The Lodge strives to offer excellent service, it’s always been our goal and always will be. We want people who venture up the hill to our facility to be excited to visit and to truly enjoy a meal with us. Throughout this season, we have had some wonderful feedback from our guests, both positive and negative. The overwhelming majority have loved their experience, and those who had a less than awesome time have been very helpful in their explanations of their expectations and how we fell short.
We take our customers’ input very seriously. As a result of this, we assessed our current kitchen operating hours and made some changes. Instead of offering a full breakfast and lunch service, we will have choices available at our brand new Little Cabin Cafe, located in the back by the conference room. From 7 am to 5 pm, we will have drip coffee, espresso, gourmet coffee drinks, pop, water, and more, plus cold sandwiches, pastries, and snacks. People stopping in can still get a delicious, fresh meal, either on the go or on our cozy couches in the library. Our bar will still be open starting at 11 am, where we will have appetizers, burgers, soup, and salad.
For dinner, from 4 pm to 9 pm, we will offer a full menu with a focus on slow dining, where people can relax, enjoy their drinks, and expect a really spectacular meal. The atmosphere we want to provide should not encourage a quick bite to eat, but rather a leisurely, enjoyable experience over the course of an hour or more. We want our guests to order in courses, savor drinks, and to enjoy each moment of their meal. Our goal is not to get food out as quickly as possible, but to allow customers to relax and appreciate the dining experience in the wilderness of the Keweenaw, with all of its has character and history.
We will offer our regular Staples menu on most nights, with a specialty menu that changes. These specialty menus have been designed to showcase different food cultures from around the world. Our website, blog, and social media will be updated with explanations and full menus for each of these exciting new offerings. Also throughout the season, be on the lookout for more food and dining events, like our Guest Chef program, pairing dinners, and tap takeovers.
We will test this setup to see how it will work, gathering data, and doing further adjustments as needed until we dial in the food and beverage operations in order to create a memorable, pleasant experience on our beautiful property in the wilderness of the Keweenaw. Now, if only it were so easy to fix the black fly problem….
My wife & I want you to succeed but based on our experience in May and July you’ve got a long way to go with the restaurant. We’ll keep trying.
So does this mean the initial planned Coffee Bar will now become a cafe rather than a quiet place to relax with an expresso or cappuccino while reading the newspaper?
Hi Vicki! It’s a pretty subdued spot back there, there are sofas and chairs available for those who want to stay awhile.
Tried to swing by to see what food was like after ownership change and was told there was a large wedding that night and as a result the dining room wasnt open. Seemed odd.
Hi Sue! Thanks for the comment. We ideally keep the dining room open while we are having large events, but there was a staff emergency so we needed to pull from our regular kitchen staff in order to get the wedding dinner finished. Ultimately, we keep the commitments we make in our events contract and we decided that the level of service we are committed to would not have been possible in the restaurant that evening. The last thing we want is for you to come up and be disappointed in the quality of service and/or food. We would love for you to pay another visit!