Fresh Cheese, Fast Cars
LAURA SUTHERLAND is having fun in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin.
AT FIRST GLANCE IT’S THE KIND OF LAKESIDE RESORT TOWN THAT makes you want to brush up on your table manners. Well-to-do families from Chicago once vacationed here for entire summers, and that old world elegance still permeates the place. But there's more variety to it now — toss in race cars and a modern attitude and you have a lakefront vacation with an especially satisfying split personality.
Besides the three resorts that have dominated the small-town lakefront since the late nineteenth century, there is a famous Nascar racetrack just two miles away that hosts car and motorcycle races, vintage car events and specialized driving schools. Farm-to-fork restaurants, a craft brewery and a sophisticated wine tasting room fill out the trendy and cool side of the itinerary, while old fashioned ice cream shops, music performances and fishing excursions are pleasures that have been enjoyed since those first vacationers hiked up their skirts, rolled down their stockings and dipped their toes into the lake.
Then there's the cheese. It's Wisconsin after all, the biggest cheese producing state in the US, and home to more master cheesemakers than anywhere else in North America. I was sad to miss `The Big Cheese' festival at The Ostoff Resort, where a ninecourse tasting menu featured different award-winning Wisconsin artisanal cheeses in every course. `Matchmaking' events sounded intriguing too, where cheeses were paired with beverages like bourbon, tea, beer or wine throughout the three-day festival held each May. But luckily I was able to sample some of the same blue-ribbon cheeses, like the creamy Deer Creek `Blue Jay' blue cheese flecked with juniper berries at Vintage Elkhart Lake Wine Shop and Tasting Bar where sommelier Jaclyn Stuart presides over sophisticated wine and cheese pairings.
Later we toured Henning's Wisconsin Cheese Museum and Factory and watched workers form huge rounds of cheese while we sampled surprises like a bacon-dillpickle-onion cheddar that I longed to try on a grilled cheese sandwich. It's important to visit Henning's in the morning so you can buy some just-made famous Wisconsin cheese curds before they sell out. You know they are fresh when they squeak against your teeth.
An even more decadent way to enjoy cheese curds is in Otto's Restaurant at Ostoff's where white cheddar curds come breaded in panko and are quickly deep fried and served with dipping sauces. Stately Ostoff's is the grand dame of the lakefront resorts and still sports a Victorian vibe. But a forward-thinking General Manager has put a fresh and creative stamp on the place by establishing a 20,000-square-foot holistic healing spa consistently ranked in the top ten in the US. Drawing inspiration from the crystalline spring-fed lake and the Potawatomi tribe that considered the lake to have sacred healing properties, it is a soothing sanctuary with a vast lineup of spa experiences.
GM Lola Roeh also established a two-acre organic garden so resort chefs would have easy access to the freshest and healthiest possible produce. Butternut squash thrives in this garden, so velvety butternut squash bisque is a popular menu item all year long in the resort's restaurants. Pots of herbs and edible flowers are found
just outside the doors of all of the resort's bars and restaurants for chefs to use.
Those just-picked vegetables and herbs are happily included in the resort's L'ecole de la Maison Cooking School, where my class made cream of asparagus soup with asparagus plucked fresh from the garden. I felt like I was receiving an immersion in flavour awareness on top of a cooking lesson, as Culinary Director/Chef Patrick O'Toole held a tasting session to show us the difference between cheap supermarket salt and quality sea salt. Then we tasted the finished soup four different times as he added small amounts of salt each round to help us understand its power to bring out the subtle flavours of a dish.
Fortified from our multi-course cooking class, we headed to the lake to work off some calories in a giant white swan pedal boat. The swan was surprisingly exhausting to power, and even though we looked like the stars of our own fairytale, after about 30 minutes we switched to kayaks and explored the lake with ease. Other watersports are available, as well as fishing and quiet lakeside fun, like bonfires and s'mores on the beach, a favourite of the youngest guests.
Families also appreciate the Siebkens Resort next door with its oldfashioned gelato parlor, simple hotel rooms and elegant one-, twoand three-bedroom condos with breezy balconies the size of an extra room. It also is home to Siebkens' Stop-Inn Tavern, known internationally as the coolest racecar driver bar on the racing circuit. Racing and automobile-themed decals, bumper stickers, t-shirts and other car memorabilia wallpaper the place and live music, food and dancing is offered on weekends during the summer season.
The third of the resort trio — The Shore Club — has just been completely updated and turned into a boutique hotel. Its beloved Tiki Bar overlooking the lake has stayed the same though — locals would never forgive the new owners if they swapped out even a single palm frond. A new restaurant called Cottonwood Social features dishes like beer mussels with nearby Spotted Cow beer, chorizo, blistered cherry tomatoes and fennel along with an exotic cocktail menu. The resort's 100-year-old theatre has been artfully renovated to preserve its history and now features a Mexican menu with a guacamole cart, live music, comedy and karaoke.
Besides the top-notch resort eateries, guests can walk two blocks to tiny downtown Elkhart Lake village to explore even more options. Two of the restaurants claim Wine Spectator accolades for their wine lists, but since I'd just spent the afternoon at Switch Gear Brewery in town, I was in a
Wisconsin craft beer mood. At the Paddock Club Restaurant, I ordered from their tap list while I perused a menu that constantly changes. It was Tuesday — small plates night — so we sampled all kinds of delicious goodies, like seared scallops with tomato, ginger sauce, ramps, lime and radish micro greens. The next night we sidled into a booth at Lake Street Cafe to try dishes like roasted beet and fennel salad with toasted cashews and a particularly creamy shrimp and grits. This time I tried the wine, including a gorgeous chardonnay from Golden Winery in California's Carmel Valley.
Even the Road America race track is noted for its great food, but especially for its world-class Wisconsin bratwursts that you can munch while you explore the 640-acre, tree-shaded grounds that feature a legendary 14turn road race circuit, a go-kart race track and the Road America Motorcycle and Advanced Driving Schools. On top of that, there is camping, a disc golf course and opportunities on summer evenings to ride your bicycle around the dips, climbs, curves, and straightaways of the four-plus mile track.
These days Elkhart Lake attracts an appealing mix of millennials and their young families, couples of all ages, family reunions, corporate meetings, wedding parties and race car lovers. Children can learn to fish, dad can learn to cook, mom can learn to drive a racecar, and food lovers can amble from one great meal to the next. In between everyone can splash in the lake's cool clear water and relax on a sandy beach… and then eat more of that irresistible Wisconsin cheese.
…The Potawatomi tribe considered the lake to have sacred healing properties…