A Restored Mill Sets the Stage for Northern Michigan’s New Destination Restaurant

Northern Michigan’s most anticipated restaurant opening since chef Iliana Regan left Chicago for the Upper Peninsula’s Hiawatha National Forest in 2019, opens to the public on Wednesday, April 17. The stunning and ambitious Glen Arbor restaurant, Supper At the Mill has all the markings of a destination restaurant — and arrives just ahead of the summer travel season.

The petite, 36-seat restaurant is the brainchild of Turner Booth, the Glen Arbor (and Paris) resident who — together with creative director Kelsey Duda, general manager Corey Smith, and executive chef Bobby Thoits — rescued a historic 1879 grist mill from nearly falling into the Crystal River when he first purchased it in 2018. In the years since, the building has been painstakingly preserved and the foursome has slowly opened the building to the public one concept at a time. A year ago, the team launched the first stage of their redevelopment: a street-level espresso bar and cafe with a community gathering space that is also home to the building’s original milling equipment. Then, last summer, a few artfully-appointed lodging rooms were added. Over the winter, an upper loft housed a series of ticketed, family-style dinners. When restaurant manager Megan Knapp seats her first reservation, Supper will be the Mill’s final concept to launch — “the crown jewel” as one of the servers calls it.

“We are translating what we’ve learned in our travels and trying to do our own twist with some nostalgia for our home state,” says Smith, who was most recently in New York’s Hudson River Valley but grew up in South Haven. To wit, vases made by Traverse City’s Poppy and Someday are filled with foraged white pine boughs, Michigan’s state tree. Duda gathered gorgeous Midwestern antiques for the dining room that look like they’ve always been there, and wallpaper near the hostess stand is inspired by the family of ducks that lives nearby.

Lindsey Makuwatsine/Supper

Lindsey Makuwatsine/Supper

Lindsey Makuwatsine/Supper

The kitchen sources potatoes from a farm in Caledonia, radishes and pea shoots from Traverse City growers, plums from an orchard in Central Lake, pork and beef from ranchers near Grand Rapids, and lamb from a farm near Interlochen. Thoits is working with Lively Farms, in the nearby hamlet of Burdickville, to plant lovage from seed for him as soon as the soil warms up. “Michigan has the second most agricultural diversity in the United States, second only to California,” Thoits says. “It’s important to me to convince farmers to keep it in Michigan and let us highlight it,” says the chef, who grew up in Michigan and returned home from a 10-year chapter out West — cooking at acclaimed restaurants such as Acorn in Denver — to open this project.

Lindsey Makuwatsine/Supper

Lindsey Makuwatsine/Supper

Lindsey Makuwatsine/Supper

From the restaurant logo to the wallpaper that greets guests, Supper is taking several cues from ducks. Pictured here, this large plate — a dry-aged half duck that is lacquered in preserved cherry, maple syrup, and maple vinegar and is served with warm grains and preserved Michigan stone fruit.

Eater recently got an exclusive first taste of Thoits’ menu. While the list of farmers and ranchers that Supper is partnering with feels like a who’s who of Michigan’s best roadside farm stands, his food is a much more sophisticated, worldly expression of that bucolic Up North vibe. The concise menu includes one-bite “Snacks”, “Smaller Plates” intended for sharing, and family-style “Bigger Plates” that serve two to four people. While menu items will change often, look for dishes such as salt-baked Detroit red beets. Thoits serves them atop a schmear of area blueberries that he pickled in season and black walnuts, an underutilized ingredient that is native to Michigan. Don’t miss the shima-aji. Sashimi-style pieces of dry-aged Japanese Striped Jack are draped over a kosho paste that Thoits makes from spring spruce tips, the citrus-like new growth of spruce trees. “It’s one of my favorite spring ingredients,” the chef says. “When I am walking through a forest and it smells like spruce it makes me feel like home.” The rosette for a spring allium bite, the tartlet for a radish dish, and other savory pastry items are baked in-house at a sister concept down the road called Millie’s using, fittingly, house-milled flour. A highly curated beverage list that includes seasonal cocktails, area cider and beer, and small allocations of harder-to-find wines round out the experience.

This growing season, Supper is set to join a few noteworthy peers in changing the dialogue about what it means to dine Up North.

Supper is located on the river level of The Mill at 5440 West Harbor Highway, Glen Arbor and is initially going to be open Wednesday through Sunday beginning at 4pm. Reservations can be made seven days in advance.