Whitewater, WI?

LTH,

Might be in Whitewater, WI and its environs this weekend. Anyone have
any recommendations at all? Burgers, brats, or anything else that
is done well (and reasonably priced) will do. Surely there is a good
college-burger place?

Did a search, and couldnt really find much - Ive seen a couple of recs
for Madison, Janesville, Oconomowoc (even been to a couple, and
will respond on the relevant threads in a bit). But not seen anything
relevant in the Whitewater, Fort Atkinson region.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

c8w

On of our favorite posters, GEO spent a lot of time in Whitewater over the past few years and here is one of his recommendations:

There is a most excellent taqueria in Ft. Atkinson WI, inside the supermercado/carniceria Guanajuato. Six different kinds of taquito and burrito, including carnitas, lingua, cabeza, etc. A couple of different tortas, including (on the weekend) a to-die-for Cubano. Several soups.

They have two huge grills, they cut and prepare all the meats themselves, and have 5 or 6 different condiments/sauces that you dose your dish ad lib with. But get there early, the guacamole goes fast. They make a very nice pico de gallo, too.

Their verde table sauce is super! And the jalapeno-carrot melange is lovely.

Mexican Coke, plus every juice known to Latin-kind is there.


Carnicerias Guanajuato
(920) 568-1524
809 S Main St
Fort Atkinson, WI 53538

Geo also recommended a sushi place in the downtown area along main street. However, I have never had the opportuntity to try it out.

There is an ice cream place on the edge of town that serves some pretty decent ice cream and burgers. I am not sure which road it is on but I saw it when coming in from the Kettle Moraine State Park area.


The rest of the restaurants are generally fast food joints. The Chinese buffet near the university is one to be avoided.

I was looking for a lunch stop between Lake Geneva & the Dells heading up Route 12.

Fort Atkinson, WI. was where I searched as it would be about 1/2 way. I stumbled upon the website for Ken & Betty's Cheesesteaks-Hoagies.

Brilliant... Folks who know me know I am a big fan of cheesesteaks, and have lamented the dirth of a quality one anywhere in/near Chicago.

I checked out their menu, and it looked legit, and we stopped for lunch, 1 cheesesteak with grilled onions & white american, and 1 south philly cheesesteak with grilled onions and cheez whiz. I watched as these folks worked the flattop, and they were legit, reminded me of a young, jimswside slinging cheeseteaks @ Donti's. The roll was perfect, steamed over the pile of simmering steak and onions, this was my first philly with whiz and I thought it was just ok. The meat is good but not ribeye, but this is as solid a philly as I have eaten/seen in about 20 years.

Definitely worth a stop, at least for us it was.

I might post some pics if I get a chance, otherwise folks in the know know where to find my pics.

Ken & Betty's
41 W. Sherman Ave.
Fort Atkinson, WI.

http://www.kenandbettys.com

I grew up in Fort Atkinson and Ken and Betty's opened when I was in high school, they have been serving great sandwiches ever since. The cheese steaks are always great. I also really like their hot oven grinders are fantastic, especially the Italian one.

Best sandwiches in all of Fort Atkinson, sure there isn't a lot of competition, but if you find yourself in the area, they are worth eating.

How come nobody told me about this when I was starving all those years in Whitewater???!!!

Yikes!!

Geo

Take Hwy N out of Whitewater about 6 miles to Cold Springs Inn.Good salad bar and comfort food menu. At Rt89 and Hwy P is the Duck Inn in Richmond Wisc.About 5 miles from Whitewater.Excellant food (try the roast duck}Great steaks and ribs.
A walk accross the road is a hidden gem.The Staller Estates Winery has daily tastings and is run by a great young couple.They have planted their own vines.
In Whitewater a college favorite is Gus's Pizza.A very good thin crust pizza and an exellant gyro's or fried chicken.

Wedl’s Hamburger Stand in nearby Jefferson, Wisconsin is great. Here's my take:

http://eatwisconsin.wordpress.com/2008/ ... wisconsin/

brandon_w wrote:Best sandwiches in all of Fort Atkinson, sure there isn't a lot of competition, but if you find yourself in the area, they are worth eating.

Ive been in Fort a handful of times in the past couple of years. in the summers.

Ive been to Ken and Betty's - nice place. (Didnt quite have rave reviews about it like jmsw, but I liked it

One of the better dishes I like in this area is actually breakfast at the "Soups On" - on Highway 12, on the way from Whitewater to Fort (its less than 10 minutes from Whitewater). Their biscuits-and-gravy I like a fair bit, and try to have it at least once on every trip. They make pretty much everything from scratch at this place - the soups are quite terrific as well (depends what you like, though, they change every day).

A fine burger can be found at Lennigan's (a bar, which also has a couple of Albanian specialities - burek and the like! I like the burger, but havent tried the burek yet. Decent bar burger).

Ive been to Cold Spring Inn, and liked it quite a bit too - good company, solid food, a Bears-fan-grill-man (watched the Bears/Packers there a couple years ago Good burger here too.. Ive heard good things about the rest of their food as well.

Been to Wedl's - a nice burger-stand, good icecream too... its often high-schoolers doing the cooking, so IMHO it could be a touch variable. Good old-fashioned burger though (different, obviously, from the bar-burgers).

I'll say once again though (as Ive mentioned elsewhere).. I cant go to Fort without being about 30-miles away from Oconomowoc... and if Iam within 30 miles of Oconomowoc, I have to go to Todd's Grille, which Ive almost always found to be the best burger Ive had in all of Wisconsin! (And yes, Ive been to Wedl's, the Old Fashioned in Madison - another damn fine burger, Freds in Burlington, Sollys Grille and so on

c8w

I'll second Soup's On, just outside Fort Atkinson on Hwy. 12. Stopped in there for breakfast once weekday morning, early, and the clientele was comprised of retirees and farmers. Felt like I had walked into someone's dining room. And my link sausage and basted eggs tasted like they had just come out of Mom's kitchen.

Wonder how their soup is?

Damn. I drove past Soup's On a zillion times, never even considered giving it a try--did breakfast at the tiny counter downtown on the east side of the street. Don't even know if it's still there. But they did one cosmically important thing, those folks in the diner: introduced me to Schroedel's breakfast sausage, the best I've (still) ever had. A friend of mine from WWWI brings them down to KC for me, every Oct.!

Geo

jnm123 wrote:I'll second Soup's On, just outside Fort Atkinson on Hwy. 12. Stopped in there for breakfast once weekday morning, early, and the clientele was comprised of retirees and farmers. Felt like I had walked into someone's dining room. And my link sausage and basted eggs tasted like they had just come out of Mom's kitchen.

Wonder how their soup is?

Their soup is very good - made from scratch every day. It depends on what they have on the day of course.. Ive had a couple I thought were fantastic.. and a couple that I thought were just ok (also freshly made, but not "my kind" on the day)..

All their food is fresh - and yes, the clientele does appear quite old, most of the time (There is an attached "bar" next door.. where they serve food from the same kitchen, the kitchen is sort of between the bar and the restaurant... so you could technically have beer with your breakfast, and many do

Ive tried a few things there - all freshly made, all sort of "home-made", taste-wise. I really like their biscuits-and-gravy a fair bit though - needs a little pepper sprinkled on, but its excellent (and a *huge* amount,too much to eat, for about 5 bucks)..

c8w

Geo wrote:Damn. I drove past Soup's On a zillion times, never even considered giving it a try--did breakfast at the tiny counter downtown on the east side of the street. Don't even know if it's still there. But they did one cosmically important thing, those folks in the diner: introduced me to Schroedel's breakfast sausage, the best I've (still) ever had. A friend of mine from WWWI brings them down to KC for me, every Oct.!

Geo

Ha! And *I* was introduced to Schroedel's by Soup's On!

They have ads on their menu, at Soup's On.. and one of them was for Schroedel's. I asked, and they said it was a nice butcher-shop up in Jefferson.. so I checked it out, and have gone back ever since. Never tried the breakfast sausage though - thanks for the rec! (Ive done the smoked brats, the summer-sausage, the garlic-summer-sausage etc, and theyre all very good). Watertown has a very good shop too, which has been written about on LTH... but if youre in the Fort/Jefferson area, Schroedel's is a very nice spot to go to.


c8w

Soups on is an institution. They have always had good homemade food, nothing fancy about the place, but tasty.

Schrodle's has been around forever too, much longer than me. Their beef sticks (of all varieties) are excellent. My favorite are the tex-mex. I've been eating them since before I could reach the top of the counter to grab my own.

Nice to see that Schroedel's has such a following! I tried more and more of their stuff, and ended up seeing them for lots of my meat needs. Their beef is very good, as is their pork. The brats are better than average (and when I can't get my faves from Miesfeld's I buy Schroedel's), as are several other of their sausages.

But it's the breakfast pork sausages that keep me coming back: fat as my thumb, about 7-8" long, oh yum!

Geo

Coming back towards Chicago after dropping daughter at UW-Madison last night, stopped at another place on winding but beautiful Hwy. 12 that we've passed numerous times but had never stopped in.

Sammy's Place, maybe 2 miles east of Soup's On--between Ft. Atkinson & Whitewater--is a typical Wisconsin supper club/roadhouse long on charm, with pretty good fare at very reasonable prices. Sammy's purports itself as 'Greek/American', but the 'chicken rice soup with lemon' was decidedly American, just fine though. Wife had a 6 oz. filet with onions & mushrooms, baked potato, soup & salad bar, for $12.95. Wow. My Angus rib-eye for $18.95 was at least a pound, perfectly done medium, and I brought half home with me.

Can't vouch for the other menu items, but plan to try them in the future. Place always looks crowded. Cool bar, fairly busy even on a Sunday night.

Sammy's Place
N1655 U.S. Hwy. 12
Ft. Atkinson, WI 53538
(920) 563-5538

http://www.sammysplacerestaurant.com