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Best restaurants to visit while traveling around Wisconsin

Wisconsin has many hotspots for food that are worth the trip — from comfort food, farm to table, and even elegant dining experiences.
Lindsay Moe
/
Milwaukee Magazine
Wisconsin has many hotspots for food that are worth the trip — from comfort food, farm to table, and even elegant dining experiences.

When you think of a food city, what comes to mind? How about Sheboygan or Viroqua? If you’re doubting these suggestions, Ann Christenson of Milwaukee Magazine would encourage you to check them out yourself and plan out some statewide foodie road trips.

Wisconsin has many hotspots for food that are worth the trip — from comfort food, farm to table, and even elegant dining experiences. Christenson put together her top suggestions in her “30+ Great Wisconsin Restaurants That Are Worth the Drive" article in this month’s Milwaukee Magazine.

Here are just a few of the restaurants and locations she highlighted:

Driftless Cafe in Viroqua, Wisconsin.
Lindsay Moe
/
Milwaukee Magazine
Driftless Cafe in Viroqua, Wisconsin.

  • Driftless Cafe in Viroqua

    "It's incredible. They change the menu every day, and it's all based on what they're getting in from the farms. And there are so many farms in that area. They get so much great stuff," says Christenson. "So, it's a really unpretentious little cafe, definitely not like a white tablecloth type of restaurant, absolutely worth going to over and over again."

  • Father Fats in Stevens Point

    "Stevens Point is absolutely a little goldmine of just homegrown Wisconsin cooking initiatives. There is this fabulous small plates restaurant called Father Fats. The owner just has this very sort of keen eye for what tastes good and using a lot of again, sort of the local ingredients," says Christenson.

  • Ruby Coffee in Stevens Point

    "And then there's other smaller makers in that area, like you may have heard of Ruby Coffee. It is known throughout the state of Wisconsin, but not very well in Milwaukee because there isn't a Ruby Cafe here," says Christenson. "But their coffee is incredible and they have a cafe up there that actually also serves farm to table."

  • Trattoria Stefano in Sheboygan

    "It is Italian cuisine, but it's not the types of things that you're going to find at a lot of other Italian restaurants. It just is really kind of pushing the envelope in terms of just its preparations, its ingredients, quality, freshness, things like that," says Christenson.

Many of the dishes you can find at Trattoria Stefano.
Aliza Baran
/
Milwaukee Magazine
Many of the dishes you can find at Trattoria Stefano.

  • Al & Al's Steinhaus in Sheboygan

    "I can't even tell you exactly how old it is, but it seems like it started in the beginning of time and they've been doing fish fries and roasted chicken, really great stuff for decades. It's a classic and you're not going to go to a lot of cities and find a restaurant like this still in business," says Christenson.

  • Rupp's in Sheboygan

    "Sheboygan is sort of this beacon of fish fries ... There's still this great tradition of fish fries there and the place to go for them is Rupp's," says Christenson. "Rupp's is this great old school type of restaurant, very much like a supper club, has a really great fish."

  • Schultz's in Sheboygan

    "In Sheboygan, there's a place, a very small, tiny, tiny little diner called Schultz's. And this is the place to get a Bratwurst sandwich. And you're going to want to try it because it is a little bit different than eating a brat in a hot dog bun," says Christenson.

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Audrey is a WUWM host and producer for Lake Effect.
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