Cafe Wisconsin: A Guide To Wisconsin's Down-Home Cafes [Paperback]

Joanne Raetz Stuttgen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2004

    Cafe Wisconsin returns in a new, updated version that provides a sure-bet guide to Wisconsin’s best small town, home-cooking cafes. For this second edition, author Joanne Raetz Stuttgen traveled more than 12,000 miles in six months, revisiting old business districts and main streets in search of the ultimate cafe, the perfect slice of homemade pie, and the meaning of life in Wisconsin’s down-home cafes.
    Featuring 133 cafes, with another 101 Next Best Bets alternatives, Cafe Wisconsin is every hungry traveler’s guide to real mashed potatoes, melt-in-your-mouth hot beef, from-scratch baked goods, and colorful coffee klatches. At the counter of aptly named cafes like the Coffee Cup, Main Street, and Chatterbox, you’ll laugh with owners, shake dice with customers, and find the authentic taste and flavor of Wisconsin.
    Come on. Let’s go out to eat!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An eminently useful book, directing readers to dozens of colorful eateries we wouldn't otherwise find, Cafe Wisconsin is so much more than a guide. It is stirring evidence that despite the onslaught of corporate fast food, small-town cafes thrive, resonant with local character and perfumed by the good smells of sizzled bacon and oven-warm rhubarb pie."—Jane and Michael Stern, authors of Road Food

"Stuttgen explored Wisconsin’s back roads to discover humble, small town restaurants that still serve good home cooking. . . . She is also interested in the role cafes play as meeting places in the community. . . . Cafe Wisconsin celebrates the people, the food, and the traditions of small town Wisconsin that these cafes represent."—Eau Claire Leader-Telegram

"Stuttgen is at her best when capturing a cafe’s color, with its clientele as part of the decor. You get a sense of the atmosphere and what it is that keeps the regulars coming."—Capital Times

About the Author

Joanne Raetz Stuttgen is a folklorist. She grew up in Minnesota, lived five years in Wisconsin, and now resides in Martinsville, Indiana, with her husband, a Chippewa Falls native, and son. She is currently at work on the Cafe Wisconsin Cookbook (with Terese Allen) and Cafe Indiana, both forthcoming from the University of Wisconsin Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 2 edition (August 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299201147
• ISBN-13: 978-0299201142
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #717,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where's Bobby's Beef?, September 13, 2006

By 

TundraVision (o/~ from the Land of Sky Blue Waters o/~) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cafe Wisconsin: A Guide To Wisconsin's Down-Home Cafes (Paperback)

Author Joanne Raetz Stuttgen had the great fortune to get paid to wander Wisconsin eating at small (no more than ten thousand hearty, hungry souls) town cafes. She captures the ambience as well as the taste of these places, often the social hub of their communities. The reviews are rendered with tender loving care wherein it is evident that she took the time to get to know the people, local culture, and their stories, not just a quick look at the menu and a slam the food down, bam the check paid, thank-you m'am, and on to the next. After digesting this book, this reviewer hopes to be able to eat my way through my next visit in the Land of Cheese. My only quibble is that Ms. RS with-held the name of best darn cheeseburger "barn" in all of America's Dairy Land. People in-the-know will go miles and hours out of their way (it's 19 miles off I90-94, which at that point are travelling together) to get a cheeseburger at the Bowling Alley in Evansville. Try it! You'll love it! And give the owner a hug. Anybody with burgers that good, with the gumption to be a belligerent Bears fan in Cheesehead PackerLand, deserves a hug. /TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer

5.0 out of 5 stars Midwest recipes at their finest., April 23, 2009

By 

William Nelson Beard "Zenzender" (Central Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cafe Wisconsin: A Guide To Wisconsin's Down-Home Cafes (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book. The "down home" descriptions of the people
involved and the recipes really do work.

4.0 out of 5 stars Cafe Wisconsin, March 2, 2009

By 

Bruce Wehner "music and book Afcionado" (Independence IA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cafe Wisconsin: A Guide To Wisconsin's Down-Home Cafes (Paperback)

I'm a foodie and a motorcyclist. I do a lot of road trips in the badger state during the summer months. This book takes the guess work out of wondering where to eat really good food at homestyle cafes and diners. The book is divided in regions and easy to read. The descriptions of the cafes are more than adequate and really interesting. A good book to carry in the car or in the saddlebag