Where To Eat This Week

As many of you know we have amazing restaurants here in West Michigan. Starting today, every Tuesday we will feature a post on our blog called “Where to eat this week”. This is a great way to feature our restaurants and hopefully give all of our wonderful readers some new places to check out! A representative of the restaurant we are featuring that week will write the post, and they will be giving you the inside scoop about restaurant like the history, cooking tips, and even what their favorite menu item is!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we will start our “Where to eat this week” program with Cornwells Turkeyville.

Take it away Elyse!

“Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of the year for everyone. It kicks off the holiday season, which means wonderful memories and times with your family and friends. My family lives with a sense of Thanksgiving year round. My Great Grandparents started out by selling sandwiches at the Calhoun Country Fair until their friends and family persuaded them to start an all turkey restaurant. From this idea, my Great Grandparents started Cornwell's Turkeyville, lucky for my grandfather my great grandmother was a great cook and they both had the passion it took to keep their business to growing and expanding. This is our 43rd year to be in business but only our 2nd year to serve our wonderful customers on Thanksgiving Day. My family has held strong to our family ties in more ways than just by keeping in touch; we use all of our family’s recipes and keep the passion that my great grandparents felt when they were alive.

When you come to Cornwell's you really get a home cooked meal right out of our kitchen. I not only work with my parents little sister and aunt, but I also work with my grandmother on my moms side. We all work very hard to make sure all our customers feel as welcome as they would if they were coming to our house for Thanksgiving or any other family event we would have.

Our restaurant has only one kind of meat, turkey.  Every day we serve menu items such as a traditional turkey dinner and a buttered turkey sandwich, but we also have turkey burgers and turkey tacos. There is no greater satisfaction out of a kitchen than knowing the ideas that we as a family have created and cultivated go out to our customers to enjoy while creating new memories with their families and friends.

I am the fourth generation to work in the family business and I started out by working in the Ice Cream Parlor as a kid. We make all of our own ice cream, caramel corn, fudge and much more. I have a true passion for cooking and baking. I make all the cookies and candies for the business along with helping to create new ideas for our menu. Along with our ice cream parlor we have a gift shop with a bakery were there is a baker there every morning at 7:00 am or earlier. We also have a professional dinner theatre and events on our grounds almost every weekend ranging from a flea market, craft shows and haunted adventures. Last year was the first year we were open on Thanksgiving and served a family style dinner from 11am-4pm. This is a little different from our normal deli style dinning that we have to offer the other days of the year. Last year we served over 940 people; we enjoyed every minute of it and love that people come to join our family in our Thanksgiving celebration. On Thanksgiving we not only offer our family style dining but our gift shop and ice cream parlor are open and full of wonderful treats to take home with you.

New this year- starting Thanksgiving Day we offer candies and cookies to be purchased by the pound in our ice cream parlor. All are homemade and made fresh for you to take home and enjoy.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to spend with your family, friends and now my family! I hope that you enjoy all the special moments and times that make up the memories that most families hold dear to their hearts.

If you choose to spend Thanksgiving in your dining room or ours, I hope the day only helps to remind you of all the wonderful things to be grateful for. I know I would not have had the opportunity to lead the passionate life that I do with out all of you, so I say thank you for sharing your special family time with us”.

- Elyse Cornwell