While we were on vacation we ate at a Polish restaurant called "The Legs Inn" that was a few miles from our rented cottage. I know that sort of sounds like a strip club, but it's called that because of the stove legs that protrude from the roof:

The exterior looks sort of like a field stone fortress decorated with Native American motifs. I first drove by the place while I was out looking for wild blackberries and had no idea what was inside the burled door until we came back for dinner.

There really are no words to describe what it's like inside, other than perhaps Ed Gein's living room if Ed Gein had preferred working with Kielbasa and driftwood rather than the corpses of middleaged housewives:

That's the bar. Could it possibly be one of the coolest bars you've ever seen? How could it not? The bar itself is made from a giant hemlock. There are taxidermied animals everywhere, including a black bear that appears to be humping a giant log next to a totem pole:

There's so much lacquer in this place, I have no idea how it survived the smoking era (that ended this year in Michigan) since it was built in the late 1920s by Polish immigrant Stanley Smolak (it's been in his family for 80 years). Along with a cadre of Native American artisans, Smolak worked for decades to create the restaurant that sits in Cross Village, Michigan today. The place seemed especially popular with aging bikers. I liked the pool table annex:

The waiting area was filled with yellowed newspaper articles about the place:

And then there was this thing:

As if it needed anything else, the restaurant has lovely grounds and outdoor dining area that overlook Sturgeon Bay. Such a great place for kids to run around and play while waiting for their perogies.

There was even a huge garden out back filled with ingredients for the Polish fare on the menu (the restaurant is only open seasonally, so I'd be willing to bet they use their own vegetables for many of their needs for a good part of the year). With that much dill, it's got to be a Polish restaurant:

Given our proximity to Hamtramck, we have really high standards for Polish food, and even there the Legs Inn didn't disappoint. What an incredible restaurant.

Previous Inspiration
 

This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

Francis "Bug" Mauer of Nashville, Michigan died last year after spending two decades building a miniature version of the large working farm on which he grew up near Roscommon, Michigan. Now his son and grandson transport the farm to county fairs on the back of a flatbed truck.



"My wife said I had to get a hobby. So I had a dream to build an old-fashioned farm. I started working on this in 1987.

In building this, I build and take apart until it looks right to me. All the shingles are made from a cedar board and tapered by hand and nailed on. I've been to Iowa, Indiana, and Minnesota to pick up livestock and machinery.

When I came back and told my wife how much it cost, she said 'Don't have a dream like that again.'

I know things are cramped, but I only had so much space! It was designed for a 200-acre farm. There's a lot of work to be done yet."
----Francis (Bug) Maurer





"I still think he should take up whittling!"
----Mrs. Francis Maurer

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

We had Gram's first birthday party over the weekend at Supino Pizzeria in Eastern Market, and I realized I've been meaning to write about this place for months.

Ever since it opened six months ago, Supino's has been our family pizza destination nearly every week. When it was warmer we would walk up there on Friday nights with the kids in the wagon and tie the dog up outside, tossing him any pieces of the delicious crust we had the nerve to spare. I always loved going out for pizza with my family as a kid: all Supino's needs is a Ms. Pac Man sit-down table and this would complete the whole nostalgia thing for me. On one of our first trips Dave (the wonderful, hard-working owner and pizza chef) came out to talk to us and saw Gram gnawing on a crust. "Was that his first pizza?" he asked. It was. He considered it quite an honor to have made my son his first pizza, and we considered that incredibly adorable.

The pizza is without a doubt some of the best I've ever had. It kind of reminds me of a less snooty version of the Outer Richmond's Pizetta 211 in San Francisco: delicious, thin-crust experimental pizzas (with plenty of more traditional offerings). Menu here. Although I am a huge fan of three or four of the pizzas, I can never bring myself to order anything but The Bismarck: a pizza with an egg cracked in the middle before it goes into the oven. AMAZING. Now, when my wife calls for a large pick-up Bismarck, Dave usually says, "Tell Jim I'll see him in a few minutes."

We have had yuppies-with-kids-in-Detroit pizza night get togethers here before and the kids run around and create havoc and bother the other customers, so Dave agreed to open up for a few hours on Sunday when he's usually closed so we could have a private birthday party. It was a great venue and everyone loved the pizza. If you find yourself in Detroit, you're not going to find a better spot to get a slice or a whole pie.

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

I have been looking for some nice pillows for our couch for a long time. My wife---for whom total comfort on the couch is an absolute necessity---was falling asleep on these ratty old queen-sized pillows in ratty old pillowcases and every time guests stopped over I had to rush to throw them in the closet. They were seriously gross. Sometimes I would find the dog cuddled up on one down on the floor.

The last time we were in Cincinnati, I stopped into this little store on Vine Street and I saw one of these pillows embroidered with the image of suburban ranch homes. I loved it, but it was the wrong color for our room. When I got back to the hotel, I told my wife about it and the small company that makes them: K Studio. I'd seen their products online, but it wasn't until I'd seen them in real life that I realized how cool they were, and it wasn't until I talked to the proprietor at MiCA that I learned K Studio was based in Grand Rapids, a wonderful city in western Michigan where my wife and I have lived in the past and just a short drive from the smaller cities where we were raised. He also told me that it was a small business venture between a daughter and her mother, with the daughter doing the design and her mother working with the embroidery aspect. In short, I was in love with this company.

When I wrote to place my order for the pillow above, Shelly Klein wrote back to tell me she was a fan of the blog. So, of course, I had to buy one of K Studio's custom Family Series pillows, shown here:



There we all are---even Wendell----embroidered for posterity. This pillow kind of reminds me of a softer version of the Saul Steinberg print I bought for my wife during the last pregnancy:



We've now added a couple of simpler pillows to the couch as well, and I've thrown the ratty old pillows into the dog's crate. We hadn't done anything nice for the house in a long time, but just adding a couple really cool pillows to our living room has made it seem fresh and new.

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.