Diamonds in the Sleeping Bear Dunes This summer we planned a week getaway to spend time at Chimney Corners Resort along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan above Frankfort on Crystal Lake. During the trip one of our favorite past times was eating. There were a number of great restaurant choices and for seven nights we had dinners featuring fresh fish - whitefish, walleye, and perch prepared in a variety of ways. Perch were savored in garlic butter and lemon, walleye was topped with crab, whitefish was bathed in pesto and sun dried tomatoes. On our last evening, we planned a short excursion to beautiful Glen Lake and the tiny town of Burdickville in Leelanau County. We had learned that there are two wonderful restaurants in Burdickville within a block of one another. The first is Trattoria Funistrada, a lovely small Italian restaurant with a fabulous menu including light pastas, entrees like Veal Piccata, Lemon Artichoke Veal, Veal Saltimbocca, and a Charbroiled Veal Rib Chop in lemon caper sauce. We pried ourselves away from this delectable place promising to return later in the season. On this particular evening we had reservations at the second restaurant, the acclaimed French restaurant La Becasse, a few yards away. Wandering into La Becasse is like discovering a mysterious foreign enclave amidst the casual summer fish places that dot all of Northern Michigan. They have a thick red curtain at the door and as you part it to enter, you’re suddenly within a candle lit country French restaurant with a feeling of “old world”. The hostess immediately greeted and seated us. We ordered 2 glasses of French wine, a red for my husband and a white for me. There are plenty of French wines to choose from on the menu, as you might expect. I can’t recall the exact wines, but they were good. The food we were about to enjoy was much more memorable. We decided to share an appetizer and salad and then order separate entrees. For our appetizer the waiter suggested the French gravlax served with a shot of Aquavit. My imagination could not fathom how wonderful this pairing could be. It was fresh and clean. The Aquavit transformed the fresh fish into a flavor all it’s own – something very hard to describe. Aquavit, like vodka is distilled from either grain or potatoes. After distillation, it is flavored with herbs, spices, or fruit oil. Commonly seen flavors are caraway, cardamom, cumin, anise, fennel and lemon or orange peel. Dill and “grains of paradise” are also used, but caraway is usually the predominant flavor of this liquor. The fish was enhanced by the unusual herby flavor of the liquor and the experience was truly sublime. The second course was a simple mixed salad topped with goat cheese, caramelized pecans and dried cherries with a balsamic vinaigrette. It was not overwhelmingly unique, but was so very fresh and simple that it was the perfect second course on a warm summer evening. For an entree I ordered Rabbit with Dijon mustard sauce, one of the specials. My husband had the whitefish with a pistachio Parmesan crust and Remoulade sauce. Both were good, but I enjoyed my husband’s fish a bit more. For dessert we devoured a warm chocolate cake – two individual cakes with a molten center served in crispy phyllo dough and topped with Belgian bittersweet chocolate sauce and a scoop of locally made vanilla ice cream. Both La Becasse and Trattoria Funistrada are destination restaurants if you’re traveling along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Both are diamonds in the dunes and worthy of discovery. 

Diamonds in the Sleeping Bear Dunes


This summer we planned a week getaway to spend time at Chimney Corners Resort along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan above Frankfort on Crystal Lake. During the trip one of our favorite past times was eating. There were a number of great restaurant choices and for seven nights we had dinners featuring fresh fish - whitefish, walleye, and perch prepared in a variety of ways. Perch were savored in garlic butter and lemon, walleye was topped with crab, whitefish was bathed in pesto and sun dried tomatoes. On our last evening, we planned a short excursion to beautiful Glen Lake and the tiny town of Burdickville in Leelanau County. We had learned that there are two wonderful restaurants in Burdickville within a block of one another. The first is Trattoria Funistrada, a lovely small Italian restaurant with a fabulous menu including light pastas, entrees like Veal Piccata, Lemon Artichoke Veal, Veal Saltimbocca, and a Charbroiled Veal Rib Chop in lemon caper sauce. We pried ourselves away from this delectable place promising to return later in the season.

On this particular evening we had reservations at the second restaurant, the acclaimed French restaurant La Becasse, a few yards away.

Wandering into La Becasse is like discovering a mysterious foreign enclave amidst the casual summer fish places that dot all of Northern Michigan. They have a thick red curtain at the door and as you part it to enter, you’re suddenly within a candle lit country French restaurant with a feeling of “old world”. The hostess immediately greeted and seated us. We ordered 2 glasses of French wine, a red for my husband and a white for me. There are plenty of French wines to choose from on the menu, as you might expect. I can’t recall the exact wines, but they were good. The food we were about to enjoy was much more memorable.

We decided to share an appetizer and salad and then order separate entrees. For our appetizer the waiter suggested the French gravlax served with a shot of Aquavit. My imagination could not fathom how wonderful this pairing could be. It was fresh and clean. The Aquavit transformed the fresh fish into a flavor all it’s own – something very hard to describe. Aquavit, like vodka is distilled from either grain or potatoes. After distillation, it is flavored with herbs, spices, or fruit oil. Commonly seen flavors are caraway, cardamom, cumin, anise, fennel and lemon or orange peel. Dill and “grains of paradise” are also used, but caraway is usually the predominant flavor of this liquor. The fish was enhanced by the unusual herby flavor of the liquor and the experience was truly sublime.

The second course was a simple mixed salad topped with goat cheese, caramelized pecans and dried cherries with a balsamic vinaigrette. It was not overwhelmingly unique, but was so very fresh and simple that it was the perfect second course on a warm summer evening.

For an entree I ordered Rabbit with Dijon mustard sauce, one of the specials. My husband had the whitefish with a pistachio Parmesan crust and Remoulade sauce. Both were good, but I enjoyed my husband’s fish a bit more.

For dessert we devoured a warm chocolate cake – two individual cakes with a molten center served in crispy phyllo dough and topped with Belgian bittersweet chocolate sauce and a scoop of locally made vanilla ice cream.

Both La Becasse and Trattoria Funistrada are destination restaurants if you’re traveling along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Both are diamonds in the dunes and worthy of discovery.