Charlevoix's Biggest Restaurant Is Also Its Best
The Weathervane isn't a trendy hole in the wall; it's an Up North icon
Charlevoix — What’s the most “Charlevoix" place to eat? The Weathervane, obviously. I know it’s fashionable these days to claim that actually—actually!—the best place to eat in a town is some little hole in the wall no one has ever heard of.
It’s always something like: “They only have three things on the menu, are only open two days a week, and are next to a dilapidated de-commissioned train station with a herd of feral cats living in an overturned garbage can next door, but they have the best fish tacos and it’s so gritty and real.”
By now we all are well aware of the hipster logic which frames the worst, or at least the obscure, as actually being the best. Sometimes it’s true. There are, indeed, little hole in the walls that are truly better because they aren’t sullied by tourists or ambitious growth. These little treasures remain hidden secrets for only those in the know. Gurney’s in Harbor Springs is one of these places that is actually, truly, great.
But sometimes the best is actually the best, and in Charlevoix, the best is The Weathervane.
The Weathervane sits on a small hill overlooking the Pine River connecting Lake Charlevoix to Lake Michigan. In the 1800s a tall grist mill stood on this lovely piece of land. Schooners docked here before transporting flour across the Great Lakes.
By the middle of the 20th century, the schooners with their flour were long gone. In 1953, famed local architect Earl Young, known for his mushroom houses just across the channel, tore off the upper floors of the mill and built what is now known as The Weathervane.
Young built The Weathervane to complement the natural surroundings of Charlevoix in every way possible. He built with local Onaway stones, boulders, and even a meteorite. The iconic roof is classic Young in its asymmetry and was, quite appropriately, shaped like a gull’s wing in his meticulous design. The slopes of the wooden shingles rise and fall like those on his mushroom houses in the Boulder Park neighborhood. Stone covered chimneys rise up from the top, looking over the channel below.
As for the food and the dining experience at the Weathervane, all was just as good as the building is beautiful. Open year-round, there is indoor and outdoor seating available, though in the summer, the outdoor tables are clearly the superior choice. To be quite honest, I don’t know why on earth anyone would want to sit indoors when the sun is shining, the weather is a blissful 73 degrees, and you are just as able to sit outside on an elevated porch and watch the boats drift in and out through the channel below—if you have a reservation, of course.
We dined under an umbrella with enough shade to make a dark cover over our long table that let us take in the sunny diamonds on the Big Lake in the distance. Their “Great Lakes Whitefish and Chips” is a most obvious choice when Up North on the water, and so that is what I had. The fish was great, the chips satisfying, and the coleslaw fresh and just a bit unique, which is always appreciated.
By this point, it should be obvious why The Weathervane is the most Charlevoix place to eat in Charlevoix. Designed by Earl Young with the gull-shaped roof, it sits right on the iconic channel where sailboats, fishing boats, and the Beaver Island Ferry pass all summer. The bridge that goes up and down when the boats come in is right next door.
As we ate, we watched the process of the steel rising and falling with the ringing of the bells. We, and all people on Little Traverse Bay, curse that bridge when we are the ones in traffic trying to get south, but, admittedly, we cursed it quite a bit less on the deck at The Weathervane watching the boats pass below. It’s one of those places that embodies the general essence of the location so much and so well.
Out of all the places to eat in Harbor Springs, Petoskey, and Charlevoix, The Weathervane is, certainly, one of the best. The only place that might rival it would be The Pier 45 minutes away in Harbor Springs. But we aren’t talking Harbor Springs, we are talking Charlevoix, and there’s no question here.
Go north, stop in Charlevoix, reserve a table on the deck overlooking the channel, order the fish and chips, get an Aperol Spritz, watch the long line of cars stopped as the bridge lifts and the ferry passes, thank God you aren’t in that traffic, and enjoy the best place to eat in town.
