Clearman's North Woods Inn

On the way back from a magnificent hike up the sacred Mount Baldy this afternoon, the hunger pangs set in once we headed down the hill. My wife grew up in Mexico, and therefore has deep admiration and fascination with foods such as cheese toast and mushroom gravy and places like Damon's, Taylors, the North Woods Inn and the Dal Rae. Her mother never made macaroni and cheese, salisbury steak, or cream of mushroom soup. There were no steak and potatoes over there. The North Woods Inn is the type of place that my wife fantasized about eating as she sat there with a tortilla rolled up in her little hand over a bowl of pozole. It was really fun to see her having so much fun at this place and contributes generously to my 3 star rating. I had been here on one previous occasion with my dad and Uncle Bill, back around the Bicentennial, and it was probably this very same location. It still looks like a dark cabin complete with deer hoof gun racks and snowshoes mounted on the walls. On my first visit as a kid I ordered a chili dog. My uncle chain-smoked Pall Malls at the dinner table and ordered several giant beers before he drove us all home drunk in his Ford LTD. Those were the good old days. Little, it seems, has changed save the no smoking policy and the trebling of the prices. The cabbage slaw and bleu cheese iceberg salad were very good. The lettuce was crispy and cold and the red slaw tossed in a nice oil and vinegar dressing was quite tasty. They also make a mean cheese toast here. It would have been prudent to stop at this point, but we both continued to eat until we contracted a severe case of butter poisoning. And the entrees were more or less what you might get at a place like the Sizzler if you paid an additional twenty bucks. I noticed that they had a taxidermy bear in a glass case in the lobby. I don't approve of using bears for decoration, but the deer hoof gun racks are more or less acceptable.