this meal could drive you insane

Yesterday I went to eat at Trattoria Stella in Traverse City. To say that it was good would be completely true. To say that it was also in the basement of a former insane asylum would also be true.





















From what I've been told, the state was going to demolish this place a few years back but some developer guy offered to buy it from them for $1. Since this was exponentially cheaper than the cost of demolishing it (it's massive...a quarter mile of perimeter), they let him have it and it's been in various stages of renovation ever since.

A friend of mine got an impromptu tour of the place a few weeks back and, aside from the art shops, salons, restaurants, wine bars, etc. that are in the converted space, there are also some really creepy remnants of its former occupants that have yet to be remodeled. I asked the waiter if he knew what the dining room used to be and he asked me if I wanted the truth or a good lie. I asked for the lie and, without blinking, he said it had been used for food storage. I was too chicken to ask what it really was but I'm sure it was probably pretty macabre.
















I ordered this amazing vegetarian sandwich. It came with something I'd never tried before: pickled asparagus. Oh so good.
















For dessert we got the raspberry panna cotta. Nurse Ratched would not have approved.