Where to Eat by Boat in Anchor Bay and Algonac

The top of Lake St. Clair eats differently than the Nautical Mile. Fewer boats, more perch, and a lot of places where you tie to a seawall and walk up the lawn. This covers New Baltimore, Fair Haven, Harsens Island, and Algonac. The Harrison Township and St. Clair Shores side is in Waterfront Restaurants You Can Reach by Boat.

The run up

From Lake St. Clair Metropark or any of the Harrison Township marinas, New Baltimore is a straight shot north across Anchor Bay. The bay is over 90 square miles and only 1 to 11 feet deep, which is the whole story of boating up here. It builds a short chop fast in a south or east wind, and the north shore off Fair Haven shoals well out from the beach. Every bar on that shore has a marked channel cut to it. Stay in the stakes, idle in, and read the water color.

To reach Algonac and Harsens Island you follow the North Channel of the St. Clair River, which runs from the top of the bay northeast past Pointe Tremble to Algonac. The Champion's Auto Ferry crosses the North Channel between its mainland landing at 3647 Pointe Tremble Rd and the island, around the clock. It has a schedule to keep. Give it room and pass astern.

Trailering in, Brandenburg Park at 50050 Jefferson Ave in Chesterfield is the closest public ramp to New Baltimore, with a long fishing pier and a $10 daily vehicle pass as of 2026, or $35 for a non-resident season pass. More ramps are on the boat launch page and in Public Boat Launches on Lake St. Clair. For a slip or winter storage in New Baltimore, UNRIEHL Marina on Surfside Dr is in the directory, and the rest of the north-end yards are on the marina page.

New Baltimore: the free city docks

Walter and Mary Burke Park at 36300 Front St is the reason boaters come to New Baltimore. The city keeps 16 free daily boat wells there, with ladders, plus a 190-foot dock out into the lake and a fishing pier. Daily means daily: no overnight, though the city has talked about tripling the slip count and adding breakwaters. Park hours are 8 AM to dusk, no pets. The recreation office at 586-725-0291 can confirm the wells are in before a big weekend.

From the wells it is one block up Washington St to the restaurants. None of them have their own docks; the city docks are the docks.

Fin's Eatery & Spirits at 51006 Washington St is the sit-down meal. Two floors, three bars, and a second-floor outdoor deck with a view over the water. The ribs are the thing people talk about, then the oysters Rockefeller, the lake perch, and walleye. Open at 11 every day, to 10 PM Monday through Thursday, 11 PM Friday and Saturday, 9 PM Sunday, and it stays open all winter when the docks are pulled.

A few doors up, On The Bay Boutique, Bar & Cafe at 51034 Washington St is a coastal gift shop with a tiki bar and a big outdoor bar behind it, heated gazebos and fire tables so it keeps going into fall. Lobster rolls, smoothies, burgers, flatbreads. Open 11 AM to 11 PM early in the week, until 2 AM Friday and Saturday, and Sunday breakfast from 8 AM. If you are tied up at Burke Park at 9 on a Sunday morning, this is where you get coffee.

Also within two blocks of the wells: The Blind Owl for bar food and brunch, and CC's Dairy Bar on the beach for ice cream with the kids. The New Baltimore page lists the rest of the town.

Fair Haven: bars at the end of a channel

The north shore between New Baltimore and the North Channel is a string of canals and small marinas along Dixie Hwy (M-29), and three bars on it are built for boats. All three are reached up marked channels through shallow water, so idle in.

Bobby Mac's Bayside Tavern & Grill, 8287 Dixie Hwy, has docks right in front of the patio and has been feeding boaters on this spot since it opened as Bud's in 1940. All-you-can-eat fried perch Wednesday and fried shrimp Thursday, $19 each as of 2026, weekend brunch 10 to 2, live music on the patio Friday and Saturday around 5 and Sunday around 4, weather permitting. Closed Monday and Tuesday, and hours shift with the season.

The Raft, 7707 Dyke Rd, sits on Bouvier Bay with dockage at the end of its own marked channel. Small, simple, bar food, and a view straight down the bay. It is open year-round, which is rare on this stretch.

Island Grill at Mayea Marina, 8709 Dixie Hwy, is a second-floor open-air eatery over the marina with guest wells below and a wave runner tie-up next to the restaurant. Mayea has fuel, pump-out, and a party store, so it doubles as a supply stop. It is a summer operation; check hours before you go.

The marina directory has the yards and launches on this stretch.

Harsens Island

Two spots every boater on this end knows, on opposite sides of the island.

Sans Souci Bar, 3057 S Channel Dr, has been open since 1926 and sits on the South Channel, which is the shipping channel. You tie to the seawall alongside the bar and eat with freighters going by close enough to read the names. Pizza and perch dinners, seasonal breakfast, a long draft list. Summer hours are 11 AM to 10 PM Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 4 to 10 PM Tuesday, 11 AM to 11 PM Friday and Saturday, closed Monday, kitchen an hour earlier. The seawall takes current and ship wake, so fender up and tie tight.

Brown's on the Middle Channel, 6630 Middle Channel Dr, is the other one, a 1946 bar tucked up a creek off the Middle Channel with docks for most sizes. Certified Angus burgers, hand-battered perch, cod, and walleye, buckets of beer, and local musicians in the evenings. Hours are noon to 8 PM, closed Tuesday and Wednesday, and it is seasonal, so call 810-748-3640 before you make the run.

Both are seasonal and both take the weather seriously, so call ahead in shoulder season.

Algonac

Zef's on the Lake, 1999 Pointe Tremble Rd, is the newest place on this end. It opened in late May 2026 at the Algonac Harbour Club, the big deep-water marina on the North Channel out Pointe Tremble Rd from downtown, as a coastal restaurant and tiki bar with a patio over the marina. Burgers, lobster, and salads. The harbor club has 45 transient wells, gas and diesel, and pump-out. For the island docks around the bar, call the harbormaster at 810-794-4448 ext. 2 for an assignment before you pull in. Posted hours are 2 to 10 PM Tuesday through Thursday, noon to 11 PM Friday and Saturday, noon to 8 PM Sunday, closed Monday, seasonal into fall.

Algonac Flaming Grill, 1065 St Clair River Dr, is the breakfast stop. It sits across the river road from the water, not on it, with a view of the freighters and no dock of its own. Open 7 AM to 8 PM Monday through Saturday, 7 AM to 3 PM Sunday. Omelets and hash browns in the morning, gyros and saganaki, burgers, and a full slab of ribs later. The waterfront in front of it is Algonac Riverfront Park, four blocks of boardwalk with a boat launch. Nothing official says transient boats can tie along that seawall, so call the city before you count on it, or dock at the Harbour Club and walk or cab in. The river here is deep and the current is strong, nothing like the bay, so plan the approach and the tie-up before you commit.

The Algonac page has the marinas and ramps in town.

Before you go

Hours on this end move with the season, and most of the island and Fair Haven bars cut back after Labor Day. Sans Souci answers at 810-512-4603 if the website hours look stale. The waterfront dining listings and the best waterfront restaurants list carry current hours, and Lake St. Clair by Boat covers the rest of the lake. Bring fenders for both sides, because the seawalls are concrete, and a chart with the North Channel markers on it.