Being entrusted with a legacy is no small weight. When Joel Wabeke and Sarah Wepman bought Marie Catrib’s from the late owner’s son, they knew they were entering a sacred space.
Consciously or not, diners can sense thoughtfulness. It’s a sixth sense that plays a huge part in whether we decide to return.
Of all the towns that speckle West Michigan’s coast, Muskegon has perhaps struggled the most with cohesion. Its beaches and state parks are world-class but distanced from the city proper. Moreover, some could argue that a city proper has been lacking for a while. I remember a visit to Unruly Brewing Company a few years ago: loved it, but noticed a scarcity of surrounding places to be. While rounding the main drag’s cul-de-sac, it seemed like the city was still loading.
In a growing region like West Michigan, the food scene will always be in flux.
In the days of yore, a pint of lager and a couple fingers of whiskey were enough to whet a drinker’s appetite. No more. With a zillion liquids to choose from, it’s exhausting just deciding what to put in your mouth. Even our rhymes are changing. Once liquor before beer, you’re in the clear, now negroni before stout, lights out. Gin before mead, yes indeed? Mix and match drinks from this list and send us your rhymes for which pairs spared a bellyache.
Now here’s a category for the masses. Nightlife, maybe not so much, but activities? You can’t deny we all do stuff from time to time.
Women’s suffrage superstar Susan B. Anthony famously called the bicycle a “freedom machine,” an “emancipator,” and “the all powerful whirligig of the future.”
OK, maybe not that last part, but don’t discredit the bike’s magic — it takes us to and fro with nothing but a pair of legs and the will to zoom. It so happens that we’re blessed with a string of breweries to zoom between along Grand Rapids’ White Pine Trail. Revue plotted some coordinates and dropped in on breweries that share a passion for good beer and a good ride.
If you haven’t visited downtown Holland in a while, you’ll want to stop by on the way to your next beach adventure. The quaint small town is still as delicate as you remember it, but with a new edge. Developments have lengthened 8th Street past River Avenue — all the way down to the recently renovated Civic Center — and its additions include multiple restaurants, a movie theater and The Cakabakery, a custom order and retail bake shop.
Like a mouse trying to out-squeak a hamster with a megaphone, the Brut IPA has had trouble fully making a name for itself under the New England IPA’s tutelage. This comes as no surprise.
If you’re going to open a new restaurant in West Michigan, you better stand out. The Friesian Gastro Pub understood that from the start
