If you're moving to the UP you'll need a builder...the houses here leave a lot to be desired overall. I think a lot are do-it-yourselfers. Unless you are into various types of trailers you'll want to build from scratch. Dan has found several excellent contractors in building Yoopertraz and we'd like to give them credit here.

 

 

Reviews

These are places we have personally tried and liked (or not). Your mileage may vary.

Restaurants

 

Rock River Cafe, Chatham MI

Wow, this is a hidden jewel. In the tiny town of Chatham, in an old historic building, this tiny cafe serves some really interesting and good food in the UP. If you're into deep fried forget this place - the food is healthy. They even have vegan dishes on the menu. Newly opened it's going to be a hit. We had the whitefish dinner and it was great. You don't go home hungary (portions are generous) and everything is homemade from local sources. My only complaint is no thousand Island on the menu for my salad (I'm a little weird that way...gotta be Thousand Island). The menu is a little limited for now but there are lots of daily specials. The salad was a mixture of healthy greens - no generic ice berg lettuce here. Worth going out of your way for...we'll be back!

The Trenary Taverrn, Trenary MI

Friendly people, great food - even some fish on the wall (a must to have antlers and fish on the wall in the UP). In spite of the tavern atmosphere, this is a family place. Try their breakfast special - it's awesome. Best omlets in Michigan. Thick toast with wonderful flavor. The homemade Pizza is in the top 10. Service is excellent and friendly and fast. Can be packed or empty, just depends on the time of day. The pizza is equally awesome (all home made) and fish is wonderful - try the Friday fish fry & salad bar - more than you can eat!

The Grove, US 41 outside of Marquette, MI

BLAAAAA and that's from me who is not a fan of spicy. Went there for breakfast and it was awful - no taste whatsoever for even the Mexican omlet. Looked good, but looks are deceiving. Pancakes were rubbery, sausages are huge but could have been anything as they were tasteless, ham wasn't even ham (turkey lunchmeat?). How hard is it to remove the taste from all food? Maybe there's an award for that. I would NOT recommend this place. The eggs were edible...barely.

The Dog Patch, Munising, MI

Fun atmosphere - if you're a Dagwood Bumstead fan you'll love it. Huge cartoon characters on the wall and you enter through something that resembles a cattle shute. The burgers are smallish (in spite of the claims) and come on a homemade bun. The menu is cute, but hard to read. I hear the steaks are good. For us, service was extremely slow and I got shorted on the number of fries everyone else got - but they fixed the problem quickly. We'll give them another chance just on the atmosphere alone. Waitstaff was young, friendly and tried very hard. Very busy and noisy when we were there.  They have a cute giftshop they push and I covet the yoopergirl Tshirt.

The Up North Lodge, Gwinn, MI
215 S. County Rd. 557
Gwinn, MI, 49841
phone: 906-346-9815
Excellent food, great service, beautiful view and nice classy rustic atmosphere. Would rate this one highly execpt we were still a bit hungry when we left. Portions were small which made the apparent good prices kind of expensive.. Would go again though, just to try more of the extensive menu. Fish was good, known for their ribs and the burgers are large - all kinds of steak dinners ($15-25).. Salad was kind of tiny, but good. Recommend visiting the Yooper Scooper in Gwinn for dessert - they carry Jilbert Ice Cream and give generous scoops. After that we were stuffed. Beautiful drive getting there down winding wooded roads.