Traverse City Record-Eagle,  February 21, 2003
Always Room for One More

Talking shop recently with a friend in the business, we fell to discussing what we'd like to see more of around here . . . and what less of. For a few minutes, the views came easily; predictably, we agreed that the need for good, inexpensive dining is infinite, and that one more pizza parlor or burger chain would be overkill. But then the conversation took a surprising turn.

     "I don't think we need any more sandwich shops, either," someone said. "You know, those little storefronts for lunch in a hurry ¾ soup, salads, sandwiches, muffins, coffee and cookies and stuff like that."

     Our ears went right up because we were in the process of checking out two promising new spots of just that sort. One of them was the Harbor Café in Downtown Elk Rapids. It has been there forever, but its new chef-owner, Derek Boyer, is straight from the kitchen at Tapawingo, where he was sous-chef. His reinvention of the Harbor Café is still a work in progress, but we're certainly keeping an eye on it.

     The other is Burch's Bayside Grill in Downtown Traverse City. There's no Tapawingo pedigree there, but our first visits suggest that Scott and Kim Burch have a good chance to succeed in a little Front Street storefront that has seen all too many sandwich shops come and go over the years.
     The Burches arrived here a few years ago newly graduated from Ferris State, and when they couldn't find work suitable for their degrees in recreation and public relations, Scott went to work in a friend's burger outlet. Although the sum of his experience was delivering pizza in college, one thing led to another, and he became the manager, then moved to another franchise outlet. Then, last May, he and Kim opened their own place, Burch's Bayside Grill.

     The basic criteria we'd apply to storefront sandwich shops in resort country would be variety, speed, and fresh, interesting stuff. Scott and Kim fit the bill, with a pleasing range of fare that fits almost any work-a-day luncheon appetite. They make their own dressings and their own soups, and the service is as fast as today's 30-minute "lunch hour" demands.

     I put in an order for a BLT and salad at the counter the other day and had both of them in front of me in five minutes. Golden honey-wheat toast, evenly painted with mayo, embraced an ample supply of crisp bacon, fresh lettuce, and slices of ripe tomato. The tomato (in both sandwich and salad) was so remarkably red and ripe that I asked Scott where he got them, and was mildly surprised when he said, "Sysco," and added that he buys his muffins at Sam's "because they make them every day."

     The sandwich menu bulges with a range of wraps (tuna, ham, olive, veggies, chicken salad), as well as brats, chili dogs, corned beef-and-slaw on sourdough, pastrami and Swiss on pumpernickel. It's no surprise that there are burgers, too, but surprise does lie in such available-option goodies as olives, mushrooms, red onion, and provolone cheese, and a vegetarian "burger" of black bean, lettuce, tomato and cheddar.

     Soup regularly includes French onion plus a special that daily variable special, and salads include not only the ubiquitous tossed, Caesar and Cobb-like chef's, but also a chicken-cashew entry with dried cherries and Parmesan and a trio of deli salads -- potato, pasta and fruit. For the sweet-toothed, the Burches have ice-cream cones, shakes, malts, floats, and homemade cookies, freshly squeezed lemonade in season, herbal teas, cocoa, and the obligatory cappuccino.

     Aside from swift efficiency, there's not much a little deli-counter shop can do by way of good service except be pleasant cheeriness, but in the time it took me to enjoy my BLT and salad Scott asked twice if all were satisfactory, and he repeated the inquiry with genuine thanks as I departed.

     The sandwiches, burgers and wraps typically run $3 to $5 and the luncheon salads $5 to $6 (deli salads are $2). I needed less than $7 for my BLT and salad, and another three bucks bought a pint of home-made chicken-noodle soup to take out, so I came away thinking, "Yeah, there's always room for another good sandwich shop."

     Satisfied that Burch's gives us a fine, new option for lunch in TC, we are keen to see what that Tapawingo background brings to the venerable Harbor Café.

DATA: Burch's Bayside Grill, 149 E. Front St., Traverse City. 231-935-1000 (fax 935-1880). Sandwiches, salads, soups, wraps, burgers, dogs, deli salads, soda fountain. Eat in, take out, downtown delivery.