Garden to Table: Restaurants That Grow Their Own Food

| 2 min read

Michigan restaurants with their own gardens
Farm-to-table restaurants—which is when a restaurant serves food from specific farms in the region and often calls out the farm on the menu—are still a hot trend in the Michigan dining scene. But you can go a step further and eat at restaurants that actually grow their own fruit, vegetables and herbs. You can’t get more fresh and local than eating food grown in gardens run by a restaurant’s owners and chefs! Here are three to try around the state:
  • Blue Water Grill in Grand Rapids: This waterfront spot has an attached garden where the chef can pick rainbow carrots, peppers, cherry tomatoes and even edible flowers for cocktails. If you want to really get close to where the food is grown, ask for their garden table and dine surrounded by plants. Try dishes like wild mushroom risotto, wood fired pizzas and wild salmon with grilled asparagus.
  • Boathouse in Traverse City: The owner of this restaurant owns a 10-acre farm where most of the vegetables, fruit and herbs used in the dishes come from. It produces everything from apples to microgreens—even the young turkeys served at Thanksgiving are raised there. Start with the asparagus salad with roasted tomato vinaigrette, move on to the crab-topped whitefish, and finish with one of the signature cheeseboards.
  • The Maple Grille in Hemlock: Because it’s located on six acres, the owners of The Maple Grille can grow a lot of the food they serve (they grow thousands of pounds of tomatoes a year). The menu changes constantly, but a recent one featured a kale veggie burger, potato salad with zucchini and beets and blueberry cream bar.
Professional chefs aren’t the only ones who can cook using food they grow themselves. Use your own backyard garden to inspire your cooking. Here are a few posts to get you started:
Photo credit: thebittenword.com

A Healthier Michigan is sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, a nonprofit, independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
No Personal Healthcare Advice or Other Advice
This Web site provides general educational information on health-related issues and provides access to health-related resources for the convenience of our users. This site and its health-related information and resources are not a substitute for professional medical advice or for the care that patients receive from their physicians or other health care providers.
This site and its health-related information resources are not meant to be the practice of medicine, the practice of nursing, or to carry out any professional health care advice or service in the state where you live. Nothing in this Web site is to be used for medical or nursing diagnosis or professional treatment.
Always seek the advice of your physician or other licensed health care provider. Always consult your health care provider before beginning any new treatment, or if you have any questions regarding a health condition. You should not disregard medical advice, or delay seeking medical advice, because of something you read in this site.