 Fifteen time Best of the Bay Breakfast recipient, The Pancake Place, has been on my list for a long time. It is, however, just far enough from my apartment that I often don’t choose to make the trip. On a crisp October morning, I finally stepped out of my comfort zone and drove past Mason Street for once to check it out before the sun had even risen. It’s lucky I left that early. By the time I was finished, the restaurant was nearly full.
Despite being named The Pancake Place, they offer some incredible house specials that go beyond special flavors of pancakes. I was fascinated by the stuffed hashbrowns concept on the menu. I saw pictures on their facebook page and thought myself prepared. When the plate landed on my table, I realized that even a half order was too big for me. A mountain of hashbrowns were delivered piled over sausage and scrambled eggs. Country gravy buried that too. I couldn’t get through it, but I do consider the stuffed hashbrowns to be the most unique item on their menu and a good way to find out what The Pancake Place is all about. Biscuits and Gravy fans like myself can decide from this plate if the gravy is for them. Hashbrown connoisseurs like myself can decide in the hashbrowns are for them. The possibilities are endless from there with a variety of different stuffed hashbrown combinations on the menu such as chili cheese and gyro.
It helps that the waitstaff are wonderful, accommodating people. They’re happy to see you when you walk in the door. They take care of you when you sit. It seems to me that they remember every customer. Sitting by the door, I saw more than one exchange with new customers involving friendly ‘welcome backs’ and small reminders that they were remembered and valued in that little diner. That’s part of what makes a good American Diner Breakfast. The Pancake Place remembers that. If you’re a coffee drinker like myself, they bring a carafe and a bowl of assorted creamers and sweeteners to the table to keep you going for your whole visit. No need to stop in to refill when things get busy– not that the ladies weren’t visiting often enough to refill a coffee if necessary. It’s the perfect way to sit down for a long overdue coffee chat with an old friend or family member you haven’t seen in a long time with zero expectations. Simple coffee. Simple environment. Great food. The Pancake Place has won Best of the Bay fifteen times for a reason. You don’t need me to tell you that, but if you haven’t stopped in yet yourself, consider this article a reminder to plan your visit soon. Beat the rush by getting in as early as you can! Tell them Eating Normal sent you.
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Cheesesteak Rebellion is built into the bones of a neighborhood dive bar. If it weren’t for the Star Wars memorabilia on every available surface, you’d have a hard time convincing me to think of it as anything but another Wisco dive. Our dive bars are special, sure, but every neighborhood has one. Not every neighborhood has a Cheesesteak Rebellion.
 The meat lovers omelet special at Black Honey Hashery Black Honey Hashery has been on the list for a long time. Their lines are out the door every time I’ve tried to go to brunch on the weekends. All of those times, I was already too hangry to wait. This time around, I finally had the ability and the pleasure to show up on a Friday morning while other people were at work. My father came into town the night before, and I knew this was our chance. So we got in the car and went in search of the restaurant tucked away off of route 32 south. I’ve driven past it a hundred times before without ever knowing it was there. It had to be good if it survived the pandemic AND stayed in that cozy location.
When we arrived, it was the first time I never had to struggle for parking. We managed to get in at their actual parking lot and be seated well before the hangry rage kicked in and made me go elsewhere. I once made it a goal to go in search of the best traditional american breakfast in Green Bay, but this wasn’t the visit for that. I wanted myself a plate of biscuits and gravy and a good cup of coffee. First came the coffee. Collectivo out of Milwaukee is a common choice for a lot of the breakfast joints in Green Bay that do not also roast their own beans, so the standard cup at Black Honey Hashery is a familiar one in town. It does the job. It wakes you up, and it keeps you busy while you wait for your meal. Given that we came in early on a weekday, there wasn’t much waiting to be done.  Tucked away just one block from Main Street in De Pere is Two Birds Bakery Cafe, a small breakfast location that I drove past often and yet never stopped at to try. There is something odd about the building when you only know it from sight– clearly a bank at point point. Is it drive thru only? Do you order at the window? What’s there? I now have the answers to those questions. You can go inside to order. You can also order at the window. There are a variety of breakfast options, baked goods, and drinks to try out from their menu to please any pallet. Upon first visit, it’s certainly hard to decide on what to get. I recommend checking out the online version of the menu ahead of time if you want to go inside to order. The indoor waiting area is tiny with almost all of the interior of the building dedicated to their cookspace. It’s a sight to see. I live close by, so ordering to go and taking my breakfast home did not result in any kind of texture loss in the bacon breakfast burrito that I ordered for the morning. It’s very well wrapped by the staff, and it took them practically no time to get it to the counter for me. Thirty seconds passed between the arrival of my dragonfruit lemonade and the burrito after that. In the amount of time it took me to get out to my car, there were multiple cars in the drive thru that also appeared to be moving through their orders quickly
The lemonade itself is handmade in the building, and that delicious work was augmented wonderfully by the flavored dragonfruit syrup that I ordered with it. The 24 ounce container carried me through til noon, and I caught myself wishing I ordered a larger size to have it to sip on for longer skill. Their drink menu rotates frequently, but this dragonfruit variety appears to be available at nearly all times.
 Yeah, you read that right. Bao and More at Koi Poke and Ramen-- there is no shortage of noodle joints in Green Bay. The vast majority of these focus on the phenomenon that is Pho. Koi Ramen has appeared on the scene to provide classic styles of japanese ramen and udon (as well as poke and dumplings) in an area of town that sorely needs the variety. They brought their business to Oneida street and opened their doors in June, and it took me this long to get there.
Upon walking in, I was met with welcoming and helpful staff willing to walk us through the process of ordering their poke and ramen at the bar. I came in focused on their dumpling menu specifically. I have never had the pleasure of enjoying bao buns made by professionals, only those that I made myself and struggled on the pleating. While Ramen is in the name of the restaurant, these smaller offerings were most important to me from the onset. The diner breakfast has been a special part of my life for as long as I can remember. Whether at Denny’s or a small, local place wherever I lived, sitting down for a plate of hashbrowns and pancakes on a Saturday morning brought me back. That’s something that I haven’t tried to find in Green Bay just yet, even after all this time living here. What makes a diner breakfast here at Eating Normal? Hashbrowns (or homefries), eggs, and sausage are expected at a minimum. Pancakes as an add on or base are a bonus, but we will try them at every location they are available. Many of Green Bay’s breakfast locations that I have already visited do not serve these as a single meal, but rather as ‘extras’, and will also be considered. What About Coffee? Green Bay is blessed with a variety of local roasters and coffee houses– this will be a separate segment. Diners aren’t best known for having amazing coffee, and therefore, we’ll look elsewhere for coffee. Where will I be going? Anywhere within the Green Bay Metro area that offers a diner style breakfast is a possibility. At reader suggestion, I’ll go as far as Appleton– but anything I seek out on my own will be within the Green Bay area. We are starting with Julie’s Cafe in De Pere.   Summer of 2023 has given rise to a number of new restaurant concepts in the Green Bay area, and among the newest of these is Vintage Rose Bakery and Sandwich Shop in Lawrence. A short jog off the Scheuring Road exit on I-41, it’s not in the first place I’d think to find breakfast. Most of the businesses in this portion of Lawrence are corporate centers and manufacturing, less so restaurants and shopping. Vintage Rose fills a necessary role for some of the local neighborhoods, however: local coffee and housemade food. Vintage Rose sports a large sign along Mid Valley Drive to help you find it, so if you find yourself on the hunt like I was on a chilly Monday morning, you should be fine. Trust the sign. The building looks like it ought to be more offices, but there’s food in there. I promise.  The Wednesday Night Farmer’s Market on Broadway has a variety of food stalls to try each week, but sometimes, one just wants to sit down inside and watch the world go by in the window while they have dinner. Pho Coma on Broadway allows you to do just that if you circle their food stall on the block and enter the building for a bowl of their delicious noodles. I had the pleasure of hosting a friend from Kansas this past week, and he hadn’t had the opportunity for a bowl of Pho (his favorite meal) in years. Green Bay has no shortage of places to get Pho. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to eat at Pho Coma that evening as the rain threatened to drop on us during our visit to the farmer’s market. Pho Coma has a relatively small store front compared to some of the other restaurants along Broadway. Their stall out front diverts some of the traffic you’d likely see on a normal day at the shop, and therefore we were able to have our pick of tables after putting in our order. A bowl of pho and crab rangoons was certainly enough for us, and we ordered from their custom drink menu two pomegranate lemonades.
 The Cannery recently reopened in their new test kitchen format on Broadway, and this past weekend, I visited the morning concepts after the Saturday Morning Market to get in early. Entering from the Fox River side of the building that also contains Titletown Brewery and Voyageur Sourdough can lead to an experience not unlike trying to get through a maze. The Broadway entrance is far less difficult, however, and leads right into the location.
All concepts operate out of the same kitchen, so when I arrived at about 10 am, most of the kitchen staff was already hard at work preparing for their opening or serving the breakfast crowd that came into visit. A tablet setup is available at the center of the room for you to put in your order with the kitchen tenants, key in your phone number, and when your order is ready, you receive a text message letting you know that your order is at the window.
If you’re running around Broadway earlier in the day and looking for something new to try among the many delicious breakfast and brunch options, check out Honey + Cream Cafe in the Cannery to support a growing food business.
Check back soon for more Cannery reviews!  April 7th, a bad crash on I-41 diverted my plans for the afternoon with detour traffic that could make the most patient driver’s head spin. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I pulled about a block or two off the detour route I decided on to stop into the De Pere location of local sandwich chain, Scott’s Subs. They’ve expanded into Green Bay East and Hobart in the last few years, but despite that growth, I never made it in for a sandwich.
Turning a bad afternoon into a better one with a decent sandwich sounded like a great idea. The De Pere location was smack in the middle of an unusual area for a restaurant, but it got me out of the detour traffic taking over the Lawrence area. I was surprised to see that more of the folks caught in the slow moving traffic away from the I-41 accident that afternoon hadn’t done the same. The De Pere location offers sandwiches and pizzas made in house as well as ice creams from a few Wisconsin producers. I kept it simple with a Turkey Avocado sandwich and a bag of buffalo chicken wing potato chips. While I waited, however, I got a craving for the ice cream that I saw several other customers order in the meantime. I took a pint of Kemps Cake and Ice Cream home with me, and I found in that short amount of time, I was able to chart a path home through the detour traffic that didn’t take much longer than usual. |
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