The Casual Chef Café & The Pumpernickel Inn

Union Pier, United States

2.2

20 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards
Free Wi-Fi

Contacts

QR code, vCard

Telephone:
+1 269-469-1200
Website:
pumpernickelinn.com
Address:
16090 Red Arrow Hwy, Union Pier, MI, 49129
Categories:
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
No
Delivery
No
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Good For
Breakfast, Lunch, Dessert
Parking
Private Lot
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
No
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Casual
Noise Level
Average
Alcohol
No
Outdoor Seating
Yes
Wi-Fi
Free
Has TV
No
Dogs Allowed
No
Waiter Service
Yes
Caters
No

Today

Today –
Local time (Union Pier) 9:59 PM Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Business hours

Monday –
Tuesday –
Wednesday –
Thursday –
Friday –
Saturday –
Sunday –

Description

Specialties

We are a dedicated culinary café in today’s world of fast food. We have a scratch kitchen crafting unique and quality food to order… specializing in soups as well as a very diverse menu of healthy foods. We offer the vegetarian a wide variety of choices in addition to our normal fare.

With our dedication and working almost entirely from scratch to create each order, comes the reality that we are not fast and we offer a «food experience.» We also have the smallest kitchen in the area which leads

to the kitchen have great quality control but also again means we are not fast food. Please come and enjoy the culinary experience and the unique flavors of our food.

We also house a wonderful quaint Bed and Breakfast with 5 charming rooms at reasonable prices.

To round off your experience we feature Starbucks coffee and 24 award winning flavors of award winning gelato and sorbet.

History

Established in 1991.

Starting in 1991as a small deli in New Buffalo, we grew with our reputation for amazing soups and quality food. By 1993 we were ready to expand and bought our current location in Union Pier, an early 1900’s Hotel, which became a work in progress and evolves every year. Our small deli became a sit down eatery and we utilized our upstairs to open a cozy Bed and Breakfast. A side building was our next project which we joined to the main building and opened a Starbucks coffee bar and an Italian Gelato shop. This year we added an outside deck area for relaxing and enjoying the fare.

Meet the Business Owner

Glenn A.

Business Owner

A business man since 1970, culinary school called in 1990 and I graduated with honors. My philosophy has been simple… producing and creating the best culinary delights possible and never compromising quality and care.

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20 reviews of The Casual Chef Café & The Pumpernickel Inn

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Place rating: 1
Libertyville, IL
Arrived hungry at 4:45pm. Menu looked great, never got to eat there, stopped serving sandwiches at 4pm. Really?
Place rating: 2
Galien, MI
Been sitting for ten minutes. There is only three other tables in here and we have not yet been greeted by the teenage server. About to walk out! Service here sucks!!! If you are a local you wont get service, maybe if you are a fip they might acknowledge you? I won’t be back.
Place rating: 1
High Point, NC
This is the worst service I have had in a long time. When I asked the host for a table he was currently in the process of bussing, another Busser dropped a stack of 6 plates on the ground which reined priority at that point. This delayed our seating approximately 20 minutes, finally when we got to sit down the time had passed for breakfast and they would not accommodate us. Do not eat here unless you enjoy inconvenience and have time to waste.
Place rating: 1
Chicago, IL
Less than a star. Saw the «Breakfast» sign and went at 11AM on a Sunday (usually a major brunch day). Waited patiently, then 2 of us ordered breakfast and 1 person ordered a salad. Waited patiently.
Waitress came back and said, either all order breakfast or all order lunch, no splitting between lunch and breakfast allowed… Ok the 8 yr old who wanted the salad picked a breakfast item. Waited patiently. THEN she comes back and says, we’re no longer serving breakfast!!! What??? We took our coffees to go and left. Unreal. So never ate the food, but just couldn’t get thru the shifting sands
of their rules. I felt sorry for the servers in their servitude.
Give me a break (fast)!
A breakfast Nazi lives!
On closer look, it’s a dump, dirty plates everywhere including on the ground.
Place rating: 1
Saint Augustine, FL
First it took 20 minutes before we sat ourselves because no one cared about people waiting. Then the server took orders from tables that sat after us. When the food did come it took a while to get our silverware and then we didn’t even get what we ordered. When we asked the server to take it back, she suggested we just eat what was served to us. I later heard that the chef would blow a nut if you returned anything. This place doesn’t deserve a star.
Place rating: 1
Sparks, NV
I came in excited to get lunch for my family at this cute café. I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG, the service was marginal at best and when we ordered 5 sandwiches we were told that the chef wouldn’t make that many. On top of that they were very rude and left us with know choice but to walk out. It seems obvious to me that the chef/​owner most not care about good bushiness or other people. Along with the fact that not only he did not apologize to any of the negative Unilocal reviews he choses to respond with childish arguments. I wish I would have checked Unilocal before going there and I hope you see this to save yourself the trip.
Place rating: 4
Bridgman, MI
Had there share of service problems when busy but food was great. Just informed THEY ARE OPENING SOON! That is good news. Nice menu and care is taken by kitchen to make it as you like it. Gelato is to kill for. Go here and you will be happy you did. If place is busy… be patient!
Place rating: 4
Saint Joseph, MI
The negative reviews surprise me. I have eaten here several times and have never been disappointed. It is a small, cozy place — not the place for a group — and I certainly don’t find that to be a criticism.
I have not had the pleasure of trying the breakfast, but I have had several business lunches here and have yet to be disappointed.
I have never felt the service to be poor, but know where you are — this is a small place and during peak timing, God forbid a peak day such as July 4, you will wait. This is not McD’s and it will not have 4 or 5 wait staff working on moving you in and out for seating maximization.
Place rating: 4
New Buffalo, MI
This is one of our favorites places for lunch. Not sure why the reviews are so low. The food is always been for the 8+ years we’ve been coming very good. Service, like most places here, is hit or miss but always friendly if slow and unattentive. Try it and you will probably be back for a small quaint delicious detour from red arrow highway at the union pier intersection.
Place rating: 1
Chicago, IL
Went here this morning (Labor Day) and got a bagel amongst other things… Opened it up from its surround wrap to discover mold on it!!! Shocked…
Place rating: 4
Union Pier, MI
Don’t get a bad impression of this place based on some of these reviews. Look, it’s a tiny breakfast and lunch place in Harbor Country. It’s not a diner. We have breakfast here most weekends, and the service is heavily influenced by the number of customers being seated. (I am a Casual Chef apologist, I admit) This is NOT a place for groups. Menu is simple, food is prepared well. Great quiche.
Great place to sit back and read the paper, drink some coffee, relax. Y’know, CASUAL, like the sign says. Don’t be in a hurry, where do you need to be? If you’re uptight, or expecting this place to be something else, you’re not going to have a good experience.
Also a good place to grab a soda or some Palazzo’s (Michigan local) gelato the rest of the day while on the go.
Place rating: 1
La Porte, IN
I have same review posted under Pumpernickel Inn as well as the whole place is intertwined. That said, go elsewhere. You can get good service elsewhere. Why deal with this frustration.
Ok, I’ve had a great breakfast here before, but they go out of their way to make me dislike them. Where do I start… First the service is HORRIBLE like really bad. You look around and there may only be 2 or 3 other tables seated, but no matter their staff just doesn’t care to treat customers well. The wait after order is loooonnnngggg. On my last, and final, attempt to give them redemption I ordered a fresh fruit plate with my French toast (which took an hour to arrive at the table) I got literally 3 grapes, 2 strawberries, and a ¼ banana… For a cost of 5.99!!! WTF? After I complained the manager response was that’s what it is. Fair enough, but now I’m done and I caution you in advance.
MGR comment claims I had wrong place. I can assure you I didn’t. From the tea kettle collection, muffins and coffee self serve from the center table to ice cream served in adjacent area… This is the place. AND no worries I won’t be going back and anyone reading this shouldn’t either.
Place rating: 1
Eden Prairie, MN
This is for the casual chef and not the Inn. Two kids running the whole floor with a full dining room. Ordered one of the salads which came with Raspberry Vinaigrette. We requested a Balsamic instead. We waited 30 minutes for the replacement dressing to come. Why? The server, who was extremely nice, had to write a ticket in to the cook, who is the owner. We asked to take the salad off the bill and the server said she has to get permission from the boss, which was the cook. He wasn’t responding to either. When the dressing finally came, it was your typical Balsamic. It had the flavor but the consistency was like gravy, thick. Too bad because the menu looks good. The owner/​manager/​cook is not offering any customer service.
Place rating: 1
Chicago, IL
Well the menu looked great for lunch ! Unfortunately there was zero service!!! Two teenagers were working. One «cooking» and one serving ice cream from the ice cream bar to 20 people. No one in the restaurant. We sat at our table for 20 minutes without a single acknowledgement. Not a professional establishment. This is 4th of July weekend and it was lunch time???
Perhaps there had been some great unexpected catastrophe with staffing ?
Too bad. Menu looked yummy.
Place rating: 1
Chicago, IL
This review is for the Casual Chef Café, not the Pumpernickel Inn. I ate here yesterday.
The name of the restaurant says it all. The chef is casual indeed. It’s like he just doesn’t care.
When I first looked at the menu, I saw pancakes for $ 3.95. I thought that was a great price. Then, I got the pancakes, and they were incredibly greasy and not so tasty. These may have been the worst pancakes I ever ate. Just to clarify, I ate about a half a pancake. It was like he had a list of pancake ingredients and just threw them together on a griddle without measuring the correct quantities.
The bacon was incredibly crunchy. Some people like their bacon that crunchy. That’s not really my preference. One of my friends also ordered a side of bacon. It never came out. We mentioned to our server that his side of bacon never was brought out. She just kind of nodded, and she did subtract it from the bill, however, she never tried to rectify the situation by bringing out bacon.
The toast was OK.
They serve Starbuck’s coffee. I noticed all of our coffee had bubbles at the top, so I’m guessing they never cleaned all the soap out of the coffee pots or something? When I go to Starbucks’ or brew coffee (any kind of coffee) at home, my cup is never filled with bubbles after pouring it.
Go to Blue Plate Café a 3 minute drive down the street instead of this place. You won’t be disappointed.
Place rating: 5
Stevensville, MI
Serena was great and we met they owner who takes great pride in preparing great tasting food that is also healthy. You can just stop in for some gelato, Starbucks coffee or enjoy the sunshine in this very well lit place for a terrific breakfast or lunch.
Place rating: 4
Hinsdale, IL
Cute café and adjacent ice cream shop — super delicious homemade ice creams & gelatins, sundaes, etc. Even though they don’t offer floats I just bought my own IBC root beer from the cooler in the store, asked the counter gal to drop two big spoonfuls of ice cream in a cup and top the ersatz float off with some whipped cream! No problem! Delicious, especially when enjoyed from the open-​air side porch!
Place rating: 4
Chicago, IL
Gelato
This place has the best Mi Gelato!
Take the kids and go !!!
Many flavors and you can sit outside I you like.
They also have great soup
Place rating: 1
Northbrook, IL
Thank you Glenn for your response.
Two people from our party walked in and the hostess simply said that they will not be serving us. She offered no explanation, nor did she ask for the number of people in our party. The rest of our group were in the car and had not yet entered the building. Therefore party size obviously had nothing to do with not being served. Another couple behind us were also refused service, which they said was common for this café. A professional explanation from the hostess as to why were we would not be seated would also have been appropriate.
I can also understand being refused service if the café was very busy from other diners, or Inn guests. The café only had two other couples being served at the time that we arrived.
If reservations for large parties are required perhaps the business name «The Casual Chef Café» is a little misleading. How would visitors to Union Pier know that reservations for breakfast to a «casual café» were required?
Place rating: 2
Chicagoland, IL
Very cute inside with a interesting wide ranging selection of soups — like 15 of them and at least double that in ice cream selections. They ever give free tastes.
I had the ham and brei cheese sandwich– it was really good on like a petzel bread. But please be aware– its TINY. I really could have easily eaten 2 orders plus of it. I thought it was not nice to have that small of a sandwich for a lunch entrée.
My mom had the grilled chese which was really good. Bt the one side of it was very burnt. We thought it was funny that teh cook flipped the sandwich so the burnt side was down. This is also a little ding in the enjoyment of the place.