Northern Michigan’s Food and Wine Scene Is Finally Getting the Attention It Deserves #DetroitFood
On a late-summer evening at Black Star Farms winery, the golden-hour light spills across rows of ripening cabernet franc vines layered on the hillside, turning them into such brilliant shades of green it’s hard to look away.
But dinner is about to begin. Owner Sherri Campbell Fenton, whose parents founded the winery in 1998, steps to the head of a massive wood-planked feasting table. Her 30 guests are starting the first course: local peaches with stracciatella cheese, marcona almonds, and first-press olive oil, prepared by James Beard Award-winning chef Debbie Gold and paired with the winery’s estate-grown pinot blanc.
“Welcome to the inaugural Traverse City Food and Wine festival — and it’s about time!” Fenton says, beaming. “And who here is from states other than Michigan?”
Hands shoot up: Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, California. The last answer brings her particular joy. “Did you know we’re the second-most agriculturally diverse state outside of California?”
The estate dinner on the Leelanau Peninsula, 10 miles outside the city, was one of 80 events during the inaugural year of Traverse City Food and Wine (each priced from about $100 to $300) that took place over five days in late August. And Fenton makes a good point — it really is about time.
The festival, which the tourism bureau says will return in August 2026, feels like a stake in the ground. It signals a new level of sophistication — and stronger cohesion across the local food and wine community — for an area long known by the folksy nickname “cherry capital of the world,” and as a budget-friendly summer escape for Midwestern families.
Twenty years ago, the wines associated with this region on the Northern tip of Michigan’s lower peninsula were sweet rieslings, dessert-style “ice wine,” and even cherry wine. Today, about 50 wineries grow and pour dozens of grape varietals, from bone-dry rieslings and sauvignon blancs to award-winning pinot noir and merlot, along with lesser-knowns such as Auxerrois, gamay noir, and blaufränkisch.
Most wineries snake up two bucolic peninsulas just north of Traverse City, where rolling hills turn lush green in summer and bends in the road reveal sunlit water glinting off Lake Michigan or Grand Traverse Bay. In 20 years, Leelanau Peninsula has grown from just a few wineries to 23, while Old Mission Peninsula expanded from four to 11. More wineries are in Traverse City and the surrounding area. Lake Michigan creates a microclimate for ideal growing conditions, and almost all grapes are grown locally.
Meanwhile, Traverse City’s growing reputation as a farm-to-table dining destination is drawing more talent and recognition. The chef-owners of the Cooks’ House, Jennifer Blakeslee and Eric Patterson, were the only Michigan semifinalists to advance to the finalist stage of the 2025 James Beard Awards. Sarah Welch, also a James Beard nominee and the sassy runner-up on Season 19 of Top Chef, left Marrow in Detroit to open Umbo in Traverse City (planned for February) with her husband, Mink chef Cameron Rolka.
Detroit bar owner Dave Kwiatkowski expanded Up North in 2022, opening Fingers Crossed in Northport on Leelanau. And just this month, the New York Times recognized Traverse City’s Modern Bird as one of America’s 50 Best Restaurants of 2025. The festival drew other big-name chefs, including Food Network’s Tyler Florence and Dearborn-raised Top Chef winner Mei Lin, who leads the kitchen at 88 Club in Los Angeles.
But growth has come with a price — especially for Old Mission Peninsula. Just a month before the festival, and after five years of litigation, a federal judge awarded 11 wineries nearly $50 million in damages for lost revenue due to a Peninsula Township ordinance banning weddings and other large events. (Neighboring Leelanau faces no such restrictions; for example, Black Star Farms regularly hosts events there.)
The Wineries of Old Mission Peninsula (WOMP) applauded the decision, saying the ordinance has stifled their ability to grow, contribute to the local economy, and even support local agriculture. But opponents argue large events will overwhelm the narrow, 18-mile-long peninsula, which has just one two-lane highway, M-37. Michigan is the top producer of tart cherries in the U.S., accounting for 75 percent of the nation’s supply.
“They should’ve never poked the bear”
“We think the wineries have been good for the region,” says John Jacobs, treasurer and board member of Protect the Peninsula, an intervener in the lawsuit. “We do not believe that what the wineries want to do next is good for the region.” Events will congest the highway with even more visitors, he says, making it difficult for cherry and other farmers to move their trucks and machinery efficiently in an area that’s long committed to putting agricultural interests first.
Indeed, the township will appeal the ruling, Supervisor Maura Sanders said in a memo, adding that in the meantime, they’d look to reduce the lawsuit’s financial burden on taxpayers with cuts to city services and possibly even selling property, such as the peninsula’s historic lighthouse.
At the Black Star Farms dinner, I sat next to a woman named Tammy who grew up on Old Mission in the 1960s and ’70s and couldn’t wait to leave. In high school, she got her wish when she was accepted to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
But after retiring, she and her husband were drawn back to a changed peninsula, now infused with more entertainment and dining than her childhood home had offered.
Others have followed suit, decamping for the tip of the Mitten. In fact, Traverse City and the surrounding area saw some of the highest population growth in the state between 2010 and 2020, a trend the pandemic accelerated as people fled big cities for remote work, lower home prices, and a different pace of life. Even former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg now calls Traverse City home; his husband Chasten grew up there.
My dinner companion shakes her head about the financial burden Peninsula Township now faces if the ruling stands. “No one knows how we’ll pay it,” she says, adding that the township underestimated the power of the wine community. She leans toward and whispers to me: “They should’ve never poked the bear.”
The Grand Tasting
Driving on U.S. 31 toward the festival’s main event, the Grand Tasting, families can be seen sunbathing on the beach and playing in the waters of Grand Traverse Bay. It’s a postcard-worthy scene that could be from 2025 — or 1965.
But the Americana, “cherry capital” vibe fades upon entering the festival grounds. Booth after booth serves global cuisine, such as bun cha — Vietnamese meatballs by the Good Bowl, which Eater has named one of Traverse City’s best restaurants. “This is the dish that Anthony Bourdain ate with Barack Obama in Vietnam,” offers owner Tony Vu.
Traditional favorites also shine: The line of people waiting for melty, pungent raclette from Leelanau Cheese is consistently long, with gooey wedges served alongside baguette slices. Fusions of old and new appear too: Mei Lin teamed up with Moomers, a Traverse City institution, to create a dreamy tea and almond cookie ice cream.
Lin is among the chefs who enraptures the crowd for a cooking demonstration; Ann Arbor’s Ji Hye Kim, Welch, and several other chefs also demo dishes that represent their styles. Tyler Florence — looking very Hollywood in dark shades and swept-back hair — holds court for an hour from an onstage armchair pitching his grilling cookbook, with a slice of slate-blue bay serving as a backdrop.
Later, I chat with Welch and Rolka as they shuck briny, ice-cold oysters at unnerving speed, served with sparkling wine from Bonobo Winery’s booth. I ask what convinced them to leave Detroit for Traverse City. Was it the burgeoning food and wine scene?
As it turns out, their reason is the same as vacationers drawn to the area: “We wanted to spend more time outdoors, and be closer to the water,” Welch says with a shrug.
“The produce up here is incredible — as good as anything I’ve had in Spain, France, and Italy”
Still, they’re committed to building bonds in the local community as they prepare to open Umbo. While Welch is a ball of confident, boisterous energy, she seems to choose her words carefully.
“We’re happy to be a part of what’s here now, and it seems people are excited to have us as newcomers,” Welch says. “We’re trying to be respectful, and I think that’s a big step when you’re joining any culinary community.” She adds: “We acknowledge there’s already a great culinary scene here.”
Andy Elliott and Emily Stewart are part of that scene. They moved from Chicago to Traverse City for the lifestyle seven years ago and opened Modern Bird in 2022. Elliott says the New York Times recognition as one of the best 50 restaurants in the U.S. was a “complete surprise,” and business has picked up even more since.
“The produce up here is incredible — as good as anything I’ve had in Spain, France, and Italy,” says Elliott. “As someone who cooks and creates in that world, it’s fun to have a bunch of stuff to play with that’s not only local, but really, really, good.”
He speaks fondly of one of his favorite dishes to make — a trout crudo with pickled serrano peppers, smoked soy sauce, and shiro plums from Bakkers Acres on Leelenau, which are in season for only a few weeks each year.
“Had Traverse City not had such a diverse agricultural environment, we might have thought differently about coming up here and opening a business,” he says.
In Chicago, he notes, Michigan fruits and vegetables dominate the popular Green City Market. “Michigan doesn’t get enough credit for the quality of agriculture it puts out, and that’s really the story,” Elliott adds.
A ‘cooperitive’ future
Back at the Black Star Farms dinner, Fenton emphasizes that collaboration and mutual support have been central to the local wine and food community’s success, and continues to strengthen as the region gains national recognition.
“There was a term I learned when our son was in FIRST Robotics — they call it ‘coopertition.’ You cooperate with your competition,” she says as we dig into the second course: seared sea scallop with squash blossom pesto, served with a 2023 barrel-aged chardonnay. “Our coopertition is lovely here, and we help to raise each other up.”
That’s a good thing, because Leelanau may soon face stiffer “coopertition” from the wineries on Old Mission, if the lawsuit ruling stands and allows them to expand their hospitality and tourism businesses.
Our third dinner course at Black Star Farms follows — seared duck breast with corn polenta and a plum red wine gastrique, paired with the 2022 gamay noir. The night ends with warm blueberries in puff pastry with brown sugar crumble, served with a 2020 sweet riesling — a nostalgic throwback to the area’s winemaking past, only better.
As the last glasses are poured and plates cleared, it’s clear the Traverse City area has expanded well beyond its cherry capital reputation, to one of the premier food and wine destinations in the country.
Still, as I pull out various tchotchkes in my Traverse City Food and Wine media kit provided by the tourism bureau later that evening, I find that there are no wine-related items other than the event’s brochures. There are, however, snack bags of dried, locally grown cherries, both plain and chocolate-covered.
Disclosure: The author of this piece received a media ticket to the Traverse City Food & Wine Grand Tasting.
from Eater Detroit
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