French Silk Chocolate Pie

In 1964 Richard S. Den Uyl, who’d been managing the world-famous Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, Arizona, made some big news in Macatawa, Michigan, a little resort community where L. Frank Baum, of Wizard of Oz fame, once had a summer cottage. (Some people believe that Dorothy Hall, a young girl at Macatawa, was the inspiration for Baum’s heroine.) Den Uyl, whose family had owned and operated the 120-room Hotel Macatawa on the westernmost reaches of Lake Macatawa from the mid-1940s through the mid-1950s, announced that he planned to build a year-round motor inn and restaurant on the site of the historic hotel, which had been razed in 1956. In its heyday the majestic old “Mac” was typically filled to capacity with vacationers from Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and other big Midwestern cities, but toward the end of its life it was pretty much a firetrap.

The restaurant, Point West, opened on February 24, 1965. It was all stone, brick, glass, and wood, with exposed-beam ceilings, several large fireplaces, and a lakeside terrace on the lowest of its three levels. Just six miles from Holland, Michigan, Point West was by far the fanciest place in the area, with a reputation for high-end food (Den Uyl brought a chef from the Camelback Inn) and a main dining room that gave patrons a panoramic view of Lake Macatawa. The restaurant, with its two dining rooms and 80-seat cocktail lounge, could accommodate some 300 guests at a time. “It was where you got dressed up to go to dinner,” Randy Vande Water, a local historian, recalled in 2006.

In 1981 the Den Uyl family sold the Point West resort to Kelwin Corporation, which kept Dick Den Uyl on as general manager until 1986, when it sold Point West to Valley Properties, Ltd., of Farmington, Michigan.

In 1994 billionaire Jay Van Andel, the co-founder of Amway Corporation, bought the 4.3-acre property for $4.4 million. Van Andel owned a cottage, complete with its own heliport, on one of the tree-covered sand dunes bordering Point West. At first there was some hope that Van Andel would revive the Point West resort, but within months, when the property’s appliances and furniture were sold at auction, it became apparent that Van Andel was interested in making Macatawa much more of a private enclave. Soon the restaurant was torn down, and in time the motor inn, on the south end of the property, was also demolished.

“You know, looking back now, our family wishes that we hadn’t sold Point West,” Den Uyl told an interviewer for an oral history project at Hope College in 1991. “I did try to get it back a few years ago, but we couldn’t get together on the price.”

Den Uyl, who after selling Point West went on to start more than 20 restaurants and hotels, died in 2011 at age 82.

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French Silk Chocolate Pie

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This rich, velvety smooth French Chocolate Silk Pie was the star of the dessert menu at Point West, a high-end restaurant that was part of a year-round resort on the westernmost end of Lake Macatawa in Macatawa, Michigan, from the time it opened in 1965 to its closing in 1994. By most accounts, French Silk Pie was invented, or at least made famous, by Betty Cooper of Silver Spring, Maryland, who won the $1,000 “best in class" award at the 1951 Pillsbury Bake-Off, held at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

Ingredients

• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, cut into pieces
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 pound (about 1 3/4 cups) confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 9-inch prepared pie shell
• For the topping
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• Shaved chocolate

Instructions

1

In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate over low heat. Set aside and cool.

2

Using an electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the cooled chocolate (if the chocolate isn’t completely cooled it will melt the butter) and the vanilla extract. Add one of the eggs and beat at high speed for 4 minutes. Using a spatula, scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl, add the second egg, and beat for an additional 4 minutes.

3

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pie shell and refrigerate for 2 hours.

4

To serve, cut with a hot knife and top with whipped cream and shaved chocolate.