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On my birthday, I had only one plan: To go to Orsetta Craft Kitchen and Bar for dinner. I’ve walked past their windows and seen a full restaurant on many a warm summer night while out and about in De Pere and imagined myself seated at their cozy bar with a brandy old fashioned and a big pizza all to myself. What more could a girl ask for, really? I made reservations for myself and my father on the evening of my birthday, and I waited anxiously for my chance to finally arrive. These walls were once home to La Nostra Strada, a pizzeria I find myself missing a lot these days. Today, they house a high end eatery that appears to be at the heart of De Pere’s dining community these days. When my father and I arrived for our reservations, there were tables open everywhere we looked. By the time we put in our drinks order, all of those tables were filled. By the crowd alone, I knew that I made the right choice for dinner that night. We were seated in the back of the restaurant, right beneath one of the windows looking out in the direction of the Fox River. Our visit took place just as the smoke from the Canadian Wildfires was starting to pour into the area, and it did put a damper on the view. The interior of the restaurant was gorgeous, at least, and one could forget about all of the smoke in the clean, cool air inside. The natural lighting at our seat turned out perfect for the pictures I’d take for this article.
Orsetta offers sourdough thin crust and Sicilian Pan style pizzas in all varieties listed on their menu, and it was difficult for my father and I to decide which ones we wanted. The easy thing was choosing to do one of each crust style. We ordered the Hot Honey Pepperoni on the thin crust and The Brooklyn Supreme on the Sicilian pan. This seemed like the best compromise to get the best of both worlds.
The prices at Orsetta do keep this restaurant firmly in the special occasion category for my current budget, but by ordering their pizzas, that special occasion was able to keep going through the rest of the week. I do intend to visit again and try their entree and pasta menus another time, but pizza is definitely the way to go if you want the most bang for your buck here.
You can take a look at their website to see their menu and make reservations of your own to plan your own trip. Their social media is the best place to keep an eye on any specials going on. I’ll be going back again soon, for sure.
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 Is there anything better than a Margarita and a plate of tacos after a long day of shopping? It’s hard to think of a greater treat to cap off a busy day running around town and taking care of errands I’ve been putting off for weeks.There are plenty of options all over town to fulfill those criteria, but I wanted to find somewhere new after taking so long away from writing restaurant reviews for the website. Where does a girl get back into the game? West De Pere gained a branch of Howard’s Mexico Lindo in the last few months. I finally made it out there to try it for myself on a chilly Saturday afternoon after a long, long day of running errands with a friend. It’s located in the old Sgambati’s location, and it fills an important spot on that little strip. The restaurant space between offices and hair salons served as an anchor. For a Saturday afternoon, it wasn’t particularly busy. I have a feeling that the location itself is to blame for some of the lower foot traffic since it is so far out of the way. Maybe during the work week, the crowd is a little thicker with all of the industrial parks in the area. I wasn’t upset to be there without too many other patrons. It was easier to talk to my friend that accompanied me on my errands even if the music was a touch loud.
 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.
 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.  Sunday afternoon is a busy time in downtown De Pere. The city’s restaurants are all full– especially with the weather being on the warmer side compared to most of March. I arrived at the building that Brickhouse shares with Julie’s Cafe to find that there wasn’t a single parking spot available in the lot. I considered it a good sign for the meal I would have inside the doors, so I found another spot in the downtown area to walk back down to the restaurant. During the height of the pandemic, I ordered a burger for delivery from Brickhouse, so I had some idea of what to expect. Big burgers and tasty fries were still fresh in my memory. Little did I know that they developed a rotating monthly menu that included a limited offering poutine, burger, and sandwich. On another visit, I would love to try the buffalo chicken poutine. This visit wasn’t that visit, however.
 Sweet Willow Herbal Wellness was a welcome addition to downtown De Pere– sustainability options for everything from your laundry detergent to reusable kitchen wraps. And for whatever reason, I didn’t make it down there as much as I wanted to at their old location. Little did I know that their business evolved to include vegan and vegetarian dining options for carry out and delivery over the years. Their new location just across the river has allowed them to further expand those options.
The Grand Re-Opening at the new location took place on an overcast, but pleasantly cool Wisconsin morning. I arrived to find a full house of eager diners and shoppers packed in from wall to wall. A number of free samples for visitors were available in the new cafe area, and I helped myself to several of them while I surveyed the cold cases. I used to regularly drive along the frontage road where Plank Road Pub and Grill sits alongside the highway to Appleton. For years, I’ve driven by and wondered what brought the crowd to it’s large parking lot, and yet, I never made the attempt to cross town from my old living space to give it a visit. Shortly into October, I moved to the west side of the Green Bay Metro Area, and I decided to satisfy my curiosity with my soon-to-be ex-husband. A friendly dinner after a day of moving at a location neither of us had ever visited before harkened us back to easier times. He often sat across the table from me when I dined for articles like these. Fortunately for us and the other patrons of the restaurant that night, there was little different on this night than any other. We ordered our drinks, and I did what I always do. Plank Road Pub and Grill has a menu familiar to me in any bar-restaurant setting. I would never personally call it original. Every bar-restaurant has a spinach and artichoke dip, mixed french fry platters, etc. A compact burger menu positioned beside a sandwich menu is precisely what you can expect from a place like this when you drive up. It was a friday in Wisconsin, so of course there was a fish fry menu.
When our entrees arrived, I was pleased with my choice of a perch sandwich on a fish fry evening. At nearly half the price of their perch platter, it proved to be a good way to gauge the quality of the fry and the fish itself without committing too much on my first night out at Plank Road Pub and Grill. The single plank of perch among a well toasted bun and common sandwich accoutrement such as lettuce and red onion was somewhat lost flavorwise. However, looking at the fish and tasting it separately, it was clear to me the perch is well cared for and cooked here.
I left Plank Road with a ticket of around thirty bucks despite ordering two drinks, the appetizer, and my entree. A strong tip for the attentive staff pushed me into the forty range, and despite the concerns I have of going out on my own into the world for the first time, I didn’t regret a cent. Plank Road is a comfortable location for friendly dinners, and with reasonable price, it is much more accessible than some of its restaurant genre compatriots in town. Plank Road is accessible via the Scheuring Road exit off of highway 41, and their daily specials offer an opportunity to try much of their menu at reduced costs. Their frequent live music acts are announced on their facebook page. Thank you to the staff for a delicious, comforting meal after a hard day of moving!
A hazy sunset came down over Green Bay one Thursday evening while my husband and I went out for dinner with a friend on his way out of the area very soon. It was our last chance to spend some time with this guy that has been a great friend to my husband when we came to Northeast Wisconsin. We decided on Graystone Ale House over in East De Pere, not far from where my husband and I now live. We’ve driven past it several times and always wondered. We ended that curiosity. Their outdoor dining, while next to the country highway out of Bellevue, is comfortably seated and perfect for a drink or two with friends. Two firepits burned through the evening. It was the last evening of restaurant week, so on a better day I would have indulged myself in the offering. It was a bad day for my stomach, so I ate simply. My husband and our guest were a little more adventurous. Small Business Saturday began with a coffee and breakfast at the Exchange Coffee, Mercantile, and Eatery in Downtown De Pere on a breezy November morning. It looked different than every Small Business Saturday that went before it with people wearing their masks even on the sides of the road, while they stood in line to go into the small businesses that so need their help to continue to survive the pandemic. The Exchange was no different with spots on the floor to mark proper social distancing and laminated menus to be washed off behind the counter after you ordered. I talked about them more than a month ago when I wrote a short series highlighting favored and interesting local food businesses in the area, and The Exchange was a large part of my coffee article when I discussed other places I still wanted to go. We finally got there that morning, hungry and not at all caffeinated. We changed that quickly in their beautiful indoor dining area. Other patrons made sure to help maintain distance at tables, and the Exchange itself adopted a system where customers deposited their own dishes into washbins to limit interactions with staff during our stay. |
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