At Four Roses Cafe, the entrees are tempting, but leave room for dessert - MLive.com

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PLAINWELL, MI -- Here’s one sign of the popularity of Four Roses Cafe: On a recent Wednesday night, there was an hour wait for a table for two.

Another sign: Asking the waitress “What’s good” on the menu prompts a response from an eavesdropping diner. “Everything’s good!” he says. “And make sure to leave room for dessert.”

Suffice to say, Four Roses has a very enthusiastic fan base.

Located on the outskirts of Plainwell, the restaurant was opened in 2011 by Tom and Jan Rose, who took over a building that once housed the 747 Neighborhood Bistro. The Roses renamed their new cafe in honor of their family of four (the couple has two daughters).

The Roses had long worked in the restaurant business, including Tom’s stint as chef at the former Arie’s Cafe. When they opened Four Roses, “We wanted to create a place that had really good, delicious food that was different from what you might get in other places in Plainwell,” Jan Rose said.

“We also wanted to make sure that we had service that matched ... and we wanted to utilize local suppliers,” she said. “We use a lot of local farmers, as well as local beer and wine. Our goal was to create a really inviting place where people want to come and when they leave, they’re like, ‘I can’t wait to come back.’”

The restaurant’s most popular entrees include whitefish Grenoble ($24), maple mustard baby back ribs ($23) and chili-rubbed flank steak with gorgonzola cream and jalapeno relish ($23). The most expensive items on the current menu: herb-crusted rack of lamb ($42) and New York strip steak with peppercorn butter ($42). For vegetarians, there’s a butternut squash lasagna ($19) and a potato pea curry ($18).

There’s also a soup of the day, plus a nice selection of salads. The Four Roses house salad ($10) comes with greens housing a scoop of herbed feta cheese, apples, candied pecans and an herbed lemon vinaigrette. “It’s probably one of the most popular things on the menu,” Jan Rose said.

For those who like appetizers, Rose said, “I think our calamari is among the best and I really like our barbecue chicken quesadilla,” priced at $17 and $15 respectively.

Then there’s the desserts.

In 2016, Four Roses Cafe placed first on an MLive list of Michigan’s top 10 restaurants for dessert -- and for good reason. The restaurant offers between 20 and 25 desserts a day, all made in-house by pastry chef Kris Newland.

The dessert list on a recent day included nine pies, five cakes, seven cheesecakes and six other sweets.

The list of pies: amaretto coconut cream, peanut butter, black bottom, oatmeal pecan, Kentucky bourbon, icebox lemon, pineapple orange ginger ice cream, peppermint ice cream and rum raisin pecan.

The cakes: carrot, chocolate mousse, Italian Creme, German sweet chocolate and pineapple.

The cheesecake offerings: cheesecake with raspberry sauce; black top chocolate chip cheesecake; peanut butter brownie cheesecake; Nanny G. cheesecake; Adams Apple cheesecake; keto cheesecake, and Scarlett O’Hara cheesecake with bourbon caramel sauce.

The other remaining desserts: bourbon caramel bread pudding; Dragon’s Milk brownie with ice cream; baked apple in pastry with caramel sauce; sticky toffee pudding; tiramisu and chocolate pecan torte with strawberry buttercream.

Incidentally, the desserts portions are substantial -- easily enough to share.

At lunchtime, Four Roses offers a half-dozen lunch-sized entrees, including its whitefish Grenoble ($15) and Bell’s braised beef ($15), plus a rotating selection of sandwiches not offered on the dinner menu.

While Four Roses may be off the beaten path in Allegan County, Jan Rose said that the restaurant has a customer base that goes beyond the Plainwell-Otsego area.

“We have a lot of customers from Plainwell and Otsego, but we also have people from Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek,” she said. “We seem to a good meeting place. We’re in the middle of a lot of areas.”

And it’s not just the food that draws them, she said. Four Roses prides itself on an experienced waitstaff. “We have a few who have been here since we opened our doors,” Rose said.

“We want to provide a unique dining experience, a place where you’re going to have great food and maybe something different that what you’ve had before,” she said. “Wonderful service and an opportunity to try a new cocktail or have some of our award-winning desserts, in a casual fine-dining restaurant.”

Four Roses Cafe is located at 663 N. Sixth St. in Plainwell, about a 20-minute drive from downtown Kalamazoo. The restaurant is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., plus 4 to 9 p.m. Saturdays. It is closed Sundays and Mondays.

Reservations are recommended, particularly on Fridays and Saturdays. Reservations can be made by calling (269) 685-1077. Four Roses updates its lunch and dinner menu every day on Facebook.

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