Door County Living - Winter 2023

We are passionate about providing each of our patients with the best possible care

People from all over the region seek out care at the Heartburn & Reflux Center of Door County. Why? Because we offer a unique set of advanced detection and treatment options in combination with a passion for patient care that towers over urban and rural hospitals alike.

We didn’t do it for everyone else. We did it for our community, because patient care is at the center of everything we do, every decision we make.

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DWELL DWELL

On the Cover

more about Oslo and the sanctuary at https://opendoorbirdsanctuary. org.

Oslo, a snowy owl in residence at Open Door Bird Sanctuary, is held by Rob Hults. Learn

Photo by Rachel Lukas.

CURIOSITIES 17

FESTIVALS

The Joy of Winter 19

ART

Mapping Out a Career 22

HABITATS

New Wave 28

HISTORY

The Father of Local Skiing 38

PALATE

The Sweeter Path Home 45

DOOR TO NATURE

The Forest Excavator 50

CAMEO Hitting the Track 54

LITERATURE

Dan Egan Chases Down the Devil’s Element 59

PROFILE

The Fixer 62

TOPSIDE

Steering the Big Boats 70

IN YOUR GLASS

The Cigar 81 ON YOUR PLATE

Cast Iron Pizza 84

EDITOR’S NOTE 11 CONTRIBUTORS 13

RESTAURANT GUIDE 90

Young skiers on the trail at Peninsula State Park during youth ski lessons in the winter of 2023. Photo by Rachel Lukas.

good clothes open all doors

editor Myles Dannhausen Jr.

creative Katie Hohmann

design associate Renee Puccini

sales managers

Jess Farley, Stephen Grutzmacher, Megan Schneider

courier

The Paper Boy, LLC

distribution experts

Jeff Andersen, Chris Eckland, Guy Fortin, Todd Jahnke, David Nielsen

office manager Ben Pothast

assistant office manager Kait Shanks

chief technology officer Nate Bell

contributors

Jess Farley, Debra Fitzgerald, Susan Grossardt, Ben Jones, Brett Kosmider, Rachel Lukas, Charlotte Lukes, John Mielke, Matt Pothast, Sam Watson

publisher David Eliot

owners

David Eliot and Myles Dannhausen Jr.

Door County Living, Inc.

8142 Hwy 57, Baileys Harbor, WI 54202

920.839.2120 info@doorcountyliving.com doorcountypulse.com

Volume 21 Issue 4

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Door County Living, celebrating the culture and lifestyle of the Door peninsula, is published five times annually by Peninsula Publishing & Distribution, Inc., 8142 Hwy 57, Baileys Harbor, WI 54202.

To order a subscription, please mail a check for $25 to Door County Living, 8142 Hwy 57, Baileys Harbor, WI 54202. If you would like to advertise, please visit doorcountymarketing.com.

© 2023 Peninsula Publishing & Distribution, Inc. All rights

Inside the studio of Sister Bay artist Jim Ingwersen. Photo by Rachel Lukas.

Back in my days behind the bar, one of the questions I was asked more than any other was a version of “what do you do here in winter?”

I’d tell them about broomball at the Teresa K. Hilander Community Ice Rink in Sister Bay or taking up bowling. Or how you can sit at Husby’s during a snowstorm and place bets on how far a car will get up the hill before it starts sliding back down the hill.

As time went on and I matured, I would discover what Kendall Johnson of The Waterfront calls “Friends’ Season,” when all those folks who work in the service industry can finally hang out with their friends without having to serve them. In recent years I’ve accumulated the right equipment to bike all winter long, or walk on the crystal clear ice that formed over the bay last winter and allowed us to see straight down to the bottom of the lake.

The fight against winter’s doldrums have led to some of the county’s most creative endeavors – Fish Creek Winter Festival, a pond hockey tournament, a cherry drop.

But in this issue we share the story of a time when “winter games” meant something much more extreme in Ellison Bay and Fish Creek. We go back to the 1930s, when Anton Martinson built a ski jump in Ellison Bay to teach local kids

how to fly. And if getting outside isn’t your thing, cozy up in the kitchen to cook a cast iron pizza with Jess Farley, or find out how some high schoolers fought off boredom during COVID-19 pandemic by picking up motocross.

In this issue you will get to know Julie Gilbert, the CEO of Destination Door County, charged with redefining the organization’s role in the community, and Sophie Parr, who makes maps into intricate, hand-drawn pieces of art. John Mielke introduces you to Captain Ray Sheldon, who takes us through the steps to bring a lake freighter into the Sturgeon Bay shipping Canal for winter layup, and Ben Jones takes a look at the architecture that is redefining Door County’s great public spaces.

That’s just a taste of what’s in store in this issue. We hope these stories inspire you to try something new this winter, indoor or out.

MYLES DANNHAUSEN JR.

In the winter of 2023 some of the ice near the shore over the bay was clear of snow, creating a glass-like surface. Photo by Myles Dannhausen Jr.

CONT RIBU TORS

Writer and editor MYLES DANNHAUSEN JR. has been searching out stories for Door County Living since 2005. In this issue he writes about Jason and Sarah White’s spontaneous U-turn to Door County.

JESS FARLEY and DAVID NIELSEN live happily in Jacksonport with their dog Berndette and teenage boy. Culinary arts are something they love to share. Feeding friends and family feeds their souls.

DEBRA FITZGERALD is the editor of the Peninsula Pulse. She lives an enchanted life north of Sturgeon Bay with her partner, Louis “Luther” Cole.

SUE GROSSARDT grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and moved to Green Bay over 30 years ago. She has worked for Fortune 500 companies and launched her own marketing communications firm in 2006. Sue’s passion to tell others’ stories brings her great joy.

KATIE HOHMANN is an optimist. She thinks we will get this magazine to print in time. If you are reading this, she can also tell the future.

BEN JONES is a Madison-based travel and outdoors writer and photographer. He grew up in Sister Bay, and while he works with organizations in many communities, his heart is in Door County.

Filmmaker and photographer BRETT KOSMIDER’s recently released documentary Ridge and Swale explores Door County’s history of preservation and its ecological future. He’s a co-founder and filmmaker at Peninsula Filmworks.

Peninsula Pulse photographer and videographer RACHEL LUKAS is getting more familiar with the county with every shoot.

Since the passing of her husband, Roy, in 2016, CHARLOTTE LUKES writes to fulfill his mission

to help educate and inspire readers to learn, care for and protect our native species and the natural world.

JOHN MIELKE retired from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in 2020. He and his wife, Patti, and their poodle, Riley, live on Rileys Bay enjoying all Door County has to offer.

When not writing for Door County Living, MATT POTHAST is busy raising his sons, Nicholas and Ryan, with his wife, Rachel, in Park Ridge, Illinois, just outside of Chicago.

SAM WATSON is a reporter for the Peninsula Pulse. The 2022 UW-Madison graduate lives in Sister Bay with her partner and two cats, Desmond and Penny. When she’s not writing, she likes to cook and watch horror movies.

Above A REALTOR WHO GOES &Beyond...

Above Beyond...

Diane Taillon of Arbor Crowne Properties is an expert in waterfront real estate in Door County. From brokering this stunning waterview estate in Fish Creek, to buying and selling hundreds of homes on the lake and the bay –Diane’s knowledge and networking are unparalleled on the peninsula.

And now Zillow has recognized Diane as one of their Top Agents. This status is earned by agents that go above and beyond for customers and demonstrate exceptional performance.

arborcrowneproperties.com

Arbor Crowne Properties is located in Ephraim, Wisconsin, inside the beautiful Hillside Waterfront Hotel. In addition to keeping this historic local treasure in operation, Diane is deeply committed to the community and to her clients.

Arbor Crowne Properties is located in Ephraim, Wisconsin, inside the beautiful Hillside Waterfront Hotel. In addition to keeping this historic local treasure in operation, Diane is deeply committed to the community and to her clients.

If you are looking to buy or sell waterfront or waterview property in Door County, even Zillow agrees that Diane Taillon from Arbor Crowne Properties should be at the top of your realtor list.

If you are looking to buy or sell waterfront or waterview property in Door County, even Zillow agrees that Diane Taillon from Arbor Crowne Properties should be at top of your realtor list.

Contact Diane at (920) 421-3272 or diane@arborcrowneproperties.com.

Twenty

doorcountypulse.com/shop

WHAT’S THE STORY WITH THAT ROOF?

As the Door County Medical Center’s new Sister Bay clinic took shape last year, the most common question asked wasn’t what services or doctors would be inside the new clinic once it opened in the spring. Instead, people asked what the story is behind that strange, folded-plate roof – and how it would handle the snow of a Wisconsin winter.

The project’s lead architect, Michael Crawford of Caldwell Associates in Pensacola, Florida, said the roof not only creates a dramatic profile, it also includes several elements to hold up to heavy snow.

The valleys are reinforced structurally to support the inevitable snow loads they will encounter, but the roof is also a “cool roof,” in that the temperature stays consistent to melt snow slowly and evenly.

Though from ground level it looks as though the roof has four large valleys, there is actually a subtle center ridgeline that runs perpendicular to the folded plates and helps to move snow and water to the outside of the roof. In each valley, there is a heat-tray system to help facilitate snow melt.

Crawford originally sketched a concept with heavy timber, but said that proved too costly to build and maintain. That wood idea was retained, however, underneath the roof over the south-facing patio to create an attention-grabbing profile from the street.

The peninsula’s distinctive architecture, which Crawford discovered during his initial site visits, inspired the project design.

“Norwegian and Northern European architectural forms have a dramatic roofline,” he said. “You see it in chalets, churches. Even a barn in an open field has a strong presence. That creates the profile or shape of the building as you come up on it. So we thought we’d come up with a design that had a striking form. There are a lot of buildings that look like condos, but that’s not what the spirit of the place really is. The barns, silos, churches, lighthouses – those create the culture of the place.”

Crawford – and the hospital – did not want to erect something that looked like a typical, boxy medical building.

The final form certainly doesn’t.

–

Myles Dannhausen Jr.

WHO IS A. SCHRAM?

It’s easy to miss it from street level as you walk through Baileys Harbor, your eyes pulled to the water behind the Harbor Fish Market, or down to the crowd at the coffee shop or the brewery. But if you pause to look up, you’ll see the name A. Schram embossed on the top of the facade of the Harbor Fish Market.

But who is A. Schram?

Well, more than a century ago the building that has been known as the Harbor Fish Market since 1997 was known as Schram Hall, founded by an industrious young man named August Schram. Here in 1907 he began building a saloon and dance hall, opening with a masquerade ball on Feb. 8, 1908. Known as a wild place with bullet holes in the ceiling, it was popular enough to merit expansion to a second building next door a few years later.

August and his wife Martha (née Kaczmarek) hosted dances, weddings and public meetings in their tavern, which remains one of the tallest buildings in town. August himself often played in a band in his dance hall. But Mr. Schram wouldn’t live to see the business mature. He died of sepsis from an infected tooth on April 22, 1918 at age 36.

Martha remarried John Wasserbach and renamed the bar Wasserbach’s Tap, continuing the dance hall and showing movies on Sunday nights until they died a month apart in 1963.

In the 60 years since, the building has passed through four other owners: Harold and Dolores Kiehnau (1964 - 1984), who leased the bar to Lanny and Joni Nelson who operated it as The Frontier, Peter and Mary Charles (1984 - 1997), Karen and Carl Berndt (1997 - 2021), who changed the name to the Harbor Fish Market and Grille, and now Scott and Sarah Bennet.

Though the name of the bar changed, the name at the top of the building remains high above Baileys Harbor’s Main Street.

-Myles Dannhausen Jr.

The name A. Schram has been on the top of the facade of one of Baileys Harbor’s tallest buildings since 1908, including during its era as The Frontier in the 1970s.

Curiosities

The folded-plate roof of Door County Medical Center’s Sister Bay Clinic has inspired a lot of questions. Photo by Rachel Lukas.

The Joy of Winter

The quiet months of winter bring out the creative side of the local population as locals make quirky fun in the snow and ice. For more details on these events and many more winter events visit doorcountypulse.com/events.

Christkindlmarkt

Nov. 24-26, Dec. 1-3 aND Dec. 8-10, 2023

The Christkindlmarkt is returning to Sister Bay for the third year over three weekends. Check out work from local artists, enjoy food and beverages, and listen to live music in the Christmas card setting at Corner of the Past Museum. Also expect visits from Santa in the barn and cabins of this recreated pioneer homestead.

Cherry drop

Dec. 31, 2023

This relatively new tradition to ring in the new year was the brainchild of Mike Mesic and Jaime Forest of FM 106.9 The Lodge radio station. In the final seconds before the clock strikes midnight, a sixfoot-wide, 300-pound cherry drops over The Garage at Husby’s in Sister Bay. Check out the fireworks at 8 pm at the ice rink as well.

JaCksonport polar plunge

JaN. 1, 2024

The Jacksonport Polar Plunge is the way to start the year with a clean – and freezing – slate with a few hundred friends.

egg harbor new year’s day parade

JaN. 1, 2024

After the plunge, Egg Harbor’s tradition takes center stage. Short, goofy and fun, the parade has rolled through the village each New Year’s Day since the 1970s.

Fish

Creek winter Fest

Feb. 3, 2024

The county’s quirkiest winter event features live music, games, food, the Fruit Loop Run, a Stumpf Fiddle contest and a warm tent with hundreds of bundled up friends having a great time.

Photos by Rachel Lukas

door County pond hoCkey tournament

Feb. 10, 2024

The battle for the Stanley Thermos is back in Sister Bay at the Teresa K. Hilander Community Ice Rink. Fortyfive teams will skate throughout the day and night in this 4-on-4 hockey tournament with food, beverages and bonfires for fans in Sister Bay.

Fire & ICe

Feb. 16-17, 2024

Take a luminary-lit hike through Crossroads at Big Creek, stroll through the city to watch carvers turn blocks of snow and ice into magical works of art on the sidewalks and enjoy food and fun throughout the city.

/ful•filled/

The satisfaction of knowing you’ve made an impact.

When did you fall in love with a Door County state park? Was it as you meandered through the trails awash in golden hues, coming upon tiny creatures foraging? Was it gliding through the glistening snow with no sounds but the swish of your skis? Can you picture your children basking in the splendor of these natural havens and introducing them to their kids? You have the opportunity to give the gift of a Door County state park, ensuring that future generations can enjoy these cherished outdoor spaces.

Destination Door County is challenging our community to raise $50,000 in donations for each state park through a special parks challenge grant initiative. With our $500,000 investment, this will boost the total to $750,000 for our beloved state parks. Donate today.

Mapping Out a Career

A background in urban planning informs Sophie Parr’s detailed drawings

by SAM WATSON photos by RACHEL LUKAS

For Sophie Parr, owner of Ellison Bay’s Northern Arts Collective, what started out as a few simple sketches ended up as a full-blown career.

“I was doodling a map on a family vacation one winter and I posted it on social media,” Parr said. “Then I did another one, then I did another one, and I just kept going.”

And she’s still going. Not long after Parr started drawing maps in early 2019, friends and family began to commission her for her work. By summer of that year, Parr had transformed her new hobby into a small business, Maps by Sophie. By 2021, her own gallery was up and running.

Judging by the intricacy of her work and the success of her now three-year-old gallery, it might come as a surprise to learn that Parr has no background in art.

Instead, she has a master’s degree in urban planning. Before her move to Door County, Parr worked as a

transit planner for a bus system in Minnesota, using mapping software to create digital maps.

A long-standing interest in all things transportation – road designs, maps, railroad systems – was what drew her to that field.

“I grew up in the age where you had to Google directions prior to leaving the house, then print them off and put them in your front seat,” Parr said. But instead of referring to the maps as she drove, she would study them, then turn them upside-down to see if she could remember how to get to her destination.

“I liked the idea of being able to figure out the route because I really knew where I was going,” Parr said.

The maps now hanging on the walls of Parr’s studio look little like the ones she worked on during her urban-planning career; they’re more about form than function, and they’re drawn rather than digitized, with Parr penning in each tiny street by hand.

To make a map, Parr finds the location she wants on Google Earth and takes a screenshot, then resizes it so that every half-mile on the map is equal to one inch on the drawing.

Parr with her dog, Remy, in her Ellison Bay Studio

Parr’s intricate maps are all drawn by hand. Her work includes Door County locales but also interesting places from around the world.

“All of my maps have a very cohesive look to them because they’re all the same ratio,” Parr said.

Once the image is sized correctly, Parr adds a digital grid to it, then recreates that grid with pencil on paper. Roads and rivers are penciled in before being lined with ink.

While mapmaking as an art form isn’t as common as mediums like painting or sculpture, it has its devotees, many of whom Parr has connected with via social media. Others come to her to commission maps of places that are special to them, showing where they live, where they got married or where they’ve traveled.

“It’s an interesting little community,” Parr said. “It’s not very large, but there are people that love maps.”

Putting Herself on the Map in Door County

The pandemic was what prompted Parr’s move to Door County. Before that, she was living in Madison, working for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and coaching high school swimming.

“When COVID happened, my school never opened,” Parr said. “My family

lives up here [in Door County,] so I just decided to take the leap and relocate.”

Around a year after Parr moved, the building that’s now Northern Arts Collective became available for rent, and Parr jumped on the opportunity.

She didn’t overthink the decision.

“I just kept saying, ‘I will figure it out, I will figure it out, I will figure it out,’” Parr said.

And figure it out she did. The transition into Door County was a smooth one, Parr said – she’d lived and worked in the area for ten years on and off, and she had family all over the peninsula, as well as a supportive community of fellow female business owners in Northern Door.

The one thing that was difficult to adjust to was knowing she’d likely stay here for the long haul, since previously, the artist had moved around a lot.

Still, she always felt Door County pulling her back.

“I always kind of knew I’d end up here,” Parr said. “I just didn’t know when.”

In designing Northern Sky’s indoor home, the Gould Theater, architect Peter Tan used tall windows to provide views of the surrounding landscape, and designed a parking lot (opposite page) that nestled into the existing trees, providing a reveal that pays homage to the original theater in Peninsula State Park.

(Opposite) Photo by Brett Kosmider.

Rachel Durfee

Rachel Durfee

Len Villano

Reimagining our public spaces

by BEN JONES

As development booms in Door County, architects are taking on a challenge that carries some new urgency.

How do you create great public buildings that are functional and forward thinking, while also preserving what people love about Door County?

Across the peninsula, landmark projects are redefining the county’s architecture as they embrace this challenge. The buildings are as varied as their purposes, but they all strive to find a place in the county’s unique landscape and culture.

“I think communities are putting more pressure on developers and builders to try to figure out how to do something that’s worthy of Door County,” said James Shields, who designed the Donald and Carol Kress Pavilion in Egg Harbor, and more recently, additions to the Peninsula Art School in Fish Creek.

The county’s new building projects have many challenges to overcome – environmental and sustainability concerns, accessibility needs, as well as cultural and aesthetic considerations.

Before construction began on the Gould Theater, which opened in 2019 in Fish Creek, workers surveyed every tree on the property.

The theater was the new indoor home and creative center for the Northern Sky Theater company, which has operated for decades out of an outdoor venue in Peninsula State Park. If you’ve attended one of the company’s outdoor shows, you know that your arrival is part of the experience – you walk down a woodland trail to an amphitheater that’s tucked into the park’s dense forest.

“I wanted to capture that experience, the theater in the woods,” said Peter Tan of Madison-based design firm Strang, Inc. “So we nested this building within the landscape.”

Sculpting the Gould’s parking area around existing trees was part of that effort, as was preserving and incorporating an old farmer’s wall into the flow of the site. Tan’s team also carefully selected materials that worked in harmony with the landscape, and the theater’s budget.

You won’t mistake the Gould Theater for an old state park structure. But Tan said the building connects to the heritage of Door County.

“The design expression of most buildings in Door County is relatively traditional,” said Tan, who is also an executive vice president and chief design officer with Strang. “This building is distinctly modern and not traditional, so you can imagine there were some raised eyebrows. But we wanted something that was forward looking while at the same time sensitive to the landscape and the cultural context of Door County as well...we wanted to be decidedly modern and

abstract, not your ordinarily traditional Northwoods cabin or classic building.”

Today Tan enjoys standing in the light of the theater’s 20-foot windows, one of the theater’s prominent features.

“It’s one of the most transcendent spaces I’ve ever designed,” he said.

The expansive windows help connect the theater to the outdoors – shutters close just before actors take the stage, although they stay open for some late season shows.

“You have this amazing Home for the Holidays show where you look to house right, out to the snowy winter landscape and it really ties in so well with the personality of Northern Sky Theater, which has its roots in doing outdoor theater,” Tan said.

When the Ridges Sanctuary opened its Cook-Albert Fuller Nature Center in

2015, it wasn’t enough for the building to be beautiful.

“It had to be a big space to meet our needs, but it also had to fit in the footprint of the land and not impact the sanctuary in any way that was disruptive,” said Katie Krouse, the organization’s executive director.

The building was the county’s first LEED (green certified) building and it was built with sustainable materials. It uses geothermal energy to cool the building – that impacted the design, Krouse said.

Tall ceilings allow for the air to be circulated and cooled via the geothermal system and large glass windows help connect the interior of the building to the surrounding landscape of ridges, swales, and forest.

“A connection to the outdoors was really a priority,” Krouse said. “That’s a common thread that the Ridges is going

to maintain through all of its projects. We’re not going to create big metal buildings that don’t have a place in our community but (instead) something that blends in with nature. I think this project does that really well.”

The county’s marine heritage, an organization’s needs, and land constraints all contributed to the design of the Jim Kress Maritime Lighthouse Tower, which has been home of the Door County Maritime Museum since 2021. This building was designed to become a landmark feature of the waterfront. At 118 feet, it’s the tallest building in Door and Kewaunee counties and the fifth tallest structure in Northeast Wisconsin.

“It’s meant to be evocative of lighthouses,” said Sam Perlman, the museum’s deputy director and development manager.

The building holds 10 floors of exhibit space that share Door County’s maritime history, and unlike the

The Cook-Albert Fuller Nature Center quickly became a trademark of Baileys Harbor. Photo by Len Villano.

The Jim Kress Maritime Lighthouse Tower offers expansive views of the city and shipping canal.

Top photo by Brett Kosmider.

Bottom photo by Rachel Lukas.

county’s real lighthouses, it’s an accessible building.

“This provides the experience of being over 100 feet in the air, looking out over the working waterfront of Sturgeon Bay,” Perlman said.

Perlman said the building has been well received, a response that’s reflected in strong attendance, which is approaching 40,000 people per year. Perlman said the museum’s growth has allowed it to hire a full time educational programs coordinator. While you won’t mistake the modern building for a historic lighthouse and it’s technically not an official navigation aid, some boats do use it to navigate the waters around Sturgeon Bay.

“And overall it is operating exactly as intended,” Perlman said. “It was intended to be a landmark destination, it was intended to be an economic engine not only for the museum, but the west waterfront and all of Sturgeon Bay.”

Shields, who designed the Kress Pavilion and Peninsula Art School’s additions, said that outdoor connections are key to the Door County projects that he has worked on.

“The [county’s] landscapes are so beautiful, it’s one of the reasons people are up here,” he said. “To create a building that’s completely internalized would be wrong, so finding ways to open up to the landscape and be part of the landscape is a main challenge.”

Shields said it’s also important to ensure projects are in harmony with the county’s existing buildings. In the case of the Kress project, which serves as a community space and library, his company looked at the characteristics of important buildings in Egg Harbor and elsewhere in the county – those buildings have features like local stone foundations, pitched roofs and white painted wood.

But Shields, who was a longtime member of Milwaukee’s Historic Preservation Commission, said it’s also important not to simply create a “fake” historic building.

“You don’t want to rob (existing buildings) of their authenticity… a better approach is to design buildings that resonate with those historic buildings but are clearly contemporary,” he said.

In the case of the Kress Pavilion, which opened in 2018, the design saved a native sumac grove on the property, incorporated materials like Door

(Top) One can stand in the great hall of the Donald and Carol Kress Pavilion and view four aspects of the environment that define Door County – the bluffs of the Niagara Escarpment and woodlands to the south, the waters of Green Bay to the west, and cherry orchards on the hillside to the east.

Photo by Brett Kosmider.

(Bottom) The entrance to the Kress Pavilion.

Photo by Rachel Lukas.

• Ugly Christmas Sweater Party with Big Mouth & Friends, Janet Planet & Cory Chisel Nov. 25

• Katie Dahl Coffeehouse Concert Jan. 27

• Dinosaur World Live Jan. 30 • The Fourth Wall Feb. 9

• pAt mAcdonald Coffeehouse Concert Feb. 24

• Makin’ Cake with Dasha Kelly Hamilton Mar. 1

DINOSAUR WORLD LIVE

County stone, and included a terrace with sweeping views of Green Bay.

“From this whole terrace you can see all of Green Bay and even the far shore of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,” Shields said. “It’s quite spectacular.”

Another gorgeous view can be found in a project in Peninsula State Park. When an aging Eagle Tower needed replacement it was reconstructed in 2021 with an 850-foot ramp that made the tower accessible. The new tower had to not only be accessible, but safe and solid.

“It’s safe to say it was a big challenge,” said Paul Braun, a spokesman for Ayres Associates, the firm that designed the tower.

The award-winning result has created a canopy walk through the trees for people of all abilities, it has added a new dimension to a longtime Door County attraction and it continues to wow visitors. On one recent day, vacationers Crystal and Matt Sluga of Trempealeau County summited the tower. It took their breath away.

“It’s impressive,” Crystal Sluga said. “The ramp is unbelievable and the view from this vantage point is just spectacular.”

The 800-foot ramp to the top of Eagle Tower provides a canopy walk through the trees that changes with the seasons. (Top and bottom left) Photos by Brett Kosmider. (Bottom right) Photo by Rachel Lukas.

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A skier flies off the Ellison Bay ski jump, which was built by Anton Martinson in the 1930s and was the first ski jump in Door County. Photo courtesy of the Allen Erickson family collection.

The Father of Local Skiing

anton martinson built a jump – and ski culture – in the 1930s

by MYLES DANNHAUSEN JR.

Anton Martinson. Photo courtesy of the Allen Erickson family collection.

hand-crafted Wisconsin cheese and comfort food made from scratch with fresh, local ingredients. Don’t forget our catering and charcuterie board menus

April 13, 1916, Door County Advocate

Anton Martinson left Monday for Milwaukee, where he expects to get a job to work at something, or, if the proper chance is found he might go sailing.

(Top) The ski jump at Peninsula State Park, where competitions drew thousands of fans. (Middle) The Ellison Bay ski jump under construction. Photos courtesy of the Allen Erickson family collection.

(Bottom) The Ellison Bay ski jump.

Photo courtesy of the Rogers Family.

Ice Men

A week before the puck drops at the annual Door County Pond Hockey Tournament, Brian Fitzgerald is usually twisted in knots. The founder of the tournament nervously refreshes the weather app on his phone, trying to get a read on what the temperature fluctuations will do to the ice on the Teresa K. Hilander Ice Rink in the seven long days before he hosts more than 40 teams for the annual event.

If the temperature rises above 40 degrees and the sun comes out, a perfect, thick sheet of ice can turn to unplayable slush in an hour.

But extreme cold isn’t ideal either. If it’s really cold, the ice can get brittle and you can get some big cracks or chunks dug out by skates.

The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle, with high temperatures in the upper teens or low 20s. That means his crew of about five people can lay down thin coats of water in the early morning and throughout the evening, and maybe even during the middle of the day if there’s cloud cover. Most years they must work through the night right up until the first games start, the ice men – primarily Cole Vanderleest, Chris Miller, Andrew Iding and Fitzgerald’s son Ben – alternating flooding shifts with naps on the warming house floor.

But the anxiety is par for the course when you put on an event that relies on the cooperation of Mother Nature. Feb. 11, 2024 will mark the 10th edition of the tournament that brings more than 300 players and fans to the rink for a dawn-to-past-dusk day of hockey competition.

Learn more about the tournament at doorcountypondhockey.com.

Brian Fitzgerald, Ben Fitzgerald, Cole Vanderleest, and Chris Miller admire their surface after working through the night to make ice for the 2023 tournament. Photo by Myles Dannhausen Jr. (Below) Games underway at the 2020 Door County Pond Hockey Tournament.

(Above)

Photo by Brett Kosmider.

Something for everyone

EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS…

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Björklunden,

The Sweeter Path

by SUE GROSSARDT Photos by VICTORIA DANIELLE

For many naps in the first six months of Chloe Vanderleest’s life, she was lulled to sleep by the soothing white noise of a chocolate machine. Every day was take your kid to work day for her parents Cole and Kara Vanderleest, who were busy building their DC Chocolate Design business at their storefront at the Top of the Hill Shop in Fish Creek.

Truffles hand-painted by Kara Vanderleest.

“It worked well for those first six months or so,” Kara said.

“Until she learned how to crawl,” Cole interjected.

But that’s how many family businesses have been built in Door County, with children at the feet of their parents. It might sound chaotic to have your newborn at your feet as you work, but the Vanderleests were grateful their business had grown to a point where at least the chocolate kitchen wasn’t right down the hall from their bedroom. That’s how the couple had started their business making hand-crafted truffles and chocolates out of their home east of Sister Bay.

Making their way home

Cole and Kara met in Milwaukee, where Cole had graduated from University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and where Kara had moved for a job at a chocolate company after earning her degree in food science from the University of Illinois. Then Cole got an opportunity to make the jump back to Door County to be a manager at Fred and Fuzzy’s Waterfront Grill,

about 40 minutes north of where he had grown up in Sturgeon Bay. They did the long-distance thing for a while – Kara working in Milwaukee at a large chocolate company and coming up on weekends – until she was ready to put her education to work on a more personal scale where food science met food art in 2018.

They got engaged and began homeshopping in northern Door County, searching for a house where they could build a commercial kitchen for Kara to go to work creating a new Door County chocolate company. Armed with Kara’s technical skills and Cole’s local connections and marketing background, DC Chocolate Design was born.

It started with Door County chocolate bars and truffles handpainted by Kara. The “paint” is actually colored cocoa butter. Kara uses a paintbrush to paint designs onto a plastic mold before pouring chocolate into the mold. Kara earned a reputation for the beautiful designs and flavors of her truffles and they soon had their products on the shelves of a few retail locations

and began getting special orders for weddings, events and holidays. Those handmade, small batch roots are the seeds that continue to add to their recipe for success.

When Fred and Fuzzy’s closed in 2020, Cole came on full-time to focus on marketing and distribution. Then in the winter of 2021, it was time for this business to grow up and leave the house. That spring they opened the cafe in Fish Creek and added café to the name.

Today about 75 percent of their business comes through the café, where they have a full coffee bar in addition to chocolates, pastries, beer and wine. When customers walk through the door here they are often called by name.

And though the Vanderleests now have regular childcare, those customers are still occasionally greeted by Chloe, now 18 months old, as she makes special deliveries within the store for mom and dad or rearranges merchandise on the lower shelves.

(Left) Once the mold dries, Kara adds filling before capping the bottoms of the truffles.

(Right) Cole and Kara Vanderleest.

Photo of Hibbards Creek by Julie Schartner

The Forest Excavator

by CHARLOTTE LUKES and photos by ROY LUKES

The largest woodpecker in our county leaves signs of its chisel work for hikers to see. This impressive red, white and black bird is nearly as big as the American crow. Its drumming on a tree trunk echoes throughout the woods. He is the dominant occupant of the suet and marvel meal feeders. All others must wait their turn.

There are four species of woodpeckers that live here all year: downy, hairy, redbellied and pileated. We see three other species which migrate south in the winter and return in spring to nest here. Those are the red-headed woodpecker, common flicker and yellow-bellied sapsucker.

All of these play “second fiddle” to the pileated. This spectacular bird prefers to nest in large old trees. The female excavates a substantial cavity in which the young are raised. They breed in the North American forests ranging

throughout southern Canada and most of the eastern half of the U.S.

The “pileys,” as we often call them, create large rectangular excavations in trees in search of carpenter ants, one of their favorite foods. The various holes left by their “woodworking” can be used by other birds like owls, swifts and ducks. Some may also be used as roosting sites by bats.

I feed birds all year long because I enjoy seeing the adults bring their youngsters in and feed them the marvel meal. In fact, that’s the first feeder the woodpeckers go to for good protein. When it is empty, they fly over to the suet cake in a hanging feeder.

Watching an adult pileated bring the marvel meal to its offspring makes one shudder in disbelief. The parent bird jabs its long beak into the gaping mouth of the youngster and drives it back and forth until the food is transferred. Looking at this you might wonder if the

adult’s beak might come out of the back of the immature’s neck!

I’ve noticed that the adult male pileated has a yellow eye. A young, newly hatched female has a solid black or dark brown eye. It seems the eye color in females doesn’t become yellow until the second or third year.

People often ask, “How do you tell a male from a female pileated?”

A close look at the red crest shows that on the male it reaches all the way to the top of the beak. The female has a gray or black forehead with the red crest beginning at the middle of the top of her head.

Look at the cheeks of each and you will see that a male has red in the horizontal black line which runs from the bill back to the top of the neck. The female lacks this red cheek band. There are variations in the brilliance of the red on the side of the male’s face. Sometimes it

An adult male pileated has a bit of marvel meal stuck to the tip of its beak.

is difficult to see the red on the male in dim light.

Numbers of pileated woodpeckers have increased over the last twenty years and it may be the invasion of the emerald ash borer that has helped. I have watched our resident piley strip vertical sections of bark off the large ash trees in my woods. This action reveals places where the invasive beetle has entered the tree, getting under the bark to lay its eggs.

The emerald ash borer is in the Buprestidae family, from the Greek “buprest,” meaning a beetle that is poisonous to cattle. This is a group of shiny wood-boring beetles that mostly affect deciduous trees.

I am seeing a greater number of downy and hairy woodpecker young each summer as well as more red-bellied woodpeckers. They are all benefitting from the emerald ash borer infections as more and more of the ash trees die each year.

The pileated woodpecker population declined during the big logging days in

northern Wisconsin over a hundred years ago, but healthy second growth forests have developed and are being preserved to help these gigantic birds become re-established in three-quarters of the state. The only area with low numbers of pileys is the southeastern, urban part of Wisconsin.

My late husband Roy used to record animal and bird sound with a four-speed tape recorder. He was able to capture the sound of a pileated woodpecker doing its rapid, loud territorial rapping on a tree trunk. The sound lasted only a few seconds. When he played it back at a lower speed, we could count the number of times it hit the tree with its beak. It was 29!

Keep feeding all the birds in your neighborhood and listen for the rapping sound of the pileated. He is letting you know who is king of the woods!

(Left) The female piley shows its black forehead, dark eye and black cheek bar.

(Right) This hardwood tree is a good exhibit of what a feeding pileated can do as it searches for carpenter ants.

Stuck at home, these drivers found a new outlet

by MATT POTHAST

and

photos by NATE PERRY

Giovanni Mercier, like many others, was looking for an outdoor activity to keep him busy during his down time at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A lot of the sports had been canceled and I wasn’t really doing much,” said Mercier, a sophomore at Gibraltar High School. “We were online at school sitting at home, and I really needed something to do.”

Mercier began riding his Kawasaki 4-stroke, 125 cc motorcycle around a makeshift course on his parents’ property in Ellison Bay.

“After school, before school and during breaks [from online classes] I hopped on the first dirt bike I owned and it was a lot of fun,” Mercier admitted. “I had a lot of fun riding around my yard, but I didn’t think I was going to be racing at all. I thought I would ride for fun with my friends.”

He hasn’t gotten off his bike much since. Mercier has joined a growing number of Door County residents who have embraced cross country motocross racing. Unlike traditional motocross which has jumps and riders at higher speeds, cross country has a single track typically featuring minor elevation and consisting of gravel, mud, or grassy

roads. The goal for racers is to complete laps faster than their opponents in a one-hour timed race.

“I would guess 20 to 30 percent of members under 18 [years old] on my course are from Door County and that’s growing,” said Rick Anschutz, owner of a course in Denmark. “Your best salespeople are your members. If they’re doing it, they get their friends to do it and it kind of snowballs.”

Other Door County teens competing on the track include Ethan Voeks, and Bairen Lhost.

“I always watched videos when I was younger and that inspired me to do it.” said Lhost, an Ellison Bay resident and

sophomore at Gibraltar High School.

“When I first started I was very scared because…I had no clue what I was doing and I finished last. Now I’m more competitive and fast because of the experience and learning more with each race.”

GROWING PAINS

The initial obstacle the Merciers encountered when Giovanni committed to cross country riding revolved around logistics. Maureen Mercier said the family had neither the motorcycle nor the towing vehicle necessary to get started. They bought a used bike, borrowed an uncle’s truck to pick it up in Green Bay and initially transported

the bike to competitions in the smallest U-Haul they could find.

“We were new to it so we really didn’t know what we were up against as far as what we needed,” Maureen said. “We said, ‘okay we’ll make it work and figure it out.’’’

The Merciers eventually purchased a trailer and truck to haul the bike to competitions throughout Wisconsin. Maureen said she was warned by a bike store owner that people get into the sport as quickly as they get out of it due to the expense and maintenance. Much of the experience they have gained has been through trial and error.

“We got stuck in someone’s corn field with our SUV hauling our trailer,” Maureen said. “They had to get a Skid Steer to push us out. I made a promise to get a four-wheel truck before the next season. It wasn’t something that we dove into right away. We took baby steps to see if he was serious about it and he was enjoying it.”

Giovanni admits he was a bit nervous when he decided to race competitively. He was initially content racing his friends around his parents’ yard. Because of his slow start into competitive racing, he began riding in July of 2020 on Anschutz’s course in Denmark late in the motocross season.

“The start of the first race was the most nerve-wracking part,” Giovanni said. “Once I got going I obviously wasn’t very fast at all but I was having fun. I was happy that I finished the race without giving up or crashing. The energy it took to race made me want to do more.”

AREA ADVOCATE

Anschutz’s track in Denmark has been open since 1971 and is the oldest motocross track in Wisconsin. Anschutz, owner of the track since 2015 and an avid rider himself, said he has one goal in mind when developing a course each season.

“My big thing is that I’ve tried to make my races very family oriented and very safe,” he said. “This is an industry where a lot of people do get hurt because they’ve made the sport since I got into it very extreme. When you make it extreme, people get hurt.”

While local riders have migrated to motocross, interest hasn’t been limited to riders from Northeast Wisconsin. Anchutz said riders come from as far as Madison, Milwaukee, Kenosha, Wausau, and Upper Michigan to compete on his track.

Anchutz’s track is part of a greater series of races within Wisconsin Motocross and Cross Country Racing (WIXC). WIXC has a series of 13 races this year which began on April 16 and finished October 1. There are multiple racing levels based on variables such as age, gender, and engine size.

HITTING THE TRACK

Giovanni Mercier turned to racing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

giving them all the different aspects of riding so they get a great experience.”

Anshutz said on average 50-60 riders will compete on his course on WIXC race days. The low end of riders on a training day lands at about 85, while 150 riders train on a busy day.

“I’ve been at it for an awful long time,” Anschutz said amid a chuckle. “I have parents who do it with their kids. They don’t drop their kids off and pick them up. They ride with them, they’re working on the bikes together and maintaining their bikes together.

“One thing riding motorcycles does is it ruins you for everything else,” he

and exhilarating that everything else

would be to find successors to assume the responsibility for the WIXC racing series, adding that his long term focus is to concentrate on the maintenance and development of his track.

“I want to stay involved with it but not have such a large commitment,” he said. “I want to have more time for my family.”

POINTS CHAMPION

Giovanni Mercier’s initial season in 2020 was limited by his late start and the fact that a few of the races were canceled due to COVID. Mercier placed

third in the 85cc Class in 2021 and finished second in the School Boy Class in 2022.

Despite missing the last race of the season on October 1, Mercier was the points champion in the School Boy Class this season. Had he competed in the season finale, it would have been the first season in which he competed in all of the races in the series. Along with his course work at Gibraltar High School, he is a member of the football team and boys basketball team. In fact, he juggled preseason football training and seven games with the last four races of the season.

“There is nothing more satisfying as a parent than to see your son/daughter excel at something they love to do,” said Michael Mercier, Giovanni’s father.

(Top) Bairen Lhost (far left) and Giovanni Mercier (far right) at the starting line during a race in August. (Left) Giovanni Mercier. (Right) Bairen Lhost and Giovanni Mercier prepare to race in the summer of 2023.

•

Raz Accent Walls

Dan Egan Chases Down THE DEVIL’S ELEMENT

by MYLES DANNHAUSEN JR.

Journalist and author Dan Egan grew up in Green Bay and spent many childhood weekends and family vacations in Door County, playing in the water and along the shores of Lake Michigan. Then he made a beat out of those waters as a journalist at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where he earned acclaim for his indepth reporting about the health of the Great Lakes.

Now the pulitzer-nominated author of the Death and Life of the Great Lakes has written his second book and, not surprisingly, it connects to those waters as well.

In The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus and A World Out of Balance, Egan dives into the fascinating – and sometimes frightening – history of a substance integral to life on this planet that is inching ever closer to becoming as contested as the waters of our lakes.

Phosphorus is in every living cell on the planet, and much of the supply that farmers use to fertilize their fields to feed the ever-growing population of the planet is mined from just a few deposits.

“The rule of thumb was that a cow needs an acre,” Egan said. “A cow eats the grass, poops, and that grows the grass, over and over. That wasn’t good enough for us when we had more people. We broke that by introducing chemical fertilizers and we really changed the way we look at life now.”

Just like fossil fuels, the supply of those chemicals isn’t unlimited. By some estimates, Egan said, we could have as few as 80 years’ supply left.

“It took hundreds of millions or billions of years for these deposits to accrue,” he said. “We’ve only been gnawing on it for 120 years.”

That broken cycle is the essence of the book.

“It’s the idea of the circle of life broken,” Egan said. “We took a circle and turned it into a straight line. Today that line runs from mines in Florida [where the major U.S. deposit is found] or Ukraine or Morocco to fertilizer factories to crops and then finally to water.”

When too much of it ends up in the water, it speeds up eutrophication, the reduction of dissolved oxygen in water, creating huge algae blooms that can create dead zones where fish can’t survive, such as the one created in the southern basin of Green Bay.

But some of the solutions that could yield immediate benefits come in policy.

“We have to rethink ethanol,” Egan said. “About 40% of the corn we grow goes to ethanol. It takes a lot of phosphorus to grow that. Anyone who isn’t a corn farmer or in the business of refining corn into ethanol knows that ethanol is a bad idea. But if you want to be president you have to do well in Iowa and to do well in Iowa you have to pledge allegiance to ethanol.”

Though Egan said his two and a half years of work on the book didn’t unearth many rosy scenarios for the future of phosphorus, he said not all scenarios are doom and gloom – just our current path.

“It really comes down to restoring that ethic of re-use,” he said. Some of that is in technology, such as efforts in Germany to extract nearly all of the phosphorus out of wastewater and harvesting phosphorus from manure.

Another tack is to revisit the agricultural exemption from the Clean Water Act.

“When we wrote that, farmers got a pass because they were considered nonpoint polluters, as opposed to smoke stacks and pipes,” Egan said. “But farming was a lot different then. Fifty years down the road we have 8,000head dairies. They are by definition a point source of pollution and they need to be regulated better. Too many water bodies are getting trashed and made useless. We shouldn’t be on a crash course between safe water and feeding ourselves.”

A cow can produce 18 times the waste of humans. And we don’t treat it. In 1972 we couldn’t treat it because it was dispersed in lagoons. Now we can treat it, and it’s going to cost something. But not swimming in a lake costs something too.”

Dan Egan.

The Fixer

by DEBRA FITZGERALD photos by BRETT KOSMIDER

Most women wouldn’t answer a question about their weight, let alone to a reporter.

Julie Gilbert didn’t blink.

“I’m 5’8”, 136 pounds,” she said. She paused. It was March of 2022 and she had only been in Door County for a few weeks. “Probably 138 now: I can’t find fat-free cheese,” she said, laughing.

Vital statistics aren’t typically reported for a profile, and whether those go into a story depends upon relevancy. Gilbert’s transparency – which I’m defining as her willingness to respond, on the record, to virtually any question I asked – became a relevant detail for a person

whose job relied to a large degree on gaining the community’s trust.

Gilbert became Destination Door County’s (DDC) new president/CEO in late 2021 following a national search, bringing with her some 30 years of experience in the tourism industry.

In this age of overtourism, whether real or perceived, locals generally consider a person in Gilbert’s position as responsible for damaging their quality of life, not improving it. If Gilbert wanted to win hearts and minds and change that perception – and she did – it meant showing local residents how the visitor economy enhances their lives.

That didn’t just mean throwing DDC’s approximate $8 million-dollar budget (in 2022) at marketing to bring all comers, touting the outcomes as evidence of success, however meaningful that story may be – a $582.4-million industry in 2022 in Door County, supporting some 3,335 jobs, or roughly the entire populations of Liberty Grove and Sister Bay combined. People understand what it means to be a destination-marketing organization, after all; it meant showing them what it meant to be a destination-management organization.

That’s why Gilbert moved for the job from one side of the Niagara Escarpment to the other, where she had been with Destination Niagara USA since 2014, at the time as its vice

president of sales and marketing. She saw Door County as a place to put her platform of community-shared values into action – something she couldn’t do in Niagara Falls, a “bucket list” destination with rarely a repeat visitor.

“I love marketing and I love sales and I’m good at it,” she said. “But I was at a point where I wanted to be a part of something bigger than marketing or sales. I wanted to help grow something that meant more, that impacted the community positively. So that’s really why I looked at Door County.”

She moved to Sevastopol in early 2022 with her husband, Robert (they have two sons, one who just finished graduate school, the other a college senior), saying goodbye to amenities like Uber and Grubhub for good.

“I think the things we’re benefitting from are well worth giving up some of those other things,” she said, back in that first interview in 2022.

Such as?

“There’s wine and liquor in the grocery stores,” she said, laughing, “and the wine selection is incredible” (wine and liquor are only sold at wineries or liquor stores in New York state). “So that’s just opened up a whole new world for us. Where have you been all our lives, Wisconsin?”

And where has Gilbert been? What did she hope to achieve when she moved from Niagara County in upstate New York (population 211,653), to a sliver of Wisconsin land thumbing out into the waters of Lake Michigan (population 30,369)?

Q: Hometown? JG: “Missoula, Montanna.” Pause. “Grizzly country.” She has roots in Wisconsin, however, through a grandmother who grew up in Tomahawk

Then and Now

It’s easy to see why Gilbert would have stood out among the 70 candidates who responded to a national search for DDC’s new president/CEO. When she isn’t smiling, laughing, making jokes, listening intently, writing in her notebook, doling out compliments and being generally charming in the manner of those with high social intelligence, she’s also offering sharp insights and citing statistics, marketing strategies and destination management theories.

Still: it wasn’t enough to interview her when she was freshly arrived in March 2022. I asked her to sit down again about 16 months later in July 2023. By then, she would have met stakeholders across Door County and navigated the various personalities and perspectives that make the peninsula both endearing and frustrating. She would have worked with the Door County Tourism Zone Commission that collects the 8% lodging tax that funds the budget of DDC. She would have learned about the staff she inherited, proposed new marketing strategies, developed new programs and initiatives and led a master-planning process.

Surely, she would be less forthcoming or candid in that friendly, genuine way she has. Surely, after 16 months, this apple would have lost some of its shine.

I’m happy to report – that’s not the case.

“I’m continuing to be excited and passionate about showing Door County to as many people as I can because I think it’s such an incredibly special place,” she said in that second interview. “I love the people here. I have felt a part of the community from day one. People have gone out of their way.”

During that first interview in 2022, as March’s finest bleakness darkened the Door, Gilbert had yet to go through a season, had yet to experience the peninsula’s art, culture, lake, beaches, theater. Her boxes were unpacked. She couldn’t demonstrate how her standing office desk worked because she hadn’t purchased it yet. She couldn’t give advice about buying a good pump if you purchase an ergonomic ball office chair

Q: If you do cook, what’s your signature dish? JG: “Osso Buco. I do a really good Osso Buco.”

like hers, because that, too, wasn’t there at the time. Even her winter boots had only been tested once.

“I went hiking at the Ridges,” she said in March 2022. “It was so cold, but it was so incredibly beautiful.”

By July 2023, she had been blown away by Door County’s performing arts and galleries and restaurants. Even if she still hadn’t visited every single little cool place in Door County (“and that bothers me,” she said); even if she were still constantly learning (“I don’t know how anyone could feel like they know it all,” she said), she’d begun to glean Door County’s essence.

“A lot of destinations have outdoor recreation, but what sets us apart is our art, our culture, our culinary history,” she said. “We are different; we are unique. People want to know that.”

Neither had Gilbert’s first impressions of Door County deceived her. The cleanliness of the county had been a signal to her of pride of place, and she’s learned Door County residents and visitors have a passion and dedication for community that she hasn’t witnessed at other destinations across the U.S. where she has worked, and in Europe (Frankfurt, Germany, and Paris, France) where she lived for a time due to her husband’s job as a hotel executive.

She had also noted the high percentage of female leaders in Door County, and that has meant she has peers. And that novelty when she first arrived of seeing motorists wave to each other and passersby? She’s learned the welcoming culture isn’t just skin deep.

“Buffalo [NY, where they arrived from] is very open and warm, but they are not people who invite you into their home,” Gilbert said. “But here, people are, ‘Hey, come and have dinner’ or ‘Let’s meet for dinner.’ It’s more social.

“Door County is just so different, perspective-wise, and there’s just so much more to it,” she continued. “I just kept falling more in love with the place.”

Walking the Talk

The travel and tourism industry has changed since Gilbert first started her career some 30 years ago as the executive director for a Convention and Visitors Bureau in West Virginia (she would eventually become director of sales and marketing for the State of West Virginia, before opening her own agency, and then working as Director of Sales and Marketing for National Park Reservations).

In the past, phrases like “destination management” and “sustainable tourism” didn’t exist. The primary objective was to put “heads in beds.” That goal began to change before COVID-19, but the pandemic highlighted the downside of tourism as people fled en masse

Q: How about all the festivals that take place in Door County – do you like attending those? JG: “I’m going to!”

from cities to less-populated areas. Suddenly, places like Door County were a whole lot busier in a noticeable way. “Overtourism” crept into everyday language, and overrun communities with stressed infrastructure and trampled natural resources considered it an issue that needed to be solved.

Gilbert said the destination-marketing industry was already changing prior to the pandemic in response to places across the country already overrun with visitors in ways that created challenges for local populations. That was evident in Door County, too. When the search to fill DDC’s top spot commenced in 2021, Todd Trimberger, at that time the DDC’s board chair, said the board and local search committee “are not just looking for someone who can step into the role and continue our current, successful marketing efforts, but for someone who can lead us into our next generation as a destination-management organization and marketing organization.”

“Conversations nationally began to draw awareness to balance,” Gilbert said. “We learned there was a disconnect between the tourism place and the place that people called home. That’s where you get lack of trust, and communication is key to that. If there are things you don’t know, and nobody is answering those questions, there’s a lack of trust.”

Q: Any phobias? JG: Driving over bridges –but only very narrow bridges with high arcs, like the one between Buffalo, New York and Niagara Falls, New York. “These bridges here? Piece of cake.”

A key to repairing the disconnect is a concept called “community-shared values,” Gilbert said – values shared by every member of the community, its non-negotiable core principles or standards that communities want to maintain.

“We need to understand what the priorities are for each of our communities and how we can help and support those communities to achieve those priorities,” Gilbert said. “It’s not just talk. That’s why it’s up to us to continue the walk.”

She cited two programs in particular that walk the DDC’s talk these days: the State Park Grant Initiative and the Community Investment Fund grant program. With the former, the DDC gives $50,000 to each of Door County’s five state parks, invites the park to identify a larger project and raise another $50,000 from donors, and then matches that additional $50,000 raised – for a total $150,000 for each of the five parks.

The second program reinvests in the communities and nonprofits that host the visitors by granting dollars four times annually to local projects that benefit both residents and tourists. Launched in January of this year, the program has already funded eight projects totaling $575,251.

“That’s what a community-shared values organization can do,” Gilbert said. “We’re in a unique position of being able to bring people to the table and reinvest back into the community. We can’t take care of everything, but we sure as heck can do some things.”

Photo by Andrew Pirrung

Both programs are opening doors for DDC by creating opportunities for meaningful dialogue with municipalities, nonprofit organizations and state parks. Perhaps that dialogue leads to trust that they share the same

values and are working toward common goals. Perhaps they learn they have each other’s backs.

“We weren’t having those conversations before,” Gilbert said. “So it’s important.”

Junkin' Market Days®

Listening

is an Action

Gilbert said DDC has made errors in the past, and primary among those were relationship-building.

“We weren’t listening to our communities,” Gilbert said. “I think we’ve talked at people; I don’t think we’ve listened and had conversations.”

Those conversations, even one person at a time (she described her approach as similar to building a grass-roots effort), allow her to absorb thoughts and suggestions and then build those out. Within reason.

“I’m a fixer,” she said. “I like to fix things. But I’m also a realist; sometimes, people don’t want you to fix things.” Q:

Tis The Season

Q: What is something you’d like readers to know about you? JG: “I love new experiences. I’m forever curious, forever wanting to meet people.

She has learned who is and isn’t onboard with the DDC and its mission; she has learned that each of Door County’s 19 communities have a unique personality and perspective.

“I didn’t really understand that [at first],” she said. “It’s so diverse, which makes it fun from a marketing perspective to be able to tell that story, and also good for a community’s perspective.”

For her, it creates the challenge of trying to be “everywhere all the time. Communication with municipalities is essential. So something that continues to be a challenge is to create and develop those relationships so if there are questions, they can call me.”

Is it working?

“Our work is not done,” she said. “There’s a long road ahead, but we’re getting there. It’s constant listening and learning for us, because that’s what community shared-values represents. We’re never going to be done with that.”

STEERING THE BIG BOATS

Retired Captain Ray Sheldon on piloting boats into winter layup

By JOHN MIELKE

When Great Lakes freighters come back to Sturgeon Bay for winter layup, folks young and old alike turn out for a closer look. And why not?

These floating giants, gliding up the channel, are quite a sight.

Take for instance the Joseph L. Block: 728 feet long, a payload capacity north of 37,000 tons, and powered by twin diesel engines turning out 7,000 horsepower. Or how about the Wilfred Sykes, steam turbine classic measuring 678 feet.

The Sykes has been sailing the Great Lakes for 75 years. The Block is a Sturgeon Bay native built at Bay

Shipbuilding and launched in 1976. Anyone at the helm of these historic freighters needs to know what they’re doing. Captain Raymond Sheldon is our guy.

Sheldon, 68, graduated from the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in 1976 and began his career with the Inland Steel Fleet. He retired in 2021 with an impressive resume including 30-plus

(Opposite) A boat enters the canal from Lake Michigan. (Above) A Great Lakes freighter makes its way through the Sturgeon Bay Shipping Canal at dawn. Photos by Paul Haan.

years as captain of, yup, the Wilfred Sykes and the Joseph L. Block. Sheldon and his wife, Peggy, were even married on the Joseph L. Block in 2019. It was the first, and so far only, time an active Great Lakes captain was the groom on his own boat.

Because none of us non-freightercaptain types will ever pilot the Sykes or Block through the Sturgeon Bay canal, blow the ships’ horns for a heartpounding salute, and thread the needle between the city’s two downtown bridges, what’s the next best thing? How about talking Great Lakes freighters with Captain Ray and imagining the view from the pilot house?

Coming home

The process of bringing a freighter into Sturgeon Bay begins about 10 hours before tying up at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding.

“You have to notify the bridge tender that you are going to be in at approximately such-and such a time,” Sheldon says. The Bay View and Michigan Street bridges are remote-

operated by a bridge tender at the Oregon Street bridge.

Next, Sheldon pumps out ballast water.

“The port of Sturgeon Bay is kind of a shallow port,” he says. “You have to be at the right draft [how much of the boat is below the waterline] to make sure you can come in and not do any damage to the ship.

“On the Block we had two plans called Sturgeon Bay 1 and Sturgeon Bay 2 depending on what water level we were expecting.”

Sheldon is aiming for draft of about 18 feet at the stern (back) of the Block, and 13 feet at the bow (front).

“Then you pump out the middle so you are not hogging or bending the boat one way or the other,” Sheldon says.

“About 10 miles from the Sturgeon Bay breakwall, I’ll be up in the pilot house to make sure everything looks good.”

The Block’s pilot house sits high above the deck of the boat, loaded with a mind-boggling array of screens, gauges, dials, levers, and switches. It’s a place

The Herbert C. Jackson is steered into place next to the Wilfred Sykes at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay. Photo by Peggy O'Connell.

Captain Ray Sheldon in the Pilot House. Photo by Peggy O'Connell.

Captain Ray Sheldon and wife Peggy O’Connell were married aboard the Joseph L. Block. Submitted.

where Great Lakes captains such as Sheldon are very much at home.

The Outer Shoal

As Sheldon approaches the Sturgeon Bay canal, he is very aware of a shoal marked by a Coast Guard Buoy to alert captains of shallow water ahead.

“We are kind of aiming for a spot east of the shoal,” he says. “You’re picking out objects on shore that you tell the wheelsman to steer on. Once he is on them, you mark the heading. Then you can tell if the boat is setting one way or another with the current and wind.”

As he nears the breakwall, Sheldon sends out calls on marine radio channel 16, the international hailing and distress channel. The calls alert anyone in the area that the Joseph L. Block or Wilfred Sykes is inbound to Sturgeon Bay. In other words, we’re coming up the canal so you better get out of the way.

About two miles from the shoal buoy, Sheldon taps the brakes. The speed limit in the canal is five miles per hour. The Block and Sykes cruise the Great Lakes at about 13 mph. It takes a mile or so to slow them down.

The Moment of Truth

“We’re slowing down and getting things lined up,” Sheldon says. “The interesting part is that the breakwalls are converging, so they narrow at the entrance. It looks very tight! You don’t have a whole lot of room to play with.”

Once committed to entering the canal, Sheldon says you just have to go for it. “You can’t hem and haw and say, ‘I dunno.’”

With the boat sitting higher, the wind has a greater effect, made more challenging by the current in the canal. And it’s not just the wind, there is a current in the canal.

“The current can go in either direction,” Sheldon says. “There are no current indicator lights here like they have at the Duluth entry. It’s not until you get in there that you find out which way the current is flowing.”

Between the Seawalls

In the pilot house at Bay Shipbuilding, it’s hard to imagine how snug it must look for freighter captains as their boats slowly navigate the canal. Sheldon keeps a close watch on the seawalls.

“On a boat like the Joseph L. Block, or something that is built with the cabins all aft, you have the long bow of the boat right there in front of you, so you can look out and see if the boat is staying somewhat in the center of the canal,” he says.

The Wilfred Sykes, which has the pilot house forward, is a different story. The captain can’t always tell by looking ahead. “You have a steering pole that the wheelsman is using,” Sheldon says, “but then you turn around and, ‘whoa, that stern is awful close back there.’”

This is where the captains earn their pay.

“If the starboard side is closer to the wall,” he continues, “we’d put hard right rudder on to kick the stern off the seawall. Then you push with the bow thruster to the left so that you are crabbing the boat sideways off the wall.”

Nothing to it!

Time to Open the Bridge

Hours ago, Sheldon alerted the bridge tender that he was on the way. Lake freighters have priority and bridges are opened on demand. Once he’s in the canal, it’s time to reconnect. The response Captain

(Top and bottom) The Wilfred Sykes passes through the Michigan Street Bridge. Photo by Luke Collins.

Ray wants to hear: “Great, we’ll be ready for you.”

On a few occasions, that hasn’t been the case. Sheldon remembers a time aboard the Wilfred Sykes when the bridgetender asked him to hold up for a minute or two because an emergency vehicle was coming down the highway. A minute or two became three or four. Sheldon brought the Sykes to a near dead stop and was fortunate that ice in the channel helped keep her on course. You never know.

Passing through the Bay View Bridge requires a turn. Two green range lights along the canal, as well as a diamond-shaped sign with a light on the Michigan Street Bridge, help captains position their boats. “The Bay View bridge does not line up with the channel,” Sheldon says. “A thousandfooter that’s 105 feet wide can get through it without any problem, but it just looks a little intimidating.”

Hello, Sturgeon Bay!

The city of Sturgeon Bay is on an island – at least part of it. The Oregon and Michigan street bridges connect the east and west sides. When boats the size of the Joseph L. Block or Wilfred Sykes come to town via the canal, both bridges are up at the same time. Twenty minutes before the bridges open, the bridge tender notifies central dispatch which alerts emergency services in the area. For about a half hour, whatever side you’re on is the side you’re on.

As Sheldon approaches the Oregon Street bridge, he relies on crew members to relay the boat’s position. His first mates are looking for “daylight” on each side. “As long as I have daylight, I’m good,” he says.

Then Sheldon has to feel what the boat is doing. He remembers the words of Captain Riley Ward, one of his mentors:

“You are reacting to the boat, the boat is not reacting to you.”

“I can give it more engine, I can thrust with the bow thruster and stern thruster,” Sheldon said. “If it is not doing what I want it to do, I have to try something different.”

The Steel Bridge

Halfway through the Oregon Street bridge, Sheldon’s attention turns to the city’s historic Steel bridge. Again, it’s all about daylight on either side. Once he’s cleared both bridges, Sheldon tries to get back on the radio with a call to the bridge tender: “I always want to say ‘thank you.’”

Valet or Self-Park

The converging breakwalls, a narrow canal, and three bridges are in the rearview mirror. It’s time for Sheldon to “make dock.”

“In the wintertime, there will be more tugs because you have to move ice around,” Sheldon says. “Depending on what dock you’re making, if it is just that steel dock or across the face, I can make that on my own because of the bow and stern thrusters.”

All Stop

Whether Captain Ray brings the Block or Sykes in himself or with the help of a tug or two, he says it’s a special feeling when all lines are secure: “Once the boat is tied up, whether it went exactly how I wanted it to go or I had to raise my voice occasionally, I would say ‘nice job everyone.’ Things got done, nobody got hurt – that was the main goal.”

by Brett

Photo

Our friend and cocktail expert Anders Erickson dropped by the office to offer up this surprisingly drinkable concoction based on peaty scotch. Perfect for when you need to warm up, but don’t crave the sugar of an old fashioned and can handle a smoke in your scotch.

Ingredients

• 1.5 oz Cochi sweet vermouth

• 1 oz peaty scotch

• .5 oz Aperol

• Grapefruit peel

Pour scotch, vermouth, and Aperol in a shaker and add ice. Stir to chill, then pour into a coup or martini glass

and serve up. Finish with a twist of grapefruit peel, then discard the peel – we’re just looking to express the oils from the peel here.

“Cochi has a rich, chocolatey flavor that can balance the smoke of a peaty scotch,” Erickson says. “In a perfect world you could add a dash of mezcal, but that’s less common in many home bars. The heavy dose of vermouth sweetens the drink, but you get the bite of the scotch at the finish.”

Get more recipes from Anders Erickson by visiting AndersErickson. com, where he releases new videos each week teaching you how to impress your friends – or just yourself – by making great craft cocktails at home.

the cigar

photos by RACHEL LUKAS

Cast Iron Pizza

wood-fired texture without the fire

by JESS FARLEY AND DAVID NIELSEN photos by RACHEL LUKAS

My family has a passion for eating pizza, and fortunately my fiancé David has a passion for making pizza.

Pizza came to America with Italian immigrants in the beginning of the 20th century. Pizzerias started popping up in places like Boston, New York and Chicago around 1905. Just like in Italy, American pizza came to have regional differences in crust, sauce and other elements.

At our kitchen in Jacksonport, we have evolved to making our pizza in a cast iron pan. It is our way to recreate a woodfired oven effect without the wood-fired oven. The crust stays pliable, yet crispy on the bottom and around the edges. The goal is to create a crust that holds the ingredients without getting wet and becoming limp.

The ingredients we choose come through a meeting of the minds. We share memories of the best pizzas we remember eating and we build from there. We blend our memories and create concoctions on our own,

some simple and some a bit more complicated, building new memories along the way.

When our pizza chef announces it’s pizza night, we know we aren’t going to bed hungry.

Tools

• 14-inch cast iron skillet (smaller skillets will work too, just adjust the amount of dough)

• Wooden spatula (to loosen the crust and slide the pizza out of the pan)

• KitchenAid mixer

• Large cutting board

• Bowls for rising dough, pottery or glass work best

• Plastic wrap

THE DOUGH

Makes two 14-inch pizzas

• 4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 packet yeast

• 1 tbsp sugar

• 1 tbsp of salt

• Drizzle of olive oil

• 2 cups warm water (may not use all)

• 1 tbsp cornmeal (preferably rough cut)

Step 1

Using a mixer with a dough hook attachment, add all dry ingredients to the mixing bowl. Drizzle olive oil around the edge of the bowl, this stops the ingredients from sticking to the bowl. Turn the mixer on low speed and slowly add the water (you may not use all of it). Watch the consistency of the dough. You will know you added enough water and the dough is ready when the bowl is clean and nothing is sticking to it. The dough will form a ball in the middle of the bowl. The dough is perfect when it is elastic, holds its form and is not too wet.

Flour your hands and remove the dough from the bowl, cleaning all the dough from the hook.

Form the dough into a ball and cut in half. You may need to flour your hands a second time so the dough will not stick to you.

Step 2

Using one ball at a time, you will stretch and tuck the dough into a neatly formed ball. Lightly dust the ball and place in a bowl to rise. Wrap the bowl in plastic wrap and set in a warm area in your kitchen. Repeat with the second ball. Allow the dough to sit for a minimum of 1 hour until the dough doubles in size.

David Nielsen.

*Note, dough can be made a day ahead of time. Wrap each individual ball in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator. If you do, let it sit out at room temperature for one hour before you proceed to step 3.

Step 3

Lightly flour your work surface and your hands. Remove dough from the bowl and press down with the palm of your hand to create a disk shape. Using your hands and gravity, pick the disk up by the edge and work the dough by stretching and thinning it out. Holding the dough in your hands, spin and work around the full circumference until the dough is relatively thin. At this point you can toss the dough into the air if you are comfortable (it takes practice!). If you’re not comfortable throwing the dough, use your fists to stretch and pull the dough into shape, taking care not to tear holes in the dough. You can also set the dough on the work surface and pull and stretch until you reach the desired size. You want the dough about an inch larger than the circumference of the pan as it will shrink when baking. The goal is to get the dough thin and about an inch larger than the skillet.

*Using a rolling pin makes the dough too dense and heavy. This practice removes the air from the dough itself.

Step 4

Sprinkle the cornmeal into the skillet. To place the dough into the skillet, hold one side of the dough with your hand. Fold the other half of the dough over the same hand. Lift and unfold the dough and place in the skillet.

Step 5

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Top the crust and bake. Each pizza should take about 15 minutes.

DAVID’S WHITE PIZZA

Preheat oven 350 degrees

The sauce

• 1 head garlic, busted into individual cloves and peeled

• 2 tbsp pepperoncini, chopped

• Olive oil

Place the garlic cloves and pepperoncini in an oven-proof bowl. Add enough oil to cover the ingredients. Place in the oven for approximately 30 minutes. You will know it’s ready when the aroma fills your kitchen. Carefully remove the bowl from the oven and set aside to cool.

Brush the crust with the Roasted Garlic Pepperoncini Oil, ensuring it is fully coated.

• Tsp dried oregano

• ⅛ cup onion, diced

• ¼ cup artichoke hearts, chopped

• ⅛ cup sliced black olives

• 4 oz feta

• 4 oz shredded mozzarella

MARGHERITA

We typically purchase the red sauce in a jar and embellish it with herbs and peppers. We use oregano, basil and sometimes add a bit of thai chili paste for extra spice.

• ¼ cup light red sauce

• Ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced

• Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced

• Fresh basil

Using a large spoon, place the sauce in the middle of the crust. Spread the sauce circling the crust until you reach the edge. Add the fresh mozzarella and tomato slices. Bake and add the fresh basil once you remove it from the oven.

SERVING

SPICY PEPPERONI

• ¼ cup - spicy red sauce (add the thai chili paste to the sauce)

• ⅛ cup onion,

• ⅛ cup black olives

• ⅛ cup mushrooms, sliced

• ¼ cup pepperoni

• ½ cup shredded mozzarella

• Sprinkle of dried oregano

Using a large spoon, place the sauce in the middle of the crust. Spread the sauce circling the crust until you reach the edge. Add the ingredients, placement is key, don’t layer too many things on top of one another. Cover with the cheese and a sprinkle of oregano. Bake and enjoy.

Sprinkle the oregano on the crust and add the additional ingredients, add the cheese last. We like to add the feta and finish with a light dusting of shredded mozzarella and bake (see note above).

Using a long wooden spatula, loosen the edges of the pizza from the skillet. Slide the pizza onto the large cutting board, slice and serve. I like to have a cheese shaker and crushed red peppers around. Pizza night pairs perfectly with a little Dean Martin, Louis Prima and Old Blue Eyes

Mangia Mangia!

RESTAURANT GUIDE

Restaurants are listed in alphabetical order by town. Information is subject to change. Contact individual restaurants for hours of operation. Inclusion in this directory should not be considered an unqualified endorsement by Door County Living. Restaurants are encouraged to email us with up-to-date information at info@doorcountyliving.com.

$$ L D J T {

*Price range based on average dinner entrée (if available) $

available

Kids’ menu available

Offering breakfast

Offering lunch

Offering dinner

Reservations accepted

Open during winter (hours may vary)

BAILEYS HARBOR

AC Tap

9322 Hwy 57 (920) 839-2426

$ L D J T

Baileys 57 7998 Hwy 57 (920) 839-2114

Baileys57.com

$ B L D T

Bakery at Sway 2434 Cty F

$ B T

Chives Restaurant 8041 Hwy 57 (920) 839-2000 chivesdoorcounty.com

$$$ L D T ( Cornerstone Pub & Restaurant 8123 Hwy 57 (920) 839-9001

baileysharborcorner stonepub.com

$$ B L D J T { Coyote Roadhouse 3026 Cty E (920) 839-9192

Located on the shore of Kangaroo Lake, we offer a full-service bar, appetizers, lunch and dessert selections in a casual and comfortable setting. Children’s menu available. Family friendly. DCBC Eats

8099 Hwy 57 (920) 239-8181

$$ L D

Florian II Supper Club 8048 Hwy 57 (920) 839-2361

$$ D J Harbor Fish

Market & Grille 8080 Hwy 57 (920) 839-9999

harborfishmarket grille.com

$$$ L D J { ( T

Open during winter. A full-service restaurant in the heart of Baileys Harbor. Distinctive waterfront dining with a casual upscale vibe. Seasonal, pet-friendly garden seating.

MAX at Maxwelton Braes 7680 Hwy 57 (920) 839-9750

facebook.com/ MAXDoorCounty

$ L D

PC Junction Corner of A and E (920) 839-2048

$ L D J T { Sway Brewery & Bakery 2434 Cty F swaybeer.com

$ B { T

The Blue Ox 8051 Hwy 57 (920) 839-2271

$ L D { The Thirsty Cow Taphouse 7899 Cty A (920) 839-9991 facebook.com/ thetipsycowtaphouse

$ L D T

Top Deck Restaurant & Bar 1420 Pine Dr. (920) 839-2331

gordonlodge.com

$$$ B D J { (

Vino! Vino! at Stone’s Throw Winery 3382 Cty E (920) 839-9760

$$ L D T Vino! Vino! is a contemporary Tuscan wine bar and tapas experience. Join us for great wine and fresh food in an atmosphere of friendly, casual elegance.

BRUSSELS/LITTLE STURGEON

Chaudoir’s Dock 10863 Cty N (920) 493-7075 chaudoirs.com

$$ L D { Gilmo’s Bar & Bistro Wavepoint Marina Resort, 3600 Cty CC (920) 824-5440 wavepointe.com

$$ L D J T { ( Idlewild Pub & Grill 4146 Golf Valley Dr. (920) 743-5630

$$ L D {

Joe Rouer’s Bar E1098 Cty X (920) 866-2585

facebook.com/ Rouer1952

$ L D T {

Rouer’s Grand Slam 9710 School Road (920) 493-6556

$$ L D

Rouer’s Roadhouse 8649 Cty C (920) 824-5100

facebook.com/ RouersRoadhouse

$ L D

Sunset Grill 3810 Rileys Point Road (920) 824-5130

$$ D J T { The Belgian Delight 1100 Cty C (920) 825-1111

belgiandelight brussels.com

$$ B L D (

CARLSVILLE

Carlsville Roadhouse 5790 Hwy 42 (920) 743-4966

$ L D T

Door County Coffee Co.

5773 Hwy 42 (920) 743-8930 doorcountycoffee. com

$ B L J T { Rusty Tractor 6216 Hwy 42 (920) 743-8704 rustytractordoco. com

$ B EGG HARBOR

Big Easy Bagel & Beignet

7755 Hwy 42 (920) 868-9600 bigeasydoor county.com

$ B L T {

Burton’s on the Bay 7715 Alpine Road (920) 868-3000 Alpineresort.com

$$$ B L D J

Burton’s on the Bay is an upscale waterfront restaurant within the newly restored Alpine Resort that offers delicious daily cuisine – breakfast, lunch and dinner with panoramic views of the bay. Both indoor and outdoor dining options are available. Hours of operation change

with the season. Visit alpineresort.com or call for restaurant hours.

Burton’s on the Green 7670 Horseshoe Bay Road (920) 868-3000

$$ B L D J { T

Burton’s on the Green is Alpine Resort’s new golf course clubhouse restaurant offering delicious cuisine crafted by the culinary team of Burton’s on the Bay. Burton’s on the Green is open year-round, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner seasonally.

Carrington 7643 Hillside Road (920) 868-5162 carringtondoor county.com

$$$ D J T { (

Open year-round, we are an upscale casual restaurant located at the Landmark Resort. Featuring a wide range of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, steaks, fish, American classics, desserts and a full bar. Every seat offers a view of the bay. With a Comedy Club on the second Thursday

of the month. View our website for our current hours and Comedy Club shows. Serving brunch and dinner.

Casey’s BBQ & Smokehouse 7855 Hwy 42 (920) 868-3038 caseysbbqand smokehouse.com

$$ L D J T

Matthew Peterson established Casey’s BBQ & Smokehouse in the spring of 2008. Matthew, a Door County native, wanted to put a Door County twist on Southern-style BBQ by using cherry wood to give our meats a rosy cast with a delicious, mild smoked flavor. We also offer a fabulous fish fry, locally famous burgers and many other tasty treats.

Cupola Cafe 7838 Hwy 42

$$ B L T

Greens N Grains Deli 7821 Hwy 42 (920) 868-9999 greens-Ngrains.com

$ B L J {

The Greens N Grains Deli features a selection of vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and raw-food cuisine. The deli also features a juice bar with freshly pressed veggie juices, fruit smoothies, a healthful bakery, tea bar and organic coffees.

Log Den 6626 Hwy 42 (920) 868-3888 thelogden.com

$$ L D J T { ( MacReady Artisan Bread Company 7828 Hwy 42 (920) 868-2233 MacReadyBread Company.com

$ L D J T { Mezzanine 7821 Horseshoe Bay Road (920) 786-7698 mezzaninerooftop.

com

$$$ B L D

Mojo Rosa's 7778 Hwy 42 (920) 868-3274 mojorestaurant group.com

$$ L D J T { (

Pizza Bros 4633 Market St.

$$ L D

Fast and casual wood-fired pizza. Traditional and experimental flavors, made from scratch and hand pressed. Located inside One Barrel Brewing Company. Shipwrecked Brew Pub 7791 Hwy 42 (920) 868-2767 shipwreckedmicro brew.com

$$$ L D J T { Stone Hedge Golf and Pub 4320 Cty E stonehedgegolf andpub.com

$ L D The Orchards at Egg Harbor 8125 Heritage Lake Road (920) 868-2483 orchardsategg harbor.com

$ L J { Village Cafe 7918 Hwy 42 (920) 868-3247

$$ B L J {

ELLISON BAY

Blue Bear 12029 Hwy 42 (920) 854-3284

$$ B L D

Featuring a locally sourced menu created from scratch in our kitchen. Offering an extensive selection of both gluten-free and vegan options. We also offer a full bar with craft cocktails, local beers, sustainably sourced wine and specialty coffee drinks. Brew Coffee 12002 Hwy 42 (920) 421-2739

$ B L T { Della Porta 12029 Hwy 42 (920) 633-4014 dellaportadc.com

$$ D

We offer authentic southern Italian cuisine. With 20 years of experience cooking in the finest restaurants, our chef is excited to present their vision to you and all our guests. We refuse to compromise on quality in our restaurant. That's why we source our fresh

Hügel Haus 11934 Hwy 42 (920) 633-4080

$$ D J T ( A German-inspired, Wisconsininfluenced restaurant located on the hill in Ellison Bay serving Deutschland classics and inspired Wisconsin favorites, including Door County’s best cheese curds!

Nightly specials and daily happy hour with German bier, wine and specialty cocktails. Open year-round and self-proclaimed as “Door County’s Wurst Bar.” View our menu and hours at hugelhausdoorcounty. com.

Kick Ash Coffee 12001 Mink River Road (920) 421-1041 kickashproducts.com

$ B L T {

Mink River Basin 12010 Hwy 42 (920) 854-2250 minkriverbasin.com

$$ B L D J T { ( Wickman House 11976 Mink River Road (920) 854-3305 wickmanhouse.com

$$$ D { (T

EPHRAIM

Bad Moravian 3055 Church St.

$$ D T

Chef’s Hat 9998 Pioneer Lane (920) 854-2034

$$ B L D J T { ( Cultured 2570 Cty Q (920) 512-3821

$ B L T

Good Eggs 9820 Brookside Lane (920) 854-6621

$ B L {

Old Post Office Restaurant 10040 Hwy 42 (920) 854-4034 oldpostoffice-door county.com

$$ B D J { (

Pearl Wine Cottage

3058 Church St. (920) 633-5006

pearlwinecottage. com

$$ D {

Peninsula State Park Clubhouse

Restaurant 9890 Shore Road (920) 854-5791 peninsulagolf.org

$ B L

Prince of Pierogi 9922 Water St., #6 (920) 421-8619 princeofpierogi.com

$$ L D { Sip

10326 N. Water St. (920) 857-5602

$$ B L D T {

The place to be for fresh, delicious food that spotlights bold flavors and spectacular presentation. Full coffee shop and wine bar with relaxing indoor and outdoor seating. Combined space with fun home décor and excellent gifts you didn’t know you needed. Come Sip with us – open daily year-around, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Summer Kitchen 10425 Water St. (920) 854-2131

$$ B L D J { (

Sunset Harbor Grill 10018 Water St.

$$ B L D J

Trixie’s 9996 Pioneer Lane (920) 854-8008

$$$ D (T

Wilson’s Restaurant 9990 Water St. (920) 854-2041 wilsonsicecream. com

$ L D J {

FISH CREEK

Alexander’s of Door County 3667 Hwy 42 (920) 868-3532 alexandersofdoor county.com

$$$ D J T { ( Barringer’s Restaurant 1 N. Spruce St. (920) 868-3738 barringersdoor county.com

$$$ L D { T ( Bayside Coffee The Shops at the Bayside baysidecoffee cottage.com

$ B L J

Bayside Tavern 4160 Main St. (920) 868-3441 baysidetavern.com

$ L D J T

For an unpredictably great time, visit Fish Creek’s favorite tavern. Serving cocktails, beer and our famous Bayside Coffee. Our shortorder menu features hearty house-made soups, sandwiches, burgers, housemade pizza, Friday fish fry and Smilen Bob’s chili. Open daily year-round!

Blue Horse Beach Café 4113 Main St. (920) 868-1471 bluehorsecafe.com

$ B L J T { DC Chocolate Design 9341 Spring Road, Unit A6 (920) 868-5155 dcchocolate design.com

$ B L T { English Inn 3713 Hwy 42 (920) 868-3076 theenglishinn.com

$$$ D J T (

Fika Bakery & Cafe 3903 Hwy 42 (920) 868-5233

$ B L {

Fish Creek Market 4164 Main St. (920) 868-3351 Fishcreekmarket 1892.com

$$ L Hill Street 4149 Main St. Hillstreetdoorcounty. com

$$ L D T

Julie’s Park Cafe & Motel 4020 Hwy 42 (920) 868-2999 juliesmotel.com

$$ B L J { ( Kettle Black Fish Boil 4158 Main St. (920) 868-5215 kettleblackfishboil. com

$$ D ( Loft 4170 Main St. (920) 868-5242

$$ L D J {

Not Licked Yet 4054 Hwy 42 (920) 868-2617 notlickedyet.com

$ L D {

DOOR

PREMIERPERSONALCHEFS

Sarah and Jason White with their three daughters Harper, Scarlett and Devin. Photo by Rachel Lukas.

Pelletier’s Restaurant

Founder’s Square (920) 868-3313

doorcountyfish boil.com

$$ B L D J { ( Shiny Moon Café 4164 Main St. shinymooncafe.com

$$ B L T

The Beach Bowl Founder's Square, 4199 Main St.

$ B L

The Cherry Hut 8813 Hwy 42 (920) 868-4450

doorcounty cherryhut.com

$$ L D J {

Welcker's Lounge 4192 Main St. (920) 660-4316 welckers.com

$$$ B L D ( White Gull Inn 4225 Main St. (920) 868-3517

whitegullinn.com

$$$ B L D J T (

Serving breakfast, including the famous cherry stuffed French toast as featured on Good Morning America, as well as a full menu daily. Featuring fish boils in the summer, fall and select winter nights,

along with candlelight dinners. Reservations recommended for dinner.

Wild Tomato Wood-Fired Pizza & Grille 4023 Hwy 42 (920) 868-3095 wildtomatopizza.com

$ L D J T {

FORESTVILLE

Sierra's Pub & Grill

S 1599 Hwy 42 (920) 856-6966

$$ L D J T

The Bullpen 213 W. Main St., #9691 (920) 856-6199

$$ L D T

JACKSONPORT

Island Fever Rum Bar & Grill

Cty V and Hwy 57 (920) 823-2700

$ L D J T {

Little Bit of Coffee 6332 Hwy 57 (920) 823-2408

$ B T

Mike’s Port Pub 6269 Hwy 57 (920) 823-2081

$$ L D T

SISTER BAY

Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant

10698 N. Bay Shore Dr. (920) 854-2626

aljohnsons.com

$$ B L D J T

Boathouse on the Bay 10716 N. Bay Shore Dr. (920) 854-3223

$$$ L D J { Carroll House 2445 S. Bay Shore Dr. (920) 854-7997

$ B L J

CHOP

2345 Mill Road (920) 854-2700

$$$ D J T { ( Crain’s Kitchen 10635 N. Bay Shore Dr. (920) 633-4047

$ L D

Door County Creamery 10653 Bay Shore Dr. (920) 854-3388

$ L D {

Door County Ice

Cream Factory 11051 Hwy 42 (920) 854-9693 doorcountyice cream.com

$ L D J {

Dovetail Bar & Grill 10282 Hwy 57 (920) 421-4035

$$ L D J

Fat Belly 10621 N. Highland Road (920) 854-3500

fatbellybowls.com

$$ L D { Goose & Twigs Coffee Shop 2322 Mill Road (920) 854-3212

$$ B L {

Grasse’s Grill 10663 N. Bay Shore Dr. (920) 854-1125

$$ B L J { Husby’s Food and Spirits 10641 N. Bay Shore Dr. (920) 854-2624

$ L D J T { Klaud's Kitchen 2.0. 2398 Country Walk Dr. (818) 279-1341

$ B L D T LURE

Intersection of Hwys 42 and 57 (920) 854-8111

luredoorcounty.com

$$$ D J T { (

McEvoy’s Culinaria & Catering

2602 S. Bay Shore Dr. (920) 854-8029

$ L D T {

Northern Grill & Pizza 10573 Country Walk Dr. (920) 854-9590

$$ L D J { Pasta Vino 10571 Country Walk Dr. $$$ D Roots Kitchen 2378 Maple Dr. (920) 854-5107

$ L T {

Sister Bay Bowl 10640 N. Bay Shore Dr. (920) 854-2841

sisterbaybowl.com

$$ L D J T

Famous for its Friday-night perch fry and its prime rib, this throwback to yesteryear is located in the heart of Sister Bay, open year-round. Featuring a full dining room, grill and bar, plus Northern Door’s only bowling alley.

Skip Stone Coffee Roasters 10678 S. Bay Shore Dr., Building 2 skipstonecoffee.com

dellaportadc.co

solagodoorcounty. com

$ L D J T

Stabbur Beer Garden at Al Johnson’s 10698 Bay Shore Dr. (920) 421-4628

$$ L D {

Sub Express at Sister Bay Mobil

2579 S. Bay Shore Dr. (920) 854-6700

$ B L D J T { The Patio & Kitschinn 10440 Orchard Dr. (920) 854-5941

$ B J T { The Waterfront 10947 Hwy 42 (920) 854-5491

waterfront-dc.com

$$$ D

Thyme Restaurant + Catering 10339 Hwy 57 (920) 421-5112

Thymecatering DoorCounty.com

$ B L J T { Solago Restaurant & Tequila Bar 10961 Hwy 42

$$ L D { J T ( Thyme restaurant has a new home in Sister Bay. Join us at our brand-new restaurant, bar and outdoor dining space, where we’ll be serving up fresh, new dishes, as well as

12029 Hwy 42 - Ellison Bay - 920-633-4014

12029 Hwy 42 - Ellison Bay - 920-633-4014

Authentic Southern Italian Cuisine, Full-Bar, Private Chalet Dining, Catering dellaportadc.com

Hwy 42 - Ellison Bay -

Authentic Southern Italian Cuisine, Full-Bar, Private Chalet Dining, Catering dellaportadc.com

Authentic Southern Italian Cuisine, Full-Bar, Private Chalet Dining, Catering Authentic Southern Italian Cuisine, Full-Bar, Private Chalet Dining, Catering

12029 Hwy 42 - Ellison Bay - 920-633-4014

FARM-TO-TABLE, PRIVATE CHALET DINING, CATERING VARIETY OF GLUTEN-FREE & VEGAN OPTIONS

FARM-TO-TABLE, PRIVATE CHALET DINING, CATERING VARIETY OF GLUTEN-FREE & VEGAN OPTIONS

www.bluebeareats.com 12029 Hwy 42 - Ellison Bay - 920-854-3284 FARM-TO-TABLE, PRIVATE CHALET DINING, CATERING VARIETY OF GLUTEN-FREE & VEGAN OPTIONS

EAT. DRINK. SHOP.

Warm up with a bowl of chili at our newly remodeled Bayside Tavern. Take a stroll around back and visit the Bayside Shop for great stocking stuffers and gifts for everyone on your list. Cheers!

Bayside Tavern and Bayside Shops located in downtown Fish Creek, Door County, WI

some of our classics. Next door is twelve eleven provisions + wine bar, where you can enjoy a variety of wines sourced and produced from grapes grown in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Our private, open-air dining space and gabled meadow are available to rent. See you soon!

Wild Tomato WoodFired Pizza & Grille 10677 N. Bay Shore Dr. (920) 854-4685 wildtomatopizza.com

$ L D J T {

STURGEON BAY

A'Boat Time

26 E. Oak St. (920) 746-0600 aboattime doorcounty.com

$$ B L J T

Corner Café

113 N. 3rd Ave. (920) 743-1991

$ B L J T ( 5th and Jefferson Café

232 N. 5th Ave. (920) 746-1719

$ B L D {

Betsy Ross Family Restaurant

239 Green Bay Road (920) 743-811 Betsyross restaurant.com

$ B L D Birmingham’s 4709 N. Bay Shore Dr. (920) 743-5215 birminghamsbar andcottages.com

$$ L D J T

Blue Front Café

86 W. Maple St. (920) 743-9218

$$ L J T (

Brick Lot Pub & Grill

253 N. 3rd Ave. (920) 743-9339 bricklotpub.com

$ L D J T

Cedar Crossing Restaurant & Bar 336 Louisiana St. (920) 743-4200 innatcedar crossing.com

$$$ B L D J T (

Chaser’s Sports Bar & Grill 1217 N. 14th Ave. (920) 743-6997 applevalleylanes.net

$$

Cherry Lanes

Arcade Bar

127 N. 4th Ave. (920) 818-0093 facebook.com/ cherrylanes arcadebar

$$$ D

Crate — Sushi & Seafood

136 N. 3rd Ave. (920) 818-1333

$$$ D T { ( Dan’s Kitchen

50 S. 3rd Ave. (920) 818-1300 dans-kitchen.com

$ L D T

Door County Fire Company 38 S. 3rd Ave. (920) 818-0625

$$ L D J T

Drömhus 611 Jefferson St. (608) 333-4553 dromhus doorcounty.com

$ D T {

El Sazon Mexican Restaurant 1449 Green Bay Road, Suite 2 (920) 743-6740

$ B L D J T

Fatzo’s

46 Green Bay Road (920) 743-6300

$ L D J T {

Get Real Café 43 S. Madison Ave. (920) 818-1455 getrealcafedoor county.com

$$ B L D Greystone Castle 8 N. Madison Ave. (920) 743-9923

Greystonecastle bar.com

$$ L D J T

Healthy Way Market

216 S. 3rd Ave. (920) 746-4103 healthyway market.com

$$ L Hoffman’s Red Room

66 S. 3rd Ave. (920) 743-3913

$ L D T Kick Coffee

148 N. 3rd Ave. (920) 746-1122

$ B L T { Kinara Urban Eatery 25 N. Madison Ave. (920) 743-8772

$ L D T

Kitty O’Reilly’s Irish Pub 59 E. Oak St. (920) 743-7441 kittyoreillys.com

$$ L D J T { Little Brown

Jug Saloon 8952 Cty C (920) 824-5005 littlebrownjugbar.com

$$ L D Lodge at Leathem Smith 1640 Memorial Dr. (920) 743-5555

$$ L D J T { ( Melt Bistro 2189 Cty DK (920) 825-7272

$ B L T {

Melt Bistro (inside Renard's Cheese) serves delicious, homestyle comfort food with an elevated twist. Menu items are made to order from scratch using only the freshest ingredients. Many selections feature our own handcrafted artisan cheeses. Pizza, hot and cold sandwiches, mac & cheese, soups, salads, a wide selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, Chocolate Shoppe ice cream and more. Breakfast is available all day. Open daily year-round. View our menu at RenardsCheese.com.

Mill Supper Club 4128 Hwy 42/57 N. (920) 743-5044

$$$ D J T

Morning Glory by the Bay 306 S. 3rd Ave. (920) 818-0711

$$ B L Morning Glory Restaurant 7502 Hwy 42 (920) 743-5355

$ B L J

Old Mexico 901 Egg Harbor Road (920) 818-1500 oldmexicowi.com

$$ L D J T {

Poh’s Corner Pub 164 N. 3rd Ave.

$ L D T

Samuelson’s Creek Pub & Grill 1009 S. Oxford Ave. (920) 743-3295 whitebirchinn.com

$$ L D J T ( Scaturo’s Café 19 Green Bay Road (920) 746-8727

$ B L J T { ( Sonny’s Italian Kitchen & Pizzeria 129 N. Madison Ave. (920) 743-2300 sonnyspizzeria.com

$$ L D J T ( Sunrise Food & Drinks 1463 Egg Harbor Rd. (920) 818-0157

$ B L T

Hidden Bridge Pub 2049 Cty S (920) 743-4807 facebook.com/ stageroadinn

$$$ D Stone Harbor 107 N. 1st St. (920) 746-0700 stoneharborresort.com

$$$ B L D J T { (

Sturgeon Bay Yacht Club

600 Nautical Dr. (920) 743-6934

$$$ L D ( Sweet Buns

Bakery & Cafe 846 Egg Harbor Road (920) 473-5027

$ B L

The Gnoshery 23 N. 3rd Ave. (920) 818-0727

$ B L T

The Gnoshery is the county’s premier board game cafe. Filled with fun, games and great “Gnoshables” –food and drink that make your experience a truly memorable one!

The Nightingale Supper Club 1541 Egg Harbor Road (920) 743-5593

$$$ D J T

Trattoria Dal Santo

147 N. 3rd Ave. (920) 743-6100 trattoriadalsanto. com

$$$ D T ( Waterfront Mary’s Bar & Grill

3662 N. Duluth Ave. (920) 743-3191 waterfrontmarys barandgrill.com

$ L D J T {

VALMY

Donny’s Glidden Lodge Restaurant 4670 Glidden Dr. (920) 746-9460

gliddenlodge.com

$$$ D J T { ( Institute Saloon 4599 Hwy 57 (920) 743-1919 institutesaloon.com

$ L D T

The Hitching Post 4849 Glidden Dr. (920) 818-1114 thehitchingpost doorcounty.com

$$ B L D J (

Valmy Happy Hour 4418 Whitefish Bay Road (920) 743-6236

$ L D J T

WASHINGTON ISLAND

Albatross Drive-In N7W1910 Lobdells Point Road (920) 847-2203

$ L D { Bread & Water Café 1275 Main Road (920) 847-2400

washingtonisland food.com

$ B L {

Cellar Restaurant at Karly’s Bar Main Road (920) 847-2655

$$$ L D J T { (

Fiddler’s Green 1699 Jackson Harbor Road (920) 847-2610

washingtonisland fiddlersgreen.com

$$ L D T {

Hotel Washington 354 Range Line Road (920) 847-3010

$$$ D T { (

Island Pizza At the ferry dock (920) 847-3222

$ L D

Jackson Harbor Soup 1904 Indian Point Road (920) 847-2589

$ L {

KK Fiske Restaurant 1177 Main Road (920) 847-2121

$ B L D T

Le Café and The Distillery at Fragrant Isle

Lavender Farm 1350 Airport Road (920) 847-2950

fragrantisle.com

$ B L {

Nelsen’s Hall

Bitters Pub W19N1205 Main Road (920) 847-2496

$ L D T {

Red Cup Coffee House 1885 Detroit Harbor Road (920) 847-3304

$ B L

Sailor’s Pub 1475 South Shore Dr. (920) 847-2105

$$$ D { ( Sunset Resort Old West Harbor Road (920) 847-2531

sunsetresortwi.com

$ B The Point Grille 164 Green Bay Road (920) 421-3663

thepointgrille.com

$$ L D

Photography by Caplan Studios

Opal and Blu,