Boone's Long Lake Inn outside Traverse City
Whenever we go on a trip, I like to find the place where the locals go for a meal. You can always find good spots in the tourists hubs as well, but it’s those out of the way places that a tourist might have a hard time finding where the real gems are. Boone’s Long Lake Inn came from a recommendation from Ang who said she and her fiance will find a reason to drive to Traverse City just so they can go to Boone’s. That was a good enough recommendation for me, so we headed out of town to find Boone’s.
Boone’s is located a few miles outside of town on Secor Rd. I damn near missed the turn for the driveway. The sign came up on me pretty fast, but since there was no one behind me, I slowed down in a hurry to make the turn. The restaurant sits at the end of a short drive. When we got up the hill, we came into a huge parking lot that was pretty empty. We were pretty early for dinner, so it was questionable whether we would even be able to get a meal here. There’s a sign posted on the outside of the restaurant with the hours and they just opened for dinner about ten minutes prior to our arrival.
When we got inside, we were met by a host and shown to a table. The dinning room is massive. It’s divided into three separate, gigantic spaces. In addition to the dining rooms, there’s a bar and banquet rooms. Boone’s is huge. Our waitress came over for drinks and told us about the specials. Steaks had been recommended, but I don’t normally eat steak at restaurants. Too expensiveand I’m a little picky with how it’s cooked. I like it medium rare and that seems to be open to interpretation for some reason. There was plenty on the menu that looked good. I ended up ordering the single bacon wrapped pork loin. The pork chop came with choice of potato and a salad. I chose french fries for the potato and got a side salad with Italian dressing. The most interesting thing about the salad were the croutons. They were obviously homemade. They were crispy on the outside, but soft and chewy on the inside. Before the meal, the server brought out a loaf of warm, homemade bread. I would assume the croutons are made from that left over bread. Side salads are usually uninteresting and bland, but the croutons made this salad just the opposite. Read the rest of this entry »
Mid-Michigan Dining 
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