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 ... 4787618505So 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)
What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang