Traverse City restaurant Modern Bird lands on New York Times best of list
Traverse City restaurant Modern Bird lands on New York Times best of list
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A restaurant in Traverse City has landed on The New York Times’ list of the best restaurants in the country.
Modern Bird sits on Front Street near Maple Street in downtown Traverse City. Opened in 2022 by husband-and-wife duo Andy Elliott and Emily Stewart, it serves up seasonal dishes like a sockeye salmon or the Wagyu Denver steak, made with produce sourced from local farms.
The duo opened Modern Bird a few years after moving to Traverse City from Chicago, where they met while working on the line at a restaurant. The area’s diverse and abundant produce “just inspires you to create,” Elliott told News 8.
“We weren’t sure exactly what route we wanted to go other than we wanted to go into business for ourselves when we moved up here,” he said. “We took some time to learn a bit more about Traverse City, we started a family along the way, and Modern Bird was the place that we wanted to go eat at that didn’t exist at the time. So we made it.”
The Modern Bird in Traverse City has landed on the New York Times’ 2025 list of the best restaurants in America. (Courtesy Andy Elliott)
Monday night, they found out their restaurant had made this year’s “The Restaurant List” from The New York Times, a list of what the outlet’s reporters and editors say are the best 50 in America.
To put together the list, the team of 14 tried more than 200 meals across 33 states. One of those stops was at the Modern Bird, where they tried a walleye dish with “creamy, crunchy and fresh” fish medallions served with red mole, popcorn, onions, chiles and cilantro.
“It sounds over the top, but it works,” Sara Bonisteel writes.
But while “over the top” may describe that particular dish, it doesn’t describe the restaurant as a whole, Elliott said.
“We’re not an ostentatious, big showy place,” he said.
Landing on the list was an unexpected honor, Elliott said, adding he’s proud of the restaurant’s staff. He said they’re hoping to do something this weekend to celebrate.
“But we haven’t really had time to stop and take a breath and figure out if we can even celebrate,” he said with a chuckle. “We’re just super grateful. … We’re really lucky to work with a great group of people that are the heart and soul of what we do here.”
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