I became aware of Captain Quesadilla near the beginning of the pandemic when their charity work with Feeding America came across my facebook wall. Restaurants and food trucks working to feed their communities during lockdown was one of my favorite things to see. I set myself up to follow them immediately, and it has been more than a year since that point. I’ve seen a lot of opportunities to give them a visit pass me by. I feel bad for it. There was even a point where I was messaging with them every few days trying to figure out where they’d be next, but my health in the summer was so down that I could never get myself out the door. The last few months have improved dramatically. When I saw Captain Quesadilla on the vendor list for the Oktoberfest out of Revolution Market, I knew I had to be there. I’ll support the location until I’m dead or move from the area. The opportunity to finally give this food truck its due was too good to resist.
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The Oktoberfest at Revolution Market welcomed a new vendor into their halls for a prolonged stay. Souper Day wasn’t here just to pop up. They were here for the long haul, and they were ready for the morning when the doors opened to the Oktoberfest goers one cool October afternoon. We stopped in immediately once we realized that the newcomers were ready, and we learned a lot about them while the crowd remained thin. This was their very first day in their new stall at the Revolution Market. We spoke to Farmer Rick of Produce With Purpose who seemed very excited to welcome in the new blood, swearing that he'd be their best customer as the weather gets colder and soup becomes even more welcoming. The ladies manning the new stall seemed excited for the new beginning in their business and shared their plans for the future with us while my husband and I worked out what we wanted to sample. It was our mission that day to try to buy something from every vendor in the building, and we would be remiss not to do so with the newest permanent residents of one of our favorite locations in town.
We have reviewed Player 2 Arcade Bar in the past, focusing on their drinks and our experience among the vintage arcade cabinets of youth. Player 2 remains a destination for any visitors that come to see me from the era of the classic arcade, and no one has been disappointed. However, we never formally ate there. That ended one October weekend where it got too hot in my apartment for me to cook, and my husband and I needed something to do. We arrived just before the rush came pouring into the door with enough time to order drinks and our meal from the one bartender on staff. The poor guy was managing the bar, food orders, and any malfunctions on the variety of machines in the building by himself by the time we left. Overwhelmed is one way to describe the guy by the end of our visit-- but he was as courteous then as he was when my husband and I initially ordered. The burger menu is an homage to characters of the 80’s and 90’s video games. Donkey Kong, Mario, The Terminator, and more have a signature burger on the regular menu for you to pick out at any given visit. They go through a special burger each month, and this month’s burger was named for that classic NFL Arcade Game: Blitz. It’s a game my husband plays every visit, and the burger he decided to get for himself.
Let’s face it: I don’t know much about the west side of town. I know so little about it that when my husband’s coworkers suggested we get a bite to eat at Narrow Bridge Brewhouse after the Brews, Bistros, and Bonfires event at the Botanical Garden, I had no damn clue what they were talking about. The bar was proverbially around the corner from us, so there was no reason to say no. I had boundaries to push, so I pushed them. We arrived as the sun finally set and darkness descended on Green Bay, and we found a busy outdoor bar.
Open garage doors revealed the secondary bar to the outdoor seating area, and we began our night there. The main building looked busy from where we stood-- Fish fry patrons finished their meals and live music played loud enough you could hear it through the windows. It made for the perfect stop for another beer and maybe a burger to cap off a fun evening with some new friends, or at least new to me anyhow. One of the first restaurants in the Green Bay area that my husband and I visited after we moved in was Umi Sushi in Bellevue. At the time, we thought it conveniently located-- but nothing to write home about. I spent those first few weeks avoiding any writing on local restaurants to try to get my bearings with the area. My mother was in town this weekend. She accompanied us on our first trip to Umi, and we thought it only appropriate to bring her again for our first post-COVID visit.
Umi Sushi had their indoor dining closed for much of the pandemic, reopening dine in on May 1st of this year. This is part of the reason we hadn’t been back in a long time to give them another shot. We really only want sushi if we’re sitting down inside the restaurant. Ordering for takeout isn’t something appealing to my husband and I when it comes to sushi. You’ve seen pictures on our instagram of snacks my husband and I have picked up from Plia’s Kitchen’s food stand at the Saturday Morning Farmer’s Market already. We stop almost every single week for stuffed chicken wings and crab rangoons, and yet we never stopped in to their brick and mortar location. Their indoor dining has been closed for the entire pandemic up until the end of June, so we have done takeout with them at least once in that time. I waited to give them a formal review because I really wanted to see their interior and experience it for myself the best way I could. Plia’s is in a small storefront on Webster Avenue, and when you see it, it makes sense that they wanted to limit indoor dining until they felt comfortable with where Brown County stood in the pandemic. There is not much room for tables, and the table spacing required in early CDC guidelines for indoor dining would have limited the space to maybe two tables. We got comfortable by the wall after ordering at the counter.
During the pandemic lockdown, the Depot was one of those locations that we tried for takeout. They filled the space left behind by Titletown Brewery when they moved into the new building across the street, and at the time, we enjoyed what we ate. We all know, however, that food suffers in transit, so with company in town we decided it was time to go see them in person. We looked forward to seeing the old building in its renovated condition. The Depot, filled to the gills with patrons, still managed to get us seated at the door during a busy Friday evening on the Fox. We checked in with multiple restaurants in the area and found the wait time to be more than an hour. However, the Depot had our backs. We were hungry. We weren’t in the mood for waiting. We were sat immediately, and we sat with our beverages for a time while the waitress busied herself with her other tables. A Green Bay Restaurant Week 2021 Review Restaurant Week falling during the week of my birthday is perhaps the greatest gift I could have ever received. Delayed during COVID, my husband and I enjoyed ourselves last September at Hagemeister Park to a gorgeous, three course meal for our anniversary. The city likes to gift us with tasty treats on important occasions, and so my husband and I made reservations at Taverne in the Sky during restaurant week to taste deliciousness and enjoy the sight of Titletown from on high. We have never been here before. During our many visits to the west side, we have looked at the Lodge Kohler resort with jealousy. The building is beautiful. It looks like a place for good meals and good times, even while sipping a beer at its next door neighbor, Hinterland Brewery. We arrived for a delicious birthday dinner early Saturday evening to take in a night overlooking Titletown. My husband and I entered 4th of July Weekend looking for some new experiences in town, and where better to start than with the brand new Million’s Crab in Ashwaubenon that opened just a few weeks ago. We’ve always loved a giant pot full of boiled shellfish, and we awaited the opening of Million’s Crab for a long time after the facebook page was created. It was a conscious choice to give them a few weeks to get their feet under them before we stopped in for a visit. A cursory google search confirms that this is a small Midwestern chain specializing in various seafoods, including what my husband and I showed up searching for: crab legs. Ashwaubenon is one of its first locations in the Upper Midwest. Their charted expansion on their website shows many more opening in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area ‘soon’. The Ashwaubenon location was in the works for some time as far as I can tell. I’ve had the facebook page for this location on watch since mid-2020, and it finally opened in June 2021. Their logo work is top notch. I’m in love with the little crab and his giant sunglasses. He’s on everything: the bibs, the wet wipes, the table paper, the to-go bags. Someone worked hard on that little guy. It’s a delightful marketing decision, and I’m an adult. The little cartoon guy will get me every time. The brightest spot during my pandemic related furlough was the quiet Saturday morning Farmers Market. Weaving my way through the aisles of stalls according to the path set up by the market’s planners to keep COVID exposure to its minimum, I came to know many wonderful growers and producers for their delicious products. There were no prepared food vendors allowed, however, so I missed out on what now appears to be a crucial part of the market: the food stalls in the Washington street parking lots beside the river.
We sampled Boba Tea from Pink Guava during opening weekend, and this weekend, the curious appetites of both my husband and I brought us to Plia’s Kitchen and their stall at the farmer’s market this year. We received several recommendations for Plia’s over the course of the year. We just never made it to their brick and mortar location on Webster before we stepped up to the menu at the market. It’s not exactly a breakfast menu, if I’m being honest. We arrived at the market around 8 am, and while there were some more breakfasty options available, little crab rangoons, Hmong Egg Rolls, and something they called a stuffed chicken wing were all appetizing enough to my husband and I that we put aside morning protocols to have a taste of something new instead. The actual seating in the food vendor area is limited, so be prepared to take a short walk to the river front to hunt down a bench or two if you’ve got friends along. We did. We sat down with my mother-in-law next to the nearby dock in a shady little patch behind one of the nearby apartment complexes. There, my husband opened up our styrofoam clam shell to reveal its contents. I knew by the smell it’d be good, and the view confirmed that for me. |
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