The Fillmore : A Tasteem Review
Just about a month ago, my wife and I took a trip to Manistee, MI. I have already posted one or two other stories about our trip there. Check my profile out if you want to read about them.
The Fillmore is actually right next to another restaurant called the Bluefish Kitchen and Bar. The Bluesfish is very well advertised and I have heard good things about it from several people.
My wife and I looked at the menu ahead of time though and it appears to be quite seafood oriented (hence the name) and also quite pricey. I did some more research and finally settled on The Fillmore.
There are actually two parts to the Fillmore, one is a small shop where you can buy the locally sourced products like they use in their recipes. It also has a small seating area.
The other side of the Fillmore is what I showed in the cover photo. The establishment itself isn't that big unless there was an area that was hiding on me. I would guess besides the horseshoe shaped bar in the middle of the building there is probably only enough seating for less than 50 people.
It had a nice atmosphere and though it was a little small, I really enjoyed our dinner there. @mrsbozz felt like it was very hipster, but she wasn't saying it in a negative way, it was just her observation.
I think part of that comes from The Fillmore's commitment to use as much locally sourced products as they can. They don't do a lot of things, but they try to make sure the things they do are really good.
It had been a pretty dicey drive over to Manistee through some snow and ice, so our first order of business were some cocktails.
The Fillmore offered a small list of specialty drinks that my wife and I browsed through. She settled on the Manistee Storm Watch which is pretty much their take on a Moscow Mule but with rum instead of vodka. I went with a classic Old Fashioned which was basically a Manhattan.
The drink were mixed well and very enjoyable. As we were sipping on those, we started to look over the menu.
The waitress came back and we soon placed our order. I am a sucker for a good meatloaf, so I knew that was what I was going to get as soon as I saw it on the menu. My wife went for the Southwest chicken wrap.
As we were waiting for our food to arrive, we noticed a lot of pizza's being brought out from the back to other diners in the establishment. They looked really good and based on the quantity, it must be one of their hot items. If we ever come back here in the future, I think we will probably try one of them.
As I mentioned, it isn't a very big place, so it was a little hard to get some shots of the inside. I did my best though:
This one is looking towards the front. You can see the entrance just behind the guys arm on the left side of the picture. The bar takes up most of the area to the right and they have some tables and couches at the front.
Looking back there are only a couple more tables seen here and then the bar to the left again.
The service wasn't as fast as I would have expected for the number of people that were in the restaurant, but it was friendly and we weren't really in a hurry. Eventually, my salad arrived that came with my entree'.
It was fine as far as salads go. I am not really a salad connoisseur, I see them more as something I need to eliminate before I can get to my main dish. That isn't to say I don't enjoy a good salad, I just don't have a lot of critique for them.
Shortly after I got my salad our main dishes came. My wife chose the truffle fries as a side for her wrap and they were very good. She was very happy with her wrap and said that the flavors were really good.
Here was my entree' and this part I actually do have some critique. The broccoli was good, but it was steamed and I prefer it to be roasted or baked. I knew it was going to be steamed, so I wasn't dissappointed, I am just stating that I prefer it prepared differently.
The mashed potatoes had good flavor, but they had a consistency pretty close to glue. @mrsbozz had a theory about why they turned out that way, but I don't recall what it was now. I ate most of them anyway because like I said, the flavor was pretty good.
The meatloaf was fantastic! I think they mixed some sweet Italian sausage in with the beef they used because I could distinctly taste a bit of fennel or something similar. The glaze on top accompanied it well and I ate all of it without hesitation.
I think in all we were at the Fillmore for maybe an hour and a half. Like I said, a little longer than I would have expected for two meals and two drinks, but again the staff was friendly and we were having a nice conversation.
I don't feel like just under $50 is too bad for a nice dinner out on a Friday night. As you can see a decent portion of that was just the drinks. FYI we didn't get any bread with my salad, not even croutons. I just noticed that when I was looking at this picture again.
If I lived in Manistee, I could definitely see this as a place I would frequently hang out. Even to the point of being a weekly choice. Since I don't live there though, I will just have to settle for it being a place I would probably return to on a future visit.
If you make it to Manistee before I do again I highly recommend the Fillmore.
Restaurant Information
The Fillmore
318 River St, Manistee, MI 49660, USA
This post participated in the Tasteem contest Your weekly choice
Hey bozz. That is the one beauty of doing posts for tasteem is you will eat out a little more now lol. Another good review by the way. Food looked decent and the mash being gluey is something about soaking them first, but will check on that one.
Thanks, I appreciate it. We really don't go out that much, I have just saved these up over the past couple of months :)
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Looks like a great place to eat! That food looks awesome!
I like the copper cup your drink was served in... Ive been wanting copper cups for some time now, haha... They're expensive though.
Thanks for sharing!
They are pretty expensive. A lot of places around here took your ID if you ordered one because people were stealing them. When they were first popular that is.
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Wow!~ Well I guess I shouldnt be too surprised... people can be jerks.
Great review! It looks like a pretty darn cool place.
My Mom's meatloaf recipe is 1/3 Pork Sausage and 2/3 Hamburger. I've used Italian sausage in it and it's really good. My brother that died had a source for 'Habenero Mango' sauce that I used a couple of times on meat loaf, once on the traeger. Wood smoked and fired meatloaf...
I like the sound of the place and it looks like you did too.
Thanks! Yes, I usually use a little pork sausage when I make traditional meatloaf at home. More commonly I have ground turkey meatloaf these days though. 😁 I like meatloaf on the grill a lot.
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THe name fillimore for me sounds quite posh, I have no idea why but the food and menu looks like a place I would happily eat at
I thought that at first too and while it was far from a dive bar, I didn't feel too uncomfortable with the surroundings. Definitely a place I could see myself trying everything on the menu.
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Thats the impression I got from your review ;)
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Once again, you need to reduce the size of your images before you post. It takes your post WAY longer to load than it should. Little details like this really do matter.
Thanks for the input. The problem is with Tasteem they like you to have pictures of the menu and things like that. If I reduce the photos by 40% to help them load quicker they get pixelated and you can't read the detail in the menus and things like that which are required for Tasteem posts.
The restaurant looks kind of homey.. I'm glad that you shared more pictures. This restaurant would have a decent size for Switzerland, I must say :) But I understand what you mean.
I'm happy to see that they have vegan options on their menu too! So I could choose as well :) I'm not such a fan of salad either. I do eat it because it's healthy but as you said there is not much to say about it.
Those fries look good! Never had them with truffle seasoning... your mashed potatoes wouldn't be my favorite I think. It does look like a glue but at least it had a good flavor. I have no idea why it happens that they turn out like this.
I find that their cocktails look very good. And they have quite a few for a restaurant.
I like your review and I think that the restaurant would probably agree with your statements as they seem to be fair to be :)
Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the awesome comment! There are a lot of little places like this in towns all over the US. The fries were pretty good. I think they actually just tossed them in a little bit of truffle oil, but I can't be sure.