Au Gres eatery serves up authentic Irish grub – and culture

Bridget Dunleavy is one restaurateur who doesn’t hold the Mayo.

Born 59 years ago in County Mayo on Ireland’s western coast, the owner of Dunleavy’s Eatery & Pub in Au Gres proudly and honestly wears the green.

“Cead Mile Failte” – 100,000 Welcomes – greets patrons on the front door of the building, which resembles a quaint cottage behind a trellis and verdant gardenscape.

The restaurant’s Gaelic decor, like Dunleavy’s brogue, is authentic and welcoming, but not overwhelming. Richly burnished woodwork blends with kelly green paint and plaid tablecloths, and a fireplace completes the feel of a homey lodge.

A sign on the wall counts the days until the only one that matters – March 17, St. Patrick’s Day.

“Our home in Ireland was open to everybody, and we wanted this to be someplace when you come in, you feel welcome,” says Dunleavy.

Emerald and diamond earrings gleam like the twinkle in her eye as she dismisses another Northern restaurateur – not Irish, and name withheld to protect the guilty – who slapped an Irish surname on his establishment.

“He even drove down to Clare to buy a bunch of Irish decorations,” she says, shaking her head.
Dunleavy’s the real deal. Born a Corcoran in Ireland, she met future husband Mike after his family – parents and eight children – moved from Michigan to Ireland in 1957.

“His dad wanted them to have a taste of the homeland,” Dunleavy says. “At the time, it was the largest family ever to emigrate from America to another country.”

The Corcorans and Dunleavys both farmed, and the families became friends. The Dunleavys came back to Michigan in 1962, settling near Brighton to run a meat-packing operation and party store.
In 1964, 17-year-old Bridget Corcoran came to Michigan to attend nursing school – and went to work for the Dunleavys.

“I fell in love with the boss,” she said of Mike, and they married in 1970. They had four children, sold the meat business in 1990 and decided to look for a restaurant somewhere “from the Zilwaukee Bridge to the Mackinac Bridge.”

They settled on a place in Hillman called the Floodwater Inn, and ran it for three years until they had to close for a road-widening project on M-32. They took a settlement from the state and began looking for another slice of Northern heaven, finding it in a rundown little roadhouse on US-23 in Au Gres during a March 1993 snowstorm.

“I thought, ‘This place has possibilities.’ I started decorating in my head,”
Dunleavy recalled. The couple’s vision took shape, one project at a time.

“Our goal was to really stand out from the rest,” Dunleavy says, and they accomplished it not just with decor and food that honored their heritage, but with service that reflected their personalities, as well.
“I like to sit with customers,” says Bridget, who can be seen at Dunleavy’s pretty much seven days a week. “I really enjoy what I do – it’s almost like entertaining.

“Mike – they called him ‘Big Mike’ – was full of love and laughter. The bar area reflects his personality. He had a new joke for everyone, every day.”

Mike Dunleavy died in 1996, and that was a turning point for Bridget and the restaurant that bears her name. Some of her family wanted her to sell and move back to Brighton.

Au Gres – where she “didn’t know a soul” in 1993 – wouldn’t let it happen. Residents and restaurant employees rallied to support Bridget Dunleavy and her children.

“The community was wonderful,” she said. “We had the wake at the funeral home next door, and the staff here were wonderful. It was very emotional.”

Big Mike lives on in a heartfelt wall of tribute in Dunleavy’s and in a memorial fund, now in its 10th year, that benefits youth sports programs in Au Gres.

And Bridget now unabashedly calls Au Gres her home. She is a community fixture, serving on the boards of several charities, golfing when she can and tending to her cottage on the Saginaw Bay.
Dunleavy doesn’t speculate on what comes next. After all, she points out, things haven’t always gone as planned.

“I came (to America) to go to school 41 years ago,” she said. “I’m still waiting to go to school.”

John Hiner is the metro editor of The Bay City Times.
Contact him at (989) 894-9632.

‘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

Pam Phipps’ winning ways put Black Lake Golf Club on top

ONAWAY – Pam Phipps’ career is full of firsts.

She’s the first woman in the nation to attain master professional status from the Professional Golfers’ Association of America.

She’s the first golf professional at the Black Lake Golf Club, hired for the position in 1999 – the year before the highly acclaimed course near Onaway opened.

And she’s the first to tell some of her students that the top two commandments of golf are bunk.

“Keep your head down and keep your left arm straight are the two worst things you can tell a golfer,” Phipps said.

Rather, she urges golfers to keep their left arm in the position that allows them the greatest extension for their unique physiques – and to keep their eyes on the ball.

With 30 years of experience in the game and a history of propelling the courses she manages to national prominence, Phipps dispenses these and other tips to students while choreographing the show at the Black Lake Golf Club.

“I oversee everything,” she said. “But teaching is my No. 1 passion.”

And what a classroom she has.

The beauty of the course is one of the factors that lured Phipps away from her gig at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla., to return to her native Michigan.

Renowned architect Rees Jones used 300 acres of cranberry bogs, rolling hills, heavy woods and natural sand quarries as his canvas, creating a natural, picturesque and challenging work of art. With at least five tees on every hole, the 18-hole course provides a game suitable to all skill levels, and the companion par-3 course and academy grounds give duffers a chance to refine their skills.

Kudos keep coming

Under Phipps’ direction, the course has risen to nationwide prominence: Golf Digest ranked the course No. 25 on its list of the nation’s public courses this year, and Golf for Women ranked it No. 44 on its list of Top Women-Friendly Golf Courses.

Phipps, whose previous course at Daytona Beach ranked first in the nation for women-friendly golf, said women-friendliness is an attitude as much as anything.

The “forward tees,” for example, are called just that – not “ladies’ tees.”

“Just this morning there was a woman getting ready to tee off from the white tees,” which fall in the middle of the five-tee hierarchy, Phipps said. “One of the staffers asked what we should do. I said, ‘Let’s see how she does.’ Then she hit the ball 200 yards. We don’t make assumptions about people’s skills based on whether they’re a man or a woman.

“Every decision you make, you’ve got to think of all golfers: men, women and juniors.”

The tee placement ranges from the gold tees, with total yardage of 7,030 yards, to the green, with yardage of 5,058 yards and positions that allow golfers to avoid some of the more difficult sand traps and water hazards.

Other “women-friendly” factors used by the list-makers included number of amenities (you’ll find restrooms on the eighth and 14th holes, as well as full locker facilities in the clubhouse), staff attitudes, availability of female instructors and women’s clothing and gear in stock at the pro shop.

A golf pro in the making

Phipps, raised in Oxford, north of Detroit, grew up with golf. Her parents took her out on the links at the tender age of 10, but it bored her.

That boredom fell way to excitement in 1975. That’s the year that Sandra Palmer won the U.S. Women’s Open.

“She’s 5-foot-2,” Phipps said. “I said, maybe this is a sport I can get into, since I’m 5-1 and probably won’t be a basketball player. She won $100,000. I thought that sounded like a pretty good deal.”
So the 16-year-old Phipps got into the game. She got a job in the clubhouse at Oxford Hills, and hit the links every chance she got. And she got good.

After a year playing on the varsity team at Central Michigan University, Phipps transferred to Ferris State, enrolled in the golf management program, and continued perfecting her game on the Bulldog’s golf squad, where she earned most valuable player status and became team captain before graduating in 1983.

In 1994, Phipps made history as the first woman master professional to be sanctioned by the PGA. The distinction is granted to PGA members who complete a rigorous six-year training program that culminates in a master’s thesis. They must demonstrate the highest degree of excellence in customer service and all aspects of the game.

“I felt it was a big deal at the time,” Phipps said. “But the golf business welcomed me with open arms. In an organization like the PGA, everybody needs everybody else. In the golf business now, women are a hot commodity. Everyone wants a woman on their staff, especially a woman instructor.”

Those who can, teach

Whether you’re a brand-new golfer or a longtime hacker, be you man, woman or child, Phipps has one important bit of advice: Take a lesson. And beginners should seek out professional instruction even before buying their first set of clubs.

“I had one student who couldn’t hit a drive, and I tried out her club and I couldn’t hit one either,” Phipps said. A good golf teacher can help a student pick out the tools that will best help their game.
“First, you want to look like a golfer, have a swing that resembles a golf swing, and then you’ll improve.”
She suggests that new golfers don’t fret about the rules. If you find yourself out in the rough, pick up your ball and put it on a tee and hit from there.

“Do what you need to do to build confidence,” she said.
Start out on small, easy courses, and work your way up, she suggests. If new golfers want to attempt a championship course, they should ask for a tee-time when the course isn’t busy, and be willing to pick up their balls if they have to stay on pace and not delay the group behind them.

Seasoned golfers may be more reluctant to sign up for lessons, she said, but can benefit just as much.
“People are afraid to go to a golf pro because they’re afraid they’ll go backwards,” she said, and they might actually see their scores climb as comfortable habits are replaced by a more adept swing.

“Most people have bad basics,” Phipps said. “They learned from a friend and picked up their friend’s bad habits.”

She advises students to practice swings whenever they can. If you can’t get out to the golf range, smack tees in your back yard. Once the basics become second-nature, Phipps says, golfers can refine their games.

“You can only think of one thing at a time,” she said.

Something as seemingly unrelated to the game as listening to relaxing music on the drive up can yield improvements, Phipps said. Much of the game is mental, and players who keep a relaxed, confident and positive attitude will see improvement.

“Golf is hard,” Phipps said. “Sometimes people forget that.”

Of course, she wasn’t the first one to figure that out.

Crystal Harmon writes for The Bay City Times.

Contact her at (989) 894-9643.