Houghton Restaurants

AMBASSADOR
(906) 482-5054

A Milwaukee artist around 1905 painted these playful Germanic gnomes above the Ambassador's bar. The local Bosch Brewery is featured on the barrels.

The historic barroom is the most beguiling in Copper Country. It has its original booths and stained glass windows. Many murals show Germanic gnomes cavorting and carousing by beer barrels in Old World settings. They extol the pleasures of drinking beer in verse and say things like, "We won't go home ‘til morning!" The artist is thought to have come from Milwaukee. The paintings were rolled up during Prohibition and discovered much later. The story's on the menu.
   The Ambassador is a favorite student hangout, great for atmosphere and for healthy, moderately priced bar food — nothing fried, just crusty subs, thin-crust pizza, big salads like beef vinaigrette or Italian tuna, nachos and other Mexican favorites. Just don't try to have a conversation of more than four people—it's a convivial place and the acoustics don't help. To sit in the beautiful barroom, you have to put up with some smoke. Big windows in the smoke-free rear dining room look out onto the Portage lift bridge and the mansions of East Hancock. Garlic chicken pizza is a customer favorite; so is the veggie pizza with zucchini, broccoli, carrots, and garlic olive oil. Italian sausage is made on the premises.

FOUR SEASONS TEA ROOM
(906) 482-3233
When Andrea Schuldt and her mother, LaVerne Witto, opened this charming little oasis in 2002, they filled a yawning gap in local eateries for anything remotely feminine and not geared to 20-year-olds. Bone china and a retro 40s theme (Big Band music, old family snapshots) create a pretty, relaxing, unrushed atmosphere. Most customers stay an average of 1 1/2 hours. Repeat customers include MTU students and faculty, with a surprising number of men. Some come to meet and discuss things (the ambient noise level allows discussion, not always possible in bars) while others sit and read or bring laptops.
   Teas are set prices. All feature fresh brewed loose-leaf tea (chosen from 40 varieties) in an individual pot. The "Lady Ethel tea" ($7.50) is a pot of tea plus soup or salad with quiche. "Full afternoon tea" ($14 for one, $22 for two) brings pots of tea with three tiers of food: scones, finger sandwiches, and bite-size desserts plus soup and quiche. "Cream tea" ($6) is tea and scones. "Dessert tea" comes with cakes. All scones are served warm with Devonshire cream and homemade lemon curd.
   Loose teas, teapots, and tea accessories, along with chocolate truffles and gifts, are displayed in the antique apothecary cupboards in the front shop. Evenings and weekends the tearoom can be rented for showers, parties, and meetings.

VICTORIA'S KITCHEN
(906) 482-8650
The menu—an eclectic mix of Middle Eastern, vegetarian, deli fare, and American home cooking—is a godsend for vegetarians or for anyone homesick for the great Middle Eastern restaurants of Detroit. Victoria Williams can turn out spinach pies like a good Lebanese housewife. The #1 seller is the Siberian turkey sandwich ($6) with homemade Russian dressing, Swiss, and coleslaw, on grilled challah bread). The breakfast special (two eggs with homemade toast and terrific spicy-hot potatoes) is a great value at $2.50. Other breakfast favorites are the Lebanese omelet with sausage in an open pastry shell and stuffed French toast with strawberries and bananas ($5). Victoria's can supply a fabulous picnic: Lebanese-style spinach pies (no rich phyllo dough), tabooli, hummus, chicken salad, broccoli-cauliflower salad, and over a dozen other salads. Popular lunch buffets on Wednesday ($5.25) and Friday ($6.50) are worth going out of your way for. The price includes two main dishes, salads and soups, and dessert.
   Victoria's offers table service both in the front deli booths and the rear dining area with a view of the Portage Waterway. Portions are large, with ample leftovers.

SUOMI HOME BAKERY & RESTAURANT
(906) 482-3220

One of the cherished traditions of Keweenaw visitors and residents alike is breakfast at the Suomi Bakery.

This unpretentious diner is known for its homestyle cooking, low prices, the area's widest selection of Finnish specialties, plus a very friendly atmosphere and constant refills on coffee. The clientele cuts across every social group—town, gown, transplants, fourth-generation locals, tourists. "Great people-watching!" comments one patron. The main dining area is smoke-free, where old-timers get together for morning coffee. Breakfast is served all day; prices include coffee. Especially recommended: pannukakku (a custardy, oven-baked pancake with fruit sauce, $3.55 with coffee), huge pancakes, homemade pies ($1.90 a slice), nisu toast with cinnamon and cardamom. For lunch there are pasties (under $3.20), burgers, homemade soups, and daily specials ($5.25). It's a plain place from an earlier era, with lots of old photos and mining and logging equipment on the walls. No credit cards.

J J's WOK & GRILL
(906) 483-5596
JJ says he serves "home cooking" stir-fries — "mom's recipes," old favorites with a touch of Liaoning Province (where he and his wife, Bo Qu, are from), "some [dishes], just crazy." They are not dishes evolved in the hundred-year-old Chinese restaurant tradition. JJ, who came to Houghton to study at Tech, and Bo Qu had been partners at the former Ameurasia in the Best Western Franklin Square Inn. Customer favorites are sesame chicken (quite sweet), curry chicken, and lots of tofu dishes. Chicken with mushrooms is a JJ creation. So are spring pancakes filled with bean sprouts and pork served with cichuan paste. Five tables. Big takeout business.

SPICA AND THE THIRSTY FISH PUB
(906) 487-1700
The restaurant in the Best Western Franklin Square's window walled upper floor is now run by the capable, inventive owners of North Shore Grill ‘n Pub on M-203 just west of the Hancock Beach. The look is luxurious and arty, uncommon in these parts. The view across the waterway is of the picturesquely rusting Ripley Smelter, considered an attraction locally. Spica is only open for breakfast and dinner. Some entrees (mostly $16 to $22) are classics (whitefish, prime rib, beef tenderloin) with unexpected touches. Others include jerk chicken, Thai chicken pasta, and other international dishes. Attention has been paid to everything here, including the bread. Sample food style: one dessert ($7), the Profiteroles Coconut Trinitario, is described as "crème puffs filled with Hamilton's own coconut ice cream, drizzled with chocolate sauce. Sauce is made with Santrtinidad single origin bittersweet chocolate."
   Except for Sunday, when it's closed, the pub is open from 3 p.m. to 11, later on Friday and Saturday. It serves substantial snacks, mostly $8 to $10: a fresh mozzarella pizza or beer treats or a memorable chopped salad of romaine, bacon, gorgonzola, tiny pasta, scallions and grilled chicken breast. It's also a salad side at dinner.

THE LIBRARY RESTAURANT, BAR & BREWPUB
(906) 487-5882
Rebuilt after a fire destroyed its original quirky digs, The Library is much larger and more impressive, thanks to shiny fermenting tanks and a big window-wall with a good waterway view. "It's where students would like to eat if they had the money," says one professor. The bar is less of a student gathering place these days. Recommended: soups, especially Swiss onion soup au gratin; fresh catch of the day; beer fries; creative seafood specials. Other favorites: Sicilian steak sandwich; Portobello mushroom sandwich ("the best anywhere," says one foodie), bean dip, fried shrimp and mushroom appetizers. hors d'oeuvres. Lunches $7-$10. Dinner entrees range from $13-$18.

KEEWENAW BREWING COMPANY
(906) 482-5596
The well-deserved collegiate hot spot and social pub is the Keweenaw Brewing Company with 9 cheap, interesting beers on tap and no food at all except peanuts. The company, started by Colorado beer-lovers, one of whom went to MTU, is the first Upper Peninsula microbrewery to distribute cans and kegs of its products, now available in the Western Upper Peninsula. All the beers made here have their fans: the dark, the light, the hoppy, the not-so-hoppy. For $1 your can sample 5 of them.
Get your 64-ounce growler filled with any of the beers for $7.50. While drinking a beer you're welcome to bring in your own food to eat or have it delivered. —8/2010

PILGRIM RIVER STEAKHOUSE
(906) 482-8595
Steaks and prime rib have made this a local destination. Filets, rib-eye, strips, T bone, Delmonico—there's quite a variety, ranging from $12 to $25. Prime rib, always offered, is a big draw. It comes with soup, salad, and potato. This steakhouse is about much more than meat: great homemade soups, especially mushroom, "awesome" spinach salad, interesting lunch options, homemade fries, things like bourbon sauce on filets. Dinners, served all day, range from $13 to $24 for the surf and turf bonanza: a half-pound of crab legs and a six-ounce filet. The recent emphasis is on changing specials like whitefish with citrus cilantro or trout Italiano. Friday's seafood platter is a great value. Diagonal wood siding and booths give the place a cozy ski lodge feel. Reservations for weekends still are a good idea.

SHELDON'S BAKERY
(906) 487-6166
Pasties are the cornerstone of this bakery, which many considered among the best in the area. The 1-pound pasty is $4.13, the smaller one is $3.24. Sandwiches are made to order on your choice of bread. Turkey, chicken salad, garlic pepper beef, hot Italian beef, veggie avocado — there are lots of alternatives to the fast food on the nearby strip. The soup is very good, too. Most business is takeout, but there are a few tables for eating in. The Bakery turns out an impressive array of bread, the area's best: crusty French bread, the best-selling 10-grain bread, true sourdough bread, even sourdough bagels that are boiled and baked. Come early for best selection, or get day-old bread for half off. Coffee-drinkers love the pecan rolls—big, rich, and sticky—coffee cakes, Danish, muffins, cinnamon rolls, and doughnuts.

HARDEE'S
(906) 482-9374
National fast-food chains are not reviewed by us, but this fast-food hamburger place gives diners an exceptional view, the best of any restaurant in town. Its big front windows look out at the Portage Lift Bridge and Quincy Hill, with downtown Hancock and its landmark church below and the Quincy No. 2 shafthouse and hoist house on top of the hillside. When the mines were producing, a row of shafthouses topped the hill, which was bare. One Quincy Hill resident recalls that goats just outside downtown Hancock were used to keep vegetation down as late as the 1950s.

DOWNTOWNER LOUNGE
482-7305
Enter the non-descript front door in the building at the very west end of downtown Houghton and you enter a dual universe: a darkish bar that leads out to a spacious outdoor deck with great views of the bridge, waterway, marina, East Hancock's hillside mansions, and Mont Ripley. Well-prepared food here, from a variety of salads, burgers, and sandwiches to tasty chili and homemade soups daily, including creamy chicken & wild rice. Lots of draft beer choices. Monday-Thursday 4-6 p.m., they're only $1. No credit cards accepted.

MING'S SUPER BUFFET
(906) 482-9888
The vast buffet here ($7.49 until 3 p.m.) has lots of fans in the area. It's not gourmet Chinese, but many of the selections are tasty. The dinner buffet, with additional seafood and barbecue dishes, is $10.49. —8/2010

NOTE: Five Keweenaw Restaurants or Bars with Original Mining-era Interiors
482-2003 & 482-5054
One of the glories of Copper Country is the number of taverns and restaurants with original interiors from the mining era. They're a must-see for fans of stained glass and historic architecture. Two are in downtown Houghton: the Douglass House Saloon and the Ambassador, with its German-style murals extolling the delights of beer-drinking. The others are Shute's 1890 Bar and the Michigan House restaurant in Calumet, and Lindell's in Lake Linden. —8/2010

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