago years ago, the three towns lost a lot. But it’s clear from a visit today the area has made up — and more — for what was once lost.