February 2016 Issue

Local Food, Healthy Eating: Personal chef markets convenience with subscription meal plan

By Jodee Taylor

Eat healthy. Eat local. Eat organic. We know we should be doing it but sometimes it’s just such … a pain. To help your resolve, one local chef is making it more convenient and delicious.

Andi Pellicci, a personal chef, caterer, developer of custom spices and nut brittles and owner of As You Dish, has started a subscription meal plan specializing in local foods and healthy eating. Her 500-calorie and 750-calorie meals are both gluten-free and dairy-free. Fab Fresh Foods is run out of Pellicci’s kitchen at the Grand Traverse Foodshed Alliance.

Pellicci, 42, moved into the new space just …

Hotel Indigo Reveals New Staff, Amenities as Opening Nears

By Lynn Geiger

Hospitality and water seem to go hand in hand for Bridget Hawks, the general manager of the brand spanking new (and coming soon) Hotel Indigo in downtown Traverse City.

Hawks has managed hotels on Virginia's Chesapeake Bay, the Milwaukee waterfront and now West Grand Traverse Bay. It’s water she knows particularly well. Hawks was born and raised here, graduating from Elk Rapids Public Schools in 2000.

The hotel construction project itself marked four years in …

Who's Coming In 2016? The Year In Group Business

By Ross Boissoneau

The region continues to attract visitors to the area for business purposes as well as vacationers and new residents. And the reasons are not that different: Natural beauty, a welcoming atmosphere, and space to do what they like, or at least what they need to do.

For those looking to book group business here, the area’s resorts offer plenty of well-designed meeting space, catering, and options for attendees’ down time, ranging from golf to skiing …

Creating the 'Ferrari of Grills'

By Rick Haglund

After returning from living overseas in early 1970s, Charles Eisendrath went looking for a serious outdoor grill he could cook on at his vacation home near East Jordan, a farmhouse estate that had been in his family since the 1880s.

He quickly became disappointed with what he found.

"The designs seemed ridiculous,” he said. “They didn’t recover juices for basting. And the heat control was lousy. It seemed like a journalist could do this.”

But …

Food Hub Filling Up

Early most Monday mornings there’s a delightful aroma emanating from suite 108 at the Grand Traverse Food Innovation Hub (GTFA). It tells us that Courtney Lorenz is busy in the kitchen brewing up something special. Her business, Cultured Ferments, occupies two small rooms inside this building at 1610 Barlow in …

By Bill Palladino

Just What Is Experiential Marketing and How Can I Use It?

So, experiential marketing: what even is it? At its most basic, experiential marketing is when the experience itself serves as the marketing platform. It’s a marketing message you can physically see, hear, touch, taste, or smell.

Want examples? We came prepared. It’s free salsa samples driving sales at the Cherry …

By Guest Author

Newsmakers: People On The Move

ACCOLADES/APPOINTMENTS

Lee Biladeau, Coast Guard aviation maintenance technician 2nd class at Air Station Traverse City, was recently named the Navy Times' Coast Guardsman of the Year for 2015 for his exceptional work as an MH-65 helicopter flight mechanic, as well as his off-duty volunteer work.

Lauren Harris of Priority Health …

By Lynn Geiger

Genetic Engineering: Mandatory labeling movement gains ground

Genetic engineering is moving into our lives and on our dinner plates at lightning speed. Businesses are quickly taking sides and Congress is getting involved as consumer demand for natural food continues to accelerate. A collision is in the making.

Transgenic engineering – less accurately referred to as genetically modified …

By Guest Author

Briefly: Big News In A Small Format

MANUFACTURING SUMMIT: MARCH 1

The Michigan Manufacturing Technology Summit and Northwestern Michigan College will host the second annual Northern Michigan Manufacturing Summit on Tues., Mar. 1, in Traverse City.

The summit is designed for any and all manufacturers in the region. Organizers are specifically encouraging food manufacturers of any size …

By Lynn Geiger

First Woman of Wine: Amanda Danielson And Her Lifelong Labor Of Love

“If I know the owner is doing the wine list, my little ears perk up. At Stella, the list is Amanda’s definitive statement of taste … it’s accessible and stylish.” -- Madeline Triffon, Master Sommelier

What wine would you pair with alligator tail or chicken heart? Amanda Danielson had no …

By Lynn Geiger

Book Review: The Gen Z Effect

By Thomas Koulopoulos and Dan Keldsen

Published by Bibliomotion, Nov. 11, 2014

256 pages, Hardcover $22.95, e-read addition $9.99

In a Nutshell - Throw away your biases about the generational differences in the workplace. With evolving technology and demographics, all of us will soon be working in a world where …

By Chris Wendel

Where to Invest? How About Northern Michigan

In an increasingly volatile and unpredictable global economy, investors these days are faced with difficult choices to the most basic of economic decisions: where to invest and grow their capital. With strained financial markets from the Far East to Europe to our own shores here in the U.S., it’s more …

By Doug Luciani

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