Roxane's Smokehouse Restaurant

On our way back from the Paranormal Convention in Sault Ste. Marie, we were starved and stopped for lunch at a restaurant that I had been wanting to eat at and had written down as a "must stop while on this trip". Roxane's Smokehouse Restaurant is located in Eckerman, Michigan and has been in business since May of 2012. They serve slow-smoked BBQ, homemade pizza, subs and hamburgers. From 9AM to 1PM on Wednesday through Sunday, they also serve breakfast. And still have room for dessert? How about some homemade pie or some Jilberts ice cream!

The inside feel is like an old diner, filled with Coca-Cola and Betty Boop items. There are old fashioned bar stools at the counter, and the classic checker style black and white pattern on the floor.

They also have their own line of BBQ sauces that are homemade, and can be purchased by the bottle (to which of course we did). And oh man....those BBQ sauces! They have a mustard style sauce, pictured above on the left. More of a sweet and tangy sauce that is pictured in the middle. And a maple sauce that is on the right hand side. Forgive me for forgetting what the actual names of them are.

I had the Pulled BBQ Chicken Sub. The menu may look slightly pricey, but once the food actually gets to the table you should be able to see why it is priced pretty perfectly. The portion was HUGE! (And that is not a complaint!) The sub was packed with pulled smoked chicken and melted cheddar cheese (or any cheese of your choice). It also comes with a side of coleslaw (which I ate, and I hate coleslaw), and a side of crispy fries. I didn't limit myself to any one BBQ sauce that they had, I tried it with all 3, and STILL ended up taking half of my sub home.

My husband ordered the Beef Brisket dinner, which came with three sides of your choice. The brisket was juicy and perfectly cooked. It is always a good sign to look at the smoke rings that form when places smoke their own meats. And this brisket definitely had some amazing and tasty smoke lines. He ordered the baked beans, mac and cheese and coleslaw for his side dishes. What is not pictured is that he also got a slice of pie with his meal, which he ordered the banana cream pie. I also had to help him taste test the pie, and to no surprise it was also very tasty.

Whether you already live close by, or are driving to or from the Sault Ste Marie area, you should stop here and eat. I have been to Tennessee and have had some great Memphis BBQ, and I am a BBQ fanatic. I promise you that you will not be disappointed!

Roxane's Smokehouse Restaurant, Facebook Page

Kewadin Casino's Dream Catchers Restaurant and the Trail Deli

This past weekend, my husband and I had the awesome privilege of attending Kewadin's 6th annual Michigan Paranormal Convention, otherwise known as MIparacon. For those of you that don't believe in anything paranormal, that is okay. This is after all a blog about restaurants and food.  For those of you that do believe and weren't able to go, the lineup this year was amazing!

The lineup includes, and is not at all limited to the people in the above pictures. Dustin Pari from Ghost Hunters (who painted his face like a member of Kiss), John Tenney from Ghost Stalkers, Andrea Perron, the oldest daughter from the Perron family that the movie "the Conjuring" is very loosely based off of, and Josh Gates of Destination Truth. The bottom picture is my husband and I getting our picture taken with the hit movie Ghost Buster's very own, Ernie Hudson. Niff Groff was also a speaker from Ghost Adventures, and John Zaffis the star of Haunted Collection. And the list goes on (and yes I have many, many more pictures and got to meet everybody). It was an amazing experience and I suggest to everybody who reads this that you get tickets next year and attend. Anyways.....back to the food.

I don't normally remember about room service, or use the opportunity when I have one, but since we were on vacation and the hotel was packed, we ordered room service for breakfast on Friday morning. I believe it was made at their Dream Catchers restaurant. We both ordered the ham and cheese omelet with hash browns and toast on the side. Not only was it very satisfying, and still piping hot from being in the hot box (or whatever you call it), but it was to our room in 15 minutes.

We stopped at the Dream Catchers Restaurant on Friday afternoon for lunch.

For an appetizer we ordered the Thai Peanut Chicken. The flavors were great, and you could taste the soy sauce and what I'm assuming might have been a hint of peanut butter? But this to me was more of a grilled chicken breast with sauce on it, that should have been placed in a salad or left whole and served with side dishes as a main entree. It was a very strange item for an appetizer and not at all what we expected.

For my main dish, I ordered what they called the 'Indian Taco'. They have some items on the menu that are marked with a dream catcher to let you know that it is Native American inspired. It is supposedly a Native American fry bread topped with the usual seasoned ground beef, cheese, tomato, olives, onion and lettuce like you would find on a normal taco. It was also served with salsa and sour cream on the side. It was very tasty, and very filling. The only problem that I had with it, is that it tasted more like a thick biscuit batter and was dry and bread like on the inside. I have had authentic fry bread before, and this tastes nothing like it. But nevertheless, it was very good.

If I was smart, I would have ordered the buffet like my husband did. (I am NOT a buffet girl.) I tried little bites here and there of his selections and I could have eaten a whole pan of that maccaroni and cheese.

Friday night, we ordered a large cheese pizza from the Trail Deli. It was some of the best pizza I have had in a long time. And I was very lucky, because cheese is the only kind that they serve. I think if they were to change that and have more types of pizza, that the pizza would do better than any of the sandwiches or other items that they sell.

This was an amazing trip, full of great people, experiences, and food. Like I said before, I suggest that you sign up to attend Paracon7 next year. I know that we will be there!

Kewadin Casino, Dining
MI Paracon

Joshua James Grill and Chill

While headed out of town this past weekend, we needed to stop somewhere for a late dinner and I found Joshua James Grill & Chill through TripAdvisor on my phone. I looked at the inside pictures, and it seemed to be a nice dive bar that looked clean and like it had a good menu. We pulled up and judging by the outside, had the mentality of "I guess we can give this a shot". We were pleasantly surprised, and it was a great example of not to judge something by what it appears like on the outside.

For an appetizer, we ordered deep fried pickles. I have ordered these at a few other places, and they always deep fry the ones that are cut into circles. This is a much better way to do it, and ends up being easier to eat, just like a french fry. You can pick your choice of dipping sauce, but the automatic and obvious choice is usually ranch dressing.

My husband ordered the Ultimate Turkey Club sandwich, that came with a side of fries. It was a double stacker and looked amazing. He said it was good and very filling, and was not expecting it to be that large! It was stuffed with bacon, turkey, tomato, lettuce and mayonnaise.

I was not terribly hungry, so I ordered the Grilled Ham and Cheese sandwich, with no side (aka, no fries). It was a typical grilled ham and cheese, made with American cheese I'm assuming, but it was very good and perfectly crunchy on the outside, and gooey on the inside.

This restaurant/bar was a great find while on our trip. We normally wouldn't have stopped here, mainly because when you drive by so quickly, it's hard to decipher if places are strictly bars that you may get lucky and serve nachos or frozen pizza, or if it is a bar and grill, that serves some tasty eats such as Joshua James did. It is definitely a place worth stopping!

I couldn't find a main website, or a main Facebook page for this restaurant, but be sure to check out reviews and pictures on TripAdvisor, Zomato and Yelp!