Traverse City Record-Eagle,  Sept. 26, 2003

The Trillium revisited--comeback in the sky

A decade ago only one of us considered dinner at the Trillium a treat. Sherri worked at Grand Traverse Resort in sales and took customers there so often, she never wanted to go just for fun. Since then, the rooftop restaurant has suffered through more revisions in menu and style than the resort has had management changes. It's been a pricey white-tablecloth destination and a wood-tabletop steakhouse; it has gone from year-round to seasonal hours, and sometimes only on weekends. Now, however, new owners with very deep pockets, the Grand Traverse Band, seem committed to a comeback for the Trillium.

Since we both consider the Trillium fun again, we returned there in September to see for ourselves, and had a delightful dinner with George and Cheryl Knight, friends from Elk Rapids whose travels in Provence, Spain, and Lord knows where else give them a broad outlook on food. (They also provided a bit of cover by booking in their name, lest Sherri's prompt special service.)

What we found is a restaurant with the same stunning view, crisply efficient service, and food that shows immense promise. Our meals were generally outstanding, alive with well-matched flavors and textures, and presented eloquently. However, the execution of two of the dishes left something to be desired, and at prices as high as the resort's rooftop, there's scant margin for error.

One of us opted for an off-menu special of lemon sole and scallops, a $47 off-menu special which came on a bed of lentils with a lemon-laced sauce and got rave reviews from us all when we passed around forkfuls for tasting. Two of us ordered rack of lamb, which topped the menu at $34 and arrived roasted to rare and tender perfection in a crust of kalamata olive and artichoke tapenade, served au jus atop goat-cheese whipped potato with upright asparagus spears interlacing the rack points. The tapenade, however, was uncomfortably salty, so if you don't like (or can't have) salt, we'd suggest avoiding the dish.

Our fourth diner tossed a potential wrench into the service timetable by ordering no entrée at all----only soup, salad and two appetizers. Grazing is often a good option when a good menu makes you want more than one dish, and the server did a fine job with the timing. He meshed this little four-act meal seamlessly into the others' entrée-only script.

The soup, billed simply as "chilled tomato," had the flavor of a full-bore gazpacho, and came garnished with diced avocado and flanked by a pair of toasted baguette slices spread with boursin-like cheese. The salad, a simple array of field greens and herbs, was tossed with a light, lemon-oil dressing and topped with shaved Parmesan.

The other two menu salads also incorporated cheese--fresh mozzarella with tomatoes in one instance and Saga blue dressing on the third. There's much for the cheese lover to like at the Trillium, and no dearth of mushrooms, either. The two appetizers that completed the grazer's meal involved both. One was a dish of Comte cheese raviolis and morels cooked and served in an herbed chicken broth. The dish is wonderfully designed so the flavors of savory stock and earthy morels ride happily on the cheese. Well-laid plans, however, often go awry in the pot, and the raviolis were so hard and chewy it took a knife to eat them. The other appetizer in this little feast was a plate of melted Leelanau raclette surrounded by fingerling potatoes, a dab of grainy mustard, a few toasted baguette chips, and strips of roasted red bell pepper that put a sweet smile on the face of a Teutonic dish.

As we said, The Trillium is a very expensive restaurant again. Appetizers run $8 to $11, salads are a la carte at $6-8, and entrees range well over $30. Our bill for four, including $44 for wine and one shared dessert, was $214--before the tip. If you're casino-bound, you'll need to win big or eat first.

Price aside, the service was graceful and adept, right down to the busser who silently whisked away empty plates and kept the table swept up. And the view still reaches forever and offers panoramic light shows sunshine washes the autumn landscape or lake-effect snow squalls dash across the bay under cold, blue skies. If they can get those kitchen glitches worked out, the Trillium could regain a place as one of the region's premiere restaurants.

DATA: Trillium, Grand Traverse Resort, 6800 US-31N, Acme; 231-938-2100; (grandtraverseresort.com).