South Haven Recap Part 3

OK,  this is the end of my vacation recap posts, I promise..
In today's edition, we will be talking about the town of South Haven..
South Haven is a sweet little town that has lots of shops, restaurants and ice cream shops.

We went grocery shopping the first night and had a lot of meals at home or at the beach, but did go out a few times and enjoy some local establishments.

 The first night we ate at Joe's because we didn't know any better and we were hungry and tired. I wouldn't recommend this restaurant. The food wasn't good, and the waitstaff not particularly caring that the food isn't good.

The Depot  was a place we visited about 5 times on our 7 day trip. Great selection of beers and you can make your own 6 pack (which the men loved) Jenn and I were just happy that we could get some summer shandy and fat tires in cans for pool sippin :) Word around town is that they also have a great deli, but we never tried it.

We had Captain Nemos for lunch one day while we were out and about in town and both ordered a club sandwich with guacamole on it. I think it's fairly hard to mess up a club sandwich but it was good and we had the option of curly fries on the side, which I'm not sure I've ever seen anywhere really besides like Arby's so that was a fun indulgence :)

All meals should come with a pickle on the side

We went back to Captain Nemo's another day to try South Haven's "world famous" Sherman's Ice Cream, which is served there..

The girl that was helping me seemed to be new, so I'm still not sure if this is right or not, but this was the smallest size they had:

I opted to try the chocolate covered pretzel which unfortunately was a mistake. The chocolate covered pretzel pieces inside it were nice, but I didn't really like the actual ice cream. Rob seems to think it was some kind of caramel flavored ice cream... I would definitely try Sherman's again next time we go there, but would not order this flavor again. They also make in house waffle cones which I would for sure try next time.

One day we decided to go to their farmer's market, which I believe was on Sundays and Wednesdays. It was a great market! Oh man, Michigan really knows how to do some berries. We loaded up on blueberries and some other fresh veggies for the condo....and enjoyed a couple of tamales from a tamale stand. I think that would be my food network show....going to farmer's markets around the country. How much fun would that be?

seriously mom with the farmers' markets?

Michigan cherries & berries

One day we drove into St. Joe's (sorry if this post is all over the place haha) and did a couple of wine tastings... We visited the White Pine Winery tasting room and the Founder's Tasting Room. The White Pine Winery was a cute little shop with friendly women working and chatting. The tastings were small, but they comped your tasting if you bought a bottle and the wine wasn't bad so we decided to get a bottle. The Founder's tasting room I believe had just opened that week and was pretty bare bones at the time... their wine was not nearly as good and they added a few....hmmm, how should I put this, "interesting" variations on wine.

Yes you are reading that right. Absolutely awful

They use a lot of extracts in their wines to make them taste like peach or chocolate or smores? Not my thing...but yeah, if you're into that kinda thing give them a try!

That day in St Joe's we also ate dinner at Rye Belle's. They are known for their gorgeous rooftop where you can see the beach from your table, but it was a little hot and we had the baby so we decided to eat in the dining room. I don't have any pictures from this, but we enjoyed this meal a lot!

Ok, now let's go back to South Haven...are you still with me?

We took turns sitting with the little ones so we could have date nights and both of us went to Tello Italian Bistro. The food was good, the wine was good...but the service was a little....unprofessional. For such an upscale type of place, I would expect more from the waitstaff, but we still enjoyed our experience here.

The calamari appetizer (not pictured) was my favorite part. mmmm

Sage and Prosciutto Stuffed Veal
Sautéed with lemon, capers and butter with roasted vegetables and roasted potatoes 

Penne con Porcini
Porcini mushrooms, beef tenderloin, roasted tomatoes, caramelized onions, 
crumbled gorgonzola in a veal-demi, cream sauce. 

We visited a couple of other places too, which weren't anything particularly special so I will end this very long post by mentioning our last breakfast out before leaving town at Phoenix St. Great breakfast. Our waitress was awesome and the food was really good.  I ordered the traditional eggs benedict with one mini waffle on the side and both were really good. This place is a definite recommend.

Ok, well with that ends our South Haven Recaps (check out recap 1 here and 2 here)

Is it time to go back to the beach yet??