Piper Restaurant--Holland, MI

Piper Restaurant
2225 South Shore Drive
Macatawa, MI 49434
616-335-5866
http://piperrestaurant.com/

Tuesday-Thursday 5:00-9:00
Friday & Saturday 5:00-9:30
Closed Sun. & Mon.

SUMMER HOURS
Memorial Weekend - Labor Day Weekend
Dinner 7 nights a week 5:00-9:30


Seems like vegetarians don’t like water. Or interesting food. At least that’s what most waterfront restaurants in West Michigan must think. In Saugatuck your choices are a baked potato and tossed salad at the Butler or a veggie burger at the Mermaid. In Grand Haven, the temporarily closed Bil Mar on the beach had awful vegetarian options despite it’s stellar location and Snug Harbor has decent, but typical, choices. And then there’s Holland. Despite shorelines on both Lake Mac and Lake Michigan, the choices are slim, even for
carnivores. The only game in town is Piper Restaurant. In its former incarnation as the Sandpiper, we often enjoyed taking guests there for special meals. There’s a dock out front where you can tie up if you arrive by boat and the Sandpiper prepared creative vegetarian dinners as wonderful as, sometimes even better than, their “regular” entrees. But when the restaurant went “casual” and became the Piper, we were disappointed--it was back to veggie pizza, fries and salads, and after a few mediocre meals we avoided the place for several years. Then my father came to town and wanted to dine on Lake Mac, so we reluctantly headed to Holland’s south side.

The Piper’s funky stairway offers a nice workout before dinner and we could smell the wood fired pizzas as we climbed. (There is an elevator, but we weren’t in any rush for this experience). Upstairs there’s a spacious dining area and bar and another set of stairs leads to a loft for large groups. Somehow this open room doesn’t get as noisy as many restaurants, even when the place is busy. The setting is attractive and there are whimsical sculptures and murals which were added when they casualized. But the main attraction is the wall of windows where you can watch the boat action at the Holland channel and catch a sunset if you time it right.

I was grumpily concocting a no-meat, no-dairy meal with the waitperson when she asked if I wanted to see the vegetarian menu. When I picked my jaw off the floor, I was handed a neat little all-vegetarian menu with items clearly marked vegan (no animal ingredients) and ovo/lacto (those that contain dairy and/or eggs but no meat). The waitperson topped off our beverages and left us with a basket of delicious bread while we absorbed this new information. The clouds over Lake Mac cleared and my attitude was thoroughly adjusted.

When I saw they offered vegan Portobello Ravioli ($12.50) with sundried tomato, leeks and spinach topped with a basil vinaigrette, I had to try this rare treat. Most non-vegetarian restaurants don’t know how to make a flavorful meal without massive quantities of cheese or cream and this entree was terrific--subtle, rich, but not cloying. (Unfortunately this dish probably did contain dairy, but we’ll get to that.) While I smiled between bites of pasta, my husband enjoyed the Vegan Stew ($12.50), a blend of roasted root veggies, fingerling potatoes, spinach and onion in a saffron garlic broth. It, too, was a creative and successful combination. The Piper has discovered that there’s more to vegetarian cuisine than fettuccine alfredo.

I checked the Piper website recently and they’ve changed their menu. It looks like the vegetarian items are now incorporated onto the main menu and are clearly marked as ovo/lacto or vegan. The ravioli is still available, but is now marked ovo/lacto, so I presume the original vegan descriptor was an error. Sigh. Though I don’t take this kind of error lightly (we are horrified by how often servers think beef broth or bits of chicken is ok with vegetarians), I am willing to give some latitude to a place that’s truly making an effort. (And maybe they’ll go the extra mile and make it truly vegan? Please?) They have added a vegan jambalay and other interesting options. Other sides are sweet potato fries and spinach bread, and the wild mushroom spinach salad with asparagus and artichokes sounds mighty good.

The Piper has now moved into our top tier of special places to eat. They don’t just accommodate but they really work hard to please ALL their customers. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with veggie burgers or pasta primavera. But when restaurants go that extra mile and serve healthy AND creative fare, that get our attention. We’ll gladly climb those stairs for another wonderful meal.

Cafe Gulistan--Harbert, MI

Cafe Gulistan
Turkish Cuisine
13581 Red Arrow Hwy.
Harbert, MI 49115
Hours change seasonally
(269) 469-6779
www.cafegulistan.com

Inevitably on our treks to and from Chicago, our stomachs start to grumble within an hour of leaving home and occasionally we venture off the highway to try our luck at finding decent vegetarian fare. Occasionally we get lucky. One particularly pleasant detour is the Red Arrow Highway (US 12) which parallels I-94 south of Benton Harbor to the Michigan/Indiana border. This scenic drive through Harbor Country is lined with antique stores, galleries and lots of new restaurants, many catering to the Chicago folks who immigrate either for the weekend or permanently to our side of the lake. Just south of the I-94 Sawyer exit, tucked among many pseudo trendy places which lean heavily on meat and fried stuff, is an unassuming block building which you could easily miss. Here, in the tiny town of Harbert, Cafe Gulistan has been serving up Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food for the past 10 years.

On a recent visit, my companion was delighted to find that the soup of the day was vegetarian Cream of Mushroom (cup $2.95, bowl $3.95). A little sweet and a little spicy with a light cream base, it was definitely not the bland, gummy Gordon Food concoction on many menus. My beloved and I split the the Appetizer Combo Platter ($12.95), an all vegetarian mix of hummus, babaghanoush, tabouleh, Gulistan salad and a falafil patty topped with garlic-dill yogurt sauce. We thought that this was a little expensive until the plate arrived. It was quite large and yummy. If you’ve never been crazy about those rock hard, flavorless grease balls most restaurants label “falafil” ( more commonly “falafel”), you must try these. The same is true of the babaghanoush, which is hard to find in West Michigan, at least in an edible version. If you hate eggplant or have tried this dip elsewhere and not liked it, Cafe Gulistan’s wonderfully smoky version will surprise you, in a good way. Along with all the salads and dips, it was fresh, flavorful and perfectly seasoned.

There are five all-vegetarian dinner-sized salads and six vegetarian entree choices (almost half the total entrees!) We chose the Ispanak ($14.95), two crispy chickpea patties topped with sauteed fresh spinach, mushrooms, onions, peppers topped with a garlic-mango-cream sauce and served with Basmati rice. It seemed somewhat pricey since it’s basically a variation of the aforementioned falafil but the toppings made it an entirely different and very tasty dish—well worth the money and we had leftovers for a big lunch. (It would have been just as good as a vegan dish without the cream sauce.)

We also had the Sultan's Tava ($11.95), a vegan blend of fresh spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, carrots, and garbanzos all sauteed in a curry garlic sauce. Served with Basmati rice and a side of
sumak salad (made with shredded red cabbage), the quantity was generous and the use of spices, again, was just right. (Note that these spices add flavor, not heat, and nothing we ate would be too “spicy hot” for even the most tentative palate.)

Now I could have eaten all of my meal and been miserable. But I ate only half and tried the Double Chocolate Cheesecake ($3.75) with a triple shot espresso to wash it down and then was miserable. With a huge smile.

On our next trip we look forward to trying the shiitake mushrooms sauteed in red wine and soy sauce with walnut-tomato chutney and the grilled eggplant and zucchini topped with sauteed veggies. There’s a large selection of juices, coffee, tea, wine and beer. A small outdoor courtyard is nice for eating when the weather’s nice or for letting the young ‘uns run off extra energy while waiting for the adults to finish their meals. We saw several people pickup carryout and the restaurant also caters.

Unfortunately, the owner of this restaurant has been embroiled in a nightmare on the order of the movie “Brazil.” You can read more about this ridiculous boondoggle at the restaurant’s website.