The Yankee Rebel Tavern on Astor Street on Mackinac Island.
As soon as we got off the ferry from the mainland, we started looking for food. Mackinac Island has a number of restaurants downtown and none of them are chains. That makes choosing some place to eat when you’re only going to eat two meals on the Island a little difficult.
Before we took the trip, I did my research online like I always do before out-of-town trips and one of the places that stood out to me was a colonial themed tavern. We went looking for that on Main Street and just happened to look down one of the side streets to see the sign.
The Yankee Rebel Tavern is on Astor Street between Main and Market on Mackinac Island. As the name implies, there is a little bit of a colonial theme to the place. We got to the Island about 12:15 and this was stop #1. Even though it seemed like there were quite a few people on the Island, I was a little surprised when we got in the door and didn’t see anyone.
The hostess took us to a booth along the wall and set down plastic place mats in front of us as well as the menus. On the way to our table, we saw one other party at a booth near us. That would change very quickly.
The decor of the bar isn’t that much different from any other bar we’ve eaten in. It’s a very comfortable family atmosphere. It is non-smoking which always gains a place a few more points in my book. There are a row of booths along one wall and the bar is on the other. The space in between is filled with tables. It’s not a huge building by any means, but it’s not tiny either.
Our waiter came over to get drink orders. They have a full bar with a few Michigan beers on tap as well as 1919 Root beer. I should have ordered the root beer, but I got a Coke instead. J ordered an iced tea.
The Yankee Rebel Tavern near downtown Mackinac Island.
The menu is typical pub fare. Deep fried appetizers, sandwiches, soups, and salads. I let J go first. She was eyeing the Buffalo Chicken Tender Sandwich and the Chicken on Ciabatta, but they also had one of her favorite salads on the menu which is what she ended up choosing. The salad she went with is the Walnut Summer salad. The menu description boasts award winning organic greens tossed in a champagne herb vinaigrette with dried cherries and walnuts with bleu cheese and pears. The salad was huge and would have been enough for two people. The option for a half salad on the menu would have been nice and a better fit. She loved the salad. Like I mentioned, the combination of walnuts and dried cherries on a salad is hard for her to pass up. After eating about half of it, she started getting full and went hunting for the dried cherries. After eating all she could find, she offered the salad to me. I ate a little bit of it just because I was curious about the dressing which was really good, but I was pretty full after my meal and I knew we were going to get fudge at some point.
I like pubs so much because there’s no place better to get a burger. Yup, I got a burger. The Blues Burger to be exact. The burgers at the Yankee Rebel are 1/3 lb. burgers that are served on a kaiser roll. My meat was a little pink the middle which was good. It came topped with bleu cheese and two slices of crispy bacon. The sandwich also came with lettuce, tomato, and onion, but I pulled them off. The sandwich was good, but nothing special. It filled the burger craving I was having and that’s a good thing. The sandwich came with fries. Again, good, but nothing special. They were out of the bag restaurant fries. There were plenty on the plate and like I mentioned already, I left satisfied.
Our bill, with tip, was right at thirty bucks. It was a little more pricey than a typical pub, but I’m sure we paid some markup because of the location. J loved her salad. She didn’t regret getting a salad over one of the chicken sandwiches. I liked my meal and have no complaints about it, but it wasn’t anything special or memorable. It’s the kind of meal I expect from a pub and they met those expectations.
Mid-Michigan Dining 
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