"We have wonderful wines being produced here," said Thomas Space, co-owner of Finley's American Grill on Henry Street in Muskegon. Chef Tom has embraced the local food movement at Finley's, offering the best wines Michigan has to offer. "Michigan has a reputation for plonk (an industry slang word for inferior wine) but let me tell you, they're not all plonk."
Some judges at the East Lansing competition said they were pleasantly surprised by the wines they tasted. "The overall excellent quality of Michigan wines has been a revelation," said Ian Barry, winemaker for Swedish Hill Winery in Romulus, New York.
"The wines are very good, from an international standard, not just compared to other similar regions," said wine writer Ron Sober. Master Sommelier Madeline Triffon added that "Michigan has come a long way. Each flight had notable wines; the tasting experience was a pleasure."
Chef Tom was not surprised. "We're on the same latitude here as Bordeaux, France. There are vines being brought over from France and being planted here in Michigan. Our conditions aren't that different from California. We're on the western side of the state, we get the lake affecting our weather and we have sandy soils. That's all perfect for winemaking."
California winemakers, said Tom, tend to concentrate on the flavors added from the cask, so California wines tend to have an oaky flavor. Michigan winemakers are more concerned with the taste of the grape. "They're focused on the flavor of the wine itself, not what the barrel adds to it. You can taste hints of different herbs and fruit in the wine such as, vanilla, peach, plum, apple."
Sales of Michigan wines grew more than 14 percent in 2007, while total wine sales were up just over three percent. Michigan's wine and grape industries contribute nearly $790 million to the state's economy each year. In addition, Michigan's 56 wineries won 800 medals in 2007 from regional, national, and international wine competitions.
"Michigan's wine industry is an important component of the state's nearly $64 billion agriculture and agriculture tourism industries," said Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm recently. "By generating more than $300 million for the state's economy and growing at a rate of 15 percent annually, it serves as a model for growing businesses in Michigan."
What it comes down to for Thomas Space and his Finley's customers is the taste, health and economic advantages of local food. "These are our neighbors and we should be taking care of our neighbors first."
Finley's American Grill, at 3065 Henry St. in Muskegon, is independently owned and operated. For questions about their Michigan wines, local food or Chef Tom's Little Italy menu, call (231) 733-9928.
"Saturday morning I was at the farmer's market, Saturday night we served their asparagus in our restaurant," he said. "Wednesday I went out to meet with someone who grows greens locally. There's nothing better than going from the garden to the plate."
To that end, Emil is exploring local suppliers for the young restaurant, looking into organics and chem free foods.
"Before we offer something I want to meet the people, I want to explore their farms. A lot of places talk a good story about their food, but you really have to go to the farms, you have to touch and see it to know what you're getting."
Good tasting food doesn't have to be expensive. "The goal of the restaurant is to have something for everyone," he explained, "a place people can come to on a regular basis and not have to worry about it being a special occasion."
Emil said Harbor View Grille boasts a 95% "from scratch" kitchen, leading to a changing Home Style Sunday menu based on what's fresh.
"We get here in the morning about 6:30 a.m. and start baking the bread," he said. "We make soup from scratch. Usually our Home Style Sunday meal is served with mashed potatoes and gravy because it's a comfort food day. For Mother's Day Sunday we had a good old turkey dinner and made our own apple pies."
Whitehall is a town where some businesses thrive on the summer tourist season. Emil said he's just as interested in attracting locals who just want a tasty lunch.
"Tourist season is fine, but my goal is to make sure the people who live here year 'round feel appreciated. You have to do business in the town you're doing business in and you have to give back. We don't ever want to forget where we came from and who helped us get here."
That local philosophy helped Emil become good friends with the previous owner of the property, Mike Guinon. "He had owned it when it was River View Café, three restaurants ago. Since then it has always come back to him. What he told me was, it was more important to find the right person than to find the right price."
Emil's parents own a home on Silver Creek Trail and it was his father who first saw the place for sale and mentioned it to his son. Emil was familiar with the property's former restaurants. He and his wife, Alice, had, on occasion, written business plans for other available restaurant locations, but they never found one they felt comfortable investing time and money in, he said.
They were only partially serious about buying a restaurant. Emil was an executive chef and food service director for Aramark, preparing meals for the Owassippi camp. "I really planned on retiring from Grand Valley."
Everything fell into place with the former River View Café location. Now Emil said he's excited about interacting with the community, offering meals on the Harbor View Grille's large, outside deck and preparing delicious, fresh food.
"We're here to stay."
A restaurant within a restaurant is evolving at Finley's, a gourmet Italian eating place where ingredients are fresh, recipes are unique and flavor is above average. A menu inserted inside the Finley's menu boasts grilled fish, pan cooking, seafood, veal, salads and antipastos. Fine Michigan wines are appearing beside that Finley's staple, the margarita.
"At some point we will become something that's apart from Finley's," said Tom. "There are things here at Finley's that work well. But the Tommy's Little Italy insert - that's our future."
Tom has an agreement with River City Foods, who operate the Finley's Group, that allows him to offer the high end Italian food he has learned a passion for through 30 years of cooking at such well-known restaurants as Leopold Bloom's in Ann Arbor and Prego in San Francisco. "I think there's a niche here for good Italian food. I do a lot of purely Italian cooking that's accessible to the average eater. I don't put anything on the plate that's not full of flavor. I would like to bring something to this community that would, perhaps, broaden the concept of what's great food."
He understands the shock a total makeover of a popular restaurant would bring, so he's bringing his dishes into Finley's alongside the traditional menu, training the restaurant staff in different ways of cooking and getting acclimated to Michigan's west coast. "I didn't want to change here overnight. There's an evolution, a training process."
Tom started in the restaurant business 30 years ago at the famous Leopold Bloom's in Ann Arbor. "They had lamps like this," he said, pointing to the Finley's decor, "but they were real Tiffany. That was a ground breaking experience for me."
Later, still working restaurants in Reno, Nevada, Tom met an Italian chef who trained under Caruso in Italy and they both ended up in San Francisco, where Tom trained and became a sous chef at Prego. "That was the restaurant where I really learned about Italian food, with real Italian cooking and ingredients. It was an amazing thing being there in San Francisco, too, because that was at the beginning of the whole notion of American cooking coming out, with (chef and author) Alice Waters promoting local ingredients and becoming one of the first American celebrity chefs. We were in Gourmet, in Newsweek magazine. The pasta movement was just beginning in the United States, with the whole view that Italian was more than spaghetti and meatballs."
Tom continued to work with many restaurateurs, including entertainer Sonny Bono, and stayed in the Hollywood area since 1982. But his family, and childhood memories of Michigan, were calling to him. "I was tired of California after having been there 30 years, and my family is in Traverse City," he said. "I found myself single and I reconnected with my high school sweetheart."
Katherine Storrer, whose family was in the clothing business in Owasso for over 100 years, where Tom said she picked up her business savvy, moved with Tom to Muskegon to buy the Finley's restaurant, but not before a statewide search for just the right location.
"I was told to call Hoby Thrasher," said Tom, referring to one of this area's most successful restaurant entrepreneurs. "I gave Hoby a call and made a few trips over here. I was also looking on the other side of the state. I told Kathy, I don't know anyone here, so my best bet is to find an ongoing concern."
Hoby approached River City Foods, who operate the Finley's Group, asked if they'd be interested in selling, and they said yes. Hoby owns the property, Tom and Kathy lease the building and own the business. "Hoby really wanted to get me in the area. He told me, Tom, you'd be a great addition to the local restaurant landscape. So I ended up with Hoby, and I think maybe the Lord was saying, Tom, this is where you guys are supposed to be."
Tom's agreement with Finley's offers his restaurant the best of both worlds. "They're giving me all the support, but, basically, I can run it as loosely as I want. So I have all these extra benefits and support while I get to know the area. I have a staff and a place to build from. I want to position myself so we can develop our own identity."
Pointing to the restaurant's fine Michigan wine selection, Tom exposed his roots in the Alice Waters, local foods movement. "We're going to support local people. I think that's something a Muskegon business has to do."
"There's an image at Finley's and I know we're going to have to overcome that. I think we can really bring something good to the professional landscape here. We're owned and operated independently. It's local ownership - it takes me seven minutes to come from where I live to the restaurant. We want to support the local businesses here. I would really like to see this as one of the core restaurants on the independent restaurant scene in this area."