Mackinaw City Restaurants

AUDIE'S RESTAURANT
(231) 436-5744
Audie's is just about the only Mackinaw City restaurant you need to know about. It's open year-round, with a varied menu of from-scratch cooking at many price points, in family, fine-dining, and lounge settings. Audie's is a calm, efficient oasis in summer.
Top regional ingredients include bacon and smoked pork chops from Plath's Meats in Rogers City, morels in season, and of course whitefish, fresh daily for most of the year. Of the 8 whitefish preparations, oven-roasted whitefish with a parmesan-herb crust is the favorite. It's around $15 as a Family Room entree (with a side salad, starch, and roll), around $19 in the elegant Chippewa Room. It offers an extensive wine list, many appetizers like crab cakes and Oysters Rockefeller, special-occasion desserts, and seasonal specials like Steak Diane Morel, or elk medaillions with venison sausage. Hand-cut steaks and vegetarian pastas are on both menus. Guests in the Welcome Lounge (smoking permitted) can order from either menu.
Breakfast ranges from heart-healthy oatmeal with fruit cup and banana bread (under $5) to specialty omelettes ($7) and two eggs plus whitefish (around $8.50 with hash browns) or smoked pork chop ($8). From the bakery, cinnamon rolls, strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream, and pies are under $3. Many sandwiches (under $8 with fries), salads, and entrees (around $13-$17 ) are on the Family Room menu. Budget-minded travelers, check out the daily specials: about $5 at breakfast, under $6 at lunch, and about $9.25 at dinner and for weekend buffets. (Prime rib is around $17.) The popular $9.50 Sunday dinner, stuffed pork chop or half a baked chicken with mashed potato, vegetable, salad bar and dessert bar, is still around $9.50. And the salad bar with a cup of soup ($7, also from scratch) can be a welcome change from unhealthy road food.
Banquets, catering, and meals for cruises and tours are a growing part of Audie's business. For box lunches, call a day or two ahead. Edgar Jaggi, trained in his native Switzerland, first set the culinary standards here when he and his wife, "Audie," were manager-owners. Now their son Nick, a Culinary Institute of America grad, is the owner-chef. GM Dennis Vartanian once worked with them at Boyne Highlands resort.
Complete menus with prices are at www.audies.com.

SCALAWAGS
(231) 436-7777
Fans are drawn back by baskets of delicious fried whitefish (2 pieces plus fries and slaw for around $7.30), and a terrific whitefish chowder (around $3. There's also a full sandwich menu, fried chicken, walleye and perch. Pleasant indoor and outdoor seating, with an informal, fish-shop atmosphere. Owner-manager Brian Parker is now franchising the Scalawags concept in the Great Lakes area. A year-round Scalawags is in nearby Petoskey.

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