There's a place where
you can find diners,
fine dining
and everything in between.
Join us on Discover
Wisconsin as we explore
breakfast, lunch and dinner
in Sheboygan County.
Alright.
This is Judi's place.
I'm ready
for some breakfast.
This place is known
for its home cooking
and its fun
community atmosphere.
I'm starving, so let's eat.
But first we wait in line
because it's
a really busy place.
Very popular.
What is it like to
own Judi's place
and have people talk
so highly about it?
It's kind of a privilege
to be here, seriously.
The first Judi's place.
We were off the highway
and we decided
we were going to come
to this little town
and start over.
It was a great community
and we just took a chance
and said, Let's go here.
And it just went from
one thing to the other
and it's just been
a great, great ride.
What I love about this place
is
you have odes to Goostburg
for little knickknacks,
the Dutchman's shoes.
How did you decide
on the vibe
and aura of this?
So when we came
in, we just wanted to
bring it up a notch or two,
and these
things are all local.
We've got stuff that came
from the farmers locally.
Families would bring us
the wooden shoes
handed down in their family.
They wanted them displayed.
And that's what we did.
What are the favorites here?
Favorite things here
are our skillets.
That's a really big seller.
Our pancakes,
we do a pancake of
the month.
We do have fresh
apple pancakes, German
potato pancakes.
We try to accommodate
all those different things,
whether it's gluten
free or dairy free.
We try to please
all the different
palates from the little
kids to the older people.
Now to lunch.
Where made from scratch
is the top order.
We are here in Elkhart
Lake at Lake Street Cafe.
This place is so cool.
It has a fun,
eclectic, retro vibe
and they make all
their food from scratch.
So let's go check it out.
We take you back
to the beginning
and why you wanted
to open up this cafe.
We saw all the people
from Elkhart Lake
going to Sheboygan to eat,
and we realized
there weren't
a lot of restaurants
at the time
that were open in winter.
Everyone was open in
summer during the busy race
season, tourist season.
You bought this building
and you found that huge
sign? Yes.
Right in the basement? Yep.
I thought it was
a stack of plywood
and I flipped a piece over
and it was that sign.
We kind of built
the rest around it.
We kind of grow
with the seasons
and with what customers
are looking for.
Nothing makes us happier
than to see a family
where the parents
are having a nice dinner,
a great bottle of wine,
and the kids have
their burger,
their grilled
cheese sandwich,
and everyone's happy.
I love that
you make everything
from scratch.
Why was that
important for you?
There was nothing
in this area that did fresh.
We just decided we're going
for all of our sauces
and stocks from scratch.
People know you're putting
a lot of heart into the food
that they're eating.
They can tell our
tuna appetizer is by far
one of our most popular.
We have more entree size
salads, woodfired pizzas.
It just depends on the day
and what your mood is.
Our chef Rohena is amazing.
She does an incredible job
coming up with fresh,
new ideas.
It's nice to have a new
look at what we're doing.
Does it get crazy
back in the kitchen?
Oh, yeah.
Crazy, crazy, crazy.
You see a lot of folks
coming in and out.
There's a lot to prep.
Sometimes it's like,
how are we going to do it?
It's amazing. We just do it.
Is there
another part to this?
Is there another space? Yes.
And the other side
of the building.
I can show it to
you if you'd like.
Let's do it. Let's go.
Oh, wow.
So this is the more
formal dining room.
This is a completely
different space
than that side.
I like the differences.
So maybe you have
your beer crowd over there
and then this is a nice date
night with some wine.
It's always interesting
because you think
after 22 years,
everyone's been here.
It's fun
to have someone say,
Oh my gosh,
this was my first time here.
And I love the food
and the atmosphere
and the
staff did a great job
and we base our experience
in general as the minute
someone walks in the door
until the minute
they leave, that we need to
take care of them.
We are here
at the Blind
Horse Restaurant
and winery in Kolar.
This place seems
right up my alley.
The property is stunning.
They have amazing
wine and food and
they have live music.
What more could you want?
Let's go check it out.
How did this
place come to be?
Well, the Mueller family
had the idea for a winery
and somebody pitched them
to do a restaurant as well.
So I think they wanted
to do a little
boutique winery.
And this was turned
into quite the monster now.
My wife grew up about
10 minutes from here.
We would talk about it
every time we came
and they said, you know,
we really need to
do a winery here.
And we happened to run
into the Mueller family.
My wife walked
right up to them
and said,
You need a winemaker.
We moved out here
and helped them start
this whole operation.
We really wanted to
make drier wines.
Well, that's not
what people were
really drinking.
When we started this,
people were drinking
very sweet wines.
The grapes that grow in
Wisconsin are very acidic,
and you need to add
a lot of sweetness
to that to be able
to drink it.
Every other winery told us
we'd be out of business
in five years or
making all sweet wines
in five years.
And the reality is,
eight of our top
ten selling
wines are dry wine.
I don't think anybody
thought that would happen.
Well you're speaking
my language.
I love a dry red wine.
That's all I drink.
So
it's perfect that I'm here.
And there's
nothing like this.
Not only in Wisconsin,
but it's very rare
you see anything like this
in the whole country.
The laws are such that it's
very difficult
to have a restaurant
and a winery
in the same property.
So this is a very
unique experience
for Sheboygan County
and for Wisconsin.
You can come and do
live music on the patio.
We have a separate
menu and kitchen over there
with more casual food.
Our sit down restaurant
of course.
A whiskey bourbon bar
we call The Granary.
And we've tried to make this
a very casual place
where you can come
any night, have fun,
hang out, have some wine,
get any kind of cuisine
you really like.
All right.
I am
so hungry and so excited.
We have to start with wine,
so I'm going to recommend
our silver saddle.
That's a fuller bodied wine,
cabernet based Malbec
and petite Bordeaux in it.
That's what I drank at home.
So that's what I would
recommend tonight.
Nice meeting you.
Cheers.
Oh that is good.
You can't find this
blend, you know,
it's a very unique
to the blind horse.
So we're
we're very proud of this.
On that is so good.
This experience has
been incredible.
I mean, the place
is stunning.
The food is so good.
The wine is delicious.
So
thank you
so much for having me.
Thank you.
Thank you for coming out
and taking the time.
Cheers to the blind horse.
I'll be back.
I can't believe
the culinary scene
that is happening
here is Sheboygan County.
This is one
dining experience
you'll definitely want
to take a bite of.