5 Things we learned making this year’s Eat Scene & Night Out local restaurant and bar guides
It's out! Nestled within the current issue of Volume One, you'll find the 2015 edition of our Eat Scene & Night Out restaurant and bar guide – two great guides that taste great together (do not eat them). Get on out there and grab one. And as usual, when you spend a lot of time updating a directory of over 300 local eateries and almost 200 local taverns, you learn a thing or two.
1. That Sounds Familiar
After spending weeks revising and updating our dining and drinking guide, we’ve had lots of time to ponder the sometimes unusual monikers of local joints. For instance, the Chippewa Valley is home to establishments that share the name of songs (The Grand Illusion on Water Street), films (Weekend at Bernie’s in Chippewa Falls, The Great Escape in Menomonie), and legendary works of art (Mona Lisa’s), not to mention obscure 1920s slang (Bug Eyed Betty’s).
2. The Name's the Same
Don’t confuse Firehouse Subs with The Fire House: The latter is a craft beer-lover’s paradise in downtown Eau Claire (above); the former is a purveyor of hot, gourmet submarine sandwiches on Prill Road.
3. Footlongs Aplenty
The restaurant with the most locations in our listings is Subway, with 13. That shouldn’t be a surprise: Subway is the largest restaurant chain in the U.S. (with more than 25,000 locations). No. 2 locally is Dairy Queen: There are 10 places in the Valley where you can get your Blizzard on.
4. It's Pronounced 'Ay-too-fey'
Etouffee is a hard-to-pronounce but easy-to-love Cajun dish served at Stella Blues. The dish’s name is derived for the French word for “suffocated” or “smothered,” a description of how the traditional crayfish (or shrimp, tofu, or chicken) mixed with onions and celery is covered in a spicy Creole sauce.
5. Mealtime Menagerie
A surprising number of restaurants and taverns in the Valley are named after animals, from the avian (Red Robin, Golden Eagle, Chick-A-Dee’s) to the antlered (Caribou Coffee, Smiling Moose) to the aquatic (Sea Horse Inn, Guppy’s, Red Lobster).
