.jpg)
Legs Inn in Cross Village, Michigan
At the northern end of Michigan’s most famed “Tunnel of Trees,” perched on a bluff above the straits where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet, is the Legs Inn—equal parts Odawa-built cabin, wood carver’s museum, and Polish dining hall. Stanley Smolak, who was born in Kamionka, Poland, first settled in Cross Village (wintertime population 93) in the 1920s, working with Odawa laborers soon thereafter to build the stone and log restaurant. Smolak was an artist, specifically a wood carver, and handmade the vast majority of the totem poles, wooden tables, and chairs that remain inside this sprawling restaurant. “Stanley used to roam the forests and physically tie limbs of trees and bushes so that they would grow together to form a stronger set of twisted table legs,” says Stanley’s great nephew Mark Smolak, who co-owns the restaurant with his brother Chris. Don’t miss the three bars, each carved from massive single hemlock trees, or the curved tower with a chief’s face on both sides, which Smolak apparently made to serve as his own coffin. Entering the Legs Inn can feel like walking into a boisterous family gathering, the kind where a spontaneous, last-minute invite garnered an unexpected crowd. Lean into that. Chat with friendly, Midwestern strangers. And then find your way to your hand-carved table for kabanosy, bigos, pierogi, gołąbki, kielbasa, or a sampler platter that includes a trio of these.
At the northern end of Michigan’s most famed “Tunnel of Trees,” perched on a bluff above the straits where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet, is the Legs Inn—equal parts Odawa-built cabin, wood carver’s museum, and Polish dining hall. Stanley Smolak, who was born in Kamionka, Poland, first settled in Cross Village (wintertime population 93) in the 1920s, working with Odawa laborers soon thereafter to build the stone and log restaurant.
Smolak was an artist, specifically a wood carver, and handmade the vast majority of the totem poles, wooden tables, and chairs that remain inside this sprawling restaurant. “Stanley used to roam the forests and physically tie limbs of trees and bushes so that they would grow together to form a stronger set of twisted table legs,” says Stanley’s great nephew Mark Smolak, who co-owns the restaurant with his brother Chris.
Don’t miss the three bars, each carved from massive single hemlock trees, or the curved tower with a chief’s face on both sides, which Smolak apparently made to serve as his own coffin. Entering the Legs Inn can feel like walking into a boisterous family gathering, the kind where a spontaneous, last-minute invite garnered an unexpected crowd. Lean into that. Chat with friendly, Midwestern strangers. And then find your way to your hand-carved table for kabanosy, bigos, pierogi, gołąbki, kielbasa, or a sampler platter that includes a trio of these.
