Watertown, WI

I spent my Memorial Day weekend in Watertown, WI, about 35 miles east of Madison, population roughly 20,000. I’ve only ever lived in major metropolitan areas—Montreal, Chicago and New York—so small town America is always a novelty for me. Watertown was delightful, despite its downtown showing clear signs of Wal-Mart effect.



My boyfriend grew up in Watertown and therefore knew to preorder wieners, brats and summer sausage from Fendt Brothers.



These goodies were waiting for us when we arrived:


I only eat wieners on occasions like Memorial Day so my frame of reference is pretty narrow, but these were the best I’ve ever had. The casing provided just the right amount of tension with each bite, and the flavor had almost a trace of smokiness. (I don’t like smoked flavor at all, but these wieners just hinted in that direction.)


I pretty much only eat brats at Daley Plaza during Kriskindelmarkt and at Lincoln Square’s May Fest (i.e. it’s not a food I seek out), but Fendt’s brats, grilled, wowed me with their peppery flavor.


As the wieners and brats were being grilled for Sunday dinner, we snacked on garlic summer sausage. It didn’t taste particularly garlicky to me and seemed in general to have less nuanced flavor than the wieners or brats, but it was very tasty nonetheless. It made for an excellent snack.

My boyfriend explained that Fendt’s also makes venison sausage, but the customer has to provide the deer.



After our dinner of Fendt meats, we headed to Mullen’s on Main St., where the ice cream is made from the cows of Mullen’s Dairy.





I had a tin roof, an apparently not-too-uncommon concoction previously unknown to me despite the ice cream expertise I should have gleaned from my summer working at Cock Robin’s. For the uninitiated, a tin roof is made of vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup, “nailed down” by Spanish peanuts.



The ice cream was really dense, not overly-frozen-dense but rich-creamy-scooped-with-skill-dense. I wish there had been more vanilla flavor, but it’s hard to think of how else my tin roof could have been improved. The peanuts seemed really fresh. I should have bought some nuts from Mullen’s to take with me given their counter-sized warmer/toaster (?) of Johnson’s “flavor-toasted” nuts.



My friend Eleanor had a classic banana split. I was so busy with my tin roof that I forgot to have a taste, but I was told that the strawberry ice cream in it was other-worldly.



On Monday morning, my boyfriend and I went in search for his daily latte in Starbucks-free Watertown at Latte Donatte.


I was really impressed by the selection of teas they offer, far better than the offerings of most places I’ve visited in Chicago. I couldn’t tell if they carry exclusively loose rishi brand teas, but I had a rishi rooibos which made me very happy. Latte Donatte also makes their own doughnuts Thursday through Sunday.



We passed on the doughnuts because they weren’t fresh that day, but my boyfriend made an interesting related point. He noted that Latte Donatte was a good example of how, despite Wal-Mart, there are still Watertown businesses that thrive. Unfortunately, these local businesses don’t necessarily support one another. Latte Donatte serves coffee from New Orleans, not from the local Berres Brothers. They also make their own doughnuts, which may be very good, but Homestyle Bakery just down the street makes excellent doughnuts daily.

Because of holiday closures, I missed out on a few other Watertown treats. I’m going back in about three weeks, so I hope then to sample blackberry pie at Upper Krust and cheese from Kraemer’s.

Fendt’s
303 N 4th St
Watertown, WI 53094
(920) 261-7613

Mullen’s
212 W Main St
Watertown, WI 53094
(920) 261-4278

Latte Donatte
501 E Main St
Watertown, WI 53094
(920) 206-7080

We were in Watertown last weekend, but unfortunately did not stop for something to eat. I'm thrilled to see your post -- we spend a lot of time in that area in the summer and I'll be checking for updates. You might also want to check out Kiltie Cruise-In in Oconomowoc on your way home for frozen custard. Skip the food there.

Suzy

Thanks for the great post on Watertown! I hail from nearby Beaver Dam (home of the Golden Beavers, heh heh), and have always regarded my hometown as somewhat of a food desert. On my next trip home, I'm going to do some research and find out if there's anything more interesting than supper club fare out there.

sdritz wrote:We were in Watertown last weekend, but unfortunately did not stop for something to eat. I'm thrilled to see your post -- we spend a lot of time in that area in the summer and I'll be checking for updates. You might also want to check out Kiltie Cruise-In in Oconomowoc on your way home for frozen custard. Skip the food there.

Suzy

And if youre in Oconomowoc (and on your way to Kiltie's... which is only about
15 mins from Watertown probably)... you *must* stop at Todd's Grille, which
is on the 16, on the way from Watertown to Kilties. The place is cool, the
patrons (and staff) are friendly, the beautiful lake is right off the parking lot at
the back, New Glarus is on tap... but, most importantly, the food is *terrific*!

If nothing else, stop in there, have the grill-burger, and do me the personal
favour of reporting back... because I'd like to know if it is really *that* good,
or its just me who is crazy-in-the-head. Was in WI two weeks ago, and
was staying nearly 30 miles away... and yet I ate 3 grill-burgers (a half-pound
each) at Todd's in 3 days! (It was when I was eating the 3rd one that
Todd walked by, looked at me, and said "youve gotta be kidding me"
It is a half-pound of fresh (never frozen) beef cooked perfectly to
order, sauteed mushrooms, grilled onions, fresh WI American cheese,
local bacon... I dont know, it all sounds so ordinary, and yet I just
cannot get past it (and cant find anything nearly as good in Chicago,
and believe me, Ive looked. Hard). Todd's has daily specials too, that people
rave about - an open-face prime-rib sandwich on Mondays, a half-pound brat
one of the days I happened to be there which all the local patrons insisted I
ought not to miss, supposedly a great Fish-Fry on Fridays... but, shamefully, I
still cannot get past the burger.

And then if you have room, of course, you toddle on over to Kiltie's Cruise-in
for a very nice custard. Very good custard, if not quite Kopp's-level in terms
of creaminess and taste... but then Kopp's isnt an old-fashioned drve-in
with pretty-girl-carhops in wonderful uniforms, so it all evens out (if
only they roller-skated, it would be quite perfect).

c8w

P.S. BTW, I second the thanks for the Watertown post - hopefully will
make a little detour the next time and stop in at a couple of the recommended
spots.

Somewhat unbelievably, I am from Watertown myself (tho I am not happy_stomach's aforementioned boyfriend). I was quite literally raised on Mullen's ice cream - the business was sold by the Mullens quite some time ago if memory serves, but the new owners kept the name & the recipes. I've been there recently & it is still quite good.

Other Watertown spots worthy of mention are Zwieg's Grill, which is a half diner / half sit-down place - I have eaten many hundreds of hamburgers there over my lifetime - they also feature Broasted Chicken (I haven't had the Khan BBQ version, but Zwieg's version rocks).

Elias Inn is the place to go for Friday Fish Fry, and Kramer's Cheese Shop - with its fine selection of aged cheeses, is certainly worth a visit (I remember sampling a 20 year old cheddar from there that, while justifiably pricey, was sharp as a razor - a shaving so thin that you could almost see through it was so packed with flavor that it almost knocked you down). Their aged brick will knock you down in a different way - it is definitely the most foul-smelling cheese around - it makes limburger smell like a bed of roses. I tasted some once & to me it had all the appeal of rotting gym socks. It tastes just like it smells.

There is also a very fine pie shop called The Upper Crust, which recently relocated to a larger space near the hospital. Pies from there have become a family tradition for us at the holidays.

Hi,

Have you been to the historical society there in the octagon house? If you do, then look for information when Watertown was the foie gras capital of the USA.

Regards,

Have you been to the historical society there in the octagon house? If you do, then look for information when Watertown was the foie gras capital of the USA.

We made it to the octagon house, which is just steps from my boyfriend's family's home, but we had to skip the barn where the foie gras stuff is because we were late for lunch. I only got to read up on beer and cigars on the tour of the main house.

Undated beer vat and skimmer:

Kasia, I grew up about half an hour from Beaver Dam! I went to Markesan High School, which is probably too small to mean anything to you.

However, my elderly great-aunt and -uncle lived in Beaver Dam, and they would take our family out to dinner pretty much every weekend. I have not-so-fond teenage memories of Feil's (where I got food poisoning from something on the dessert table) and Schaumburg's, and Benvenuto's (where I once had a calzone that must have been a foot across and filled entirely with melted mozzarella and no seasonings. You could stab it with a fork and watch the cheese bubble up in little geysers.)

In retrospect, I wish I'd been politer and less surly to my relatives. And that I'd eaten beforehand.

There is a review of Todd's somewhere on this board that I did a couple of years ago. We love Todd's and this was the first trip where we didn't go there for dinner, but we had a time constraint. I still want to try their prime rib. Someone at the next table ordered it and it looked perfect. I need to be up there on a weekend again because they only offer it on Friday and Saturday nights.

And yes, the burger is THAT good.

Suzy

sdritz wrote:There is a review of Todd's somewhere on this board that I did a couple of years ago.

Todd's review by sdritz.

Glen's Market is also great. I have tried bringing pickled beets from other locales in the MidWest back to Puerto Rico, but the generalized clamour is for the pickled beets from Glen's Market.

Fendt's really ought to get on line. Their blood sausage rivals Puerto Rican morcilla and their weiners are perfectly picquant eaten hot or cold.

Hey, c8w, that grill burger at Todd's really is THAT good. Today my older daughter and I dropped off the little one for her four weeks at summer camp. The oldest was feeling blue because she wanted to be up there, too and I was feeling blue because it's the first day of camp and I still miss my baby girl (haven't started asking my husband about sending them to boarding school yet). We stopped at Todd's Grill and both ordered the grill burger. I had mine with cole slaw, which I was delighted to see had miniscule bits of tasty bacon in it. In my mind you can never have too much bacon. We polished off our burgers and hit the road for home, but not before talking to Todd and letting him know how much we enjoy his food. He had no idea people in the Chicagoland area were aware of him.

I'm still bound and determined to make it up there on a Saturday night for that prime rib!

Suzy

I was back in Watertown this weekend. Unfortunately, it was a very quick visit--I was only there for a few hours. The one new stop I made was at the Upper Krust at its relatively new (and still only) location near the hospital, next to the soon-to-open Piggly Wiggly.



My frame of reference for pie shops is basically Bakers Square. The breakfast, lunch and dinner menus looked a little more variegated than what I remember from Bakers Square, including some German offerings like Spaetzel. We stopped in just to pick up a pie for lunch that day. There were quite a few varieties from which to choose.



Apple. Blueberry. Caramel Apple. Caramel Apple Crumb. Lemon meringue. After much deliberation, we decided on a strawberry rhubarb crumb pie. The one we got was still so warm we needed to carry it in an open box!



The trip from the shop to the car and then back to the house took about all of the restraint of which I'm capable. If I had been alone, I probably would have dug in for a piece with my hands. It was the first time I berated myself for not carrying utensils in my purse! I did "sample" the crumb during the car ride back to the house, and it was divine. It was the most perfect integration of butter and crumb, melted in my mouth just slowly enough.

Unfortunately, I lack photo documentation of the cut pie because, well, I was too eager to eat it. The rhubarb almost challenged my tolerance for tartness, but this pie definitely ranks in the top three best I've had in my life. That night, I dreamt about the pie, and the next morning, I passed on doughnuts from Watertown's Homestyle Bakery to have two slices of strawberry rhubarb.

Upper Krust Pie Shop
1300 Memorial Drive
Watertown, WI 53098
920-206-9202

The rhubarb is great, but I was always particularly fond of my grandmother's strawberry rhubarb, so I hanker for the peach. Can't wait to get back to Wawatown in August.

Based on the reviews above of Upper Krust, my family stopped in Sunday for lunch. We were not disappointed.

Unfortunately, however, when we arrived there were only about 4 pies left in the pie case, one being the aforementioned strawberry rhubarb. My husband really hates rhubarb, so I reluctantly picked out an apple pie, asked them to put it aside while we had lunch, and got it on our way out.

On Sundays, you cannot order from the menu. Instead, there is a magnificent buffet brunch set up in a smaller room. I did not have a camera on hand, but there was quite a lot of food to choose from. Two soups were offered, a Wisconsin cheese and a corn chowder which contained large pieces of potato and bacon. The soup was very good. Hot offerings included an egg casserole, bacon, sausage, hash browns, cheesy mashed potatoes, a hamburger casserole consisting of some type of cream gravy, hamburger and corn, Pork cooked in apples and cinnamon, turkey with dressing and gravy and barbequed meatballs. There were also some salads -- a broccoli salad, an ambrosia salad, cole slaw and potato salad. Almost as an afterthought, there were some green beans.

And then there was the dessert table, consisting of eight different types of pie and some sugar cookies. There may also have been some fresh fruit, but I'm not sure, since I have no idea why anyone would opt for fruit when there was an abundance of pie available. The pies were excellent. Each was cut into about 12 slices in order to maximize the number of pie flavors one might want to try. I grabbed a partial slice of amish custard, which was terrific, and the last slice of strawberry rhubarb, which I reluctantly let my daughters taste. It was hands down the best strawberry rhubarb pie I've ever had. My husband grabbed some apple and some coconut custard. My younger daughter took a slice of cherry and the older one got a toll house pie, which, as you might guess, had chocolate chip cookie dough as the filling. For $9.95 per person, it was well worth the trip.

The apple pie was our dessert last night at my parents' house. It survived the trip and was delicious. I did ask at the counter if their pie crusts contain lard, and the woman ringing us up confirmed that they do. They were certainly very light and flaky.

The Upper Krust is definitely on our list of restaurants to return to when we go up to the Oconomowoc/Watertown area in the future.

Suzy

My husband, son, and I made a quick visit to Oconomowoc on Friday and Saturday to visit our daughter in her first summer as a camp counselor. We stayed the night in Watertown, which suffered pretty severe flooding in the last few weeks. Some roads remain closed, fields and parks are still submerged, and the Rock River is uncomfortably high under several bridges.

Based on the very helpful recommendations here, we had breakfast at the Upper Krust. The food was pretty standard breakfast fare, heavy on the cheese (this being Wisconsin, I guess). The best item we ordered was the roast beef hash. But the blueberry pie we took home was outstanding. Flaky crust, just-sweet-enough berries, really a great pie.

The only reason there’s any pie still sitting in my fridge is that we also stopped at Glenn’s Market in Watertown and brought home a variety of sausages. My husband grilled the “German” brats tonight (we wanted to try the purest, most basic brat before branching out to Hungarian brats, red with paprika, or blueberry brats, or any of the dozen or so other brat varieties displayed in a huge freezer). The Germans were very tasty, a bit leaner than many brats, with fairly mild but well-balanced flavor. In our freezer, Glenn’s natural casing wieners (advertised as the 1997 champions in some Wisconsin competition) and hot Italian sausage wait their turn. We also picked up a summer sausage as well.

Glenn’s is a large, modern store with fresh and frozen meat and sausage, a deli case, and some prepared frozen foods and deli salads. Plus they carry fresh lard and large pieces of pork suitable for smoking. We were interested to see that there must be some Mexican population in the area because some meat was cut and labeled in Spanish, for carne asada, for example. Glenn’s reminded us of another favorite large Wisconsin butcher ship, Miesfeld’s, in Sheboygan. My in-laws used to live very near there, and we always tried to stop at Miesfeld’s, conveniently close to I-43, to stock up on brats and other treats as we headed home to Chicago.

Upper Krust Pie Shop
1300 Memorial Drive
Watertown, WI 53098
(920) 206-9202
http://www.upperkrustpieshop.com

Glenn’s Market and Catering
722 W Main St
Watertown, WI 53094
(920) 261-2226
http://www.glennsmarket.com

Miesfeld’s Market
4811 Venture Dr
Sheboygan, WI 53083
(920) 565-6328
http://www.miesfelds.com

Jane Amy wrote:Fendt's really ought to get on line. Their blood sausage rivals Puerto Rican morcilla and their weiners are perfectly picquant eaten hot or cold.

Ask, and ye shall receive Fendt Brothers *is* indeed online!

http://fendtbrothers.com/index.html

Stopped in there last week, unfortunately only for a few minutes, and very few purchases (had already picked up stuff from Schrodel's Meat Market in Jefferson, WI, another fine place though not quite with Fendt's variety). Fendt looked like a quite amazing place - their own smokehouse, same recipes, same location, same family-owned business, everything identical since 1919!

The variety of stuff they have is quite amazing as well. Something like 24 varieties of encased meats of some such, IIRC (they even have pizza brats!) Liver sausage, potato sausage, a couple different blood sausages, metwurst, zultz - the list goes on and on. I was told their own smoked hams and smoked bacon is out of this world. (Unfortunately, out of time and room, I ended up only with the spicy Vienna weiners, which were quite excellent). If anyone is ever in the vicinity (or even a short drive away in Madison), it is very much worth a stop at Fendt Brothers.

(And, if Gus is reading this, they even have a "Weiner and Still Champ" logo on their window and website, which theyve apparently had for most of their 80 or so years! I told them it was the name of my favourite burger place back in Evanston, which they thought was a nice coincidence

Fendt Brothers
303 N. 4th Street,
Watertown, WI 53094
(Ph): 920-261-7613
www.fendtbrothers.com

sdritz wrote:Based on the reviews above of Upper Krust, my family stopped in Sunday for lunch. We were not disappointed.
On Sundays, you cannot order from the menu. Instead, there is a magnificent buffet brunch set up in a smaller room. I did not have a camera on hand, but there was quite a lot of food to choose from. Two soups were offered, a Wisconsin cheese and a corn chowder which contained large pieces of potato and bacon. The soup was very good. Hot offerings included an egg casserole, bacon, sausage, hash browns, cheesy mashed potatoes, a hamburger casserole consisting of some type of cream gravy, hamburger and corn, Pork cooked in apples and cinnamon, turkey with dressing and gravy and barbequed meatballs. There were also some salads -- a broccoli salad, an ambrosia salad, cole slaw and potato salad. Almost as an afterthought, there were some green beans.

And then there was the dessert table, consisting of eight different types of pie and some sugar cookies. There may also have been some fresh fruit, but I'm not sure, since I have no idea why anyone would opt for fruit when there was an abundance of pie available. The pies were excellent. Each was cut into about 12 slices in order to maximize the number of pie flavors one might want to try. I grabbed a partial slice of amish custard, which was terrific, and the last slice of strawberry rhubarb, which I reluctantly let my daughters taste. It was hands down the best strawberry rhubarb pie I've ever had. My husband grabbed some apple and some coconut custard. My younger daughter took a slice of cherry and the older one got a toll house pie, which, as you might guess, had chocolate chip cookie dough as the filling. For $9.95 per person, it was well worth the trip.
Suzy

Thanks for this rec - in my WI sojourn, stopped in at Upper Krust last Sunday morning for the brunch. It is now $10.95 per person, but everything else holds true - very well worth the trip.

The brunch menu alters slightly every Sunday, but last week was quite similar to the one listed above. It was all very good - the jalapeno-egg-casserole was decent (if a bit bland), the sausage and bacon were very good, there was a beef stew, the turkey and dressing was excellent.

Having missed dinner on Saturday I was fairly ravenous, and ended up eating a lot, two helpings of the turkey-and-dressing (which was very very good on the day). Regretted it a little when I finally came to the dessert spread - there were 8 pies put out! They were so unbelievably good that I still managed to try 3 different ones - the Cherry (fantastic), the Dutch-Caramel-Apple (fantastic-er) and the Strawberry-Rhubarb (fantastic-est). Really, the food at Upper Krust was very good (and they have local Berres Brothers coffee which I didnt try).. but their pies are completely exceptional, stunningly good. I will definitely stop in for the brunch next time Iam nearby on a Sunday... but will make sure to leave lots of room for dessert! The pies are flaky, moist, with natural fruits etc - not cloyingly sweet, quite perfect. And cut in 12-slices at the buffet to enable you to try several kinds... I think knocking off at least a varied-half-pie by myself for dessert shall be my goal the next time

Sunday isnt the best day to pick up a pie - but most other days of the week are. They have their standards available every day, plus a "pie of the day", a list of which is available online. Terrific pie-place in general (maybe the best crust Ive ever had on a pie, too).

c8w