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Old Fashioned Love Song

A Pair of Old-Fashioned cocktails at Ishnala in the Wisconsin Dells

No, this Old Fashion Love Song is not about the music and lyrics by either Three Dog Night or Paul Williams… It is all about an Old-Fashioned cocktail. Having, at times, tended bar at various restaurants and bars in Indiana, California, and Illinois, I had often heard of an Old Fashion, but had never actually […]

Say Cheese!

variety of cheeses

No, I don’t want you to smile for a photograph… what I would like is to share with you some thoughts about Wisconsin cheese, as well as a certain place at which to obtain it. (This page may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure about affiliate links here.) An Official Cheesehead? First, I must admit […]

Rise & Fall of the Salad Bar

Typical Salad Bar

SOME BACKGROUND Once upon a time – not so terribly long ago – salad bars were everywhere.  They were found in lowly high school cafeterias, corporate lunchrooms, fast food restaurants, high-end steak houses, and more.  Likely to have evolved from the smorgasbord-gone-American style, salad bars were originally an all-you-can-eat affair. They have come a long way […]

L’ Igloo – Big Fun at the Creamery

An igloo at the Creamery

My Misfortune I want to tell you a story about an igloo experience at The Creamery in Haugen, Wi.  But first…  Last winter (December of 2022), I suffered the misfortune of a complete tear of my rotator cuff and a bicep tendon in my right arm.  Surgery wasn’t until mid-February…  The greatest misery perhaps, was […]

Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad

View of inside of Coast Starlight rail car on the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad

A Historic Kind Of Railroad Once upon a time, in the deepest, dark-green northern parts of the Northwoods, there lived a “Little Engine That Could”.  It isn’t quite ready yet for its debut run on the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad (a certain virus delayed it…). But there are alternatives.  Read on! According to Wikipedia, The Wisconsin […]

Supper Clubs

What Is A Supper Club? Google “supper club” and you will get over six hundred million results. You’ll encounter definitions like: “In most cases, these restaurants are only open for the supper hour” and “The proliferation of supper clubs really began after World War II,” “A Wisconsin supper club is an independently owned, fine-dining destination restaurant, […]

Cabin Coffee Co.

Looking at the front entrance to Cabin Coffee Company

First Things First Rice Lake, Wisconsin: our new home that is 365 miles north of our northern Illinois previous address.  Having now unboxed – well, mostly – a moving-van-and-a-half filled with all our worldly goods and arranged them throughout our new home, it is time to begin some real exploring of the area!  (author’s special note: It’s […]