If you grew up vacationing in Door County in the ’80s and ’90s, you likely remember Wisconsin’s premiere vacation peninsula as being stuffed with classic supper clubs, superb cherry pie, fish boils, mediocre hot dogs and pizza, and little else. Time flies, and (in this case) it brings with it some wonderful changes. While the … [ Read more]
Whirlwind Tour: Hudson, Wis., is more than just a pretty little city on the river – it’s also a treasure trove of good eats
June 28, 2019 by
This Whirlwind Tour was underwritten by the Hudson Area Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau. The Growler retained editorial control of the content. Nestled beside the St. Croix River and standing athwart the I-94 Minnesota-Wisconsin border crossing, Hudson, Wisconsin, occupies an enviable patch of territory. It’s the metro’s first stopping point in Wisconsin (countless folks … [ Read more]
Whirlwind Tour: The food scene is booming in Eau Claire
April 29, 2019 by
Music festivals notwithstanding, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, isn’t generally considered a required stop for interstate travelers heading southeast from the Minneapolis–St. Paul metro area. It’s too early to be a halfway point and it’s simple enough to blow past its exits. It’s time to reconsider that attitude. Eau Claire is the beating heart of the fertile … [ Read more]
Whirlwind Tour: Rediscovering Stillwater in a 10-stop dining adventure
April 9, 2019 by
This is a part of our Whirlwind Tour food series, in which we taste through a town’s culinary scene. Stillwater has a reputation for its sense of history (founded 165 years ago, it’s among the state’s oldest towns) and its downtown embraces the past with everything from its motto (“The Birthplace of Minnesota”) to historic … [ Read more]
Whirlwind Tour: Our 10-stop dining roadtrip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota
November 8, 2018 by
With Duluth, Madison, and Fargo-Moorhead easily road-trippable from the Twin Cities metro, it’s understandable that Sioux Falls, South Dakota, gets overlooked. This surprisingly big little city is part of a metro area of around 260,000 people and it’s just a donut’s throw from southwestern Minnesota. Sioux Falls was founded contemporaneously with Minneapolis and St. Paul, … [ Read more]
Bayfield or Bust: Our 10-Stop Dining Roadtrip to Wisconsin’s South Shore
October 4, 2018 by
If you’re one of the thousands of people heading north and east to Wisconsin’s famous Bayfield Apple Festival this weekend, wear some stretchy pants—the crescent-shaped land of Chequamegon Bay has a lot more than fruit to offer its visitors. The South Shore community is relatively small—about 30,000 people living in the coastal counties of Ashland and … [ Read more]
Whirlwind Tour of Five Independent Eateries in Woodbury
August 25, 2018 by
When you enter the suburb of Woodbury from I-94, one of the first things that strikes your eye is the city’s profusion of chain restaurants: Five Guys, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Perkins, Little Caesar’s, and so on, from strip mall to shopping center to apartment complex. But like most metro suburbs, once you drag a … [ Read more]
Taste of the Twin Ports: A six-stop restaurant blitz through Duluth and Superior
June 22, 2018 by
Here’s our Twin Ports tour by the numbers: six restaurants, 14 hours, a five-year-old, and a baby riding shotgun. We had a blast checking in on the insanely active dining scene in Duluth and Superior, although we caution readers that this schedule and/or this choice of traveling companions may create a noticeable strain on your … [ Read more]
