I have to run to Esky (Escanaba) today for a HS Baseball game and dinner. Stonehouse is an old stalwart, but I'm going to try to get agreement for The Swedish Pantry. I've never been, but the inlaws do like it. I really do want to try the Chinese Food / Sushi joint, "Hong Kong Buffet" too - I'm a glutton for punishment, and a very curious person by nature.

JoelF and others:
I've been a frequent visitor to Huron Mountain Bread Co for years - possibly decades. Love their breads, bagels, cake donuts, basically everything. We buy cakes from there for birthdays and family parties pretty often. I have nothing bad to say about it, and it's great.

BUT...
The pastries at Towner's are on a totally other level tho. For pastries, Towner's is far superior, and it isn't even close.

seebee wrote:BUT...
The pastries at Towner's are on a totally other level tho. For pastries, Towner's is far superior, and it isn't even close.

Maybe next time.

The next day (I've lost track of the count, but it was last Wednesday), we decided our target for the night would be Green Bay: about halfway to the next night's reservation on Washington Island, cheaper because it's off-season for the Packers.

Just after entering Wisconsin we stopped at Seguin's House of Cheese to restock our lunch larder: landjager sausage sticks (vastly inferior to the real thing from New Glarus, but still pretty tasty) and a 2-year-old swiss, plus a horseradish mustard they were hawking that I haven't had a chance to try yet.

Seguin's House of Cheese
W1968 US HWY 41, W1968 US-41, Marinette, WI 54143
+17157359091
3884+GJ Marinette, Wisconsin

Otherwise, no culinary stops: Copper Culture State Park (interesting archaeology stuff and nature hiking), the N.E.W. Zoo (really unimpressive -- Grand Rapids' is much better). I won't bore you with the hotel reservation mishaps, except to say: If you're using something like Expedia or other services to book hotels, call the hotel directly anyway to confirm that they have the services listed -- more than once, pools were out of order on arrival. But the annoyance of the hotels led us to more upscale food as a soother, rather than going for the pub grub that's easier to find in Green Bay. Not finding much on LTH, Google's ratings led us to the River's Bend, very old-school supper club, except with a salad bar (that included liver pate and two cheese spreads) instead of a relish tray. We got minimal side-eye for asking to be seated immediately instead of a trip to the bar, and otherwise service was fine if a little inattentive. Many of the seats have a nice view of Duck Creek (including the canoeists trying desperately to get to their destination before their watercraft filled with the downpour -- very glad we weren't camping that night).
The food was excellent. Sue's Queen Cut Prime Rib was alleged to be 12oz, but that's easily over a pound. I helped a bit with that, but we still had enough left over to serve with breakfast while camping a couple days later (sliced thin, dusted with flour and taco spices, fried quick to get a bit of crisp, I thought it was a decent bacon substitute). My Pan-Fried Walleye, served with lemon butter, was also delicious, but I thought the plate looked rather empty. Maybe a little more of the garlic mash, or at least a fat sprig of parsley -- compared to the prime rib plate I felt a bit cheated. Sue had a red, I had a white (after all the cider availability in Michigan, it was weird not to find any on tap, cans or bottles our first night in Wisconsin), not a cheap meal but not outrageous either.
Enthusiastically Generous Queen Cut Prime Rib

Sad-Plated Walleye and Garlic Mash


River's Bend
792 Riverview Dr, Green Bay, WI 54303
+19205449860
http://riversbendgb.com/

(tune in next time for Door County and Washington Island)

You are so right, Joel! They needed another scoop of mashed potatoes at least on your plate. My dad might have put sprigs of curly parsley too.

The next morning (Thursday) the weather was much better. We made a brief stop at The Attic Corner, a coffee, tea and bookshop. We were mainly there for the books, it wasn't a great bookshop (only hardcovers, and not a lot of them, mostly recent pop lit). Lots of coffee drinks, cannisters of tea, etc. Right next door, though was a southeast-Asian grocer, that if I lived around there would probably be a great source for ingredients and the occasional lunch (they had some pre-prepared hot and cold stuff, none of which I was in the mood for)

The Attic Corner
730 Bodart St, Green Bay, WI 54301
+19204356515
http://www.theatticcorner.com/

Asian Taste Supermarket
722 Bodart St, Green Bay, WI 54301
+19204318439
https://m.facebook.com/pages/Asian-Tast ... 4787618505

So we headed up the east side of door county, hoping to avoid the crowds of tourists (we did more of that on the way back down). The Lake side is really pretty dull -- all the towns are on the Green Bay side, just a couple tourist traps, such as Koepsel's Farm Market, adjacent to an antique store. We picked up a jar of salsa, having run out, and another little tub of whitefish dip (no trout in this one, still too much cream cheese, but about the same good quality).

Koepsel's Farm Market
9669 WI-57, Baileys Harbor, WI 54202
+19208542433
https://koepsels.com/

Sue was worried about getting on the ferry to Washington Island before they shut down, so we got there by noon Only had to wait past one boat, they were running about every 15 minutes. One of our stops was the Fragrant Farm, one of the largest lavender farms in the US. They grow all sorts of varieties, but after the first 5 minutes, all the lavender sensors in my nose were burnt out. We picked up a jar of culinary lavender buds (which are likely to make an appearance in a future dessert exchange), and Sue got a lavender massage amongst the fields of flowers (turns out the masseuse lives in the Chicago area) -- service included a free lavender lemonade (which at that point tasted like very good lemonade). They have a bar out back serving wine, a couple ciders, soft drinks and a few snacks. The gardens have a charge to enter, waived with massage (and they do events there too).



The Fragrant Farm
1350 Airport Rd, Washington, WI 54246
+19208472950
http://fragrantisle.com/

For dinner, bar food sounded fine, and Sue spotted a review somewhere that Karly's Bar had a Thursday night fried chicken special. So we hopped back in the car after checking in at the resort, knowing there were a couple other places nearby if that didn't look good. As it turns out, on Thursday, fried chicken is all they do (just the owner and his wife), about 100 plates, most of it carry-out to locals, but they always account for some walk-ins. For something around $14 plus tax we got a half chicken each, a pile of mashed potatoes, and a deli tub of good vinegary slaw (came out just after I snapped the pic). With a couple drinks, this was still one of the cheapest meals we had on the vacation that we didn't make ourselves, and darn good: breaded, not battered, perfectly crisp, absurdly juicy. I'm not normally a gravy-on-mashed-potatoes guy, but this gravy seemed to be mostly butter and stock, not at all gummy with starch. If you're on Washington Island on a Thursday, don't miss it.



Karly's Bar
1265 Main Rd, Washington, WI 54246
+19208472655
(no website)

We stayed at the Sunset Resort, on the southwest side of the island, with of course a beautiful view of the sunset over Green Bay. They do an a la carte breakfast which you order the night before (or really early in the morning) with seatings at 8, 8:30 or 9AM. Highlights were Icelandic pancakes (thin, crepelike, similar to Swedish), and Swedish limpa toast with housemade cherry-rubarb jam, and very good coffee. A nice, reasonably-priced place to stay on the island.

Sunset Resort
889 Old W Harbor Rd, Washington, WI 54246
+19208472531
http://www.sunsetresortwi.com/

(Still to come: one more night of camping, two sets of frozen delights, and a pizza homecoming)

At this point, the vacation is starting to wind down. While at Washington Island, we made a reservation for camping at Point Beach State Forest at the base of the peninsula. We drove back through the west side of Door County, stopping at a quiet beach (Newport State Park, which is still the east side), ice cream at Door County Ice Cream Factory and Sandwich Shoppe (flavors nothing special but they serve it at the perfect temp/texture), Piggly Wiggly in Sister Bay for dinner supplies (surprisingly reasonable prices for tourist country), and a little wine and cider tasting at Lautenbach's Orchard Country Winery & Market (nothing impressed us much, stay away from the perfumey-tasting sangria).

Door County Ice Cream Factory & Sandwich Shoppe
11051 WI-42, Sister Bay, WI 54234
+19208549693
http://doorcountyicecream.com/

Piggly Wiggly
10576 Country Walk Dr, Sister Bay, WI 54234
+19208542391
http://www.shopthepig.com/

Lautenbach's Orchard Country Winery & Market
9197 WI-42, Fish Creek, WI 54212
+19208683479
http://www.orchardcountry.com/

Point Beach is another gorgeous campground, but they've had a lot of erosion of their beach, similar to the Chicago area with a 50' bluff. This was the only campsite we stayed at with hot water and showers, a nice change (but of course we had hotels in between). Dinner was burgers, with some cleaning out of the cooler: sauteed onions and mushrooms and american cheese slices, plus chips and salsa. Breakfast of pancakes and crisped-up prime rib slices (we made our own pancake mix just add water and eggs, real maple syrup of course).

Looking at the map, we realized it's not that far from home, and our own bed, shower, and air conditioning were starting to sound really good. But there was one more stop to make: Kopp's Frozen Custard. We hadn't had lunch yet, so our custardy delicacies (waffle cone with Sue's favorite, Caramel Turtle, and a chocolate soda for me) were accompanied by a grilled cheese sandwich (under $3? amazing) and onion rings (pretty darn good).

Kopp's Frozen Custard
5373 N Port Washington Rd, Glendale, WI 53217
+14149613288
https://www.kopps.com/

We did make one more stop for a few hours in the Williams Bay area for a swim (family-rented summer cabin), and ordered a pizza from our favorite thin-crust, Mug's while we were still driving (my half sausage and mushroom, hers pepperoni and green olive). It's our traditional back-home-from-vacation meal, and always perfect.

Mugs Pizza and Ribs
600 E Central Rd, Des Plaines, IL 60016
+18472983311
http://mugspizzaandribs.com/

seebee wrote:I have to run to Esky (Escanaba) today for a HS Baseball game and dinner. Stonehouse is an old stalwart, but I'm going to try to get agreement for The Swedish Pantry. I've never been, but the inlaws do like it.

The Swedish Pantry was closed - new temp hours - they close late afternoon. Sign said lack of staff. I think the sign said "We close at 3:30pm." Probably can change back to normal hours any day, but just be warned for now.

Wound up at La Cantina. The menu is massive. Combination plates galore. When I see a Mexican menu with a long list of "combination plates," I know what I'm in for. Basically everything's the same, just in a different tortilla with either red/green/or mole. It was Lalo's quality, borderline Pepe's Tacos quality. The refried beans were excellent. The guacamole appetizer was plentiful and very basic. I liked it, but nobody else did. It was mashed avocado, a tiny bit of onion, salt, pepper and lime - no tomatoes. The entire meal could have easily been worse if you are familiar with ethnic restaurants in the U.P. Father in law is a big fan of the other La Cantina in Hancock, and said the one in Hancock is WAY better. My guess is that the Escanaba location is suffering from lack of help, like most places.

The Mrs went to La Catrina in Marquette, and it did not disappoint. She wasn't able to join us last time, so I insisted that she try it. It did not disappoint. I wasn't able to go, but three of them shared the guac appetizer, and they brought home the leftovers. Massive portion - the leftovers filled one of those small clamshells, and it's good.

Great trip notes. Yes, the Huron Mountains are north or Marquette. A very rustic, and wild area. The owners of the Stonehouse went to school with me. Nice place.