Lunch at the Bluefront Café in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, equals yum! This cheery, brightly colored café makes the most out of banks of lovely windows and its clean modern décor. (It also displays an energetic print of Renoir’s painting “The Oarsmen’s Breakfast”—a tip of the hat to the lake-faring folk of Door County.)
All but one of Susan Guthrie’s festive cherry cookies was snatched up by my friends before I could get my camera out to take this photo.
The Bluefront was the perfect dining spot—with local and organic food on the menu and local artists’ work on the walls.
I sampled the tasty, tangy Asian chicken wrap—a rollup of fresh cabbage, veggies, cashews and chicken with a sesame-ginger dipping sauce. One of my travel companions swooned over the fresh spinach salad with pecans, Neuske Wisconsin smokehouse bacon and goat cheese. And the fish tacos—featuring local Lake Michigan whitefish—are apparently the most requested item on the menu.
Chef/owner Susan Guthrie wholeheartedly supports sustainable business, dreams of installing solar panels on the restaurant’s roof, lovingly renovated an old building to create the restaurant, and buys about 50 percent of her ingredients from organic producers (more in summer months when it’s readily available.) She even offers earth-friendly straws for sipping your iced tea or natural soda.
Despite the wonderful lunch entrees, the highlight of the dining experience, I must admit, was the plate of Christmas cookies Susan set on our table. We all reveled in shortbread cookies with chunks of Door County tart cherries baked in, melt-in-your-mouth molasses cookies sprinkled with powdered sugar, and a chocolate-peppermint cookie that will forever set the standard for me. The cookie had an almost-but-not-quite-brownie texture and contained the ideal peppermint-to-chocolate ratio. Sheer Christmas heaven!!!
Weigh in (pun intended) on your favorite Christmas dessert by leaving a comment below.
—Laurel Kallenbach, freelance writer and editor
The Bluefront is located in a historic building in downtown Sturgeon Bay.
Definitely the best Christmas treat is fruit cake–when you toss it! Have you been to the Manitou Springs friutcake tossing contest? Jan. 8 this year at the MS high school.
I’ve heard about that fruitcake-horking contest! Sounds like a blast–even though part of me frowns upon wasting food. Admittedly, fruitcake is not much to my taste either. (My apologies to you fruitcake lovers out there!)
Gingerbread with freshly ground spices….mmmmm.
My favorite Christmas dessert is the pecan ball (ice cream rolled in pecans and smothered in hot fudge) at the Dallas Country Club. ;-D