Lunch: The Summertime Restaurant, Fish Creek, WI
Review — After a few hours of shopping, we were ready to refuel. We had exhausted a few towns’ worth of shops and by lunchtime, were in the town of Fish Creek. And so we decided upon the Summertime, which was centrally located in the shopping district, meaning no precious seconds would be wasted once lunch was over.
We ordered the oysters on the half shell to start, which were served with crackers and cocktail sauce. Thankfully there were only five of them, because much as we enjoy oysters, these were one of the stronger varieties and were a little difficult to get down. Our lunches arrived shortly – lobster salad for me and chicken quesadillas for Patrick. The lobster salad was a huge portion and tasted very appropriately summery. It had lots of diced up vegetables and tasted very fresh. A taste of Patrick’s quesadilla was also quite flavorful. We were able to sit outside on the patio, and the beautiful day contributed to a terrific lunch experience.
Dinner: Sammy’s Pizza, Appleton, WI
Review — We arrived back from Door Country shopped out and hungry! We were taken to Sammy’s Pizza, a local pizza joint popular with the Little League crowd in Appleton (including Patrick back in his heyday). Sammy’s has moved since the time Patrick used to frequent it, so I can only speak to the current location, which was pretty severely lacking in atmosphere and decor. I think the kids were not feeling the vibe either, as both were pretty reluctant to sit down and wait patiently for dinner to arrive.
We ordered a pepperoni and green olive pizza as well as a Mexican pizza. I am not sure if we actually waited a long time to get them or if it just seemed long due to the child wrangling that was going on, but eventually the pizzas arrived and we dug in. The pizzas had super thin crusts but plenty of toppings. I am a bit more of a thick pizza lover, but I don’t argue when one tells me this is an Appleton favorite. Appleton is the home of Tom’s Drive In, after all! The pizzas were very good. I liked the pepperoni/green olive concoction that Jean came up with. As you can imagine, it was high on salt which equals high on my approval rating! The pizzas were quickly polished off by the tables, signaling a successful trip down memory lane to Sammy’s.
Sammy’s was low on atmosphere but high on flavor and even higher on nostalgia. Although I won’t be choosing Sammy’s over Tom’s anytime soon, I enjoyed the non-chain pizza experience with a taste of Patrick’s past.