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Stacey Nield Brugeman

@staceybrugeman

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Food & Travel Journalist
🗞️New York Times, Eater, Travel+Leisure, Food&Wine, Saveur, etc 📖 First book 2028, Ten Speed📍Great Lakes, Great Times

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Judging by my text feed this morning, I guess the cat’s outta the bag. I was in a Pittsburg hotel room with the kids, making my way home from Spring Break, when I first heard from @tacey.rychter asking if I was interested in writing 36 Hours in Traverse City for @nytimes. I’ve been a fan of this @nytimestravel column for all 20 years of my writing career, and it was an absolute honor to pen an installment. Not just because it’s the Times. Yes, there’s that. There’s definitely that. But also because the journey itself was such a joy. There’s so much more I will probably wish to say once I’ve processed the entire experience but, for now, just know that journalistic integrity is alive and well, and that I had a blast producing this with editors who are as dorky about the details as I am. Click the link in bio to read all of my recommendations for 36 Hours in Traverse City…and get yourself Up North to toast to a bucket list destination for a bucket list title. P.s. Serious thanks to all the area contacts who tolerated me pestering them with questions over the last six weeks, without even knowing what I was working on. It was important to the Times that I not get special treatment while reporting this. LOVE THAT, and each of the special businesses and destinations herein. 📷: @michellelitvin by @staceybrugeman

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2 years ago

Have you bought a copy of the summer issue of Midwest Living yet? I’m so proud of this feature, which includes six of my recipes plus conversations with the incredible humans behind @pearlfamilyfarm @shagbarkmill @nixtampls and @wild.bearies. Serious shout out to @midwestfooded for thinking of me, and to @brieism and Emma Isenhart for making this important story about corn and it’s many voices look so fabulous. Friends on the 45th Parallel: we are weeks (days?) away from local corn and you’re going to want this issue. Promise. Pssst. Link also in bio. 👩🏽‍🍳 by @staceybrugeman

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3 years ago

When Traverse magazine invited me to introduce myself to readers by penning a personal essay in their March issue, I was both honored and terrified. I’ve made a living telling other people’s stories, but can be awkward about telling my own. Needless to say, I can’t understate how much I’ve enjoyed hearing from so many subscribers about this piece, which is now online. Click the link in my bio to learn how I fell in love with the intersection of food and place, my lifelong ties to Northern Michigan, the supporting role that a few area icons have played along the way, and my opinion that recipes are a “starting point.” Speaking of starting points, special thanks to my parents for snapping and saving this 1978 photo of me sampling U-Pick Michigan strawberries atop the family Oldsmobile. @mynorthmedia📷: Jim Nield 📖: @thusseystudio __________________________#upinmichigan #traversemagazine #personalessay #oldsmobile #strawberries #upickfarm #mynorth #puremichigan #northernmichigan #upnorth #culinarynorth #eatdrinktc #michiganfoodie by @staceybrugeman

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5 years ago

In the mid 80s, I was lucky enough to travel to South Africa. My family has longstanding ties to the country and my parents, then concerned about the increasing likelihood of a civil war, were worried that they might not be able to share this incredible destination with their children if they didn’t do so quickly. I was in sixth grade and it was my first international trip.The experience ignited a lifelong thirst for travel, and became the first of countless journeys to remote places around the globe. And yet, across the decades, when people ask about my most memorable destination I often reflect on South Africa. It’s stunning, complicated, otherworldly. But I’ve always wondered, was I just enamored with it because it was my first? I recently had the opportunity to return to this incredible country for the first time in nearly 40 years, seeing it this time through the eyes of my three children. It’s as majestic as I remember, and none of us wanted to leave. I was pinned to the window as our plane lifted off of South African soil tonight, tears falling down my cheeks, holding the soft hand of my equally wanderlust first-born, wondering if I’ll ever be back, knowing I can’t let another 40 years pass if I wish to return. In the days to come, I’ll be reliving every moment of our trip—every bite, every travel tip, and every gesture of the incredible hospitality that was extended to us in my stories. Whether you’ve been thinking about planning a trip of your own or simply need a virtual escape from the political woes of these times, I hope you will follow along. Baie dankie, South Africa. 🇿🇦🎧: Limpopo’s @masterkgsa 📷: @vivve._📋: @bushbabytours by @staceybrugeman

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4 months ago

ICYMI, Traverse City was just named Midwest Living’s Food City of the Year! Here’s the thing, TC chefs, you earned this. Shortly after my piece for Eater went live (yes, the international one), I heard from the Food Editor at Midwest Living. We’ve worked together before, and she asked if I’d be up for doing a roundup of 15 fabulous places to eat in Traverse City, for the website. I don’t accept a ton of online-only work, and rarely can say yes to things with a tight turnaround, but for some reason this ask just worked. (It helps that I have a ton of respect for this particular editor and that I feel really strongly that if a national title is going to cover our fantastic town anyway, I love supporting the wisdom to use a local voice.) Anyway, it wasn’t until after I submitted my draft that I learned my roundup would be part of this larger package; and not until this issue dropped that I learned—just like you—that Traverse City got top honors. So, for those of you who’ve got your head down in the kitchen (good on ya) and keep saying I’m your best cheerleader, I’m calling your bluff this time. This is you, friends. You are earning the attention. Keep on keeping on…and save a few barstools for last-minute walk-ins like me.P.S. if you didn’t make this roundup but have appeared in my other work, please know I’m just spreading the love in our increasingly dynamic food town. By all means please drop your fave places to eat who are NOT on this list in the comments. To do that, you’d better start by finding out who did make the cut this time around. Link in bio. Much love and mad respect, TC. ✌️📸: @midwestlivingmag @cookshouse @artisantraversecity @raquel.furman @franks_231 @makphotography @s2s.sugar2salt by @staceybrugeman

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4 months ago

HARLAN “PETE” PETERSON 1943-2026 What an honor it was to be asked by @tcrecordeagle to pen an obituary for this incredible soul. It felt fitting to me to run it on a Wednesday, which of course was always such a big food-media day during chef Pete’s Tapawingo era. Today, this gentle giant has rightly jumped out of the food section and onto the front page, top of the fold. You can read about his life and significant legacy anywhere newspapers are sold (and at link in bio). Tapawingo, a Native word, has a few meanings. Among them, “place of peace.” May you rest easy in your forever Tapawingo, chef. 📷: @tcrecordeagle @michael_poehlman_photography @dzwphoto @cookshouse @americanspoon @detroitfreepress @petoskeynews by @staceybrugeman

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5 months ago

We might need to get Grandma’s punch bowl down again. Remember how I’ve been saying I had big news coming in 2026? Welp, it feels a little surreal to even be typing this but, with so much excitement, I can finally share that I’m working towards my first book. I’ve partnered with the best of the best, Kelly Snowden at Ten Speed Press, and am under contract to bring you a title that’s scheduled for release by summer 2028. That’s all I can say for right now, but if you follow me you know I’m good for a few clues in my stories along the way. I cannot WAIT to share what I can about the process as we go, to toast with those of you who’ve been encouraging me to make this leap for decades, and to push a little joy into the world. Let’s go! 📖 by @staceybrugeman

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6 months ago

Sometimes, the backstory is just as fun as the assignment itself. My latest for @eater feels like one of those times. Those of you who work with me regularly know that I rarely pitch stories. I’m actually not *trying* to blow up our special little corner of the world. The great majority of the work I’ve done since moving home to Michigan in 2019 has fallen in my lap. My thinking is that if this national title or that national title is going to cover northern Michigan anyway, with or without me, then “yes” of course I’d love to be the one to (hopefully) nail it. This assignment was an exception to that. When @nicholasmancallbitel reached out to me asking if I had any destinations Eater should consider for this package, I realized I felt so strongly about Traverse City being on the precipice of a super important moment in our region’s culinary trajectory that it would be a disservice to both the industry itself and my editor *not* to pitch it. Yes, there have been shooting stars over the decades (Tapawingo, The Rowe Inn, Alliance). Yes, our area benefits every single day from those forerunners who continue to guide us (@cookshouse @stellatraversecity @americanspoon). Yes, big-city talent moving here is among the things making this feel like a moment (@modernbirdtc, @boswine, @umbotraversecity, @supperglenarbor). But I’d actually like to dedicate this one to everybody else. 150 words isn’t nearly enough space to tell the entire story, so I’m looking at you @crocodile_palace @glendale.burger.shop, @wrensuttonsbay, @s2s.sugar2salt, @gh0stn0te, @sarah.bobier, @lomafarm, @lakeviewhillfarm, @tlcfarmtotable @sarahardyfarmersmarket, @traversewinecoast @traversecityfoodandwine, @gilchristfarmwinery and so.many.others who couldn’t be mentioned this time but are also a critical part of what caused me to break my own rule. I’m thrilled to celebrate this special place on the page, but even luckier to watch all of you do your thing every single day off the page. Keep up the good work, the team work, Traverse City. As I write, you “foster a collaborative energy that’s only possible in the friendly Midwest.”Psssst. Keep journalism alive and click the link in bio. 💫 by @staceybrugeman

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6 months ago

Over break, we had to travel downstate unexpectedly. The sandwich generation is real, y’all. But this era is among the many reasons we left Colorado to return home, and delivering a hot homemade feast to those who couldn’t travel felt far more meaningful than anything else we might have spent our break doing. Plus, we extended our German Christmas by checking in on a culinary landmark and 2020 @beardfoundation America’s Classic winner—Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth, a Michigan icon. I’m still full, in all the ways.🎶: A German icon, Ludwig Van Beethoven by @staceybrugeman

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7 months ago

Awhile back I was visiting my Ann Arbor bestie and her family. She and her husband (a wine importer) love good food as much as I do, and so they drove me over to nearby Dexter to be sure I didn’t leave town without checking out @carosellopasta, a charming pastaficio just off Dexter’s main drag. What I quickly realized was that not only was Carosello amazing, but so too was every square inch of this Victorian village…and I promptly told @juliasayers as much. As the Michigan Scout for Midwest Living, it was obvious that Dexter was perfect for her Small Town column, and thus my latest piece for the title was born. When you are sprinting through the airport this week, do that thing where you support good old fashioned long-lead journalism and buy the fall issue of @midwestlivingmag. Whether you make Dexter a day-trip or a full weekend, I give you all the deets for leaf peeping, shopping, and eating in this bucolic riverside town this fall. Spoiler alert: there’s donuts involved. 🍩 by @staceybrugeman

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a year ago

You guys. Traverse City Food & Wine wildly exceeded my expectations. Over the past few decades, I’ve been to more food festivals than I can count—the media passes from which are now tangled with Disney princess costumes and train conductor caps in my kiddos’ ready-to-be-retired dress-up bin. I guess, going into Traverse City’s first-ever food festival, I assumed that it would be hard to top the year that my storyline required me to tent camp for the granddaddy of them all, in Aspen. Or the one where for weeks I got to shadow chef Alex Seidel as he selected, slaughtered, butchered, cooked, and served lamb for, it felt like, thousands of people as a newly-minted Best New Chef. But this weekend’s festival in Traverse City was every bit as enjoyable as any in my mental Rolodex, and then some. There was a really excellent intersection of national, downstate, and local talent—all coming together as one unified team equally enamoured with northern Michigan. There was the setting—those turquoise waters that those who fly in can’t get over and those who live here take for granted. There was the weather, summer’s last bluebird breath before autumn’s cumulus clouds rolled in. There was thoughtful conversion–from cookbook projects to the evolution of our region’s winemaking practices. And of course there was the food, in all its growing-season glory just a bike ride from the soil from which it came. I am ridiculously happy for those who worked their tails off all summer to make this event come together so beautifully. I’m in awe of the work ethic of the chefs, winemakers, distillers, farmers, bartenders, brewers, and producers who said yes to taking this on in the home stretch of an already-grueling peak season. And I’m so grateful to be even the smallest part of such a special, selfless, and collaborative food and wine community, where the most talented of the bunch value equity, modesty, partnership, and absolute excellence. Herein, in the spirit of that selflessness, are are few favorite images of the food and wine itself. Please play it back in 2026, Traverse City!📸: @austf0, @brenesan, @traversecityfoodandwine by @staceybrugeman

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a year ago

I first attended the James Beard Awards in 2000. Ruth Reichel had recently unmasked, Charlie Trotters in Chicago won Outstanding Restaurant, and I was a food publicist who was about to switch to the journalism side. A quarter century later, on the heels of this year’s Beard Awards, I’ve been reflecting on all the things that have changed since, and those things that have not. One theme I keep coming back to is what it means to be part of the restaurant universe from a relatively rural location instead of the urban markets I called home for so long. I’ve been asking myself what responsibilities come with loving this industry from a location where there are no local restaurant critics, no publicists as cherished as the clients they represent, no regional titles that do an annual roundup of best restaurants. Instead, this is a place where chefs live next to farmers, friends come in the back door with perch and morels, and everyone is totally cool with not knowing what the heck a “step and repeat” is. Needless to say, you’re darn right I drove down to Chicago earlier this week to support Jen Blakeslee, Eric Patterson, and the team at Cooks’ House—James Beard Finalists from Traverse City. Yes, it was amazing to re-connect with chefs, former co-workers, and pals from my decades in NYC and Denver. Absolutely it was fun to holler when a Colorado restaurant I’ve dined in multiple times took home top honors. Certainly it was great to come home and tell my kids that they themselves had experienced incredible hospitality at the New York City champion of hospitality. The biggest reason I went, however, is the piece that is now cemented in my mind as the most important: supporting individuals who are not only supremely talented, but wildly selfless and modest—who do so much to lift up the entire culinary community in this beautiful little place I get to call home. Thank you @cookshouse for being awesome in all the ways, and CONGRATULATIONS on your very well-deserved @beardfoundation nom.Pictured: images that capture my 2025 Beard experience, courtesy of Clay Williams, Jeff Schear, Eliesa Johnson, Galdones Photography, the James Beard Foundation, and Cooks’ House. by @staceybrugeman

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a year ago