With its 100-seat rooftop patio and hip, vintage vibe, Traverse City’s newest restaurant opening, The Franklin, is the talk of downtown as its Front-and-Cass Street doors open this spring. The second restaurant launched by Traverse City food and wine savants Myles Anton and Paul and Amanda Danielson, The Franklin follows their much-hailed Trattoria Stella in the Village at Grand Traverse Commons. While Stella sprawls through the ground floor of the catacomb-like historic Victorian Italianate Building 50, The Franklin’s construction is new, light-filled, über-green and rises to take in a view of downtown Traverse City and peeks of Grand Traverse Bay. Even so, the Franklin sports an old soul most manifest in its 120-year-old bar found in a Leelanau County barn and a common table hewn from a cottonwood trunk, rooting the restaurant—metaphorically and literally—in Northern Michigan.

Walk in and you’ll know the food is rooted here too. Like Stella, a pioneer of Traverse City’s farm-to-table movement, The Franklin sources its food locally but offers it up with a global flair. But unlike its older, upscale sibling, The Franklin offers more casual cuisine and corresponding prices. Find everything from burgers (lamb and beef) and hot dogs to salmon and fregola with scallops. Prices range from $10 for flatbread to around $20 for a fish or steak dinner. The Franklin also features a full wine list and two custom-blended local wines. There’s a broad range of beer styles and a proprietary cider.

 

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Photo(s) by Adrienne Roberts