Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
10 ways to eat, drink and be local in Green Bay
So you’re in town for a Green Bay Packers game. Or training camp. Or for some big event at Lambeau Field. Or a nonPackers event somewhere other than Lambeau Field. (We have those. Really.)
Well, you gotta eat. Here are 10 ways to eat (and drink) local.
Cheese curds
Cheese curds are Wisconsin’s calling card. Though word about the curd is spreading, America’s Dairyland remains ground zero for these squeaky, slightly salty, mild-flavored cheese nuggets.
Deep-fried or fresh curds, there’s no shortage of options around Titletown.
For the classic deep-fried curds head to The Depot, 200 Dousman St., Green Bay, for hand-battered white cheese curds. (The only difference between yellow-orange and white curds is a color additive called annatto.)
An order comes with ranch and house marinara for dipping. In most cases, ranch rules as the dipping sauce of choice in Wisconsin, but don’t sleep on the marinara here.
For an upscale twist, try the Parmesan-breaded cheese curds served with a romesco sauce at 1919 Kitchen & Tap restaurant inside Lambeau Field.
On the fresh side, look for Renard’s or Ron’s on the label for curds made by nearby cheesemakers. Top Wisconsin cheese curd makers include Ellsworth Creamery and Decatur Dairy. Muenster curds from Decatur won the cheese curd’s debut in the World Championship Cheese Contest.
One uniquely Green Bay experience is to grab a cup of coffee and bag of curds (the Titletown breakfast of champions) without leaving your car at Scray Cheese Co., 2082 Old Martin Road, Rockland. Now into its fourth generation, the family run cheesemaking business makes a variety of flavored curds as well as cheddars, Gouda and more cheese styles.
Old-Fashioned, the Wisconsin way
The Old-Fashioned cocktail may have
faded from drink menus in the other 49 states, but we kept the drink alive. Albeit in a fruit-cocktail version.
If the bartender doesn’t have forearms like Popeye from muddling orange slices and cherries in bottom of the glass, you’re not getting the full Wisconsin Old-Fashioned treatment. At the very least, make sure the bar or restaurant uses proprietary Old-Fashioned blend of bitters and sweeteners.
When ordering, be prepared to answer two questions. Brandy or whiskey for the liquor. Sweet or sour for the soda mixer. And by sour, think Squirt. So, sugary sour.
Most bars and restaurants with a liquor license around these parts make Old-Fashioneds, so they’re not hard to find.
Classic Wisconsin Old-Fashioneds are staples at supper clubs while bars touting “craft” cocktails usually put a twists on this drink.
Main Street Bourbon Room, 1279 Main St., Green Bay, features two barrelaged bourbon Old-Fashioneds as signature cocktails. Studio 1212 Cafe and Wine Bar, 1212 Marine St., Green Bay, mixes up whiskey, brandy, bourbon, apple bourbon, chai, pecan or peanut butter versions.
Supper club experience
Supper clubs rose to prominence during the 1930s. They’ve stuck around. They still elude precise definitions.
Signs you’re in a supper club include: Family run.
Rural or edge of town location. Almost everyone orders an Old-Fashioned cocktail before dinner. Server takes food orders at the bar. Relish tray or salad bar.
Friday fish fry and Saturday prime rib specials.
Grasshoppers and other alcoholic ice cream drinks. Budget a few hours for the meal and be prepared to strike up conversations with strangers while waiting. A night at a supper club is kind of a meal and entertainment.
Popular supper clubs within 30 minutes of Lambeau Field include:
Club Chalet, 4642 Nicolet Drive, Scott Krabbe’s Kountry Klub, W2890 Outagamie County EE, Seymour
Kropp’s Supper Club, 4570 Shawano Ave., Howard
Out-O-Town Supper Club, N2161 Town Club Road, Kaukauna
River’s Bend, 792 Riverview Drive, Howard
Union Hotel, 200 N. Broadway, De
Pere
Van Abel’s of Hollandtown, 8108 Brown County D, town of Holland
Friday fish fry
A plate of fried fish and fries with a side of coleslaw and rye bread may not seem hugely unique. But reserved for Friday night and with a perch option, it’s a tradition built by Wisconsin’s unique blend of European settlers, geography and our tendency to keep traditions alive.
Two places in Green Bay pretty much dominate popular opinion for best fish fry around here.
Redwood Inn, 3230 Main St., Ledgeview, owned and run by the Smits family since 1964 routinely wins Best of the Bay honors.
Maricque’s Bar, 1517 University Ave., Green Bay, nabbed greenbayfishfry.com for its website address. So yeah, they’re serious about the fish fry that’s available Fridays and Wednesdays. In business since 1932, Maricque’s Bar started as an offshoot of the family’s commercial perch fishing operation on the bay of Green Bay.
If you can’t get into those spots, don’t fret, almost every restaurant serves a Friday fish fry.
Butter burgers
Kroll’s East and Kroll’s West serve butter burgers that make them iconic restaurants on Green Bay’s food scene. For good reason. Butter melts over the top of a charcoal grilled burger, oozes from a toasted semmel roll and — most importantly — adds a fatty flavor boost.
Why the butter burger isn’t a default burger option at all restaurants is beyond me.
Run independently of each other, both restaurants trace their roots back to Harry and Caroline Kroll who established what is now Kroll’s East at 1658 Main St. in 1935. Harry and Caroline opened Kroll’s Downtown at 509 Main St. in 1958 that moved to its current location across from Lambeau Field at 1990 S. Ridge Road, Ashwaubenon, as Kroll’s West in 1974.
Both drip with nostalgia. Slide into a
booth and press a buzzer when you’re ready for your server to take your order.
Hmong egg rolls, sausage, stuffed chicken wings and more
Wisconsin is one of three states with the largest Hmong populations in the United States.
While not as widely advertised as Chinese food restaurants, you can find traditional Hmong foods at restaurants serving Southeast Asian fare or farmers market stands.
Some of the longest lines at farmers markets form for Hmong egg rolls. Doubly so if the stand also serves grilled stuffed chicken wings. Hmong egg rolls get filled cabbage, onion, carrot and thread bean noodles. That same filling gets stuffed into deboned whole chicken wings that are grilled.
Hmong sausage uses a blend of ingredients like cilantro, ginger, lemon grass, and Thai chili peppers to separate its flavor profile from most European influenced sausages.
Laab, usually beef or chicken seasoned with a blend of spices, cilantro, green onions, basil and mint tops a bed of lettuce.
Find these and other Hmong delicacies at Plia’s Kitchen, 1300 S. Webster Ave., Allouez, and PhoComa, 154 N. Broadway, Green Bay.
Massive bloody marys
You can start your pregaming with a mimosa before noon, but try stuffing a meal’s worth of fixings into a champagne flute.
This is Wisconsin where we fear no calorie.
“Loaded” bloody marys stuffed with celery stalks, hot sticks and cheese whips are just the beginning. Onion rings, hardboiled eggs, chicken wings, shrimp, sliders, half a rack of ribs ... that’s more like it.
Green Bay is home to a pair of bloody marys you shouldn’t tackle alone.
The Ultimate Bloody Mary at Anduzzi’s Sports Club, 1992 Holmgren Way, Ashwaubenon, starts with 32 ounces of vodka, tomato juice and spices topped with an all-out blitz of eats including cherry tomatoes, pretzel bites, sliders, chicken wings and a beef and cheese goal post.
The Pitmaster’s Bloody at Parker John’s BBQ & Pizza 2851 S. Oneida St.,
Ashwaubenon, starts with a 25 ounce bloody mary topped by a smoked chicken wing, pork slider, Andouille sausage link and half a rack of ribs.
Brats, summer sausage and snack sticks
Admittedly, Wisconsin isn’t as wellknown for its sausage making as cheese, or even beer. That’s too bad. The quality of sausage and cured meats are among the best in the country. World even.
Bratwurst are staples at sporting event from high school to the Milwaukee Brewers and Green Bay Packers games. Wisconsin-based Johnsonville continues to spread the joy of bratwurst with its semisized grill touring the United States.
Just about every grocery store and meat market offers its own version of brats for your tailgating pleasure.
Local favorite Maplewood Meats, 4663 Milltown Road, Howard, fills its display cases with more than 20 types of bratwurst, a multitude of snack sticks, summer sausages, jerky, fresh sausages and smoked sausages. Add nearly every cut of beef, hams and roasts and it’s little wonder out-of-towners fill coolers before heading home. Or as one Green Bay Press-Gazette article put it: Maplewood Meats isn’t an errand, it’s an experience three generations and one Olivia Munn viral moment in the making.
Chicken booyah
There’s at least one claim that chicken booyah was invented in Green Bay by Alex Hannon while trying to replicate his Belgian immigrant mother’s chicken soup.
It’s impossible to prove the true origins of this soup that eats like a stew, but remains popular in this portion of Wisconsin. Especially at church picnics.
Additions of beef stew meat, oxtail and/or beef bouillon cubes bolster a thick mix of chicken and veggies.
If you’re not in town during church picnic season, two spots have become well known for serving bowls full of booyah: The Booyah Shed, 1800 S. Ashland Ave., Green Bay, and The Rite Place, 1580 Bellevue St., Belle.
Frozen custard
Frozen custard might look like ice cream but it doesn’t lick like it. Creamier. Denser. Richer.
It’s an ice cream upgrade thanks to the pasteurized egg yolks blended into the milk, cream, and sugar.
Wisconsin-based burger chain Culver’s, exporter of cheese curds and frozen custard across America, is a worthy stop for your fix.
For a more local frozen custard experience, head to Zesty’s Frozen Custard and Grill.
Zesty’s incorporates local favorites like Seroogy’s Mint Meltaway chocolate and LaJava’s Roasting House caramel macchiato into its rotation of flavor of the day options. Or you can order shakes, sundaes and all other concoctions made with the frozen custard.
Three locations serve the frozen custard including a seasonal walk-up stand 3718 Riverside Drive, De Pere, just off the Fox River Trail and year-round restaurants at 508 Greene Ave., Allouez, and 2639 Lineville Road along the HowardSuamico border.
Pro tip: you can tick off deep-fried cheese curds, butter burger and chicken booyah at the full-service Zesty’s locations.