‘Hidden gem’ of an eatery serves up tasty elegance amid lakeside wildlife

You can work up a mighty appetite while adventuring in Northeast Michigan, what with the golfing and fishing, the hiking and biking, the swimming and stone-skipping.

After an exhausting day of recreation, you’re in the mood for a fine meal – but you don’t want to dress up. You want to stay out in the woods – but still be a little pampered, surrounded by white-linen elegance. You want to select from a fabulous menu and lengthy wine list – but you don’t want to head to some overhyped touristy joint.

Have we got the place for you.

If you’re in the neighborhood, and we’re talking the upper reaches of Northeast Michigan, you’d do well to check in to the Chateau Lodge Restaurant. It isn’t a place you’re likely to stumble upon.

Although it’s been serving up fab fare for four decades, it’s a hidden gem you must seek out. Even then, you may have trouble (hint: when you get to the fork in the dirt road, bear left).

The chateau is tucked away in the middle of the Black Mountain Forest State Recreation Area on designated trout water, East Twin Lake, between Cheboygan and Rogers City.

The lake view, with Black Mountain rising in the distance, provides a lovely backdrop for an evening of dining, whether viewed through the dining room’s panoramic wall of windows or from the deck.

Binoculars hang on the wall for folks who want to get a better look at the wildlife.

“You name it, we’ve seen it: eagles, osprey, loons,” says Mike Telgheder, who owns and operates the lodge with his wife, Rose.

The intimate restaurant seats 86 inside, with room for more on the deck. It used to be a private club, but for the last 20 years or so it’s been open to the public. The Telgheders became the lodge’s third owners, buying the place 10 years ago when Mike decided to trade the Detroit area and his hectic job as an auto executive for Northern Michigan for the chance for his family to run the lodge together.

“Before, I was vice president of operations for a large automotive company,” Telgheder says, chuckling. “I’m an expert chef now.”

Although they’ve renovated the seven rooms and cabin available for rent at the lodge, the restaurant accounts for 90 percent of their business, and the Telgheders’ focus has been on the quality of the food. An immaculate kitchen and a first-rate menu are the first two ingredients in the recipe for quality.

“One of the things that’s really important to me is that we’ve received 15 perfect health scores in a row (from the county health department),” Mike Telgheder says.

But cleanliness means nothing without flavor – and flavors abound at Chateau Lodge.

Appetizer choices include crab cakes with spicy red pepper sauce, coconut shrimp with chunky sweet-and-sour sauce and beer-battered mushrooms with horseradish ranch dressing.

Salads are served with homemade bread and honey-walnut butter and include the usual mixes as well as a unique northern shrimp salad, featuring jumbo shrimp, mixed greens, dried cherries and pecans.

Hungry for some red meat? Choose from prime beef tenderloin wrapped in smoked bacon, peppercorn pork tenderloin served with fresh fruit chutney, Angus beef steaks or beef liver and onions – or the No. 1 seller in the house: prime rib.

If poultry is what you crave, you have your choice of chicken fettucine alfredo or chicken Hemingway, topped with Michigan dried cherries and basil cream sauce, served over rice, pine nuts and cherries.

If the waterfront setting puts diners in the mood for seafood, they’re in luck. The Chateau’s cooks stand ready to whip up a wide selection of entrees, with the perch, walleye, lake trout and whitefish shipped over – and still flopping – from the Gauthier & Spaulding fishery in Rogers City.

The fresh perch comes deep-fried or sautéed with a lemon caper sauce. Whitefish comes broiled and can be ordered Cajun style. The coho salmon is grilled and served with a creamy dill sauce; the rainbow trout is broiled and topped with crab stuffing; the cod is deep-fried in beer batter.

Those seeking salt-water seafood can indulge in Alaskan king crab or snow crab, grouper fried or sautéed with sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms and basil in a lemon-wine butter sauce topped with feta cheese, Louisiana Cajun shrimp Creole, or Mediterranean shrimp pasta. Combo choices include lobster tail, which can be added to any entree for $15, as well as quail and shrimp. Entrees range from $7 to $35.

The restaurant also features an extensive wine list, including several selections from Nicholas Black River Winery, just a stone’s throw away in Cheboygan.

The Telgheders revamp their menu regularly, sometimes “borrowing” and altering recipes from other restaurants.

“If someone comes up and says we should put something on our menu, I find the simplest concoction that we can make up instantaneously,” Telgheder says. “When a chef in Grand Rapids gave us a recipe for blueberry chutney that was three pages long, we modified it so it would be much simpler to make.”

Patrons who choose to take advantage of the Chateau’s overnight accommodations enjoy colors in the fall, cross-country skiing and snowmobiling in the winter, morel mushroom-hunting in the spring, and fishing, dirt-biking, four-wheeling and hiking in the summer.

All you have to do is find it. The location is at once fantastic and disadvantageous, Telgheder notes.
“Many times I’ve wished I was west of

I-75,” he says. “I could probably add $6 to every entree and be busier than I am now.”

The restaurant is open seven days a week through October, although hours may vary. Telgheder suggests people call or visit the Web site for hours and weekly specials.

Chateau Lodge Restaurant
10621 Twin Lakes Road, between Cheboygan and Rogers City (231) 625-9322
Call for hours or visit www.chateaunorth.com