Billy Bob's Sports Bar & Grill - Tomahawk

The other weekend a friend was celebrating her birthday and invited everybody to Billy Bob's in Tomahawk, WI for drinks, cake and general celebrating. Here is a link to Billy Bob's address:
http://www.gototomahawk.com/members.php?display=Billy%20Bobs%20Sports%20Bar%20and%20Grill

Having never been there, we were pleasantly surprised. It was quite large, and had lots of seating and a large bar. We had heard much of "Ellie Mae" the bartender, and she didnt let us down! She made me a super-fabulous Cosmo, which is often difficult to find in the area.

They have mostly your normal bar food, but also have a fish fry and some other slightly different items. However everybody there insisted all the food was really great, and the place was quite packed with families out for friday night fish fry, so I tend to believe everyone.

For an appetizer, we had Mexican Cheese. This is actually deep fried spicy cheese, and hold smokes it was GOOD! There was no breading or anything, just a light crispy fried layer on the outside of these cubes of cheese. The cheese was all melty & yummy inside and spicy! Loved!!!! Talk about a heart attack waiting to happen though!

I didnt really find much in the way of sandwhiches, unforutnately - and wound up with some sort of deep fried chicken sandwhich. It was good, but I prefer something grilled or slightly more healthy. Kevin had a burger which he said was very tasty. The fries were a little limp, but I think they have potential.

I would definitely try this place again though, if the time was right. It was a fun place and worth another try.

Circle K - Pasta Night, Rhinelander

The other week some friends & myself went to "Pasta Night" at the Circle K, which is just outside Rhinelander. Here's Google Maps to it

It is your typical bar with a seating area for dining. However it was pleasantly larger than I expected and bright. Also it seemed well ventilated and I didnt notice any smoke from the bar.

Wed is "Pasta Night" here - they have a regular menu too, and I am told everything is good. They have a Friday Fish Fry, and Prime Rib on Saturday. We stuck with the Pasta! You get to choose what type of pasta, what type of sauce, and any extras like chicken, shrimp, spinach, mushrooms, etc. I chose the Bowtie pasta with alfredo, and chicken & spinach. Turns out they were out of spinach, but that was okay. Mine was absolutely wonderful and yummy! The chicken was tasty, and the sauce just perfect. Plus it came with these two FABULOUS breadsticks I could just die for. Others had marinara, or meat sauce. A couple people had the shrimp, which sounded as though was surprisingly good.

I would definately go here again for pasta, and might try it some nigh for burgers, etc. Give it a try!

Cookies at Kid's Corner

I most often grab lunch at Kid's Corner on Fridays. I get a #9 6" whole wheat, no onions, house dressing. I also get a cup of soup if they have something good.

Today a basket of cookies caught my eye near the cashier. It's usually there, but it was quite full today and I was scanning it while waiting to pay my bill. I saw one labeled "Carmel Apple"...and just had to try it. I have never seen a carmal apple cookie!

I just have to say, this cookie was outstanding. YUM! It sorta reminded me of apple cinnamon oatmeal, but with LOTS of apple, and then the added bonus of yummy chunks of goopy carmel. It was very tasty!

There were bunches of different kinds of cookies, so now I think I am in trouble, given how much I enjoyed these cookies!

Bucketheads, Rhinelander

They always have good food, burgers & chicken sandwiches, you know, the normal bar food. But it is very tasty, and they have some good combinations. Their "Cowboy Killer" is always a very popular burger to order, and I almost always order the Chipotle Chicken Sandwich. Also they have sweet potato fries you can get instead of regular fries which I adore! They have some good appetizers as well.

However, I don’t recommend getting a Cosmo there! I asked for a Cosmo, with Kettle One, figuring well, they can’t screw it up too bad. Unfortunately, it was like pure vodka, which I guess some people might like, but I like to ENJOY my drink, not cringe with every sip. I got a glass of cranberry juice with ice and was mixing it. The good part of this is that our waitress noticed, and actually asked me if I liked my drink! I told her well, no, it is the worst Cosmo ever. She took it off our bill! I am totally impressed with this, and although I would not ever order a Cosmo again, I would order some other "safer" drink like wine. :-)

For dinner I tried a different sandwich - the spicy chicken sandwich. It was really yummy, though I got the blue cheese dressing on the side so I could put on the portion I wanted as I don’t tend to like much of this. Kevin got the bacon cheddar ranch burger I think, which he ate all of and enjoyed as well. For an appetizer we got their chips & salsa. Supposedly the chips are homemade, but they weren’t warm or anything which I expected. They did have some good spices put on them and we liked them and ate all of them.

So in the end, enjoyed as usual!

Riverstone, Eagle River WI

For my parent's anniversary this week we went to dinner at Riverstone in Eagle River.

Riverstone Website

Riverstone is what I would consider one of the higher class restaurants in the area. It has a very advanced menu in my opinion. I LOVE this restaurant, and we have eaten here a few times, but generally as a "special occasion". It is a bit pricey, but worth it if you are looking for something really great.

They have a great appetiser menu, and we had what might be considered lame mozzerella sticks, but they were not like any you've ever had around here. They were hand breaded perfectly and the cheese just melted in your mouth. We also got a new item on their menu which was a ginger chicken wrap with sticky rice. Very yummy. And not something you see in this area. In the past I have had their french onion soup which is DIVINE.

We also had salads - I desperately wanted to get this 12.00 salad they have...It is their "Reserve" salad - who has ever heard of a reserve salad? It sound very good though, but it was big, and nobody would split it with me, so instead I got the butter blue salad. Absolutely great with a terrific dressing and blue cheese crumbles, walnuts and great butter? lettuce.

For an entree I got the pork tenderloin with butternut squash ravioli. WOW!!!! Next time I will just get the ravioli only as an entree - they do have that option. This is NOT the ravioli with the blue cheese sauce - I had that once and although I enjoyed it, the flavor of the blue cheese was too much for me. But this is a different sauce and to-die-for. The pork was good too! Kevin got the strip steak, which he said was good, but I dont think it was "amazing". My mother got the flat iron steak, which she said was absolutely wonderful. My dad got the shrimp which he also loved.

Although we were stuffed, we also shared a tiramisu dessert. It was PERFECT! I could eat a ton of this stuff, thank goodness we were so full!

Definately go here if you are looking for a special dinner out - expect to pay a little more, but it is totally worth it.

Fireside, Rhinelander

Last night we ate dinner at the Fireside:
http://www.firesidesupperclub.com/

We have not gone here in over a year, due to being unhappy with the service & food. It was a culmination of a couple years bad service & food, including a "bad tail" (lobster), that put Kevin off lobster entirely for almost 2 years (his favorite food!). Anyway, the Fireside has a habit of seating you at the bar first, then offering you a menu at the bar, and continuing to keep you at the bar until you've ordered, and they've placed your salad at your table. This really bugs me. I go out to eat to sit at a TABLE and eat a nice meal, not sit uncomfortably at the bar, eyeing all the empty tables wondering why I have to order from the bar.

Anyway...So we gave it another shot last night. 1st of all, they did seat us at the bar while a table became available, which is perfect accepetable. 10 minutes later the hostess came to us letting us know our table was ready, but handing us menus asking if we'd like to take a look. We were quite adamant that no, we'll go sit down. Weird.

We ordered as an appetizer the "Brewhouse Combo" which is basically a little bit of all the deepfried appetizers they have (that is ALL they have..deepfried appetizes...) It was okay.

I ordered the southwest tilapia, which was tilapia encrusted with tortilla chips and served with salsa. It was alright. You also get a nice salad, AND soup, along with a starch side. I got the twice baked potato, which was yummy. My friend Jennifer got a filet with scallops. She said the scallops were good. The filet was okay, but she was just happy to have not had to make dinner herself! Kevin also got the filet and it was dreadful. He asked for medium to medium rare...and it came practically well done. I tried a bite, and almost spit it out it tased so horrible. He ate "some" of it. His fries were good.

Our server was good, but the wait in between our salad & soup was about a half hour, and then again for our entree. I am all for a leisurly meal, but this was out of control. I think we were there over 2 hours.

We wont be going back, and I do not recommend this at all. Ever.

Bugsy's Bar, Rhinelander

A few weeks ago a friend of mine and I met at Bugsy's for Pizza on a Thursday night. Bugsy's has recently undergone a bit of a change - they've moved out most of the pool tables, and opened up most of that previous pool area for actual seated dining. Menus, waitress and all! They have also extensively changed up their menu, and added all kinds of new things. I really suggest anybody who hasnt been there in awhile go check it out. It was a nice change, and fun to be able to watch people walking by out the window as we ate. The pizza was good, as usual!

http://www.bugsyssportsbar.com/Bugsy_s_Menu.html (website not current)