On The Road: Traverse City Food & Wine Festival

With an evolving culinary scene, waterfront vistas, and a steady flow of visitors from throughout the region, a food and wine festival in Chicago seems almost inevitable. But scratch that, this is Traverse City, Michigan and a weeklong summer festival, appropriately named: Traverse City Food & Wine. Traverse City is a mere five hour jaunt by car from Chicago and is widely, if not only, known as the Cherry Capital of the World. The ubiquitous stone-fruit has encouraged a certain level of presumption to where the region’s culinary identity can progress. Regardless, the burgeoning cultural hub of Northern Michigan seems to be on an inspired trajectory and if a multi-day festival dedicated to the food and wine of the region signals anything, then the second year of such an event provides a better statement of where it’s headed. 

If you’ve done the food and wine festival circuit or recall the gluttonous, and often chaotic, heyday of Chicago Gourmet, you realize the energy of these events is focused on activity in and around a large tent and a single-day tasting experience (yes, there are other events too, more on that later). A dazzling assortment of wine producers, local restaurants, catering companies, and beverage start-ups all side-by-side, providing a bevy of samples and bidding for your limited attention and evidently unlimited appetite. As ticket prices, the queue for food samples, and VIP options have grown, so has the infiltration of corporate sponsorship and decidedly non-local flavors in a locally-inspired festival. But even if the concept has matured and sullied its original intent, these festivals highlight local chefs and regional vintners and suggest the area is on to something. 

So enter Traverse City Food & Wine. Same tent. Same original motivation. But situated on the idyllic Grand Traverse Bay, a relaxed yet lively atmosphere, and seemingly truly focused on showcasing the locally grown and operating purveyors who are organized and ready to show off, in the tastiest way possible. 

Fortunately, with press passes secured and a healthy understanding of the task ahead, the Grand Tasting provided a viewpoint on a region that is wanting to be heard, seen, and tasted.

The festival was situated in Open Space Park, on the shoreline of West Grand Traverse Bay and just off the bustling downtown thoroughfare, Front Street. At the center of the park, a large, white tent housing rows of stalls for regional wine producers, brewers, and distillers, all in constant conversation and motion, while pouring samples for attendees. At the far end of the tent, a stage and demonstration kitchen promising educational sessions with local and celebrity chefs. A VIP tent hugged stage-left and provided well-paying patrons better access to the stage area, closer views of the water, and exclusive samples. 

Finally, on the grounds outside the main tent, a row of smaller tents housing all the restaurants and kitchens providing food samples for the event, along with a concentrated throng of festival goers. If you were more interested in the food at the festival, this is where the action was with a wide-range of local concepts providing one, two, or even three unique samples. 

Poppyseed is a local dessert shop and bakery, providing custom creations and catering services but without a retail storefront. Amongst their featured samples were a Honey Cheesecake and a Dubai Chocolate Cheesecake. Both immaculately presented and in sample size, each cheesecake provided a luscious single bite with distinct notes of the featured ingredient. 

Old Mission Tavern is situated on Old Mission Peninsula and is a stalwart of the Grand Traverse region. It’s been a local favorite for years but with a recent change in ownership and culinary direction, a food and wine festival seems an ideal choice to present their refreshed perspective to locals. With culinary chops honed in the kitchens of Chicago, the team presented a truffle corn pasta, which is also prominently featured on their in-house, daily menu. The pasta combines a truffle cream with sweet corn giardiniera and is topped with shaved parmesan. If you’re in the Traverse City area, this dish alone is worth the 15 mile trek up the peninsula for dinner. One sample was not enough with the delicate cream contrasting with the bite of the giardiniera and nuttiness of the cheese. You’ll want more too. 

The Flying Noodle occupies a central storefront on Front Street, with indoor and outdoor seating (during summer), and one of the coziest looking restaurant bars in the city. The in-demand Italian restaurant offers a concise menu of pastas, salads, snacks, and pizzas with a well curated cocktail list and an always impressive house table-wine. Going off-menu for TCFW, the restaurant team presented a Sicilian ceviche with mussels and topped with microgreens. 

For those interested in the elevated VIP experience, along with a private bar, exclusive bites were presented by some of the most recognizable names in the region, including teams from The Cook’s House, Umbo, Modern Bird, and Trattoria Stella.

Back in the main tent, wine samples were flowing from some of the most prominent wineries in the area including Mawby Sparkline Wines, Bonobo Winery, Black Star Farms, Brengman Family Wines, French Valley Vineyards and many more. 

BOS Wine offers a gorgeous tasting room in neighboring Elk Rapids and is run by a team rooted in experiences from the Napa Valley. They often deploy biodynamic techniques, reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides and chemicals in the farming process. Sample wise, their most recent Method Agricole, is a sparkling wine in the pet-nat style, featuring a Valvin Muscat grape grown in Interlochen, MI and with a gentle yet tight effervescence. If you’re a fan of natural wine and crave aromatic French-inspired variants, a daytrip to Elk Rapids seems destined. 

Beyond the fury of activity at the Grand Tasting. TCFW provided weeklong programming throughout the region, offering culinary and wine events at tasting rooms, vineyards, restaurants, and a myriad of other event spaces. Nightly featured events at Open Space Park included a luxurious James Beard Foundation Dinner and the Bubbles on the Bay sparkling wine tasting. Celebrity chefs Andrew Zimmern and Food Network host Aarti Sequeira demonstrated their unique approaches while hosting dinner events focused on Northern Michigan producers and ingredients. Vineyards up and down each nearby peninsula offered education on their wines along with food pairing events hosted by local chefs. No matter your style of festival going, TCFW had a tasty or educational avenue to explore. 

With two years of food and wine events now behind them, the Traverse City region has shown the ability to hold a frontline, refreshing party while showcasing what is uniquely appetizing about the area. Cherry pits aside, it’s gratifying to be reminded what a food and wine festival can be and what a growing culinary and hospitality scene can do to elevate itself beyond its historic perception.