One of our favorite restaurants of the vacation was the most serendipitous. Before we left I loaded my ipod with a ton of podcasts, one of which was the Splendid Table. I wasn’t super familiar with the show, but I figured it was about food and aired on NPR, so it had to be up my alley. I was so right… I couldn’t get enough! If you haven’t listened, check it out here.
Each program begins with a segment called “Where we eat” by Jane and Michael Stern. Basically they travel the country and hit up random, but extra tasty restaurants and then tell lucky listeners about it. What do you know they mentioned a place called the Anchor Bar and Grill in Superior, Wisconsin which was right on our way. I couldn’t believe our luck, so I looked up directions on my fancy new phone and we made plans to stop by on our way back from Minnesota.
As we drove down the exit ramp I got a little nervous that the directions were wrong. The landscape looked a little desolate, with big patches of grass situated between sad looking buildings. We drove a little further and then we saw that awesome blue awning that read “Anchor Bar & Grill”. We parked the car and made our way in.
The darkness was blinding. We had to stop ourselves for a minute while our eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, but alas, we found a seat and perused the menu that sat waiting on the table. As we were trying decide whether to go for the cheese and cashew burger, or just stick with a good old cheeseburger, our waitress arrived. I looked up to see a t-shirt that read “All stressed out and no one to choke”. Awesome. I mean, I really couldn’t imagine this experience getting any better. We both decided to be boring and ordered a cheeseburger and fries. A mere five minutes after the order left our mouths, a paper plate piled high with fresh cut french fries and a juicy burger was plopped in front of us. I think Aaron’s fries were gone in seconds, they were that good. And the burger didn’t take much longer to go down. It was hands-down top notch bar food. For dessert we got to watch our waitress smoke a cig and watch her soaps.
Find a reason to go down my the water in Superior, Wisconsin and hit up the little hole in the wall called Anchor Bar and Grill. You won’t be disappointed.
midwest vacation: Nelson Cheese and Creamery
One of the things I was looking forward to most about our vacation was cheese. I just love the stuff and when I realized we’d be traveling through the dairy state, I knew we’d have to visit a few creameries. Just like the luck I had with Anchor Bar & Grill, I happened to read an article in Gourmet about the area we were visiting. It gave a lovely list of restaurants and cheese resources, so I mapped them out and we set out to try some cheese.
The first two places we stopped were a little disappointing. It’s not that they didn’t have good cheese, it’s just that they were cheese factories rather than a single person who was super passionate about cheese. Then we pulled up to the Nelson Cheese and Creamery and it was like we stepped out of rural Wisconsin and onto the Swiss countryside. When I walked in the shop, I knew we were in for a treat. While it’s no longer a working creamery, it has been in the same family for over 100 years. They started out making cheese and butter, then they opened their doors to the public in the 70′s and it got so busy that they decided to stop making their own cheese and source out the best cheeses they could find.
Oh man do they have good cheese. We took a seat on the pet-friendly patio (major bonus points) and chose from a fair selection of local microbrews. We decided on a couple sandwiches from the hefty sandwich menu as well as a cheese plate. The owner brought out a selection of five cheeses and described them all and answered our questions. Then because there was so much cheese, she told us she held our sandwich order because she thought we might have second thoughts about ordering two sandwiches… she was totally right. After sipping our beer and snacking on cheese for awhile, we realized one sandwich would be more than enough.
But let’s get back to the cheese… so good! All of them were really tasty, but one really stood out. It was a cheese called Marieke Gouda with Foenegreek Spice and it’s unlike any cheese I’ve ever tasted. It’s the second from the back in the picture above. The best way to describe it is butter pecan ice cream in the form of cheese. It was a little less sweet than ice cream with a just the slightest bit of tang to it. Could life get any better? I’m not sure if it’s widely distributed, but it’s certainly worth asking your local cheesemonger.
The people were so friendly and helpful, the range of products was fantastic and the views made me want to camp out on the patio. If we hadn’t already made reservations 200 miles away, I think we would have stayed all night.