Because of the Waterfront Film Festival, Saugatuck is known from Hollywood to Halifax. Held this year June 9-12, the non-profit festival is one of the top five film festivals in the country. It attracts directors, producers, actors and movie mavens from New York and California to this laid-back summer resort village. But you don't have to be a Tinseltown temptress to enjoy the show. This reporter caught up with festival co-founder Hopwood Depree while he was in Hollywood. When asked about the festival's success he said, "People can relax on the beach and eat at one of the fabulous restaurants during the day. At night, everyone comes together to watch these amazing films shown in unusual spaces like boat sheds." Netflix can never duplicate that collective experience, sitting together in the dark and watching a film projected on a big screen. Get the $200 SuperPass and you'll have priority seating for all of the films and seminars.

Head to the Mason Street Warehouse (400 Culver St.) if you prefer your performances live. This professional Equity theatre is not your grandma's community theatre. "We try to give people variety," said Mason Street Producer Ellen Engle. That means offering plays not been seen in West Michigan or re-staging old standbys staged in a new way. Chicago (June 24-July 17) will be directed by Kurt Stamm, who was associate director for the Broadway production of Fosse that won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Musical. Kurt will bring that same Fosse flavor to Chicago. The 2011 season includes Five Guys Named Moe (July 22-Aug. 7), a musical featuring Louis Jordan's greatest Jazz hits, The 39 Steps (Aug. 12-28), a Hitchcock thriller meets Monty Python farce and Scott Nevins' One Night Stand (Aug. 31-Sept. 4), a Hollywood snarkfest with the host of TruTV's (huh?) "The Smoking Gun Presents."

The culture continues at the Ox-Bow Summer School of Art (3435 Rupprecht Way). For more than 100 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago has operated a summer art colony here. The heart of the campus is the handsome Ox-Bow Inn, built in 1873 and completely renovated and expanded in 2006. The campus includes 30 brightly colored studio buildings and residential cabins surrounded by 115 acres of dunes, forests and trails. The Art on the Meadow Workshops are tailored for West Michigan residents and seasonal visitors. The four-day workshops are held June through August with themes such as "Shapes and Colors of Nature" for children and "Puppetry Immersion" for adults and teens. You can meet the Ox-Bow artists at the Friday Night Open Studios. Held twice a month, visitors can poke around the artist studios, view the work made the previous week and attend demonstrations. The evening ends with some work being auctioned to benefit the school.

All that culture makes one parched, my pets. Slake your thirst at the Saugatuck Brewing Company (2948 Blue Star Highway) in Douglas. The 25,000-square-foot facility includes a 100-seat pub, 200-seat Bier Hall for musical shows and, most importantly, the 3,000-barrel capacity production facility. The traditional Irish-style pub features 12 unique beers crafted by Brewmaster Barry Johnson, including the easy-drinking Oval Street Blond Ale and the hoppy Singapore IPA. Barry is especially excited about his newest brew, the Neapolitan Milk Stout, that won accolades at the 2011 Winter Beer Festival and is being entered in the 2011 World Expo of Beer in Frankenmuth. Kerry O'Donohue, who manages the front of the house, keeps the Lucky Stone Pub busy with trivia contests, movie nights and dart leagues. Try the Drunken Hummus Dip with tortilla chips and a mug of the new Apricot Wheat Beer, crafted by award-winning home-brewer Greg Fowler.

Phil's Bar & Grille (215 Butler St.) has the best pub grub on the lakeshore. Poppa Steve admits he has walked past Phil's many times over the years, intimidated by the movie house facade and dark windows. We recently took our extended family to Phil's. Walking through the entrance, we found a large space with a bar along the right wall and plenty of seating. Phil Sauvé's joint prides itself on serving good quality food: it makes its own dressings and sauces and bakes its own bread. We were seated immediately and the friendly waitress quickly filled our Oberon-heavy drink order. The brisket sandwich with caramelized onions and cheddar saucy was juicy with a nice chewiness. The steak salad featured fresh greens and a flawlessly grilled piece of meat. The Portobello Mushroom Fries with stone-ground mustard dipping sauce looked yummy too. Squeeze your way in this summer; a full house can't be wrong.

For something a little more special, try Everyday People Cafe (11 Center St.) in Douglas. For nearly 35 years, this once-humble dinette has been thrilling sophisticated palettes from Chicago to Detroit by offering casual dining at its finest. Co-Owner/Executive Chef Matt Balmer took over the restaurant from his mother in 1997 and he has never looked back. The restaurant's menu focuses on locally sourced ingredients cooked with passion, unlike the plasticized swill peddled by those food porn magus stacked on your cocktail table. Let's begin with Local Oxtail En Croute with braised savory local oxtail and Grassfields cheese in puff pastry, followed by Chicken and Gnocchi with lardons of local bacon, spinach and lemon veloute. Mmmm...lardons. The Bubbles & Bites champagne raw bar is held Saturdays and Sundays. For $20, you can get a bottomless flute of champagne, along with small plates featuring oysters on the half shell, peel & eat shrimp, Asian tuna tartar and ceviche.

Zing Eat/Drink (310 Blue Star Memorial Highway) in Douglas will be a welcome addition to the lakeshore. Co-owners Jim Petzing and Randy Wolf and Chef Will Sturgess renovated the former Blue Moon Restaurant in vibrant lime and mandarin orange colors to offer a playfully eclectic dining experience. Zing Eat, the restaurant, will feature excellent service and ama-Zing presentation. You will find tasty items like grilled and chilled Zing Shrimp with apple chutney and the Zing and Zang, which are skewers of lobster and steak drizzled in mango pineapple puree on jicama slaw. Zing Drink, the flirty fun martini bar, will feature Zing-tinis like the More than a Kiss, Zing on a Beach and Flirtini. Drink one during a Zing-along at the piano. Look for Zing Eat/Drink's soft opening on May 10 with full bar service by mid-June.

No trip to Saugatuck would be complete without a visit to Good Goods (106 Mason St.). Owner Sandra Randolph opened the store in 1989 as a small one-room shop in historic Italianate building once used as a rooming house. Today, after years of restoration, Good Goods occupies the entire three-story building and carries the work of more than 200 artists. "Walking into the store is a sensory experience," Sandra said. With stiff retail competition in Saugatuck, the store prides itself on its eve-changing selection of unique gift items and experienced customer service. The Curious Miss Carolita likes to browse the fine pottery, glass, jewelry and fine clothing, indicating her preference with a subtle arch of her brow. Open daily year-round, Good Goods is especially proud to be the only local source for Sticks Furniture, a fanciful line of tables and chairs designed by Sarah Grant and hand-made in Des Moines, Iowa.