Unseasonable cold welcomed my father to Green Bay this past Sunday, and despite the threat of rain we spent the day visiting Lambeau Field and getting brunch at Stadium View. Most important about the day was the food truck rally sponsored by the Green Bay Food Truck Coalition taking place at Willow Park in Bellevue, not too far from where my husband and I live. Our food truck scene has been growing over the last year, and many of those small businesses started during the pandemic to serve customers outside in a safer environment still exist today. Some of our favorites that we visited at the start of the pandemic were there that day.
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Around this time last year, I began doing takeout reviews of local restaurants to highlight some gems that were shifting to delivery to continue service in the pandemic. Main Street Bourbon Room is one of those my husband and I ordered during that time, but it looks like I never got around to posting it. I remembered having some mixed thoughts on the delivery itself, and I wanted to be as kind as possible to restaurants when things were so hard.
Businesses have been reopened for awhile, but we never got around to visiting Main Street Bourbon Room until this weekend where my memories of our takeout meal were completely upended by a lovely dining experience. It stands to reason that this would be the case in a location built upon an extensive bourbon list. Still, I found myself surprised by how much I actually enjoyed it. I'll start by saying I'm not a bourbon or whiskey drinker normally. The only old fashioned I drink is a brandy old fashioned, but for the sake of getting the full experience of the restaurant, my husband and I both ordered their signature old fashioned, sweet, with bourbon. It drinks smoothly, and it's a drink that I could nurse throughout the meal without ordering a second. About halfway through, I passed mine off to my husband to order the Operation SOS 2.0 beer from 3 Sheeps Brewing in Sheboygan to show some support for their mission of helping other restaurants recover from the pandemic. We reordered the same appetizer as we did from our long ago take out experience: their fan favorite crab and shrimp dip served with ciabatta sticks for dipping. What we got in delivery was a small container filled with the dip still cold. What we got in the restaurant was this dip served in a very tiny and very hot cast iron skillet, and it made a world of difference for the flavor. We ate the whole damn thing. I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of my chicken Bahn Mi sandwich, but like most of their sandwich offerings, its served on a ciabatta bun. The chicken is served as a full grilled breast with a spicy mayo, slaw, and a mix of asian greens. It was definitely not what I expected of my dinner, but it WAS tasty. That’s to say nothing of their lovely fries that I focused on the entire meal. MSBR is a gem tucked away on the east side of Main Street where many people might not be looking for a good meal. Its a beautiful place to stop in, get a few drinks with friends, and enjoy a tasty menu. Visit their facebook for more information about their hours. Vaccination rates in Wisconsin are looking great, and it’s time to get back out there and support our local businesses! November, 2019. My husband and I sat down at Tuscon’s on Lime Kiln for our first dinner out to eat in the Great City of Green Bay after we moved into town. We knew nothing about the town, where to shop, what to eat, where to go for basics. We were blessed by a local waitress that took care of us. She gave us our first sips of Spotted Cow and told us where to go for the best produce and the best deals on meat and pantry items. She pointed us to The Rite Place for what she termed ‘ the best soup in town’. More than a year passed before we remembered that advice and decided to stop in for lunch at the supper club not far from where we now live. The warmest day of the year so far made us want a nature walk along the path not far from the restaurant, so after a short walk, we came back for a drink and a tasty lunch. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we went inside. I drive by every day and look upon a parking lot almost always full at lunch time, and that’s to say nothing of Friday evening when Fish Fry comes for Wisconsin. They’re busy, and that tells me they’re a much beloved family favorite. This was the same feeling I got when I went inside. While my husband and I were among the youngest people there on the bar side for lunch, one thing was perfectly clear: this was a place for family. Parents, grandparents, and the children of the family gathered at most of the tables for a nice meal together. Couples sat at the bar or took up smaller tables. We chose to sit in the window area and look out toward the nature walk we had just taken. We were busy the 23rd of January making some stops all over the East Side, and one of those stops was the 1 year anniversary tapping of Zambaldi’s Bourbon Barrel aged Vanilla Good Dog Porter. Bay Burger Food Truck was on hand to provide food for visitors to the distanced celebration, and I’ve got to admit, it was one of the strongest draws of the event for my husband and I. Bay Burger started service in early December 2020, and their facebook posts had been crossing my feed since their first outing at Zambaldi. They had been there many times since, but we hadn’t taken the time to go visit while we did mini quarantines for ourselves ahead of the holidays. Those quarantines we imposed on ourselves are over now, and though I’m not able to receive the second part of my vaccine due to some complicated reactions, I’m still at least partly protected from the pandemic. For me, this means I can extend my restaurant coverage in the area with less to worry about and try to highlight local businesses doing amazing things, and Bay Burger Food Truck is one of those businesses. When you approach and see what some might consider a sparse menu, it may be a put off after years and years of burgers with absolutely insane topping combinations and enough meat to put a football player to sleep after dinner. Traditional hamburger, single smashburger, and double smashburger. Those are your options. They serve ‘em one way: cheese, grilled onions, dijon, mayo, and pickles. Basket of fries on the side, and that’s your meal. Simple? Yes. Perfect? Yes.
A completely untarnished burger experience is what we got from Bay Burger Food Truck that day over a special beer release and a few more minutes outside of our apartment. The smashburger is executed to perfection so you get that nice crunchy layer of meat on either side of the patty. The cheese melts right in. The grilled onion and the pickles play nicely together while the dijon and mayo provide smooth, saucy relief. I swear to god their fries are done in peanut oil, and it makes all the difference to the taste of well salted, thin fries like they serve out of that window. This is absolutely a truck worth seeking out if you’re a burger person, and let's face it, most of us are. There is currently no vegetarian option on the menu, however, so that may dissuade some. Bay Burger Food Truck is out there doing business any day possible, including the NFC Championship game this past weekend where they set up on a corner and provided for the crowd and passersby from near the Resch center. They update their Facebook every day they’re out, but you can also follow their schedule at their website. Some of their stops aren’t always scheduled ahead of time enough for them to be on the website-- like their stop today at Zambaldi! Experience the tasty burger with a nice beer from another Eating Normal favorite. Saturday, January 23, 2021 was the opening day for Bona Fide Juicery’s second location on Monroe Avenue in Bellevue, not too far away from where I now live. I had never gone to their first location in De Pere, but I've been aware of them for a long time. With the new year upon us, this was the perfect opportunity to try something in the healthier avenue for both my husband and myself, so when we embarked upon our errands that morning, we stopped in for a visit. Their menu offers several healthier options than what I would expect to find at a lot of breakfast/lunch locations, and those options are in line with what one might expect from the name alone. Prebottled juices fill a cold case near the register if you’re looking to grab and go, or you can order salads, acai bowls, or smoothies at the counter. We decided to do a little bit of both in our continuing effort to be better to our bodies in 2021. My husband ordered their blueberry based smoothie and absolutely demolished it before we even got home from picking up our Target Order and stopping to say goodbye at Nala’s Cheese and Wine. I had a strawberry and banana based smoothie which was delicious flavor wise, but I will never be able to get over the texture of strawberry seeds in my teeth. I got through maybe ¼ before giving it up to my husband’s consumption for later. I do not expect this to be my experience with all of their creations, because they have so many choices for smoothies. A cold and foggy night took us to one last meal with our visitors at a location tucked away beside Highway 172 on Oneida Street, Prime Quarter Steakhouse. I’ve been living in Green Bay for a whole year now and never once heard of the location until our visitors mentioned it in passing. A relative of theirs visits every year and reported on a meal where he cooked the steak himself over a fire pit surrounded by community, and at any other time in my life, I would have been very excited to eat there. Prime Quarter Steakhouse offers a grill your own steak experience with an all you can eat salad bar, texas toast, and baked potatoes. There are many different cuts you can choose from when you get ready to grill, all of which come in at the exact same price. This can be very valuable depending on what kind of steak you choose. Beef prices are on the rise all across the country, and this method can provide an experience for the same price you’d pay on a steak at the grocery store. I, for example, decided to grill my own T-bone steak. A steak that size would have cost me the twenty-seven dollars charged by the restaurant, and it would have only been the steak. |
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