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Foodie Town

Saugatuckites will tell you that Oval Beach is nice, but they get away with that only because you haven’t seen the Grand Traverse Bay. They’ll also tell you that they have great restautants, but you know better, because you’re from Chicago. When Traverse Citizens tell you they have a food truck court, though, listen up.

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Credit: Jordan Dale Young

You might know that Traverse City is beachy, but you might not know that they’ve developed a foodiness that must be taken seriously. Everybody’s talking about how Mario Batali has a summer place in Traverse and that his presence has accelerated their food scene. As indirect evidence, I offer you Georgina’s, a trendy restaurant on Front Street (across from the State Theater), and The Little Fleet, a unique collection of artisanal food trucks a couple blocks east of Georgina’s.

A friend and I had dinner at Georgina’s, which serves Asian-Latin fusion. Ponder that. Here’s a visual aid:

Credit: Explore TC on YouTube

I saw more man buns per capita at Georgina’s than I’ve seen Wicker Park and Bucktown combined. Not enough beards, though. How top knots have caught on up north while facial hair hasn’t is a story that needs to be told … some other time. Let’s talk about the food:

• Tostada de Lechon: Cuban pork served between two crunchy tortillas with beans and mozzarella, topped with what they do a disservice to by calling it simply “lettuce, salsa, and sour cream,” when it is in fact a tangy Asian-inspired salad. Served with beans, rice, and plantain.
• Cream Cheese Cheesecake Flan, which is exactly that: a cross between cheesecake and flan … but it leans two-thirds of the way more toward flan. The menu describes the flan as “savory,” which, although perhaps not a blatant error, may not be the best choice of words. It’s sweet without being sugary. It’s similar to flan in texture, but richer and more dense. Fantastic.
• Strawberry-Basil Lemonade Cocktail: peppery, sweet-tart. I was tempted to skip dinner and just have five more of these.

A Food Truck Court

We left Georgina’s and drove past the nearby Little Fleet food truck court. Twice. Then I got out and did a walk-through. Imagine a small grocery store with a moderate-sized parking lot. Then, gut the building. More or less remove one wall. Install a minimalist, simple, raw, and yet quirkishly stylish bar along an interior wall. Now, simple seating occupies the under-the-roof square footage. Outside the open wall, there’s a large deck with more seating. The parking lot is filled will food trucks … but not just any old food trucks. Cool, cute, even kitschy, foodie trucks. It’s a brilliant idea.

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Georgina’s: 236 E Front St, Fleet: 448 E Front St.

This review was not solicited. MiLam received nothing in exchange for it, not from Georgina’s, not from The Little Fleet, certainly not from Mario Batali, nor from the city of Traverse City, not from “Pure” Michigan (which seems to think they can marketipulate us into forgetting about PBB and the Kalamazoo oil spill by calling themselves “pure”), not from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, not from anyone. Credits for all images on this page: except as otherwise noted, Make It Like a Man. Hover over image and/or green text to reveal secrets. Click for more.

This is a public service announcement from Make It Like a Man! Mario Batali wear crocs. On top of that, he lost a $5M dollar lawsuit for skimming his employees’ tips. Don’t canonize him.

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