Went up to Wendt's place for the annual
Corn and Brat festival in Williams Bay this weekend. Caribbean steel drum band, all the corn and brats and beer you can consume, fireworks, DJ, bands, beer pong... What more can you ask for? Except, of course, kicking the whole weekend off with dinner at Mars.
There was immediate seating on the patio, but how can you choose to do that when the alternative is to wait an hour for a table in the elegant dining room while you enjoy your first cocktail outside on the water? Um, not us. You need this in the background while you enjoy your ribs:
The SAME LADY is still playing the damn piano bar?! This lady was entertaining this joint when I was 10 years old.
Saturday it was grey and rainy. After a drive-by in Lake Geneva (town) we opted for a more local and lower key lunch at
Gordy's. Bloody, beer back, tortilla soup and lunch followed by... a nice, long, 2 hour... NAP! Perfection.
So after numerous drive-by's of the
C&B all weekend, it was time to hit it. But first, we loaded up our roadies and walked a couple blocks to
Gage for the Caribbean band and party before the fireworks. Nothing like a band set up on a platform with a boat as the background to get you in the mood and watch the sun set.
When it seemed the kegs had run out at Gage, we made our way down to the madness of
Corn and Brat.
This is where you got your ears of corn. As I got my second (sorry it was so good!) ear of corn, I realized that they weren't taking them out of the large tin cans that were lined up – stuffed full vertically on the grill with their husks sticking out – and THEN dipping them in butter...
Nope. On closer inspection (see the shiny, greasy husks?) it appeared they were literally heated IN the butter. And then you got to take your drenched corn to the shaker section and spice it up. Holy goodness.
The crowd was amazing. This t-shirt was a favorite.
A 12-oz beer was 2 tickets (2 bucks) and a "pitcher" was 7. No joke there was a table of people playing flip cup by the band/DJ that had, not exaggerating, a tower of at least 50 pitchers stacked empty on their table. We ended up beating it out of there, after dying laughing with two women who were convulsing over their 30 terrible i-phone self portraits, and joining some failed beer games – "If this is a beer drinking game when am I supposed to DRINK?" – around 11. Both nights had the most amazing, see-your-shadow, full moons that I've seen in a long time, too. Layed out on
Pier 301 for a few hours and stopped by the
Farm Stand on the way home. Super weekend.
Went up to Wendt's place for the annual Corn and Brat festival in Williams Bay this weekend. Caribbean steel drum band, all the corn and brats and beer you can consume, fireworks, DJ, bands, beer pong... What more can you ask for? Except, of course, kicking the whole weekend off with dinner at Mars.
There was immediate seating on the patio, but how can you choose to do that when the alternative is to wait an hour for a table in the elegant dining room while you enjoy your first cocktail outside on the water? Um, not us. You need this in the background while you enjoy your ribs:
The SAME LADY is still playing the damn piano bar?! This lady was entertaining this joint when I was 10 years old.
Saturday it was grey and rainy. After a drive-by in Lake Geneva (town) we opted for a more local and lower key lunch at Gordy's. Bloody, beer back, tortilla soup and lunch followed by... a nice, long, 2 hour... NAP! Perfection.
So after numerous drive-by's of the C&B all weekend, it was time to hit it. But first, we loaded up our roadies and walked a couple blocks to Gage for the Caribbean band and party before the fireworks. Nothing like a band set up on a platform with a boat as the background to get you in the mood and watch the sun set.
When it seemed the kegs had run out at Gage, we made our way down to the madness of Corn and Brat.
This is where you got your ears of corn. As I got my second (sorry it was so good!) ear of corn, I realized that they weren't taking them out of the large tin cans that were lined up – stuffed full vertically on the grill with their husks sticking out – and THEN dipping them in butter...
Nope. On closer inspection (see the shiny, greasy husks?) it appeared they were literally heated IN the butter. And then you got to take your drenched corn to the shaker section and spice it up. Holy goodness.
The crowd was amazing. This t-shirt was a favorite.
A 12-oz beer was 2 tickets (2 bucks) and a "pitcher" was 7. No joke there was a table of people playing flip cup by the band/DJ that had, not exaggerating, a tower of at least 50 pitchers stacked empty on their table. We ended up beating it out of there, after dying laughing with two women who were convulsing over their 30 terrible i-phone self portraits, and joining some failed beer games – "If this is a beer drinking game when am I supposed to DRINK?" – around 11. Both nights had the most amazing, see-your-shadow, full moons that I've seen in a long time, too. Layed out on Pier 301 for a few hours and stopped by the Farm Stand on the way home. Super weekend.
This sounds amazing! I'm putting this on my list of things-to-do in 2012.
ReplyDeleteSaw a guy walking down the bike path in Steamboat on Sunday morning. Faded yellow, see throughish old T-Shirt that said, "World's Largest Beer and Brat Fest". Couldn't quite tell what city because the letters were coming off, but the state was Wisconsin. Might have been Kenosha. Anyway, I had gotten your text the night before and I realized, it was all coming together. I think there is a reason why Wisconsin is my 2nd favorite state!
ReplyDeleteNicole: I must warn you ~ this is more of a "stop by" event than a destination. You could only spend a couple hours there max. Plan a trip to Lake Geneva that weekend, but don't plan THAT for your weekend! (You could ride your bike there! There's a trail that goes almost the whole way ~ ask Steve).
ReplyDeleteBrother: Florida is your favorite, right?