Visiting a few pubs on vacation

It was 81 degrees at 5:00 AM this morning. The feels like temperature was closer to 87 degrees with the humidity factored in. It's only the first day of July! I know some people in the world live with weather like this all the time, but that's a great big "no thank you" from me. We are now smack in middle of a period where a heat dome has settled over our area, and we still have the two hottest months of the year ahead of us.

Needless to say, I am finding myself thinking back to the past week where the temps were mid 70's during the day and low 50's at night. It was absolutely perfect, though I also knew it wouldn't last forever. During that time, @mrsbozz and I spent some time last weekend strolling around Mackinaw City at the tip of the lower peninsula of Michigan.

Being a Friday in the summer, I figured town would be busy, but we were still able to find a parking spot in the downtown area. We headed to a local place called the Keyhole Bar where a friend of my wife's had recommended we visit. We started off with a couple of beers and decided that we were just going to get a couple appetizers to eat.

@mrsbozz got a nice Blood Orange Honey Ale from a semi local brewery over in Cheboygan, MI. Meanwhile, I went with a nice amber ale that had some really good flavor and was quite refresing.

They Keyhole Bar really leans into the whole keys theme with random keys hanging on all the walls and pretty much every other place you could imagine. They also have them lacquered (or epoxied) under the tables as you can see in the photos above.

After just a short wait our food arrived.

My wife decided to go with the pretzel bites and though they weren't anything groundbreaking, they were still good and she seemed pretty happy with them. I had heard really good things about the chicken wings, so I decided to try those out. Unlike many other restaurants, they only serve them in one flavor, so it was a bit of a gamble until I found out if I liked the sauce or not. I was also worried it might end up being too hot for me, but thankfully, it wasn't.

I wouldn't say they were the best wings I have ever had, but they were awfully dang good. I would highly recommend you check them out if you are ever in the area. They had a good combination of sweet, heat, and a delicious vinegary flavor. The good thing about bone in wings is I never have to share them with my wife since she doesn't eat chicken off the bone.

After a quick pint and bite, we decided to walk around the small downtown area a little bit. Most of the stores are geared towards tourists trying to buy souvenirs, but we found a couple that we visited.

After walking around a bit more, we got back in our truck to find a gas station. Unfortunately, we didn't find a gas station, but we did find another brewery, so we decided to stop and have another pint before heading back to our campground. Rusted Spoke Brewing Company is a cool little place just off the main drag in Mackinaw City. It has a little bit upscale menu, and a long list of brews available to try. Unfortunately, only one of them was their own brew which was kind of weird, but oh well.

@mrsbozz went with the Blood Orange Honey again, and I had a nice brown ale. The funny thing is, she said her beer tasted entirely different from the one she had earlier, even though they were supposed to be the exact same thing.

We hung out for a bit, and since we had only had appetizers at the Keyhole, we decided to try their hand made mozzarella sticks. @mrsbozz is a huge fan of mozz sticks, so when we see them on the menu and the look like something more than just the average frozen food then deep fried variety, we generally try them out. A long time ago we had these amazing mozz wedges at a place that is no longer in business called The Boathouse in Manistee, MI. Ever since we have been trying to find fried mozz just as good as that, and so far we haven't been able to.

That being said, these mozzarella sticks were dang good and I would highly recommend them.

Another thing to point out about this area, not that it matters, but I find it interesting, is that no matter where you go in Mackinaw City, St. Ignace across the bridge, and Mackinaw Island, you will find a ton of foreign workers. Given the huge tourism draw for this area, and the relatively small local population, the businesses rely on Visa workers to fill positions during the busy tourist season. Most businesses are almost fully staffed by young workers from places like Latvia, Ukraine, and other Eastern European countries as well as Jamaica and the islands.

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