We had the best time! We had great weather, and we went early enough in the season that nothing was very busy. I've realized that while I am a "people person," I am crowd averse. I don't like have to wait 20 minutes for a table at a restaurant (especially with the girls) and I don't like feeling like I'm in people's way. This time of year was perfect for us!
I really appreciated all of the recommendations we got from our friends to help us plan our trip, so I wanted to compile all of the things we enjoyed into one spot...which will turn into more like 3 spots, so this won't be the longest post known to man.
Here's the short version:
- We ate at both Wild Tomato locations (once for supper, once for lunch) and loved it! Definitely the best food we had all week!
- We ate at PC Junction for supper one evening, and it was so fun! Totally a mom and pop place where a little train brings you your food. The food was just okay, but I don't think you go there for the food. The food carrying train is the main draw. Plus, they had a super fun play area outside! Even though the food wasn't great, it's totally worth going if you have kids.
- We ate at Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant (also known as the restaurant with goats on the roof) for lunch and had breakfast food. It was good but not great.
- We ate ice cream at three places: Not Licked Yet, Wilson's, and Grumpy's. Not Licked Yet actually served custard and had fun popsicles. It's located on a little creek and had a great playground. Wilson's absolutely lived up to the hype...so good! We enjoyed Grumpy's which was really close to our hotel.
Now, the long version with pictures!
Wild Tomato was seriously amazing! We ate supper at the Fish Creek location on our first evening. If I'm comparing the locations to each other, I liked the atmosphere in Sister Bay better than the one in Fish Creek; it was just brighter.
But, at the Fish Creek location, they gave the girls little containers of pizza dough to play with! Both places have the very cool water bottles, though!
The pizza was excellent at both locations! We had an awesome bread basket at the Fish Creek location for an appetizer. There were several different breads and three dips. The herbed goat cheese was phenomenal! I'd eat anything if it had that goat cheese on it! Leah liked it until she found out it was goat cheese, but I told her it stood for Greatest Of All Time. Believe it or not, I don't know that she bought it :)
We had artichoke dip with focaccia bread for our appetizer at lunch at the Sister Bay location. The dip was great, but the bread was just okay. As a food nerd, it seemed to me like they rushed the rise on the bread, because it didn't have a good crumb or chew to it. <---see, that was nerdy.
I had an awesome salad both times! Goat cheese, dried cherries, and maple roasted walnuts with a cherry vinaigrette. I'm working on a copycat recipe and am almost there on the dressing!
The Sister Bay location is right by the beach, so it worked out really well to have lunch and then go play on the beach! The Fish Creek location is right by the entrance to Peninsula State Park and just down the road from Not Licked Yet.
The service was fine at both locations. We didn't have to wait and our servers brought us what we needed, when we needed it. I wouldn't necessarily say they were friendly or cheerful, but I also don't go to a restaurant to become friends with a server.
Eating at Wild Tomato is a must in my book!
Like I mentioned above, PC Junction is super fun! The servers/conductors seemed happy and cheerful. The food was so-so, but that's not the point of going there. Our girls aren't train enthusiasts by any stretch of the imagination, but they had so much fun! The outside play area was seriously awesome!
Al Johnson's was good, but I don't know that I could fully appreciate all of the Swedish/Norwegian-ness of it. If my family had a high Swedish or Norwegian cultural identity, I'm sure I would have seen a lot of things that reminded me of my grandma's house, but that's not the case for me.
I had Swedish Pancakes with the best Door County cherry topping! We all had breakfast food and enjoyed it. Our waitress seemed rushed, though.
It was really fun to see the goats on the roof, though! I accidentally took this very artistic picture of a roof goat:
That's not edited and there isn't a filter! I mean, it's like a glowing goat!
And, we can't forget this framer:
Leah was in on the joke :)
We'd heard that Wilson's is THE place for ice cream and it was SO good! It was actually pretty busy on a Tuesday afternoon in early June, so I can't imagine how busy it would be on a weekend in July! The had regular flavors, but some fun ones, too! I had lemon cheesecake ice cream...soooo good! Plus, they put a jelly bean on the bottom of each ice cream cone which the girls thought was awesome! Aaron got their root beer and said it was some of the best he'd ever had!
Not Licked Yet was delicious, too! I had an Arnold Palmer popsicle which was so refreshing and delicious! Their playground area was super fun, plus we enjoyed the evening on the edge of the river!
There are ice cream shops literally everywhere! The closest one to our hotel was Grumpy's (no picture though). They served Cedar Crest ice cream and it was good! Not quite the level of the other two, but, I mean...it's ice cream! It's good! Plus, the inside was really cute. It was an easy walk to the waterfront to watch a beautiful sunset!
I'll be back (hopefully) soon to talk about what we did!
