Lunch: Fred and Fuzzy’s, Sister Bay, WI
Review — We chose this restaurant looking for something close by our Inn, as the 10 AM cheese curds we got from the Tom’s Drive-In were starting to wear off. We were told by the front desk staff that this place was “very casual but right on the water.” Good enough for us!
They weren’t kidding about the casual! This “restaurant” was basically a trailer with a grill enclosed and some plastic patio tables. Undeterred, however, as the lapping waves of the bay lulled us into calmness, we were quickly seated at a waterside table. Our waitress arrived and informed us we were her first ever table to wait on all by herself, and on top of that, she was from Turkey and spoke bits and pieces of English. She was so cute and nervous, and we told her we would take it easy on her! We both ordered Fred’s Favorite, the steak sandwich, and iced teas. The iced tea was Nestea rather than freshly brewed, which is so not my favorite, but it was tolerable.
We enjoyed watching all the kids playing in the water until our food arrived. The steak sandwiches were large and flavorful, although lacking in a plethora of – say it with me – fixin’s. The sandwiches could have been made more interesting with the addition of some cheese, onions, peppers, or even by being sliced down the middle, but they were by no means bad. In one word, I would call them nondescript.
Fueled with a big piece of red meat, and with Patrick hypnotized into a trancelike calm by the whooshing of the waves, we headed for the stores!
Dinner: Old Post Office Restaurant, Ephraim, WI
Review — It was here that we attended our first ever authentic Wisconsin fish boil. The boil involves a large fire and a lot of white fish from Lake Michigan. We arrived early, as Sara suggested, and were directed around the back of the restaurant, to a group of benches circling a large bonfire. There was a local character named Earl tending the fire, and he told little tales while he poked at the flames and stacked some more wood around it. At one point he disappeared and came back shortly with what we were told were the red potatoes and onions. Those were placed into the bubbling cauldron and we waited. At one point it started to rain, but we were mostly fascinated by the fish boil process and didn’t take too much notice. When the fish was added to the fire, we were told we had about 11 minutes until dinner. 10 minutes is apparently too little time to cook the fish, but anything more than 12 or 13 and you are left with a big pile of mush, according to Earl. We’ll take his word on that. At the last moment of cooking, kerosene is splashed on the fire to create a large whoosh of flames and get all the icky stuff to boil and splash over, leaving the food “clean.” We decided it was best not to think about that too much and headed inside for our grub.
Inside, the just-cooked food was laid out on a buffet with homemade breads and coleslaw. At the end of the buffet, a hostess asked our last name and showed us to our table by the window. Immediately, a waitress arrived and asked if we would like help deboning the fish. Uh, yes please. She performed surgery on our fishes, explaining her technique all the while, while I wondered how I could snake my fork around her and get to the other food on the plate that did not have to be deboned. She was very quick, though, and we were soon able to enjoy the feast. The fish was very mild (which is due to the fact that white fish are vegetarians, according to Earl), but my nervousness about the remaining bones kept me from entirely devouring it. I instead focused my efforts on the carbs on my plate, and very handily polished off the potatoes, onions, and different types of bread. The lemon bread, which was new to me, was fantastic. I also had a delicious slice of pumpkin bread. Can you believe Patrick ate them plain without butter? Sacrilege. Let me not forget to mention the fact that on the buffet line, there were vats of melted butter with small ladles to spoon over your entire meal. Ingenious! In any case, I finished eating quickly and sat patiently until the best part of the meal arrived… dessert!
Dessert deserves a whole new paragraph. Fresh baked cherry pie, with a vanilla ice cream a la mode upgrade for only a dollar more. Yes, please! Much like a Disney dinner show, this dinner was one price for everything, plus a few other things you could pay extra for. Vanilla ice cream being a must, we coughed up the extra cash and ordered the pie a la mode. Oh, and it was heavenly. The pie had – get this – SUGAR on the top crust, crystals so big you could hear them crunch every now and again. And the cherry filling was the perfect mixture of sugary tartness. I had forgotten just how much I enjoy cherry pie until this piece, and now I have not stopped craving it since!
The fish boil was really fun and I would recommend this experience to anyone who wants to have a true Wisconsin experience.