Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [157]
Juilleret’s
1418 Bridge St.
231–547–9212
Charlevoix, MI
BLD | $
Frankly, it’s frustrating to eat at Juilleret’s. There are too many good things on the menu, and there are always some you won’t have enough appetite to try. Just walking in the door is tough, especially in the morning. There before you is a case of just-baked loaves of cinnamon, cinnamon-raisin, white, banana-walnut, and whole wheat bread. Plus maple rolls, nutty rolls, and cinnamon raisin rolls.
The pancakes belong on our short list of the nation’s best. They are large, so large that one is a nice-size meal, but amazingly they are not gross or doughy. In fact, each cake is a rather elegant piece of food, like a fine pastry but with all the good buttery character of a griddle-cooked flapjack. They are made plain or laden with raspberries or blueberries and available with house-made syrup, powdered sugar, honey, or peanut butter, or (for $1.50 extra), maple syrup from a nearby farm.
At lunch, mashed potatoes for the side of hot sandwiches are real and delicious, topped with homemade gravy. Local whitefish is broiled to a fine, fragile, crisp-edged succulence, sandwiched in Juilleret’s good bread, and served with excellent pickly-sweet tartar sauce. Hamburgers are served on made-here buns; even the tuna salad, made fresh the Midwestern way with Miracle Whip, is a cut above.
Desserts? Couldn’t be better. Juilleret’s coconut cream pie is one of the best anywhere, its dense, coconut-chocked custard so intensely flavorful that you want to call it savory, its meringue topping light as a puff of steam.
Lafayette Coney Island
118 W. Lafayette Blvd.
313–964–8198
Detroit, MI
Always open | $
The Lafayette and the American are an adjoining pair of storefront Coney Island hot dog joints in Detroit (two of many Coney Islands in the area), and while we travelers might think their cuisine similar, if not identical, most of Michigan’s Coney Island aficionados prefer one over the others. It’s too fine a debate for us, but we are more than happy to find ourselves facing a brace of Lafayette weenies topped with chili, raw onions, and mustard. We also like chili by the bowl, with or without beans, but definitely with shredded cheese on top.
The chili is fine-grind, peppery, and fairly intense unless supplemented by the starch of beans and pleasant fatty mantle of bright orange cheese. The dogs are far from fancy, but in their déclassé way, they are mighty good: porky-sweet inside with a skin that has a nice little snap, their succulence perfectly complemented by the spongy bun that cradles them. In our opinion, the condiments are essential. A plain Coney is as erroneous as a pancake without syrup.
Tasty as the hot dogs are to the true frank-o-phile, ambience of Lafayette Coney Island is a big part of its charm. Open round the clock, and especially interesting in the wee hours of the morning when there is no place else to eat and the bars are closing, it is staffed by cranky old gents who have seen it all and who remember exactly what everyone eats and don’t have to bother with written checks: everything is in their heads.
Ray’s Drive-Inn
20 N. Beacon Blvd.
616–842–3400
Grand Haven, MI
LD | $
A tipster who identified him/herself as Flame On Catering of Muskegon advised us exactly what to eat when we went to Ray’s: a triple beefburger with only cheese. Flame On explained, “I would never order a burger with nothing else but cheese from anywhere else.” Nor would we, as we are big fans of all sorts of burger condiments. However in this case, the suggestion was a good one. Ray’s uses gobs of cheese, and while the beef itself is just fine, it’s all that cheese that puts this one over the top. When you unwrap your triple, you will definitely see bun and cheese, but the meat itself is completely smothered. It is a delightful mess.
French fries are especially excellent, and while all the usual milkshakes are available, we