Insane Asylum Pasta?

My dad has always been meticulous in planning family vacations. He’s your classic Trip Advisor subscriber, same thing with Consumer Reports and Open Table. He never went as far as printing off a itinerary for the trip, but he got pretty close (it was in his phone instead). But because of that, we were able to get some reservations for some really wonderful restaurants whenever we would go out on vacation to these places, and one of those was this place called Trattoria Stella.

The plan for this vacation was to do a road trip around the great lakes, but we mostly only went to Michigan. We took our minivan (the literal perfect road trip car) and drove through the Upper Peninsula to Detroit, and then back home. We made a few stops in between there and spread it in between a few days. One of those stops was in Traverse City, on the Lower Peninsula. We were staying a night there, centered around going to Sleeping Bear Dunes (pure sand dunes taller than most houses), but we had to get dinner SOMEWHERE.

Dad had already booked a reservation at this Italian place, but my mom, brother and I didn’t know much about it. As we’re doing the drive up the monster hill to the restaurant, we went through what had to be the biggest gates I’ve ever seen. This only added to the mysterious nature of this place (keep in mind I’m 14), and when we finally get there it’s this massive castle. Or at least, what looked like a castle.

Turns out it’s an ex-mental hospital. After we park the car, we enter the building at the Trattoria Stella tent, which was a set of stairs leading to the basement. So if you can imagine a 14 year old (me) and 12 year old (Tate, my younger brother), we were so excited to figure out what this place was we were about to explode. Once we enter into what seems like a dungeon, we get seated at our table and begin to look at the menu. In a bit, our waiter comes with water for the table and then after the introduction, we ask him about the history of the place. He said that it’s a run down mental hospital, and that only the historic buildings were saved and the rest were demolished. The building we were in (Building 50) was the most historic one and has been converted into almost a marketplace, with multiple other restaurants and farmer’s markets, a really food focused place.

(Trattoria Stella’s main dining room area)

With that, we order. Wikipedia says the building was constructed in an Italian fashion, which makes perfect sense why this, and other restaurants would be Italian. My parents aren’t wine drinkers at all, but they had an extensive wine collection as well. I don’t remember what I ordered before it, but my 14 year old self was a genius with ordering the Gnocchi for my main dish. It was the special for that night, and soaked in a tomato cream sauce. It was both the first time I’ve had Gnocchi and the best of it that I’ve had. I think they fried it in the sauce instead of just pouring the sauce over the pasta before serving because every bite was just an explosion of flavor.

If you’ve never had Gnocchi before, it’s almost a fried mini dumpling, stuffed with cheese. It’s easily my favorite pasta but it’s so easy to mess up. My local grocery store had pre-made Gnocchi and I tried to cook it once (in pesto) but over cooked it and the dumplings were hard, and the cheese inside was scalding hot. They cooked it perfectly and was one of the best meals I’ve had on a vacation I can remember. I’ve tried for a good while to recreate this but with no success. I think we’re supposed to make our own Gnocchi for a Monday coming up though, so fingers crossed we can pull it off then.

-Lars