Shopping In Traverse City

So I blogged about the Wine I love in Traverse City but there is much more to it than wine. There are several places I could go on and on about. So here are some of the places I love and I can even highlight my favorite products. If you don’t visit you can certainly order online. Also, know that I don’t get paid by any of these places. I just love their stuff!

Fustini’s is Amazing! They have lots of flavored vinegars and olive oils. You can go in and try them and they smell awesome! Know that once you try their balsamic you won’t be able to buy it at the grocery store again. I once ran out of the 80 year old aged balsamic and thought I would buy some in the store… I promptly dumped it down the drain! It tasted like chemicals to me! Now I have great news for all your folks in the QCA…..Green Thumbers on Brady carries Twisted Trunk which is from the same distributor just branded with a different name! The bonus is they have small bottles up to large ones they will fill with any vinegar or olive oil of your choice. The small ones start at $7 and the largest is around $30. Well worth the money. I like to use the flavored balsamic on my salad. I cook with the oils. I have used garlic oil in my rolls. We use chipotle oil and the aged balsamic in our burgers… YUM! ok I’d better stop. I’m getting hungry. Green Thumbers also has a punch card. I think it’s buy 10 of one size get the 11th free. Fustini’s has a similar program that they keep track of in their computer for you.

FAVORITES: Garlic Olive Oil, Tuscan Herb Olive Oil, Chipotle Olive Oil, 80 Year Old Aged Balsamic.

Cherry Republic is everything Cherry! Don’t even say you don’t like cherries… well you just can’t unless you have tried ones from Michigan and still don’t like them. I was always just eh about cherries but Michigan fruit is amazing. I seriously want to make a few million so I can buy a farm up there. Ok back to the topic at hand! They have a few locations. One is in downtown Traverse City. Another is over in Glen Arbor which is near the Sleeping Bear Dunes. That one has a place to eat lunch. They also sell soda which is fun to taste at the one in Glen Arbor. There are so many products that I love from here. I just looked on their website to make this post and saw Dark chocolate cherry toffee! YUM!!!!! They have flat rate shipping of $7. My husband loves the chocolate cherry coffee. I really don’t think you can go wrong with anything there.

Great Lakes Tea and Spice Company is also in Glen Arbor. I really like their teas. They also have a wide range of spices to cook with but I have never tried them. It’s a rather small shop but they will brew the teas for you to taste and have little canisters of them that you can smell too. One of my favorite teas is a black tea called Mackinac Breeze which is awesome hot or cold. I like mostly fruity teas but they have a wide variety of all different kinds of teas.

The Village at Grand Traverse Commons is unique. It was an old Asylum that has been converted into shops. I’m sure they have done a lot since I was there several years ago. There is a lot of history behind the building and has many different shops to walk though. We walked through when it was winter and that was perfect because it was too cold to be going shop to shop outside.

There are many other places to walk around in Traverse City especially downtown but don’t forget to explore the peninsulas too! We had a lot of fun. Leelanau Peninsula had many shops that we enjoyed looking at. Most of them close during the winter but in the summer they are all open.  There will be more posts about dining and sights to see so stay tuned!

Jessica