TRAVERSE CITY — Everything's better with cherries, say foodies in the so-called cherry capital of the world. Even, gulp, beer and pizza.
And don't forget potato chips.
Nutty Cherry Chicken Pizza, Cherry Pie Whole beer and Cherry BBQ potato chips are just a few of the strange-but-true foods showcasing the regional fruit during Traverse City's National Cherry Festival. The event runs through Saturday.
The specialty beer made with cherry crumb pie was released last week to coincide with the festival's opening and was an instant best-seller, said Russell Springsteen, of Right Brain Brewery.
"It's flying out of here," said Springsteen, who sells the premium beer in a 12-ounce glass for $6.50. "When you've got 50 whole cherry pies in it, how can you go wrong?"
The warehouse district brewery first experimented with incorporating pies in its brews back in February, when it used 75 caramel apple pies from the Grand Traverse Pie Co. to create its original Pie Whole beer. Cherry Pie Whole is a lighter ale with a lighter malt profile to highlight the natural cherry flavors, Springsteen said.
"It's pretty damn good," he added.
Mancino's Pizza and Grinders, of Traverse City, created its Nutty Cherry Chicken Pizza in 2010 as a way to reflect the region and has been winning awards with it since, said owner Linda Gutowski. Now it's just a question of getting area diners on board.
"It's amazing the reviews we get from people. It's just trying to get people out of the box with it," she said. "People think it's more of a dessert pizza and it's not. When they try it, people love it, but they are very hesitant to order it."
The pizza took sixth place in the nontraditional category at the 2010 International Pizza Expo and has been sampled by everyone from the U.S. Navy Blue Angels to superstar chef Mario Batali, Gutowski said.
"He ate it and couldn't believe I didn't win with it, and I believe he was quite sincere," she said.
The recipe includes a buttered crust infused with pecans and walnuts (there's also a traditional crust for non-nut lovers or people with nut allergies) and a secret white sauce that's not Alfredo, Gutowski said. The pizza is topped with marinated chicken breast, a blend of five cheeses — fontina, asiago, white cheddar, mozzarella and romano — and a generous amount of Traverse City cherries that were dried "right down the road."
The pricey but rich 12-inch pizza sells for $17.99 at Mancino's stores at Chum's Corners, near the Civic Center (Fair Street) and on West Bay Shore Drive in Elmwood Township. But you'd better order it while you can.
"If I don't see things change, I may have to stop carrying it in the winter," Gutowski said.
The Great Lakes Potato Chip Co. unveiled its limited-edition Cherry BBQ flavor just in time for the Cherry Festival and is selling the chips at the festival food market, Pangea's Pizza and the Cherry Stop store.
The small-batch, skin-on kettle chips combine the hearty, smoky taste of barbecue spices with the sweetness and tang of cherry flavorings, said Ed Girrbach, co-owner of the family manufacturing company.
"It's not overpowering, it's not weird," he said. "If you think about a cherry barbecue sauce on a rib, now you've got it."
Girrbach said the 6-ounce bags will sell for $3.99 while supplies last.
"It's a special Cherry Festival edition. We're not going to have it year-round," he said. "But if it goes well we'll probably look at releasing it at other area markets next year."
Also new at the festival food market: Six Lugs' Cherry Wine Sloshee, a concentrated fruit slush blend buyers mix with water and their favorite bottle of wine and then freeze to create a cherry wine slush.
"It's for a hot summer day on the beach, but it also looks really pretty in wine glasses," said Six Lugs' manager Daniel Umulis, who has been working on the product for more than a year.
A 12-ounce bottle of Cherry Wine "Sloshee" — spelled the way a Ukrainian friend pronounces it — sells for $11.99 and creates a half-gallon of cherry wine slush. It's sold with a stand-up bag in which to mix and freeze the drink.
"Once you freeze it, you can pass it around the table, scoop it out," Umulis said. "It's great for parties."
Umulis said the slush — made with merlot, his recommended wine — was a hit at a meeting of festival officials.
Now he hopes the product, which promotes two regional fruits — cherries and wine grapes — will take off like frozen tequila has in Florida.
Besides the festival food market, the fruit slush blend is sold at Burritt's Meat Market, Peppercorn and Oleson's Food Stores in Traverse City.
