Barbecue ribs with a twice-baked potato (clockwise from bottom), chicken pot pie, Tuxedo dessert and crab cakes with fresh corn salsa are featured at Mesquite Creek. The Oakland Press/JOSE JUAREZ

There are no cowboys or ropes in sight, but the new Mesquite Creek Steaks & Seafood (7228 N. Main St., Clarkston, (248) 620-9300) has a feeling of dining in a comfortable lodge somewhere in the West, an escape to an uncommon place for a couple of hours.

Unbelievably, the restaurant was only closed for three weeks at the beginning of the year to undergo a complete and wonderful transformation. The Andiamo chain of Italian restaurants purchased this restaurant and, in this case, went outside of its typical paradigm.

“We want people to go there in blue jeans after soccer games or all dressed up for a special occasion,” says David Savage of Clarkston-based Savage Photography and Design, the restaurant’s designer. “We ended up treading a fine line between elegant and casual, but upscale, to get it just right,” adds Savage.

A massive fireplace constructed of rustic saw-tooth ledge stone welcomes guests at the entry. “The stone and color were chosen to match the mountains and typical stone used out West,” Savage explains. “The fireplace, new to the restaurant is meant to add a lodge-style warmth.” It does indeed, along with the large scale, overstuffed, dark leather furniture.

Glancing at the floor shows an undulating “creek” of river rock mosaic running through the large tiles to represent the restaurant’s name. The ceiling also has been raised revealing the structure, giving it a more grand sensation.

The lighting, custom designed by Savage Design and fabricated by Steven Frank Studio Inc. of Highland Park, is a combination of large square arts and crafts fixtures, slender art deco sconces and modern red and orange blown glass pendant lamps.

It all works, as though they were added throughout the years. High, dark, wooden upholstered booths and clean-lined tables share the dining room making it roomy yet cozy with a nice level of conversation that isn’t distracting. The use of natural materials, stone, wood and granite on the bar and booth tops continue the lodge feeling.

Looking up at large canvas of Western scenery — photographs of cactus and rocky streams along with sepia-toned wall murals — complete the outdoor scene. The art was contributed by Savage from trips to Tucson and other photographers around the world. “We wanted guests to feel like they were looking out at the mountains and a Western landscape while they dined,” Savage says.

Let’s get on, little doggy, to the good stuff we came for, the menu offerings. My first indulgence was the Maryland crab cakes ($10.95), two thick patties with little filler and lots of flavor along with a Southwest corn salsa. Understand crab cakes are sacred in my world, and these more than lived up to my expectations; in fact, I made sure there was no sharing.

My companion ordered the potato skins ($5.95), with three crispy huge potato halves with melted cheese and bacon with sour cream for dipping. It may be a crime that the large baked potatoes from the old restaurant are gone, but these almost make up for it. Hot, seedy homemade rolls and generous house salads with homemade croutons accompany main dinner entrees.

My main dinner choice was a half rack of Mesquite’s “Fall off the Bone” ribs ($13.95 half, $22.95 full), as this is a steak restaurant and this is one of their specialties. The baby-back ribs with a jalapeño barbecue sauce are spicy — even when asked to tone down the spices — yet delicious, meaty and about a four-napkin dinner. The accompanying soft, cheesy, large twice-baked potato was just the right balance to the spices.

The chicken pot pie ($11.95) satisfied my companion’s desire for comfort food. Large chucks of chicken, potatoes and carrots were plentiful in a deep dish, with a large rectangular puff pastry draped over the top. Another popular comfort food is veal meatloaf ($15.95) with veal, beef and pork mixed with seasonings and served with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Lest you think the menu is all meat and potatoes, options for seafood and Italian pasta are available, including seared Sambuca scallops ($24.95), Lake Superior whitefish ($17.95), lasagna ($14.95) and penne primavera ($12.95; add $3 for chicken). Salads include the Fiesta tenderloin ($12.95) with Angus beef; shrimp and avocado ($9.95); and the Caesar ($3.95-$10.95).

The menu is large and wrapped in a tooled leather cover, with South of the Border entrees, chicken and, of course, steak, including the Cowboy Rib ($29.95), which is a 14-ounce slab of Angus rib eye drizzled with truffle butter. Jeff Baker, the head chef, coordinates this diverse menu and guarantees everything to your liking.

What’s best after spicy ribs? Scrumptious chocolate, perhaps? Another specialty brought from Andiamo are the freshly made and delivered desserts. Options change with the seasons, but my companion’s selection, the Tuxedo ($5.95) with white chocolate mousse, moist chocolate cake all shaped into a tower with chocolate shavings is usually available. Mine was a Crème de Menthe dessert ($3.50), a combination of French silk-type chocolate mixed with cooling mint on a hard wafer covered with chocolate shavings. Andiamo’s most popular dessert, the Kit Kat ($3.50), is made like the candy bar, with silk chocolate alternately layered with cookie wafers, covered with a chocolate ganache and white chocolate shavings.

If you don’t have time to dine in house or have company coming, stop next door at Andiamo’s Express. Specialties from the Andiamo and Mesquite Creek menus, special sauces and dressings, salads and olive oils are available for takeout.

We’d prefer to sit a spell and savor the flavors in the relaxing but not slow, casual but classy, Western but not cowboy-style restaurant, all the while surrounded by the ambiance of mountains and nature, friendly and efficient staff and a winning menu. Mesquite Creek certainly was popular before Andiamo; now, it’s destined for greatness.



To prevent restaurants from giving special service, The Oakland Press dining reviewer is anonymous. Each review is generally based on a single visit.