Gladstone Restaurants

Four J's Family Restaurant
(906) 428-4250
This cozy, homey spot in a former A&W serves a full menu: breakfast; lunch with homemade soups, burgers, and more; and steak and fish for dinner. Homemade desserts. Half a block to the beach.

Terrace Bay Inn
(906) 786-7554
Not only is the dining room the only one in the area to overlook Little Bay de Noc, the dinners are an attraction in their own right. Sauces, soups, salad dressings, desserts—all are homemade. Stuffed and baked salmon, trout, tilapia, stuffed chicken, baby-back ribs, and filets and strip steak — entrées are from $12 to $26. Weekends (Fri-Sun) bring a homemade salad bar—a highlight for a vegetarian diner. (Her husband's steak on a recent visit was "the best he'd had in a long time.") From mid-January through April, the spring Early Bird special with beverage and dessert is $12, an outstanding value.
   Owner-chef Mike Pouliot, in the third generation of family ownership, is a Culinary Institute of America graduate. This distinctive older resort depends on weddings and banquets, sometimes in the 1930s dance hall, for much of its business. The bi-level dining room seats 100. Recently remodeled, it has water views from every table. The look is natural and earth-toned, with a stone fireplace and buffet table. Every other Friday there's live music in the lounge. Window-walls look out onto the patio, with bar service and an illuminated fountain. A multi-layered deck, punctuated by a gazebo, goes down to the shoreline and boardwalk. Mowing has kept phragmites under control and the view open.

The Corner Bakery
(906) 428-9975
Finally downtown Gladstone has a bakery again, and an especially charming, cozy one with four tables for eating in. Rita Lindahl had worked in restaurants for 30 years. Baking is her passion. On New Year's Day 2010, she and her son, Jason Brunette, decided to take the plunge. They threw themselves into construction and opened in November. The self-service café has a limited menu of special sandwiches like pulled pork and BBQ chicken, chili and a soup du jour, and soup-and-sandwich lunch specials ($6). German sausage soup (cabbage, kraut, pickle, carrot, sausage, mushrooms)—mixed and tweaked by Rita— is outstanding.
   Rita aims for baking like grandma did. Customers love the bakery's breads, Danish, bismarcks, high-protein breakfast cookies ($1), sweet rolls and pumpkin-cream cheese muffins. Pies can be sliced and wrapped to go.

Return to Gladstone