Hemlock's Maple Grille cooks farm fresh with fire

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The Maple Grille in Hemlock, Michigan, offers a rotating farm-to-table menu. Everything is cooked on a wood-fired grill or pizza oven. The business sits on 6 acres of land, including the restaurant, a brewery housed in a repurposed shipping container, a chicken coop, a hoop house, and a small produce farm.

Two things stand out in the gravel parking lot: the smoke wafting out of a long pavilion, and an enormous pile of firewood.

“The Maple Grille started out here,” said Josh Schaeding, chef and owner of the restaurant.

Before the property just off M-46 became a restaurant, it was home to a construction company owned by Schaeding’s father and grandfather. The family built two long maple syrup evaporators in front of the business, near the roadside.

“So many people stopped by and thought we were cooking ribs,” Schaeding said. “We were just cooking maple syrup. I decided as soon as syrup season was over to… start a restaurant here.”

The restaurant is surrounded by farmland and draws in a mix of locals, loyal seasonal customers, and vacationers passing through on their way up north. Nearly everything on the menu is locally sourced, from the meat to the produce to the firewood that fuels all three of their grills.

You can see more photos from our visit HERE.

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