Fox Cities Signature Dishes

The Fox Valley is home to countless food establishments serving mouth-watering dishes, but if you were to recommend just a few, which would you choose to best represent our vibrant restaurant scene? Whether it’s a delicacy with a generations-old history or a new innovation taking the community by storm, the Fox Cities has a handful of signature dishes that many would recommend first. Here are five we think everyone should try once-or over and over again.

To say cheese curds are a classic in Wisconsin is an understatement. While other states have five lesser categories on their food pyramid, ours has the only one needed for the soul: the almighty curd. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have standards. To keep hungry Wisconsinites coming back, a restaurant’s cheese curds need to be top of the line and a little innovative, too. Here in the Fox Cities, that place is Stone Arch Brewpub. Established in 2004, the brewpub offered cheese curds along with their lineup of craft beers, and owner Steve Lonsway says they were a hit from the start, thanks to Stone Arch’s unconventional approach that steered away from the breading-heavy curd with which we’re most familiar.  “We use kind of a lighter breading mixed with our Scottish ale, but first and foremost, the emphasis is on the cheese,” Lonsway says. “It’s a real high grade cheese, so you get a great texture from the breading, but it doesn’t overwhelm you, and you get the real creaminess of the cheese inside. Yeah, I’m salivating now.”Like a good book, cheese curds should have a hook to draw people in. For Stone Arch cheese curds, that’s their distinctive shape found nowhere else. “They’re actually cube shaped, almost like white dice without the numbers on them. That’s the first thing that catches people’s eyes.”

More so than the Fox Cities or Wisconsin, the burger is very much America’s signature dish, and easily the most ubiquitous American food that comes to most people’s minds. Unfortunately, those local fast-food burger joints that made America’s favorite food a cultural legacy in the first place are increasingly becoming a thing of the past, replaced instead by multinational fast food chains. In fact, while just about every community has at least one fast food chain, very few have a local alternative. Fortunately, this isn’t the case in our community–since 1958, Mihm’s has been the go-to place for every Fox Citian craving a great burger. At Mihm’s, the burgers are all grilled over charcoal, which helped it differentiate itself from other fast-food restaurants-which typically opted for broiling or griddle cooking-when it opened. Today, even after owners Janet and Randy Haufe took over the businesses from Rudy and Esther Mihm, that tradition continues on. “[Our burgers] have a phenomenal outdoor grilled flavor,” Janet says. “Our saying is ‘outdoor taste from an inside place,’ and we totally believe it.” Mihm’s offers both ground chuck hamburgers and sirloin steak burgers grilled with a generous portion of butter, and either of these go great with any of Mihm’s “plethora of sides.” Crinkle-cut fries are a classic combo, but Janet also recommends cheddar poppers, cheese curds, or broccoli bites, as well as anything new they’re test-running.“We’re always bringing out new things like deep-fried pickles and tater tots. Those have become a mainstay now-we’re gonna keep the tots. But we put them out there for a special price so people can have fun and try something new.”

Originally opening in 1848, Van Abel’s of Hollandtown has been in the Fox Valley almost as long as Americans have called chicken a staple comfort food. Van Abel’s has always been well-known for its chicken recipes, but 1965 was when Van Abel’s became a household Fox Cities name after becoming early adopters of Broasted chicken just 12 years after a Beloit, Wisconsin company invented the Broasting machine. Decades later, after several generations of Van Abel’s owners and after Broasted chicken has become a supper club staple, Van Abel’s chicken still comes out on top in the community. Co-owner and general manager Chris Coenen says this is due to their longstanding presence in Kaukauna as well as their commitment to quality. “We get a lot of word of mouth,” Coenen says. “And we take a lot of extra care in how we handle our product. We’re very picky in our standards. All of our chicken is hand-cut, not processed.” Even after 55 years, the recipe hasn’t changed. According to Coenen, most people order the Broasted chicken all-you-can-eat family style, and no expense is spared on the chicken or the sides, which include mashed potatoes, green beans, coleslaw, and more, many of which have their own lengthy history and special recipes. “We cut our own coleslaw and make our own dressing, and lots of butter goes with our mashed potatoes,” Coenen says. “It comes with our homemade green beans. That’s another recipe that’s been around forever.”

Ready to feel old? Vande Walle’s Candies came to Appleton in 1988, and that means nearly two generations of Fox Citians grew up with Vande Walle’s candy alongside Easter, Christmas,Valentine’s Day, and even if it wasn’t a holiday, eating good chocolate is a celebration in itself. And as many in the Fox Valley would attest, it was Vande Walle’s that helped bring that nostalgia via its 95 varieties of fine chocolates, including the one people crave the most: angel food candy.“ We rolled it out the very first year in 1988,” says owner Steve Vande Walle. “Originally, it just started out as a seasonal candy for the Christmas season. And then in January, people asked,‘Can you make one more batch?’ And so we made another batch, and then in February, they came back and asked, ‘Can you keep making it?’ This kept happening until Easter.”The angel food candy has since become a mainstay as a seasonal treat, available in fall, winter, and early spring when the air is dry and humidity is low enough to make the candy in ideal conditions.“ Every day we spend all day long making angel food during that angel food season, and we hire someone to just do that candy. And still it sells out some days.” Vande Walle says angel food has endured the decades because of its superb flavor and unique “light and airy center.” “When we coat it in chocolate and you bite into the candy, the center will melt away quicker than the chocolate in your mouth,” Vande Walle says.

After Wisconsin’s Safer At Home order was issued on March 25 to limit the spread of COVID-19, restaurants were one of the many industries hit hard, now unable to offer dine-in services.Fortunately, many restaurants in the Fox Cities have risen to the occasion, offering innovative solutions to keep the community fed with a constant eye on public health and safety. One notable case comes from Mark’s East Side and their approach to the Friday fish fry and the incredible community response it’s received. Mark’s Friday fish fry is well known, and it’s where the Fox Valley has gone to get high-quality Icelandic batter-fried haddock since 1967. But a fish fry is very much a dine-in experience, served across multiple helpings. So owners Mark Dougherty and Alex Shea were left with a tough question: How do you have a Friday fish fry during lent and a pandemic? Their answer: If the community can’t come in for fish fry, they’ll bring it to them, drive-thru style. “Alex and I sat down, and we have a friend in Milwaukee who does a drive-thru and is set up for it every Friday,” Dougherty says. “So I thought, ‘What the hell, let’s just go for it.’” Their plan wasn’t without obstacles, though: Mark’s parking lot isn’t normally equipped to handle drive-thru traffic, for one thing, but after setting up two payment lanes, signs, and food pickup stalls, their makeshift drive-thru was ready. According to Dougherty, the initial turnout on April 3 was much better than expected, so much so that traffic jammed on the streets surrounding the restaurant. “All the sudden, the cars were parked everywhere, all the way to Scuba’s Pourhouse one way, all the way down the side street the other way,” Dougherty says. “The police were here,scratching their heads about what they can do about this. We asked if we could expand the lanes in the parking lot to get more cars off the street [and residential areas] and in our lot, so we did that and then we revamped it the next week.” Implementing drive-thru services has been an ongoing process, but Dougherty says week two was when they really started getting a handle on things. “We had eight pickup lanes, two pay lanes, traffic control. The city worked well with me. They even put up a directional traffic regular city sign down on Wisconsin Avenue. That was awesome.” Dougherty says he was floored by all the community members’ support as they drove through to partake in Mark’s weekly fish fry tradition. “People really enjoy it, they can factor that they don’t have to get out of their car, they’re safe in their cars,” Dougherty says. “We had over 1,200 boxes go out on Friday [April 10]. 1,200.” If that doesn’t make Mark’s fish fry a Fox Cities signature dish, we don’t know what does.