Mario Batali Gives His Restaurant Recommendations

You tweet and Batali responds.

Here are the links to Batali's favorites:
The Cooks' House
Hearth and Vine at Black Star Farms
Garage Bar and Grill
Barb's Bakery

The East Side

The east side of Traverse City has the Chocolate Den, The Cook's House, and Jack's Market. Now the Record-Eagle reports on how that end is blossoming.

See: East end of downtown turning into food stop

The Warehouse district is the bohemian center. East Front St. is becoming the culinary center.

What's new:
9 Bean Rows Bakery
Simply Cupcakes
and The Cooks' House is moving into the Wellington Street Market site.

The Cook's House And Artificial Scarcity

In a brilliant move, Chef Eric discusses in further detail why he keeps the Cook's House small: THE plan...(part 2)

We have chosen to do away with the unnecessary expenses that come with bigger restaurants and multiple restaurants. We are only going to open 5 days a week so we may have more time with our families, which is something I have put off for to many years, and more time to just fiddle around in our kitchen coming up with new ideas and new directions. We are choosing to lose all that extra income for the sake of more happiness.

For more on artifical scarcity see Techdirt: The Grand Unified Theory On The Economics Of Free

That Cooks' House Is So Hot Right Now

The Cooks' House is getting a lot of well deserved press.

See MyNorth: A Day Inside The Cooks' House, a Remarkable Traverse City Restaurant

and Food & Wine: Michigan: In Defense of B-List Wine Country

The food scene is also dynamic, embracing all things artisanal and farm-to-table. The two-year-old Cooks' House, for instance, is a tiny storefront restaurant that serves seasonal dishes worthy of an A-list wine country, like a slow-cooked pulled pork sandwich dressed in a sweet barbecue sauce and tucked into a crusty artisan roll.