For the 2024 Outstanding Restaurateur nominees, Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere, Baobab Fare in Detroit, Michigan is more than just a restaurant. Founded by the husband-and-wife team, who are refugees from Burundi, East Africa, Baobab Fare is a celebration of vibrant flavors and simple ingredients, authentic dishes and rich culture, and a destination in which community, connection, and conversation intersect…
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A Designed Life
Creative, persuasive, stimulating, and versatile; design and its many sub-fields have long been applied to large-scale world issues in politics, economics, and culture. The 20th century is rich in examples of design’s influence in the shaping and the response of relevant world events, from the economical office building boom that helped spur the International Style, to the ideological and aesthetic…
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MDRD in cityscape
The skyline in Grand Rapids, Michigan could be considered one of the most changed in the Midwest, with development projects and creative moments of design found around most corners of the downtown core, which spreads along western Michigan’s Grand River. It is a burgeoning travel destination with a bent for hospitality, with several recent hotel projects hosted in hospitality families…
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Walloon Lake warmth
The village of Walloon Lake, tucked near Lake Michigan’s Little Traverse Bay, has roots in northern Michigan’s tourism industry that date back to the late 1800s. It is still a getaway destination for those seeking a quaint and picturesque reprieve alongside multi-seasonal outdoor adventure and this is credited in part to the Hotel Walloon. The lakefront boutique hotel continues to…
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Wisconsin’s Highland
At just 20-years-old, young entrepreneur Elle Kaderabek made the move to become a business owner with the purchase and renovation of what was previously known as Kessler’s Old World Guesthouse in Cleveland, Wisconsin. Renamed by Kaderabek after the highlander cow, Highland Lodge is a rustic-modern, eight-room hotel with plans for additional expansion. The hotel, originally opened in 2002, was previously…
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Mountain inn
Text: Kyle Gandy Crystal Mountain, a nationally recognized four-season resort located about 28 miles southwest of Traverse City in Thompsonville, Michigan, has recently undergone an $11 million, 31,200-square-foot expansion—The Inn at the Mountain—that comprises 25 suites, a specialty market, a rooftop terrace, and coffee and wine bar. “One of the demands, in terms of our guests, is that we needed…