When you cross the Mackinac Bridge into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, you are immediately presented with several options...
You can continue on I-75 North to Sault Ste. Marie, MI, you can exit into the downtown area of St. Ignace, or you can exit to the part of St. Ignace that begins the US-2 corridor.
If you head to downtown St. Ignace, there is no doubt you will see many great things. There are cool little shops and the ferries heading over to Mackinaw Island. My choice though, is usually the US-2 corridor. A couple hundred feet after you merge onto US-2 West you are presented with this gem of a restaurant.
Clyde's
If you are looking for a great place to get a hamburger in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, you should look no farther than Clyde's. You might have to search a bit because although it is a chain, there are only three locations spread across the UP. Likewise if you try to go in the Winter you will probably find most of them are closed.
The original location in Sault Ste. Marie is right near the river and offers fantastic views of the freighters heading to or from the locks. The location in St. Ignace is a must stop whenever we crossed the bridge growing up. The canopy is hard to miss as shown in the picture above and although they offer a small indoor eating area, the big draw is car hop service.
Finally the location that we have been visiting the last couple of years is the one in Manistique, MI.
Let me be clear right away, if you are looking for fine dining, Clyde's isn't the place for you. If you are looking for hand made burger patties cooked on a flat-top that has been seasoned by years and years of endless burger slinging, then THIS IS the place for you.
I usually get the standard cheeseburger, my dad however gets the "Big C". I love a good burger, but 3/4 lbs. Is just more red meat than I really need to be eating in one sitting.
If you go inside to order you will find yourself behind a classic diner counter-top with a row of stools lined up like a bar. Beyond the counter top you can see the workers manning the flat-top and deep fat fryers. If you happen to stop in during the lunch rush, you will see a never ending process of ground meat being formed into burgers on the cook-top and the hopper of beef they pull it from being refilled. It is seriously like an assembly line!
The process for my standard cheeseburger above goes something like this:
Two handfuls of ground beef are placed on the flat-top and pressed down with a spatula. While those start to cook they butter the bun and place it on a cooler part of the flat-top to start browning. Meanwhile they flip the burger patties once and cut a hunk of cheese off a big log of Velveeta or something similar. The cheese is placed on top of one of the patties and then the other patty is placed on top of the cheese and smashed down. Finally they place half of the bun on top of all of it until it is ready to be made into a complete burger. Add some ketchup, mustard, pickles, onions, and relish and you are all set. The end result isn't necessarily pretty, but it is oh so tasty!
Sorry I didn't get a clearer shot here. As most of us know, cell phone cameras don't do that good of a job at taking up close pictures. For being the standard cheeseburger, it doesn't look that big, but I would guess it was still a good 1/3 lb. of ground beef. The fries and other sides are typical frozen to fried fare. To be honest, you aren't coming to Clyde's for the fries though, it's a burger or nothing in my opinion.
If you ever make it to the UP of Michigan, make sure you swing by one of the three Clyde's locations and get yourself one of the best burgers in the state.
Credit to my wife's friend for taking some of the pictures with my wife's phone while I was inside ordering!
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