Tapawingo owners debut new place

Nation's Restaurant News, June 15, 1992

CHARLEVOIX, Mich. - Harlan Peterson, chef-owner of the acclaimed Tapawingo in Ellsworth, Mich., and partner Mickey Bakst have opened a casual restaurant called Pete and Mickey's in this northern Michigan resort town.

"A lot of the people who come to Tapawingo wanted an interesting breakfast and sandwich," Peterson said. So he expects Pete and Mickey's, open for three meals daily during the summer and probably less often the rest of the year, to fill that niche.

The 70-seat restaurant has a Michigan orientation, supplemented by Southwestern and eclectic items. Breakfast includes smoked lake trout scrambled eggs and smoked whitefish cakes. Lunch features chicken quesadilla with black beans and salsa and jerk turkey on cracked wheat. Dinner entrees, priced from $11.50 to $16, include Pete's wicked shrimp (sauteed beer-and-spice-glazed shrimp with black beans and salsa) and smoked beef tenderloin with chili-peppered sauce and roasted potatoes.