Dinner here comes with two main characters: the menu and Lake Michigan.
The kitchen changes course with the season, so there is no permanent lineup waiting every night. What lands on the table depends on what makes sense that day.
Outside the windows, the lake brings its own personality to dinner. Calm water can turn moody fast, which keeps the setting from ever feeling copied and pasted.
This Michigan restaurant has been serving dinner since 2008, with a new generation of family ownership now carrying it forward.
I’d arrive after five and leave my usual order at home. This is one dinner where predictability would almost spoil the fun.
Sleeping Bear Bay Stays In View Through Dinner
The setting gives Blu an immediate sense of place before the first plate arrives. The restaurant sits directly on Lake Michigan in Glen Arbor, with views across Sleeping Bear Bay and out toward the Manitou Islands.
Large windows keep the water visible from inside, so dinner changes along with the light outside.
An earlier reservation can bring more daylight across the bay, while a later table shifts the focus toward evening views. The scenery does not require a special occasion to matter.
It is simply part of how the room is arranged.
The location also separates Blu from restaurants where the view is a short walk away rather than part of the meal itself. Here, the shoreline is right outside, and the menu’s emphasis on local ingredients gives the setting another connection to Northern Michigan.
Take a few minutes before ordering to look through the menu rather than rushing toward a familiar entrée. Since the kitchen rewrites the selection daily, the best route is to see what is available that night and work from there.
A table near the windows can make the water more prominent, but the broader dining room still keeps the bay close. The meal starts with the view, then the menu begins changing the conversation.
The Restaurant Has Been Part Of Glen Arbor Since 2008
Blu opened in 2008 under Randy and Mari Chamberlain, who built the restaurant around fine dining, daily-changing menus, and a location directly on Lake Michigan. Their work gave the restaurant a long first chapter before ownership shifted within the family.
Randy Chamberlain brought years of restaurant experience to the kitchen, while Mari Chamberlain handled the dining side of the business. Together, they developed the restaurant through sixteen years of service in Glen Arbor.
The menu was never designed around a single fixed list. European techniques, local ingredients, and products from farther afield shaped dishes that changed with availability and season. That approach remains visible today.
Dinner still begins with a menu written for the day, continuing the flexible format Blu has used for years.
More than fifteen years of service give the current dining room a long connection to Glen Arbor.
Blu has been working with this combination of lake views and changing menus since the late two-thousand.
It gave the present-day restaurant a clear link to the place that opened sixteen years before the ownership transition.
A New Generation Took Over In 2024
Randy and Mari Chamberlain retired from Blu in 2024 after sixteen years at the restaurant. On April 1, ownership passed to Randy’s son, Brandon Chamberlain, keeping the business within the family.
Brandon came into the role with restaurant experience of his own, including work at Blu as well as other Northern Michigan restaurants.
Chef Todd Thompson took the lead in the kitchen during the same transition.
Thompson had worked with Randy Chamberlain for years before the handoff, so the change did not begin with a completely new team.
The current menu shows room for Thompson’s own direction. Caribbean, Asian, and Filipino influences can appear alongside the European techniques long associated with Blu, while local produce and regional sourcing remain part of the framework.
That gives returning diners a reason to read the menu from the top instead of assuming an older favorite will still be there. The restaurant kept its daily-changing format, but the flavor combinations can move in new directions.
For a first visit, focus on what the kitchen is making now. The family connection remains, and the restaurant’s second generation has its own way of using the same lakeside setting.
The Daily Menu Moves With Northern Michigan Ingredients
Blu creates its menu daily, which makes seasonality a working part of dinner rather than a phrase attached to one or two specials. Local ingredients appear alongside selected products from farther away, and European cooking techniques provide much of the foundation.
A recent late-summer menu showed how wide that range can be.
Leelanau County vegetables and greens appeared in salads built with ingredients such as heirloom tomatoes, cherries, cucumbers, fennel, blueberries, and local fruit.
Appetizers included fried green tomatoes, ricotta gnocchi, crab puffs, and shrimp-and-scallop ceviche.
The entrée list moved through seared sea scallops with lemon-saffron beurre blanc and risotto, rainbow trout with corn risotto, duck confit with a Caribbean peach sauce, lamb chops with cherries and wild rice, and other meat and seafood preparations.
Vegetables, seafood, meat, grains, fruit, and sauces shift as the kitchen responds to what is available.
Start with the ingredient that catches your attention most. A vegetable-focused first course can keep the beginning lighter, while gnocchi or crab puffs move the meal in a richer direction. For the entrée, let the protein and accompanying grain or sauce narrow the field.
Lake Views And A Daily Menu Meet At One Glen Arbor Address
Blu is at 5705 S Lake St, Glen Arbor, MI 49636, right along the Lake Michigan shoreline. The location puts the dining room close to the water and within the small downtown area rather than requiring a separate drive after exploring Glen Arbor.
That makes timing easy to shape around the rest of the day. You can spend the afternoon around Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Glen Arbor, or the surrounding Leelanau Peninsula, then shift toward dinner without turning the evening into another long route.
Once you arrive, the daily menu gives the evening plenty of direction. The lake view and smaller fine-dining format add structure without requiring another activity.
Sleeping Bear Bay remains close to the dining room, with the shoreline directly outside.
If the view matters most, an earlier reservation can give you more time with daylight. If the food is the priority, let the current menu drive the timing instead. Either approach works because the setting stays constant even while the dishes change.
The Current Kitchen Mixes Local Produce With Broader Influences
Chef Todd Thompson’s menus continue to use fresh local ingredients while expanding the flavor range around them.
Area farm markets remain part of his sourcing routine, and the menu can combine Northern Michigan produce with techniques or accents drawn from several cuisines.
That approach showed clearly on a recent summer menu. Peach appeared in more than one form, including a shrimp-and-scallop ceviche and a Caribbean-style sauce for duck confit. Kimchi accompanied ricotta gnocchi and grilled shrimp.
Cherry ponzu appeared with bluefin tuna, while collard greens and charred tomato cream sat beside wild boar tenderloin.
The combinations give you a useful way to order. Look beyond the main protein and read the sauce, grain, vegetable, or fruit beside it. Those details often tell you more about the direction of the plate than the entrée name alone.
Local ingredients still anchor the menu. Leelanau County vegetables and greens receive their own section, and seasonal fruit can move from salads into sauces and accompaniments.
A changing menu rewards a little flexibility when you arrive. One night may lean toward peaches and cherries, another toward mushrooms, squash, or different Great Lakes ingredients. The format stays recognizable even when the specifics move.
Dinner Starts Tuesday Through Saturday At Five
Blu currently serves dinner Tuesday through Saturday, beginning at 5 p.m. That keeps the restaurant focused on evening dining and gives the daily menu a clear window rather than stretching service across lunch and dinner.
Reservations make sense when Blu is the centerpiece of the evening, especially if you want more control over the timing. An earlier table leaves room for daylight across Sleeping Bear Bay, while a later reservation can shift the meal toward the quieter end of the evening.
The restaurant also carries current outside recognition. Blu is listed as a DiRōNA Award of Excellence restaurant for 2026, adding a recent industry honor to a business that has operated in Glen Arbor since 2008.
Awards do not need to decide the order, though. The stronger plan is to let the current menu do that work.
Begin with the ingredients that are most seasonal, decide whether seafood, meat, or vegetables should lead the main course, and save dessert for whatever the kitchen has prepared that day.
The lake provides the fixed part of the experience. The menu supplies the changing one. Between the two, dinner can look different from visit to visit without losing the character that has kept Blu tied to this corner of Northern Michigan for years.