So this long weekend(that does not really seem that long), My host family is celebrating Grandpa George's 80th birthday. I gladly followed them to Chicago to join, and on our way, we stopped at Chelsea, MI. We went to Common Grill for an early dinner. I was very glad because not only was I hungry because of skipping lunch, but also because I ended up getting satisfactory food!
The bread was not the usual bread I got. It was very soft, a little oily, and was seasoned. I liked it, though I tried to stay away from it after tasting a little, because I wanted to save room for other food. Yes, very often do I nibble on bread in the beginning, and be full before the main thing comes out. I mean, not that I can't eat more. 
So here is part of the menu. We skipped the appetizers and I think it was good for me, because I got to steal bits of everybody's food. The first time I skimmed trough the menu, I had a hard time deciding whether I want the sea bass or the scallops. I am usually a big fan of scallops, but this sea bass in tomato garlic broth with littleneck clams sounded nice. However, niether of them was what I ended up getting.
So I guess most of the menu here is seafood. The four daily specials, except one exception if not all, were seafood, and on the menu were a little bit of steak and chicken. This was very nice since I was in a seafood mood that night.
The entree came with either a salad or soup. I am glad that I asked the waitress if I can substitute soup for a salad. This is the caesar salad with garlic croutons.
Tuscan pear and gorgonzola salad with herb-balsamic vinaigrette. This sounded nice, but I was leaning more towards warm soup.
So this is the Seafood Chowder. Again I made a mistake; I forgot that I like creamy soups. Though I liked this, I would have liked a creamy soup better.
It had clams, shrimp and fish in tomato broth. Tasted a little fishy but not an unpleasant kind.
This is the Grilled Chicken Fettucine Lizz ordered. The red bell pepper cream sauce was nice, I thought. It was not too rich or thick, just the way I like. It is suppossed to be with asparagus, which Lizz does not like and therefore excluded, and mushrooms.
The fettucine was nice too. I like it slightly undercooked, aldente. At first I thought the sauce was too light but it was because Lizz did not give me enough sauce, which I eventually scooped away from her plate.
The Oven Roasted Chicken Breasts Linnea ordered. She normally does not order chicken, as far as I remember, and yet she did this time. She thought using pancetta and sundried tomatos was interesting, and so did I. It also has goat cheese as a filling along with those interesting ingredients. 
So here is the picture with the fillings. It also has goat cheese as a filling. I almost dislike chicken breast, and yet this was pretty good. I liked the sundried tomatos.
Rick and Owen both ordered ribeye steak, cooked medium. Owen said it was not as good as he had expected. I tried a bite and it was okay, but other dish were better. I guess that's what you get when you order steak, more importantly same kind of meat, when you are about to have a tenderloin barbeque cook-out the next day. Haha.
And here is the daily special I ordered, the final winner of the three I was trying to decide upon. It was a seafood risotto with scallops, shrimp and lobster, along with saffron cream sauce. This was, in my opinion, the best of the day. 
I liked how the risotto was cooked and also the sauce. The scallops were nice, and shrimp was not perfect but chewy.
I think I said this before, but I am not a big fan of lobster, though lobster based sauces usually make me float in the air. So I was not very impressed by the lobster though by itself it was pretty good. But the risotto was very nice. I was happy with my choice.
And for dessert, which we weren't planning on, a cream puff was ordered once I saw it on the menu. I personally had a better cream puff served with chocolate mousse, but this one with light mocha chip icecream was pretty good, too. Lizz, Owen, and I shared one each. The sweetend almonds were a little too sweet for my taste and puff wasn't the best thing, but over all it was good.
This place was a nice surprise, since I did not expect to have a nice dinner on the road trip to Chicago, especially when we are planning to have a lot of good stuff later on. It was a very nice dinner and I enjoyed it very much, thanks to my generous host family.
