A few months ago I visited Sheboygan for the first time. In less than six hours we were able to check off many of the major local food groups—cheese, meat, bakery, and bakery with meat. Also a little Hmong food but that isn't yet an official category.
CheeseIn previous visits to Wisconsin I did the artisanal cheese thing—Wisconsin Cheese Festival, Fromagination in Madison and Larry's Market in Brown Deer. This time it was factory cheese. What better place to get it than a cheese factory?
Gibbsville Cheese Company, family owned since 1933, is a relatively small producer about ten miles southwest of Sheboygan.
There's little to distinguish many Gibbsville cheeses from generic supermarket varieties except price. Many, including the mystery cheese, sell for $2.20 per pound or slightly more. I think their super sharp cheddar (an extravagant $4.30 per pound) is pretty decent and a great value. Oddly enough, this wasn't my first encounter with mystery cheese in Wisconsin. Here's a wedge I saw at a street fair in Milwaukee.
In the dairy category, we passed up our chance for frozen custard but Randall's seems to be the local favorite. At Randall's we ordered a bowl of chili, highly recommended somewhere on the internet.
What we got was a bowl of tomato and ground beef soup with beans. Clearly made in house and not the worst thing I've eaten but not even close to chili. I trust their custard is the real thing.
MeatUnfortunately Miesfeld's Brat Haus wasn't in operation but the market didn't disappoint.
It would be understandable if the local hunters were
sick and tired of being treated like second class citizens, being forced to drag their deer carcasses around to the back door.
All sorts of nice bratwursts and summer sausages as well as nice looking fresh and smoked meats are on display. I was tempted by the ham grenades but gave in to the rindawurst.
Good stuff, slightly scrapple-like but without the filler, takes on a beautiful crust.
Charcoal Inn serves Meisfeld's brats and steaks. We chose the original north location [edit: actually the south location opened first, in 1984, 3 years before the north] and were a little suspicious because the parking lot was empty at noon on a weekday. The crowd steadily built and the lot was overflowing by the time we left.
Their steak sandwich is served on the usual Sheboygan "hard roll," really rather pillowy and capable of soaking up a lot of juice. Let's have a look under the hood.
That's butter, not mayonnaise. Maybe a little excessive but pretty good eating. Those Miesfeld's sandwich steaks are good. Charcoal Inn is best known for grilled Miesfeld's brats, so a double it was.
Without a doubt the best bratwurst I've had, juicy as can be with a nice charred crust. Both sandwiches were terrific.
We also tried a brat burger at Shuff's, about a mile south of Miesfeld's where they are made.
A beautifully grilled patty on a nice fresh roll (baked in house). I would have been even more impressed had I not tried Charcoal Inn's version right before. There's a reason why Sheboygan brats are famous (and it's not Johnsonville, or at least it shouldn't be).
BakeryThe Sheboygan area takes baked goods seriously. I wonder if there's another part of the country so well provided with old-fashioned neighborhood bakeries. Oostburg is a small town about ten miles south of Sheboygan. Even though its population is below 3000, it has supported an excellent bakery since the 1920s.
One Oostburg specialty is the Persian—a spiral cinnamon roll topped with white frosting (chocolate is an option) and chopped peanuts. I would have enjoyed it a lot more without the frosting and peanuts (keep in mind I don't have much of a sweet tooth).
The elephant ear was impressive with wonderful contrasts of textures—flaky, chewy and crisp, sometimes in the same bite.
City Bakery is probably Sheboygan's best-known bakery but it's far from the only one.
We tried some unfamiliar (to us) items advertised on their sidewalk sign. The peanut square was not a favorite of mine.
A sweet light-textured cake cube completely coated in sweet white frosting and crushed peanuts. One bite and done. The blackberry fritter was much better. I don't know why this fritter variant isn't more widely available.
Bakery with meatGiven the area's fondness for meats and sausage and for bakery, it should come as no surprise that the two are often combined. One of the specialties at Oostburg Bakery is
wurstbrok, a minimally seasoned white sausage baked in a slightly sweet yeasty roll.
Warm 'em up, apply mustard and you're in business.
City Bakery makes
fleishbrok—ground beef, cabbage and onions encased in a very good crust.
This is a very tasty snack, more interesting than it sounds.
Shuff's Last Resort has an in-house bakery that makes
fleishbrock (I'm using each bakery's spelling).
Not quite the equal of City Bakery's version but another fine snack.
Hmong (and Bosnian)Wandering aimlessly around Sheboygan I spotted the attractive sign for Toy's Special Eggroll.
I was excited by the prospect of a taco eggroll but my hopes were dashed when we saw the newer sign around the corner.
It turns out Toy's is a grocery store carrying a wide range of food. Most of the goods are Asian but Toy's stocks many Eastern European products and others as well. An appealing cultural mish-mosh. I suspect the store caters to many Hmong, as these chickens and many other products suggest.
Toy's has a counter of prepared lunch items, many Hmong-style. The stock was depleted by afternoon but we were able to try some spring rolls. It was no taco eggroll but good nonetheless.
Sheboygan is a most excellent destination for a daytrip or longer stay.
Gibbsville Cheese Co
W2663 County Road OO
Sheboygan Falls, WI
920-564-3242
Randall's Frozen Custard
3827 Superior Av
Sheboygan WI
920-458-9699
Miesfeld's Market
4811 Venture Dr
Sheboygan WI
920-565-6328
Charcoal Inn North
1637 Geele Av
Sheboygan WI
920-458-6988
Shuff's Last Resort
4136 State Highway 42
Sheboygan WI
920-457-2253
Oostburg Bakery
16 N 10th St
Oostburg WI
920-564-2221
City Bakery
1102 Michigan Av
Sheboygan WI
920-457-4493
Toy's
1922 N 15th St
Sheboygan WI
920-452-2372
Edited to correct name of original Charcoal Inn location.
Last edited by
Rene G on December 4th, 2011, 9:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.