Today my brother invited us to The Huntsman Hunt Club, which is a private shooting preserve in Dryden, Michigan. There’s a large restaurant in the main lodge that takes reservations and a cigar bar that is open to the public.
The restaurant features seasonal food with an emphasis on wild game (like venison, pheasant, buffalo, and elk) along with produce and herbs from their own gardens. Here is a picture of the herb garden – looking a bit weathered after a sleet storm – and part of the lodge where you can see a couple of the large, fieldstone fireplaces.
My extended family ate brunch there and some of the things we ordered were apple cinnamon bread French toast, eggs Benedict, mushroom omelet with zucchini, and buttermilk pancakes which you can get with berries, chocolate chips or pumpkin. The dishes are served with fresh berries, maple-sage elk sausage, Canadian bacon, thickly sliced smokehouse bacon (there’s a smokehouse on-site), and fried fingerling potatoes. There was a lot of tasty food and everyone shared until it was gone.
Afterward we went out back and practiced shooting sporting clays with some kind of Beretta shotguns (I didn’t note the details). It was really fun; I’m curious to see if I get a bruise on my right shoulder from shooting.
In the parking lot my sister-in-law pointed out a vehicle that advertised Love MI Seasons. This is a gourmet seasoning blends company created by the Executive Chef. Three of the primary fresh herbs that go into their seasoning blends are grown on-site, and the others are ordered from Michigan suppliers. They are gluten- and MSG-free and have no fillers or preservatives. The herbs are not dried before the seasoning blends are prepared. You can order them online and at many retail locations. There are some recipes on their website so I’ll come back to it someday and try something new.
A couple of the many beautiful details inside the lodge which I show in the photographs below are the inlaid woodwork on some of the floors, and the tile work in the restrooms.
