Those of you that know me, know that I am a proud "fairy godmother" (godmother) to a handsome little boy in Wisconsin. We took a trip to visit him and his mom who is my lifetime best friend (literally friends since babies) to celebrate Christmas, and instead of posting my restaurant experiences separately, I am going to combine them all into one food packed mouth watering blog post.
On the way down, we stopped for a late lunch at Storheim's Restaurant in Iron Mountain, MI. In the past 10 years I have been to Iron Mountain many times and had always wanted to stop there. The slightly ironic part, which I would find out later, is that the Storheim's in Iron Mountain was started because of a frozen custard place called Storheim's in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The owners of of the Iron Mountain restaurant over the years got to know Ray Kern, the founder of Storheim's in Green Bay. A friendship was created and a suggestion to open up a branch in Michigan was set in motion. They have been in the service industry for 15 years now, and has also opened up "Pizza Pete" using their own personal pizza recipe, and "Taste of Sweden", which was created from family recipes that they have eaten while growing up.
My husband and I ordered the BLT wrap (I ordered mine without mayo). They were great! Everything was fresh, the bacon was crispy, and there was just enough sauce to where the whole thing didn't become one big soggy mess. I ordered the cheese curds instead of fries (they were okay, not the best kind of cheese curds and had too much breading). My husband ordered the crinkle fries, which I loved because they weren't greasy and over salted like most places do. There are many many mixed reviews on this place. Most of the negative comments are that it is a knock-off of Culver's, which if you read above, is not the case. I myself thought it was great and had many fresh options to choose from, and I will definitely be back again. Hopefully around breakfast time since I love potato pancakes!
The hotel that we always stay at while visiting in Green Bay is the Quality Inn and Suites, located in the Downtown area. He have never ventured around the hotel to explore, but we found a place that the kitchen was open till 11 PM and since it was already late we decided to go there. The Fox Harbor Pub and Grill is actually located directly across from our hotel. The building was gorgeous. While reading a plaque on the wall, we realized it was an old hotel converted into a bar/restaurant. The only problem we had with the atmosphere, is the noise factor. Yes, I know, it's a bar, and we were technically there during bar hours. Nowhere in the rules of owning a bar does it say that you have to blare the music so loud that you can't hear the person talking next to you. And we couldn't, we attempted a few times to talk to each other but gave up because it was just too loud.
While in the cheesy city, I had to order one of my favorite appetizer items of all time; cheese curds, made with Wisconsin cheese. They were some of the best cheese curds I have ever had!
I ordered the chicken fajita wrap. The chicken and veggie mixture was spicy, but not so hot that my mouth was on fire. The meat was cooked perfectly and there was no chicken fat to be found. It was slightly on the saucy side, but that's really the only complaint that I could come up with. The wrap was delicious. If we were to go back, I would go during lunch or early dinner time to where hopefully it wasn't so loud, because the food is definitely worth going back for.
For lunch the following day (which of course we hit 12 PM exactly during rush hour on a weekend with a Packer game), we stopped at Red Robin for a bite to eat. Even though the place was packed, we only waited about 15 minutes to get a table, which wasn't bad considering the line of people waiting to get seated.
My husband ordered the strawberry lemonade which I had to take a picture of because it was in an awesome glass, and very refreshing I might add. For an appetizer we got the pretzel bites with a beer cheese dip. I wish I could have asked for the sauce recipe because it was good enough to drink by the bottle. We were starved, and they didn't last long on the table.
We both ordered the bruschetta chicken "burger", that was topped with bruschetta salsa, pesto aioli, melted provolone, romaine and balsamic cream all stuffed into a ciabatta bun. For our side, we tried the new garlic Parmesan fries. Yum! The sandwich was juicy and the fries were salty and cheesy. A great choice for a mid-day meal.
The last meal we ate before backing up our bags to head back to the UP the following morning, was Polito's pizza, located just down the street from our hotel. We got our food to go so that we could enjoy it from the hotel room (and jump in the pool with my godson after eating). Should have known the pizza would be good when reading that the family that opened up the restaurant was from Sicily. A man named Phillip Polito opened his first pizzeria in Brooklyn, New York, and in 2007 opened the first branch in Wisconsin. It wasn't until more recently that they opened up a location in downtown Green bay, and I'm glad they did!
For a couple "sides" so to speak, we ordered the garlic knots and the wings. The wings that we ordered were coated in a Pineapple BBQ sauce that was finger-licking good.
I asked my godson before we ordered what his favorite kind of pizza was, and his answer was "mac and cheese and pepperoni", so by golly that's what we ordered. The Macaroni & Cheese pizza (with pepperoni on top) was one of the weirdest combinations, and only because it actually worked. If you get the opportunity to order pizza from here, try it out and you won't be disappointed. Another one of my favorite pizza's is the Tomato Basil. Although I wish it would have had fresh basil chopped up and put on top, the dried stuff wasn't terrible. And the combination of the dried basil and tomato with all of the melted cheese made for a good choice.
Overall, the mini vacation to Green Bay was packed with amazing food and it is nice to have such a wide range of cuisine. Next time we visit I would like to try out some of the more exotic food choices rather than Italian and chain restaurants. A link to all of the above restaurants are below:
Storheim's Restaurant
Fox Harbor Pub and Grill
Red Robin
Polito's Pizza
