Sawmill Pizza and Brew Shed - Clear Lake, WI

I know there are a handful of pizza farm and pizza pop-ups around the upper Midwest, and it’s because IT’S A GREAT IDEA. Opening your farm or business up for one day a week and making pizza for folks is probably a lot of work, but it’s also great to get people in your doors and into someplace new. This space in Clear Lake, Wisconsin is really a charming place and the amazing pizza and beer were the icing on the cake. 

 

Some details: Only open on Sundays,  usually noon to 7. Tons of seating options and you can bring your own chairs and sit on the grass if you want. No outside alcohol and no pets. They have an occasional music festival, but most Sundays, they have live music of some sort.

 

The Sawmill has a large parking area and good signage so you can figure out where you’re going. There’s one building where you order your pizza from and then another building houses the beers. There’s also another non-attached building that I think houses a sort of events center, but we didn’t really check it out very much – priorities were pizza and beer.

 

The pizza menu is concise, but not in a bad way – every single one of the 6-8 pizzas sounds great. It isn’t your normal pepperoni or sausage (though you can get cheese if you really need to). With adventurous combinations, you’re going to have to narrow it down to one or two you’d like, which is really helpful since you can do half-and-half, as long as the base sauces are the same. Meaning, red sauce flavors can go with red sauce, but not with white sauce. Thankfully, the folks running the counter at the pizza place are super helpful and will help you get through it all. We got one half Spicy Jameese (tomato sauce, strawberry jam, sriracha, cheddar & pepper cheeses); and one half Wisconsin Luau (tomato sauce, mozz, pepper cheese, Canadian bacon, bacon, and pineapple).

 

We headed to the beer building and the folks in there were also super happy. When you’re at a place like this, you need to try a couple of beers to make sure you really get it dialed in, and since they don’t do flights, you need to just get full pours to try them out. I started with a Rubus Reamer - a sort of shandy/radler style beer. It was a solid beer, but not exactly what I was looking for, especially after that lime beer. It was a solid B performer. I liked it just fine.

I also thought I’d get a Blimey, which is a lime IPA, and this was a big surprised how awesome it was. Definitely an A beer. Even D.Rough liked this one enough to keep stealing drinks from mine. 

Our pizza bell rang and we picked up a really awesome looking pie from the counter. It’s always a good thing when you can’t tell which flavor was your favorite – they were both awesome. And we both kept changing our mind which one we liked the best. The Spicy Jameese wasn’t too spicy, but had some really complementary flavors. The Wisconsin Luau was great, as well, with pork and pineapple. I think we really nailed it with this order and the brewery really came through with the execution on this one. Really pleased with this whole scenario.

I went back to the beer building for a Tipsy Bees, a nice brown ale and I’d give it a solid B (pun intended).  Again, I didn't need another one of these, thankfully, since I had already had three. 

We had a great visit to the Sawmill and both the pizza and the beer overperformed our expectations. We’d recommend it to everyone and we basically talked about pizza and beer for the remainder of the ride back to the Twin Cities (just over an hour, so not a bad Sunday drive at all!). Glad we checked this place out, finally. 

 

Sawmill Pizza and Brew Shed

Melt Pizza - Hudson, WI

 

Melt Pizza is sort of a pop-up Detroit-style pizza restaurant that shows up at various places we have been to. We finally showed up hungry to Oliphant Brewing and Melt Pizza was there slinging pizzas from the back room. We were with friends, so we ordered two things: Melt Sticks and also the Dream Team. 

 

We were drinking plenty of beer, so we have no idea how long it took, but it didn’t seem unreasonable, nor did it matter. These pizzas were fantastic. Detroit style, for those that aren’t familiar, is pizza cooked in a pan with toppings pushed against the side so they get all caramelized and crispy. 

 

The Melt Sticks are cheesy and garlicy slices with no sauce underneath. But these do come with a couple dipping sauces, but the only I remember is the vodka red sauce. I think the other two were their house made red sauce. But the flavor of these cheese strips was truly great. Crusty pieces of cheese on each slice where it got burned up against the pan. Just awesome.

 

The Dream Team has red sauce, three-cheese coverage, pepperoni, ricotta, hot honey, and basil. Again, the caramelized cheese against the edges is what makes this, but the hot honey and ricotta really made this pizza pop, as well. So glad we got this one, despite the one we had originally tried to order being sold out right before we got there. 

 

If you see Melt Pizza show up at any of your favorite drinking establishments, you should go there and order a couple of these. They know what they’re doing in the pizza world and I’ll definitely keep an eye on them. 

Jagger's Ore House - Bessemer, MI

If you ever find yourself in the farthest western corner of Michigan’s UP (Upper Peninsula), you need to check out Jagger’s Ore House. It’s not something you’re going to drive past, so you really need to mean to go there, but we found ourselves nearby and it’s rated very highly. Sure, there’s only a handful of things in Bessemer, but the reviews that this place has are good for a reason. It’s both a local drinking hole, but also a really solid restaurant.

There’s a couple of craft brews here, some standard domestics, and a full bar, so you’re not going to go thirsty, either.

We had seen on the “specials” sign that they had lobster nachos, so D and I thought we’d start with that – having no idea what we were in for. Best idea we had all day! The chips are homemade and plenty thick. Then they pour lobster bisque all over the chips and then cover that with lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes. This was so rich and heavy. We probably should have just stopped there, but we didn’t know it was going to be so delicious or heavy. Worth it, though.

 

Since it was Friday, I thought I’d better go with the tried and true Friday Fish Fry. It comes with potato salad, coleslaw, fries, and two fried giant cod filets. Everything from the deep fryer was top notch. The potato salad and coleslaw weren’t the best in the world, but I’ve definitely had way worse than this. Good, but not mind-blowing.

 

D went with the BBQ Chicken Pizza, and then added Pineapple – yes, we’re THOSE people. Fight us. This was a really good pizza. The chicken flavor was great and the bbq sauce glaze on the top was really flavorful, as well.

Overall, it was a really solid showing for Jagger's. The staff were super friendly and polite, despite being super busy. But we never felt like an inconvenience and they were genuinely happy we were there and supporting their business. We'd go back here again in a heartbeat the next time we're up north. 

Top 5 things about Jagger’s

1. Lobster Nachos

2. Friday Fish Fry

3. BBQ Chicken Pizza

4. Full bar
5. Pretty diverse menu for being kind of out in the middle of nowhere

 

Bottom 5 things

1. The place seems like it might fill up on weekends

2. Unless you’re staying in Bessemer, it’s not by anything

3. It can get pretty loud inside, but we felt it was a good energy

4. No other negative things at all

5. N/A

 

https://www.facebook.com/jaggerorehouse

QC Pizza – Mahtomedi, MN

I can’t believe it’s taken me a year to get to this place that claims they make a Quad City-style pizza here in the Twin Cities. (The Quad Cities are two cities in Illinois and two cities in Iowa – depending on who you ask)(if you ask people from East Moline, they’ll say they are one of the Quad Cities, but it’s a lie)(The Quad Cities are my home – the Illinois side – if you didn’t know.) I’ve read the articles and seen it on FoodBeast, but I had to try it myself. 

They’re also known for this dill pickle pizza called the Kinda Big Dill Pizza, which had my curiosity piqued.

D.Rough and I popped in there tonight and couldn’t decide which pizza to get, so we got a medium dill pickle pizza and a medium taco pizza. We got the taco pizza so I could give a full comparison to the actual Quad City version that I grew up eating pretty much weekly. We were told there would be an hour wait, which to me means that this place is doing killer business. Thankfully, they steered us to the bar next door to have a beer or two while we waited for our order. They would text us when our pizzas were ready and we could head back next door and eat them in the pizza shop. We went next door and had our beers and came back around the hour point to check it out. We walked in and our pizzas were ready. 

Then, the owner noticed I had a 309 area code on my phone number I left and came out to ask why I had a Quad City area code and we chatted a bit. REALLY good guy and proud of his work. He IS doing killer business here, which is great, and I’m thrilled to hear it since all of my QC friends and family need to check it out.

What is Quad City style pizza? There are multiple places in the Quad Cities with this style – Harris Pizza, Frank’s Pizza, and The Pizza Joynt. The main thing is that it’s cut into strips. D.Rough refers to this as “you forgot to complete the Minnesota grid”-style slices. It also has a very specific mozzarella cheese blend. It also has a very distinct crumbled sausage mixed with a lot of fennel. Those are the main points, but I’m sure there are also some finer points with the crust and such, but I won’t go into that here. Let’s talk food. 

The taco pizza is just like home. It’s a sausagey pizza turned sort of into taco meat, covered with cheese and lettuce, and then covered with dorito-style tortilla chips on top. You have to ask for small packets of Heinz taco sauce to go with it, as well. That’s crucial. And yes, QC Pizza does have the taco sauce packets by request. It’s so good and messy. Be forewarned: the QC strips are floppy and you’ll lose all of your toppings until you figure out the proper grip – one hand on the end crust and one hand supporting the impending flop. That’s just how we eat them, deal with it. If NY pizza can be eaten a certain way – with a fold – then QC-style pizza can be eaten a certain way, as well. 

The dill pickle pizza was even better than I expected. It’s got a garlic sauce on it instead of the traditional red sauce and the pickle slices are covering this thing. There’s also some ham in there, so think of this like a pickle roll-up pizza or a Cubano pizza (minus the mustard – but now I wonder if they have mustard, which would be brilliant). There’s lots of dill sprinkled on the top as a seasoning. The whole thing is amazing and a fantastic idea. I’m glad we tried it! I would highly recommend it and we will for sure get it again. 

Note, QC Pizza isn’t cheap like Little Caesars or Domino’s. You’re getting a hand-tossed and crafted pizza with some unique flair. A few bites into these pies and you’ll forget about the price and your face hole will be extremely happy. 

I also loved that all the photos on the wall are of Quad City landmarks. Tugged at my heart strings a little, to be honest.

The verdict is a resounding YES, that it does accurately represent Quad City pizza legends and is, in fact, just as good as those places I grew up with. Dennis, thank you for bringing the taste of home back to Minnesota with you. I really appreciate you saving me a six hour drive every time I need a taste of home. Great job on these pizzas!!!

qc.pizza

Pizza Karma – Eden Prairie, MN

I actually made it here on opening day. I’d been reading about this place for months now and a friend I was eating Indian food with (on Friday) reminded me it was opening the following Monday. I had the day off of work and convinced a few friends to join me – it wasn’t difficult. 

The place is in a strip mall three doors down from an Indian restaurant and grocery store. But it’s a completely different animal. It’s Tandoori-fired pizza topped with various Indian toppings. There are quite a few articles to read about this, so I won’t rehash all the details, but suffice it to say, the owner knows what he’s doing and intends to take this bigger than just a strip mall in Eden Prairie. It took us a while to decide what to eat, but we ended up splitting three appetizers and three pizzas to make sure we could get maximum coverage out of our visit. 

We ended up with the cayenne dusted crispy deep-fried okra fries (Served with a black salt and buttermilk sauce), stuffed potato cakes (served with golden raisin ginger sauce), and roasted smashed eggplant pate (served with naan) for our appetizers. Then, for our pizzas, we got a Chicken Kebab pizza, a Paneer pizza, and a Potato & Tandoor-Roasted Vegetable pizza.

A couple of us also got beers, since we weren’t going back to an office anywhere. The beer dispensing system is a thing of mystery. It’s got a magnet covering a hole in the bottom of the cup and when you set it on the dispenser, it pours the beer from the bottom-up. Magic.

The naan with the roasted smashed eggplant pate (which a certain unnamed member of our party referred to as “slurry”) was good. We all decided it needed a little more zing to the pate, but a lot of Minnesotans will be extremely happy with this – especially because it’s drizzled with clarified butter before it’s served. 

The Paneer pizza was quite good. The non-melting cheese cubes on top were really a treat when you bit into one, which is good because they were plentiful. There was a generous amount of peppers on the top of the pizza, as well. The tomato-fenugreek sauce on the top was different from any pizza sauces I’ve had, but definitely in a good way. A solid pizza overall. 

The cayenne dusted crispy deep-fried okra fries were one of the highlights of the meal. One of our guys doesn’t even like okra, but was ALL really liked these. They were almost hyper-fried. Like way past any fried okra I’ve had (and my family is from the south, so I’ve eaten my fair share of okra), but it made them little crispy chip-like things. Sooooo amazing, especially with the black salt and buttermilk sauce. And there’s a ton of them – just get these and thank me later.

The Chicken Kebab pizza was also good – and very similar to the paneer pizza (but with chicken instead of non-melting cheese). Lots of peppers and that delicious tomato-fenugreek sauce – like the paneer pizza. I’m not complaining, I assure you. I loved this pizza.

The stuffed potato cakes were stuffed with chili-spiced spinach green. I’ve had something this, somewhere else, but it wasn’t nearly as good as this one. Especially with this awesome ginger golden raisin sauce. A great appetizer. 

The winner of the day was the Potato & Tandoor-Roasted Vegetable pizza. It’s a good mix of roasted vegetables and has mango powder (which I can can’t even comprehend what that even is) and black salt. But the amazing part of this is actually TWO amazing parts: habanero harissa sauce and the fact that it’s served on potato-chili naan, instead of the plain naan that the other two pizzas were served on. It definitely had some zing to it and we all loved the heat. It might need a warning for Minnesotan’s who are spice-adverse. It was the best thing I’ve eaten in a while. I’ll be recommending this to tons of people.

Amazing job, Pizza Karma!! You’re nailing it!!!

www.pizzakarma.com

Iceland – Land of LIES (Day 6)

I was pretty excited for this day when I woke up. Yes, I knew we’d have to wait before we did anything because all of the roads were probably going to be closed… wait… I’m checking now… yup, all closed! We had a good breakfast and relaxed before our adventure day in Reykjavik. To get there, we knew we had to drive through the mountain pass of doom (see previous posts for an explanation if you skipped ahead), so we took our time. We were going to meet our friend Loose Change in town for some of our adventures, but we figured she was staying in town and probably saw some of the touristy things we wanted to hit quickly. I’ll also mention that this was my birthday, so I was pretty excited for some of our shenanigans I had planned on for the past few months.

We drove the death-defying highway over the mountain and despite the country’s best efforts, we made it safely. All the snow and ice had turned into rain by the time we got to Reykjavik. Our plan was to park somewhere central and then do some walking to where we needed to go. We scored a really close parking spot near the famous Hallgrimskirkja – the largest church and one of the tallest structures in Iceland. My mother was probably thrilled when she heard I was in a for-real church on my birthday.

We waited in line to go to the top of the tower, and were actually lucky enough to catch the organist practicing. That was pretty slick.

While we were waiting in line, we ran into a family we had seen at the Fontana Spa on Wednesday. They said that night they lost control of their car and it slid far off the road – thankfully, not a roll-over situation – and they had to walk a few miles to a hotel that charged them $500 to stay. Then the following morning had to pay a farmer to pull their car out of the ditch. See? This stuff happens all the time in Iceland, but it isn’t in the brochure!

The elevator only holds like six people and costs $5-7 per person, but I’d say just suck it up and pay for the great view of the entire city and harbor. It was worth it to us. (People are such complainers!)

We finished up at the church and did some shopping while walking towards our destination. We had called Loose Change and she was going to meet us. But we had some people to buy souvenirs for and needed to look at Icelandic sweaters and such. We popped into a few charity shops – which the US refers to as consignment or goodwill shops. It’s a very walkable city and we had a good time walking in the drizzle.

While walking towards our most exciting destination ever, we stopped at the Big Lebowski Bar – it’s a bar themed after the movie of the same name. It’s decorated in all kinds of bowling and Big Lebowski movie props and they have an awesome list of like 20 different white russians (drinks). We were a little bummed that the staff didn’t seem to be into it at all, despite working at what appeared to be a really fun bar. But it didn’t matter, we had fun and that was all that mattered. They had a spin-the-wheel-and-get-whatever-drinks-you-landed-on situation here at the bar, but I decided against it and just got a standard white russian. D.Rough got a hot version and loved it. I do love a good booze wheel, though… Next time.

We walked past the Chuck Norris Grill. I’m guessing it’s got some good kitch, but D.Rough and I make it a rule that we don’t eat burgers outside of the U.S.  Not because we’re scared of what they put in the meat, but because they DO put things in the meat that makes it taste NOT like a juice burger form the U.S.  Apparently, I’m a burger nationalist. (But I’ll pretty much eat all the local and ethnic food I can get my hands on.)

We grabbed some awesome chips (french fries in the U.S.) from Reykjavik Chips – which comes highly recommended. They’ve got a ton of different sauces and the fries were crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside – just like in Belgium (or in Astoria, Oregon’s Frite & Scoop). They’ve got some decent beers there, as well. The guy working was super personable and friendly and they’ve got old school rap/hip-hop on the speakers This place did tons of business while we were there, so we were lucky to get a table – with holes in it to put your chip cones. Fantastic place.

We heard from Loose Change and she was ready to meet us at our ultimate Icelandic destination – the Icelandic Phallogical Museum. Yes, it’s a museum dedicated to penises. It’s a very scientifically displayed collection of penises from different animals. The most impressive/terrifying were the whale penises, but they had all kinds of other animals – mammals, lizards, birds (sort of), insects, and human. It’s a large room full of formaldehyde glass jars with descriptions next to them.

There are three or four other smaller rooms with specific collections in them. My favorite was the folklore room. It’s basically a room where they’ve collected penises from animals and monsters that don’t exist. Some are clearly stitched together and some are very creatively shown, but it’s really an interesting way to demonstrate these things.

The hilarious thing is that the gift shop is about one step away from being a bachelorette party shop.

Most of us had a good time there, but D.Rough had to tap out early. She got a little grossed out and overwhelmed. Completely understandable. I heard about this museum when I saw a really good documentary film called the Final Member. If you can find a copy, it’s worth watching.

The bar we (mainly me) wanted to go to wasn’t open yet, so we had to kill some time. By this time of day, it was absolutely POURING down rain and sleet. Combined with the howling winds, you really couldn’t hear each other talk when you were outside.

We headed down near the harbor to get a photo of the Viking ship sculpture. Thankfully, the rain was keeping most of the people away, so we got great photos of me shirtless in front of it. It’s funny when you whip your shirt off in an inhabitable weather situation and people cheer for you. Try it sometime!

We were getting extremely soaked at this point, so D.Rough and Loose Change did some clothes and souvenir shopping.

We walked past the birthday-boy’s-chosen bar, called Bar Ananas a few times before they actually opened (like 45 minutes late). It’s Iceland’s only tiki bar, so I knew I had to hit it for my birthday. For its location, on what is literally the almost exact opposite side of the globe from French Polynesia, it does a good job of tiki décor. I was pleased we made it here. The tiki cocktail menu only had 8 drinks on it and 4 of those were not available, so our decision was made much easier.

Loose Change and I got the drink that involved fire – which we got too much of the ingredient that causes the fire because we had to ask for a second attempt so we could get better photos – and D.Rough got the Flamingofant.

We were all ok with our drinks – nothing to rave about, but they did fine. The space is pretty cool and multi-leveled, but it’s no Mai Kai or Trader Vik’s.

Some bars put deodorant hockey pucks or ice cubes into their urinals, right? Well Bar Ananas puts pineapple in their urinals. That’s going the extra tiki mile!

We said our good byes to Loose Change, since we had to drive back over the mountain pass of doom, and headed towards home. We thought we’d check out a restaurant near our house in Selfoss for a nice birthday dinner. Thankfully, Kaffi Krús was able to get us a table and treated us very well for the night. I got a ridiculously-priced fancy beer and D.Rough got something a little more reasonable. D.Rough went with the Duck Pizza, and I got the Filet of Icelandic Lamb. It was my birthday – what did you expect!?

This was the best meal we had had in Iceland – the food and the service were just amazing. They made sure we were both well taken care and there was an attention to the food that was pretty outstanding. And since my wife believes you can’t celebrate a birthday properly without dessert, we both got uour own dessert. There is a pretty spectacular display case full of desserts and cakes and they also have a sort of set dessert menu to choose from. I honestly have no idea what D.Rough got – it’s some sort of skyrcake (like cheesecake made with skyr Icelandic yogurt) and cookies and chocolate crumbled on it. It was ridiculously good and probably came out of the magic dessert case.

I got the white chocolate and strawberry mousse, which was my favorite dessert I’ve had in a really long time.

These people can make some serious food. I’m so glad we came here and didn’t skimp on my birthday.

The weather was getting really rough outside (since it was after dark), so we got home as fast as we could. We had a message from Loose Change saying the airport had shut down today due to the weather and we should be on high alert for our flights that left tomorrow. Uh oh. It also turns out that Loose Change and her friend went out in the storm to get outside of the city and potentially snap some photos of the northern lights (since the weather had not been cooperating all week). The pair was out late and the weather continued to get increasingly awful and they had to get escorted back to the city by some sort of good samaritan highway patrol vehicle, since they couldn’t see the road they were driving on. I’m glad they made it home safe at like 4 am. D.Rough and I were long asleep by then, despite the wind rattling our house most of the night!

Day 5   |   Day 7