Top Take-Out in Traverse City

Many of our local businesses have felt the impact of the COVID epidemic. Restaurants have been hit especially hard by lock-down orders and indoor dining bans. A large number of eateries have tried to cope by shifting to take-out menus and outdoor dining in tents and igloos. Hours have been cut as some have been forced to lay-off employees. Others sadly have been forced to shut their doors.

While this unprecedented year surely has been a challenge for all restaurant owners, some have switched gears in search of creative new ways to generate an income stream. David and I are making it a point to learn about restaurants that have tried to pivot during the current indoor dining ban and to support them in their new endeavors. Here are three that we are excited about, and we plan on adding to the list. Cheers to restaurants who have worked so hard to reinvent themselves!

J & S Hamburg South

J&S Hamburg South is at the very top of our list of restaurants that deserve a bit of love from our community. Rather than focusing on how they might survive during the pandemic shut-down, owners Tiffany and Jason McQueer decided to focus on feeding local kids. Tiffany observed school busses delivering school lunches to area families, and she began to wonder how they would cope on weekends. As a result of her wonderings Project Feed the Kids was launched. The J&S crew began stocking lunches to go in a self-serve cooler outside of their restaurant back in April. Lunches include a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, bag of chips and a juice box. Thanks to a generous donation from GoGo Squeeze, each lunch bag also contains an applesauce pouch. They gave away 81 lunches that first weekend, and numbers have only gone up since then. By the end of August, J&S Hamburg South had given away more than 10,000 free meals.

• 

• 

Community members have banded together in support of the project, and their donations have helped keep Project Feed The Kids afloat. Costco has also stepped up and has donated large amounts of food to supplement the sack lunches. In addition to feeding hungry kids, J & S Hamburg South is also delivering food to Munson Healthcare professionals weekly and offering free meals to first responders who stop by the diner.

The restaurant recently reduced its hours to Thursday -Sunday in an attempt to keep their heads above water until they can once again offer dine-in service. Visit the J&S Hamburg fundraising page in order to make a donation to help feed kids and healthcare workers.

Check out their menu at the J&S Hamburg South website to order up a delicious breakfast, tasty burger or their famous beer-battered fish.

Trattoria Stella

Trattoria Stella has long been a beloved Italian eatery in Traverse City . They have an online ordering system for food, wine, beer, and cocktails for pick-up or curbside delivery, making it possible for people to enjoy their regular Stella’s favorites. Take-out food from the menu is available every day except Tuesday from 3pm – 8pm.

Stella’s has had several creative ideas in response to COVID19’s dining room shut-down. They jumped onto our radar when we came across their ad offering a special Christmas dinner. While David and I didn’t opt for the meal, we couldn’t pass up the chance to sample their dark chocolate peppermint pie. It was the perfect dessert: creamy dark chocolate filling with a touch of peppermint, and a graham crust made from toasted nuts and cocoa. After only one bite, we definitely had a suggestion for the restaurant staff: please don’t wait until next Christmas to offer this again!

• 

• 

Trattoria Stella also came up with a fabulous entrée for New Year’s Eve: A half pound of Maine lobster, a half dozen dozen shrimp Scampi, and a green salad with apples, figs, and candied nuts, plus steamed golden potatoes, a side of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and red onion, topped off with sweet corn ciabatta bread pudding. We didn’t take advantage of that special, either, although we vowed not to let another Stella’s special pass us by.

I pulled up the restaurant’s menu in the beginning of of January. They happened to be running a pizza special that week, and David and I briefly debated about choosing one of their nine types of scrumptious-sounding specialty pizza. But after searching around on the website a little bit more, we learned that Trattoria Stella has come up with a new initiative for their patrons during the dining shut-down. They’ve created Family Meals to Go: a three course meal with salad, entrée, and a side dish for two people. The selection changes weekly.

We ordered a chicken piccata family meal. I picked up our food on my way home from work to be heated up later at dinner time. The piccata was fabulous: two pan-seared chicken breasts with artichokes, capers, lemon cream and parsley. The meal included a side of roasted potatoes with garlic, pepper and rosemary, roasted brussel sprouts, and a garnish of spinach. The accompanying salad was pretty much a meal in itself! Lots of Tuscan greens, green peppers, Roma tomatoes, black olives, Provolone cheese and yummy garbanzo beans with a lemony herb vinaigrette. There was also some pepperoncini, which I initially mistook for marinated onions. Whoa, was I in for a surprise! Spicy hot and delicious, chased with a huge gulp of water!

• 

• 

On top of all that, we opted to pay extra for a loaf o focaccia bread. Definitely a good move on our part! It had a nice crunchy crust with some Italian herbs on top, and it was absolutely delicious when dipped into a bit of olive oil. The focaccia was every bit as good the next day when we drizzled it with olive oil, sprinkled a little garlic salt on it and toasted it in the oven. Divine!

• 

• 

The serving sizes were generous, and David and I both had enough left over for lunch the next day. We definitely plan on watching Trattoria Stella’s weekly menu and ordering again.

Orders must be placed by midnight on Monday of each week. You can designate your pick-up time the following Wednesday or Thursday, between the hours of 3:00 and 6:00. You can also choose to pick your meal up hot and ready to eat, or cold with reheating instructions.

Be sure to check out Stella’s website to view current family meals and other specials. Order from the regular menu or family meals to go online at Trattoria Stella’s website, or call 231-929-8989.

Amical Cookbook Series

Amical’s Cookbook series is already well known to the restaurant’s loyal patrons. However, I think this popular downtown restaurant deserves a shout-out and a little love for figuring out how to keep up with this creative event as they navigate indoor dining shutdowns. Once a month from November to May, Amical’s kitchen staff selects a cookbook and comes up with a brand-new, week-long dinner menu that utilizes recipes from that chosen cookbook. Each season, the staff strives to include a French, Italian, Asian and Latin cookbook, offering some unique variety to Traverse City’s restaurant scene.

Somehow the Cookbook Series wasn’t on our radar in the beginning on January, and we are kicking ourselves from missing out on some delectable-sounding Thai food form the cookbook Pok Pok, published by a restaurant of the same name in Portland, Oregon. The menu featured a pork satay appetizer and entrée choice of either Northern Tai curry chicken or Phat Thai with shrimp. A family take-and-bake dish of Northern Thai stewed beef short ribs was also available.

These two images taken from Amical’s Facebook page clearly showed up what we were missing!

• 

• 

We are anxiously awaiting the Spanish cuisine that will be showcased during the first week of February. The kitchen staff has selected Katie Button’s cookbook “Cúrate: Authentic Spanish Food from an American Kitchen.” After serving food in a restaurant in Spain, Button developed a passion for Spanish cooking and she now runs the popular Cúrate Restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina. David and I went crazy over the tapas while we were in visiting Spain. (not to mention the crusty bread!) We are keeping our fingers crossed for sherry mushrooms and are looking forward to seeing the Spanish wine pairings that Amical will come up with.

From February 28th-March 7th, Amical will be featuring a three-course value meal during Traverse City’s hugely popular Restaurant week. During April, Amical will dive into recipes from Africa in the cookbook “The Soul of a New Cuisine” by Marcus Samuelsson. The Cookbook series will wrap up the first week of May with Mexican recipes from the cookbook “Tu Casa Mi Casa” (Your House, My House) by Enrique Olvera.

• 

• 

• 

During the indoor dining shut-down, Amical is still offering their full menu for takeout, including wine and beer. Call 231-941-8888 between the hours of noon and 8pm to place your order for same day contactless pick up. Check out Amical’s website for more details and their menu.

We certainly are looking forward to the day when we can make a spur of the moment stop at J&S Hamburger South for a juicy burger and luscious fries, land an intimate table for two in a hidden alcove at Trattoria Stella, or find a cozy seat near the fireplace at Amical. Until that day comes, we’ll make sure to hit them up for more of the great foodie experiences that our area is known for, even in times of take-out only. Is one of your favorite restaurants offering take-away food near you? Have any restaurants that you know of transformed their operations in response to COVID restrictions? Let’s all do what we can to thank them and help them weather a global pandemic.