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.
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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. 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. A too hot Saturday rose in Green Bay this weekend, and I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t want to boil alive at the Saturday Morning Farmer’s Market. I chose instead to get local meat and produce through our friends Produce with Purpose out at the Revolution Market. This also afforded us the opportunity to visit Short Order Sandwiches and Deli during their pop up in the Revolution Market’s final stall. They announced their arrival into space a few weeks ago to start drumming up business. I eyed their menu closely in anticipation of at least one visit before their pop up ended, and it just happened to be this first weekend that I got myself into the Revolution Market with time and appetite enough to pick up lunch. Even going across town can be a large amount of effort for me on a bad health day. I was delighted to find out that this pop up is a sort of market study by the chef to go into his own business at some point. The hustle it takes to maintain a full time job and pursue this kind of passion is commendable. I certainly wouldn’t have it in me. This is part of why I took my order very seriously after a short conversation with the chef. 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. 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. |
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