skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Now a member of the Gilmore Collection, part of this building once belonged to the Ramona Amusement Park (1897-1955). Historic pictures line the restaurant hallway, and as a nod to Mr. Rose’s popcorn stand that served customers until the 1980s, the current Rose’s ends your meal with a small cup of caramel corn.
Located on Reed’s Lake, the main dining area is quaint and a bit rustic; the cozy, heated patio provides year-round seating; and the deck offers the best view of all. Not quite warm enough today for the deck, with no heat lamps running, we opted for the patio, which was a lovely setting on this sunny day.
The menu is reasonably sized and ranges from sandwiches and soup, to pizza and pasta. We bypassed it, however, and selected from the specials, beginning with hummus trio. Fresh vegetables and pita bread chips came along with the trio: edamame, black bean, and roasted pepper. Each flavor was unique and distinctive, with the roasted pepper being our favorite. We didn’t leave much on the plate.
A steak burger, ordered medium-rare, came precisely as ordered. It was deliciously juicy and topped with bacon, pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onions. Also listed but barely detectable was orange-jalapeno jam. A bit more of it would have gone a long way to make the burger more remarkable.
From the small plate specials, the described pan-seared diver scallops were irresistible. Being diver scallops, they were sure to be fresh(er), and what a treat they were. A peanut, cilantro, ginger vinaigrette accompanied the scallops along with roasted vegetables; spicy, fried wakame topped off this beautiful presentation. The dish is highly recommended while the scallops are available.
Although the hostess was unfriendly and almost rude, our server was perfect: prompt, efficient, and friendly. This is a very popular place, particularly in the summer time, so plan your visit accordingly and expect a wait time during prime dining hours. Or take a late lunch and walk right in. Either way, you’ll appreciate the view, and the history, of this East Grand Rapids landmark, and you just may enjoy the food as well.
Find them on facebook and at www.gilmorecollection.com
August, 2012 - the restaurant has re-opened, not as a Gilmore location, but as Chloe Elan.
On August 20, 2010, I read a notice that the restaurant will be closing at the end of the month. The future of the leased building is unknown but Greg Gilmore is planning on building a new restaurant on the adjacent 12 acres that he owns, sometime next year.
The oldest member of The Gilmore Collection, the former Thornapple Village Inn is an expansive restaurant located on the Thornapple River. It has a large outdoor deck and a small, beautiful bar. The main floor is divided into three rooms. The dark lower level has private dining/banquet rooms and a wine cellar. Wooden walls and large windows predominate upstairs and it’s a pleasant atmosphere.
The lunch menu is not online but there’s enough overlap with the dinner menu to get the idea. Fresh, local food is emphasized and the restaurant has its own garden.
We had tried most of the appetizers already on previous visits and therefore selected the PEI (Prince Edward Island) mussels. This beautiful creation consisted of lemon thyme butter broth, garlic bread, crushed bacon, and olive rocket salad (arugula & onions). Lovely to look at and even better to eat. Combined, everything worked perfectly and the toasted garlic bread provided much needed texture.
Next up was the TBA: local honey smoked turkey breast, bacon, and avocado with red onions, organic greens, and basil mayonnaise on ciabatta. The idea was good but the individual parts could not be consumed at the same time. The avocado was a thick slice, arbitrarily placed at one end of the sandwich. There was no way the flavors could evenly combine.
Penne was the other selection: pasta, grilled chicken, artichoke hearts, shitake mushrooms, and asparagus with herbed bleu cheese sauce. It was a decent choice but the blue cheese sauce completely overwhelmed everything. The ingredients could be seen, but only bleu cheese was tasted.
Service was friendly and prompt. However, when asked to box up the second half of the sandwich, our server omitted the fries without asking or mentioning it. That, along with a ripped and frayed cloth napkin, was a little surprising at this otherwise nice restaurant.
www.thegilmorecollection.com
This is part of the Gilmore Collection and one of our favorite locations; great architecture with low horizontal lines and open interiors, and it’s on a lake (ok, it’s man-made but it’s still water). The two-story restaurant has an upper level bar and dining room - both with surrounding windows - and an outdoor patio. The lower level is open air with tables under an overhang, a bar screened from direct sun by a protective ceiling, and some waterside seating under the sun.
Service has been great every time we’ve been here and today was no exception; the entire staff is friendly and helpful. The menu is creative and buttressed by what is locally produced. Last year they planted a small garden on their property but were foiled by tomato blight. This year they’ve expanded the garden all along their lake front and moved the tomato plants to a new site. Peppers, lettuce, basil, and much more will be served up fresh this summer.
Last time we were here we settled for the lower level patio but today we waited for about ten minutes to get a table on the upper level patio. The one open lakeside table was umbrella-less so we took one three back that gave us a little protection on this hot day. The patio is narrow with tables almost single file heading back away from the lake. Along side these tables are about three more, in a second row. And that was a problem.
The rows are too close together, particularly when a large group of just-out-of-school teachers took up two tables and thought they were free to push back from the table, resulting in their chairs interfering with the narrow walk area. Wait staff continually and dexterously maneuvered around them and the result was a constant “bump” into one of our chairs. Thankfully the school’s-out-for-summer-teachers had finished eating and soon left, packing their liquor with them.
First up: chicken drummets, flash-fried and served with shaved scallions, sweet chili sauce, and wonton chips. This was an excellent concoction and the wontons were probably the best we’ve ever had - lightly deep-fried with just the right balance between chewy and crispy - and the chili sauce made the dish.
The menu does not exactly coincide with the online menu, and there was also a small paper menu on each table with seasonal features: three dishes, two wines, two cocktails, and one beer. We tend to favor features but none of these caught our interest (bruschetta, spinach salad, and morel mushroom pizza). Since morels are not currently in season, we were curious about the pizza. Upon questioning, a server who had stopped by with water thought they were probably from Iowa. Close enough.
We went full bore for our main dishes, Surf and Turf, and New York strip. The surf was a wonderful risotto with bay scallops and mushrooms, and the turf was hanger steak (very interesting offering as there is only one per animal). The risotto was a masterpiece but the steak with red wine reduction did not fare as well. The red wine sauce totally overpowered the otherwise perfectly prepared meat.
The grass fed New York strip was accompanied by grilled shitake mushrooms, potatoes, onions, and peppers, and with the bleu cheese butter was an excellent dish. Both steaks were served medium rare and were well presented.
Our tab was under $50.00 with tip, a lovely breeze rustled the umbrellas, a pontoon boat from one of the lake condos floated by, we sipped our Bloody Marys - yes, this was good.
www.thegilmorecollection.com/bluewatergrill.html
7/1/12 Update: Ottawa Tavern has closed per mlive.com
"Long-terms plans for our company have been to exit from properties we don't own. We have sold Bite, Trillium, closed Thornapple and with an impending lease renewal at the Waters Building, I fast forwarded the decision to continue on the long-term plan." (Greg Gilmore)
Great location on the corner of Pearl and Ottawa, this casual sports bar is also a popular lunch spot and was fairly crowded. TVs, large and small, are everywhere. High tables edge the room, the bar is in the middle, and a dining area is located at the far end of the restaurant. We took a high table by a window and were promptly served by a friendly waitress. The appetizers included some interesting choices and we chose the Chicken Apple Spring Rolls (chicken, red onions, cilantro, apples and thai sesame aioli). Unfortunately, the rolls were incredibly overcooked. The flavors were all there but the rolls were so dry they would have been inedible without the sauce, which was delicious. They were also served without small plates so we were eating over the table; a little awkward.
Our lunch choices were the Prime Rib Sandwich and the O.T. Burger. The Burger was ordered medium rare and no option was offered for the Prime Rib (and to be fair, we didn’t ask). The Prime Rib came well done but was a great sandwich (peppers, onions, provolone and horseradish aioli). The accompanying fries, while attractive with sprinkled parsley, were so heavily salted they were rendered inedible. The O.T. Burger was medium rare on one side and moved to medium well on the other but on the whole was a good burger (Michigan white cheddar, smoked bacon, herb roasted tomato, Bibb lettuce, and garlic aioli on a kaiser bun).
Their claim to fame is the “Build Your Own Burger” with tons of toppings and sauce choices available. But this is probably a better bar than food venue. Next time we’ll walk through to try the connected “Bite”. (Both are part of the Gilmore Collection.) It is a friendly, comfortable atmosphere but better suited for Happy Hour than dining. With the tip, our bill came to $30.00.
http://www.thegilmorecollection.com/ottawatavern.html
