If you have never been up north in the lower peninsula of Michigan, you have missed a wonderful treat.  After a quick breakfast we began our traditional walk in the downtown district of Petoskey.  If you kind of use the Stafford Perry Hotel as your base, the downtown district is probably twenty blocks with a park, museums and an abandoned railway track traversing the region.

While she was reminding me that this was part of my birthday present and celebration, we were out shopping.  We walked into this hardware store that had an awesome collection of Polish Art Plates and Lawn Art as well, she was starting to gather up items for other people’s birthdays and Christmas presents and the staff told her to come back the next morning for a massive sale on the items that they were featuring, and we did bright and early with our suitcases pack and ready to load up the car.  We also went into a shop that turned her on to MacKenzie-Childs kitchen ware in their “courtly check” pattern of black and off-white, but they were now featuring several other colors as well, thankfully my prayers were answered, and she didn’t want to start another collection.  Then it was her turn to get nervous as we walked into a fine clothing store.  They were featuring some very rich and unique Tartan Tweed sport coats that were just eye-catching.  I saw a salesman “rigging” a sweater on a torso form, and I couldn’t help but offer my two-cents worth of suggestions, then he looked and me and smiled, as we are both a couple of old war-horses from the glory days of men’s wear.  While we were chatting, my Bride decided that the sweater was not a King’s ransom and she had me select a pair of trousers and a shirt to compliment it, but she reminded me that it was a Christmas present. 

We had worked up a hunger and a thirst, so we decided to go have lunch at Chandler’s.  Chandler’s, which is below and adjacent to Symons General Store, which opened in 1956, in the oldest brick building in the city.  Normally, we have our meals in the wine cellar, which is part of the basement of Symons, but for lunch we either had to eat in a courtyard or in a tavern across the courtyard from Symons, we went into the tavern.  Symons has a very nice offering of wine and noshes in their emporium, and a high shelf that circles the room features wonderful “old soldiers” of great vintage of bottles that were surely enjoyed in their day.  Chandler’s continues with the wines to accompany their menu, and almost everywhere that you look that there is a need to keep items consolidated, you will see that the goods are stored in empty wine crates.

As we got situated in the tavern of Chandler’s, we decided not to go big, and share some plates of food.   We had a plate of California Roll Starters with Lump Crab, cucumber, avocado, pickled ginger and Wasabi; and a plate of Beef Tenderloin Tartare which was a hand-cut filet, egg yolks capers, red onion, parsley, arugula, Parmesan crostini, Dijon Mustard, lemon-infused olive oil and cracked pepper.  We washed it all down with Domaine Jean-Louis Mothe Chablis Burgundy 2022.  This Domaine has been in the Mothe family since 1887, and in 1957 they decided to specialize in Chablis, and by the eighties they were producing their own wines.  This wine is pure Chardonnay and is grown on classic Chablis soil of gray marl with streaks of limestone and fossils.  The fruit is hand-harvested from vines that are about forty-five-years-of-age.  The wine is fermented with domestic yeast in temperature-controlled Stainless-Steel vats for two weeks, followed by thirteen months of additional aging in the vats.  The soft golden colored wine offers notes of green apples, grapefruit, white florals and flint.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displays tones of green apple, pear, citrus blending with vibrant acidity to end with a good medium-count finish of fruit, chalk terroir and a steely minerality.