Road trip food sure has changed...
When my oldest friend @a4xjeeper asked me to travel to Wisconsin with him to pick up a Jeep Willy's that he had just bought, I really didn't know what to expect when it came to what our meals would look like. I knew for a fact that shortly after getting on the road, but before we made it to the expressway we would probably be stopping at McDonald's to grab a breakfast sandwich.
I know him well enough that I could have placed his order for him. A sausage McMuffin with a sweet tea (light ice). I had my water, so I just got a sausage McMuffin and I was good to go. Say what you want about McDonald's, I don't think they are that bad. I won't argue that it probably isn't healthy for you, but as far as fast food goes, it's just consistently decent.
As I said in this post, we ended up stopping in Marinette Wisconsin for lunch. If the timing would have matched up right, I am sure we might have stopped at Clyde's in Manistique for a burger, but we were making such good time that it would have been 10 in the morning if we stopped and got lunch there.
We were actually a bit concerned that nothing was going to be open in Marinette when we pulled into town because of the time change. While it was just about noon in the Eastern Time Zone, it wasn't quite 11 over in Wisconsin. That severely limited us on the number of choices we had.
We pulled into a Mexican restaurant in Marinette, thinking we could just wait in the parking lot until they opened at 11:00 AM. Then @a4xjeeper found a place that was already opened and it sounded promising.
Mickey-Lu's was just down the road from the Mexican restaurant and quite honestly if you blinked you might miss it. In fact, I did almost miss it and I had to slam on the brakes to avoid going past the driveway.
If you can read the sign, you might notice that it says Bar-B-Q. That was the main thing that drew us to this place, but unfortunately, that was a bit of a misnomer. Honestly though, that was about the only thing I could find wrong with this place.
As I said, it's tiny inside, but the smell that was wafting out into the parking lot gave us a really good idea of what we had in store. Our stomachs were rumbling even more as we walked up to the front door.
My buddy and I agree that when you are traveling, you should really do your best to avoid places that are chains or something you could get when you are at home. Mickey-Lu's definitely fit the bill on all counts. The decor was eccentric with all kinds of old time games and posters. They also had a pretty short menu as far as roadside diners go. Which is fine with me, it made it pretty easy to pick what I was going to get.
We sat down at a couple of the stools that surround the diner counter and we started getting served by a nice lady with that world class midwestern charm that you would expect from Northern Wisconsin. As good as a hamburger sounded, since we were in Wisconsin, my mind immediately went to bratwurst.
I was a little embarrassed when I asked the waitress if the bratwurst were locally sourced or if they were just the Johnsonville style that you can get in the grocery store. Don't get me wrong, Johnsonville are good, but I can get those at home.
It seems she has been asked that before because she just laughed and let me know that the brats were hand made at a local meat market in town. I was sold! One bratwurst please!
@a4xjeeper got a burger.
Not only was the meat locally sourced, but the buns were also made at a local bakery. They were absolutely delicious. As I said, my friend got a simple burger and I got a brat with mustard and onions. A single was $3.00 and a double was something like $5.00. You can't get a much better deal than that. They don't have a deep fryer there, but they offer a bag of chips with your meal. Apparently, their shakes and malts are very good too, but we didn't try one of those. We were kicking ourselves for not.
Personally, I think the coolest part of the experience was how they cook your food. They have this open air charcoal pit in the middle of the building. It looks almost like a pizza oven. they place the proteins and buns in there to get cooked and charred up and then they put together your order.
There was a pie carousel sitting next to me on the diner counter and it took every ounce of willpower I had not to order the last slice of blueberry pie they had sitting on the top rack. It looked delicious!
I can't begin to describe just how fantastic this meal was. We were actually very tempted to stop on our way back through and eat there again!
Instead, we stopped at a place about an hour or so outside of Marinette in Escanaba called Mo's Pub. That's not entirely true. We initially stopped at another place in Escanaba Michigan, but after driving through the parking lot and realizing there wasn't a place to park the truck and trailer with the Jeep on it, we ended up parking on the street. We went into that other place and found that it was going to be a 45 minute wait for a table. On top of that, the bar was completely full, so we couldn't even squeeze in there.
We had already been kicking around the idea of driving all the way home that night, so the last thing we wanted to do was waste 45 minutes plus waiting to eat dinner.
We were walking back to the truck when I looked up and noticed the sign for Mo's on a diagonal across the street. My friend tightened down the chains on the trailer while I walked over to see if we could get a table.
They were busy, but there was definitely plenty of space for us.
Since we were in the upper peninsula of Michigan, I was really excited to get some whitefish. It's pretty much a staple up near the coast of Lake Superior and if you have never had Lake Superior whitefish, you really don't know what you are missing. Unfortunately, they didn't have whitefish, but they did have perch and it is pretty rare that I will turn down a nice perch dinner.
We actually both got the same thing for our meal, so I only took photos of one of them. I know that the US gets a bad rap for the portion sizes being so large, but even I will admit that this was a ton of food. Well worth the money that we spent on it, but I was only able to eat about half of it. The fries were so good that I was tempted to eat them all, but instead, I decided to only eat half of them and save more room for the fish.
I ate every piece of perch on my plate. I had maybe one bite of the roll, half of the baked beans, and a few bites of the coleslaw. This was actually the first time I have ever seen baked beans with a perch dinner. In case you are wondering, that item in the lower right hand corner is butter for the roll. Just to the left of it was the tartar sauce for the fish.
We were able to get in and out of Mo's in a half hour and back on the road to make it home. We were talking about it on the road and we were actually happy that the first place ended up being too busy. While I am sure they had good food, this meal at Mo's was absolutely phenomenal and if I am ever up this way with @mrsbozz, I plan on taking her there (even though she doesn't eat fish).
As far as road trips go, this one was hit all the right spots when it comes to food.
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
You received an upvote of 76% from Precious the Silver Mermaid!
Please remember to contribute great content to the #SilverGoldStackers tag to create another Precious Gem.
That brat looked good! I love places with fresh locally sourced everything, even the sauerkraut. I don't know if I could say no to good blueberry pie, great will power there! That perch looked really good, nothing quite like good fish and chips. Lake Superior white fish is really good, but I haven't had it in years now!
As far as McD's goes, I agree, they produce consistent food everywhere. It may not be gourmet or healthy, but I like them too!
Just gotta stay away from the QPC for a bit apparently. I can't do the McRib anymore either. I used to love it, but at one point I was just like "this isn't even real". My wife doesn't eat beef, but she will eat a McDonald's cheeseburger. It's pretty funny. The perch was some of the best I have had in awhile. It was an all around great meal. I'd hit Mickey Lu's anytime I was passing through. They might not have anything for my wife to eat, but I would get it to go and be absolutely content! I don't think they had sauerkraut believe it or not!
I stick with their simple items usually, the ones I know will be good. I've never been a McRib fan, but you're right it's all fake! You guys had some good eats along the way, I would hit Mickey Lu's if I were passing through.
That restaurant name made me think of a place in Puerto Rico, Mary Li's by the Sea. Just the M and L combo I guess. @davedickeyyall has a house not too far from there! lol
I think there are probably a lot of great places in that Marinette/Menominee area, but this was a real hidden gem for us! I have three things I usually rotate between at McD's. Quarter Pounder with Cheese, the two cheeseburger meal, and the deluxe mccrispy meal. All with some packets of hot mustard on the side!
Every road trip gets memorable, when hit the right joints along the way. I remember during one such we ate boiled eggs and omlette late at around 2AM...we were hungry and could not stop ourself on finding a cart selling g eggs. It was delicious....
That does sound like some delicious late night food! Probably not my first choice, but it would certainly give you the protein you need to keep going on a long drive!
You are lucky that the States has so many independent eatery's dotted around. That is what I enjoy and loved travelling your country. In SA there are too many chains and you have to hunt for an independent.
Yeah, that would really suck. There is something to be said for the consistency of a chain, but these small town private businesses can be some real diamonds in the rough.
I'm always amazed with fries that look like those in the header.. if I get that on my plate I already know I'm in for a nice round of stomach issues as you can already see it's definitely not fried in clean oil/fat whatever they use.. It seems to be the norm though, finding a place that refreshes that stuff on time is hard here, lol.
I've always loved these typical American diner places as you see them in shows and movies, they look cool! If I'm remembering it correctly I only visited a place looking similar to that once in my life, in Budapest. I think they have some cool ambiance but for you it's probably super boring by now, lol.
Have a nice weekend :)
Nah, there are still some cool ones out there. These fries were pretty amazing. I think they had some seasoning on them and that might be why they looked a little dirty. I'm sure the oil wasn't pristine, but it didn't taste too bad to me.
Of course, seasoning is optional as well. I don't see that often here so that didn't even cross my mind! It's pretty rare to find crispy (the way I love them) fries here instead of them being soaked with oil/fat that wasn't hot enough to fry them in so I got a bit allergic to nasty looking fries, lol.
I didn't notice it was fish until I read again and I remember eating that in Holland often also with seasoned fries. It's been a while since I had a good fish and chips, yum!
Oh wow, I have some places we could take you here for some truly amazing fries. I know how much bad fries can ruin a good meal. Fish and chips is one of my favorites, but I don't get it that often due to all the frying!
You can seriously wake me up for good fries haha. Even if it's just fries, I don't care, I've always loved it. I'm not one to have potatoes on the menu many days at all but that only adds to the fries cravings I sometimes have. Our air fryer does wonders without having a normal fryer. I found the perfect ones finally.
The thing I hate most about these bad fries served is simply that it's just a little more effort to wait until the oil is hot before dumping them in, or check if they are done properly. You can see it with one look that they are not done well here in 95% of the tapas places, personally I will not eat them anymore if this is the case because it always causes issues later lol.
I think my last fish and chips was the night we moved back to Spain and had our first meal here, they were stunning and I was so happy to finally eat something decent compared to most restaurants we visited in Hungary. Food is much better here, just the frying issues remain in both countries, lol. Probably lazy or time issues..
Best to order other stuff anymore, much healthier :)
Yes, fries definitely aren't the most healthy food for you. I agree that air fryers have pretty much changed the landscape of food. We have one that we use pretty much every day for different things. Actually, we have two of them. One we keep in our trailer for when we are camping.
What a good meal, greetings from Argentina, Buenos Aires!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!