I first learned about Sliders new patio from an article in the local paper.  What intrigued me about this patio was that it has a heated concrete floor, outdoor fireplaces and cost 100,000!  I later heard from Tom over at foxvalleyfun.com that this new patio was beautiful and worth checking out.  If you are looking for more outdoor patios to enjoy check out the patio finder at foxvalleyfun.com.

Sliders is a sports bar in Menasha. They have Friday night fish and live music on Saturday nights. Today our visit was only to check out the new patio, we did not have time to eat.

This patio is a large two tier patio surrounded by decorative fence and stone pillars. The lower level has a heated concrete floor, a S shaped brick formation with a fireplace on each end. There is even a heated waterfall. A creative way to extend the short summer season. There was country / soft rock music playing while we there. Drink service was excellent.  I am looking forward to going back after hours to see the fireplaces and lights in action.

Sliders information:
website - slidersbarandgrill.com
phone -  831-9550
address- 890 Country Rd. LP - Menasha, WI 54952
google map

Brian Sports Bar

September 25 - 26 2009

Since 1981, Octoberfest has been bringing people to downtown Appleton in the spirit of community pride and celebration. Thanks to your support, Octoberfest is able to provide a fundraising venue to many local not-for-profit organizations. Many of the groups say Octoberfest is their largest fund raiser of the year! Plus, Octoberfest has been able to give grants to the Appleton Police and Fire Departments, Appleton Art Center, Appleton Downtown Incorporated and the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center.

Top 5 reasons to why Octoberfest should be on your event calendar:

• Over 300 vendor and exhibitor stands serving a wide variety of ethnic and traditional foods, one of a kind arts and crafts, and variety of other items you won’t find anywhere else.
• Family Fun Area featuring games, entertainers and rides
• License to Cruise, a classic and collectors’ car show on Friday, September 25, 2009.
• 5 Stages of Live Music from some of the area’s top performers.
• Best of all, you and your family and friends can enjoy all three days for FREE!
• Food Booths will operate from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Saturday.

Proceeds from Appleton’s Octoberfest are directed to causes that support the quality of life in the Appleton area. This strong history of giving back to the community has helped Octoberfest to grow into one of the largest events in the state of Wisconsin.

For all the information on Octoberfest please see there website at octoberfestonline.org

Brian Event

UPDATE: Luck’s is no longer open for business - 12/1/09

Lucky’s bar and Grill is located in Appleton in the former Grazies building, just off Hwy KK.  We found a coupon in the Val Pack mailer and decided to give it a try. We did not have any idea on what to expect.  We thought it would be similar to Red Robin or Applebees. Lucky’s turned out to be much more of a sports bar than we had anticipated.  Not that this is a bad thing, as I personally love hanging out in a sports bar with a few hundred wings and a few sodas.  It was just not what we were looking for on a Saturday night.  We decided to make the best of it since it was getting late and our 5 year old was “going to die soon” if she did not eat.

Atmosphere: Lucky’s is an attractive brick building that is hard to miss with a large steeple over the front doors. There is an outside seating area just outside the front doors, but it was definately more of a drinking patio than a place for dining.  We both commented that this seating area looks strange in some way, like its part of the parking lot.  When you enter the front doors you are instantly greeted by a hostess. Next to the hostess is 2 large flat screen tvs on a table.  Both tv’s equipted with gaming systems, one of them had guitar hero loaded up.  Definately a nice touch for the avid gamer.  The concept of gaming systems for patrons is a cool idea that I have never seen before.  The overall atmosphere is much more bar than restaurant.   There is an open ceiling with exposed duct work and xmas lights all over.  Below are a few pictures taken from our both to give you a feel for the bar/dining area.  Directly off of the main area is a banquet room.  It was not be used while we were there.

Food: We were not expecting much more than basic bar food.  We were pleasantly surprised at the variety available on the menu.  Some of the menu options include, steak fajitas, lasagna, walleye, and even a Jack Daniels ribeye.  Not to mention brats from one of my favorite places in the world Haens Meat Market!  Someone knew what they were doing when creating this menu:)  I dont want to get off track, but if you have never been Haens you owe yourself a visit!  I believe it to be the best meat market in the area.

Service here was average at best. There were not many people in the restaurant and we needed to walk up to the bar and ask for our waitress. We decided to start our meal with hand breaded fair style cheese curds. Soon as I read that I had flashbacks of the cheese curd booth at Country USA, the best curds I had ever had. Is it bad that I remember that? These curds were a close second, no regrets on this order.

For our meals I chose steak fajitas, my wife picked the portabella quesadilla and my daughter had the cheese pizza..shocker. Our meals took longer then we thought they should have but that might have been because of the wood fire pizza. The pizza description reads “We guarantee you’ll love our wood fired, hand-tossed beer and honey dough crust”. The same dough was also used on the quesadillas. When are meals arrived we were pleasantly surprised, everything looked great! The only bar food we had was truly the cheese curds.  Very happy with the entrees.

I was lucky enough to grab a piece of my daughters pizza before she gobbled it down. Its hard to critique plain cheese pizza, but what I had was good. I would love to try the supreme. The fajitas came with a large plate of toppings. Salsa, tomato, guacamole, sour cream, lettuce, two kinds of cheese and four shells. The steak came on a sizzling plate with caramelized onions and green peppers. Everything looked fresh and there was plenty of food, even for me.   The onions were sweet, the steak was good and I was happy with my meal. I looked across the table at my wife who I could tell was also enjoying her meal. The picture above is a little deceiving, I wish I would have snapped another picture of the inside of the quesadilla. It was filled with portabella mushrooms, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions, goat cheese and spinach. The bite I had was good, I enjoyed it more then my fajitas. I am also a sucker for goat cheese.  Only positive things can I say about the entrees.  Atmosphere was not our style, but who can complain about $1 tap beer.

Conclusion: This was a slightly awkward visit for us. When we walked in, the interior of Lucky’s did not match its beautiful exterior design.  After having a meal better then we expected, we left as happy customers.  Lucky’s is not somewhere to bring the family if you have young children like we do. This would be a great place to meet friends for a fun meal, go to happy hour, or hang out on Sunday to watch the games. If this is the atmosphere you enjoy then you should check them out and let us know what you think.

Our bill for an appetizer, 3 meals, 2 sodas and a few beers was $36.00

Lucky’s information:
website - luckysbarappleton.com
phone - 996-9999
address - W6157 Lorna Ln. Appleton, Wi 54915
menu - website
google map

Brian $9-$15, Casual, Sports Bar

We are very excited to announce our new forum. We want to invite everyone to share their own experiences and become part of the community here at Taste of the Fox Valley. We will do everything we can to keep it spam free and family friendly.

Enter the Forum!

Brian Wine Bar

Wild Truffle Pizzeria and Italian Bistro opened July 13th 2009.  A few weeks ago,  my wife had lunch at Wild Truffle with a friend.  She liked it and suggested we go back for dinner.  Since the grand opening was only a little over a month ago,  I had not heard much about the restaurant.  I was not sure what to expect ,so I asked around on twitter.  I heard positive feedback from happy patrons of  Wild Truffle and from the  Olive Cellar, which happens to be a supplier to the restaurant.  If you are interested in learning more about the Olive Cellar or Taste of the Fox Valley, you can  follow on Twitter  @theoliveceller or Taste of the Fox Valley at @wallaper.  Back to business, so we arrived at Truffle around 7:30.  A little late for most, but that is when our childcare arrived!

Atmosphere: As we pulled into the full parking lot my wife said “you know this is the only business in this new strip mall right?” Really?  This busy this late on a Thursday night?   This is a good sign and we are in no particular hurry to get home.

We were greeted by the hostess who took our name and said it would be about a 20 minute wait.  At this point, we thought no problem, we will be at the bar.  20 minutes is the perfect amount of time to wait for a table.  This is exactly when things got interesting!  The hostess informed there  is no bar available for patrons waiting for tables.  Ok, now I am in shock.  This is Wisconsin people.  No bar is like a night without stars, a day without sun..  ok, you get the picture.  There is  a lovely outdoor seating area and the weather was comfortable, so we said, we will have a drink on the patio.  We were then told that the patio is reserved for diners enjoying their meals..  We were then asked to step outside, yes I said outside to the parking lot.  They said a waiter would come to the parking lot to take our drink order.  So we stepped back outside and joined about 6 others standing around.  Luckily they sent a waiter out to take drink orders while we waited.  I have to say that we did get some decent laughs out of this experience.

Let’s talk about some of the specifics of the restaurant..  Well from what we can remember as we are in the parking lot : )  As you enter Wild Truffle, you will be immediately greeted by a hostess in the main dining area.   Unique tile covered tables fill the room until you get to the  far end where there is a good size white granite bar for diners.  What is awesome about eating at the bar area is the wood fired oven and the chefs are right there making the various entrees.  Every entree is prepared in the wood fired oven, which is a great feature.  The chefs preparing the entrees and pizza serve as a great source of entertainment.

The walls are painted a rich color of green with framed artistic art of various food related items.   The ceiling is also unlike anything I have seen locally. It reminds me of a pergola you would see above a outdoor deck with lighting above that, very nice touch. Everything is new and impressive. There is also some big band / Frank Sinatra music playing in the background.  There is a large outdoor seating area which is located off of the main dining area.

Food: From the home page of Wild Truffles website “Our mission is being known as the finest artisan pizzeria in U.S.”  The menu here is not large but it sure is great. While glancing over the “starters” you see items like sweet Italian sausage, goat cheese and wood fired shrimp. They have salads, a few pasta dishes like butternut squash ravioli and lemon shrimp spaghetti…yum!  The main portion of the menu as you would guess is pizza.

We decided to start with an appetizer before our dinner arrived, tonight our choice was Wood-Fired Tomato & Wisconsin Goat Cheese Fondue with smoked garlic-rubbed crostinis. Other then the crostinis being a little hard and chewy it was a great appetizer.
My wife ordered the baby spinach salad consisting of wood roasted crimini mushrooms, balsamic onions, roasted red peppers, white truffle champagne vinaigrette, herbed ricotta and toasted pine nuts.
I had to try the pizza so decided on the Sweet Italian Sausage pizza. The toppings are roasted crimini mushrooms, balsamic onions, fire-roasted tomato sauce, whole milk mozzarella, imported Italian grana, padano and Italian parsley. Makes me hungry just remembering it!

Both meals were delivered and looked beautiful. Well, a salad is a salad but my pizza looked amazing! The first thing about the pizza that catches your eye is the crust. It was a perfect golden brown, puffy and what looked like a thin layer of butter on the crust. I had to dig into it before I could even snap any pictures. Click the pics for a larger view. The pizza was good but I was not wowed, there was just something missing. It needed a little sweetness or some saltiness, just something to make your mouth wake up and say yum! Dont get me wrong, this pizza was good. Just not as good as it looked.

For desert we ordered Mt. Vesuvius Italian Red Raspberry Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Gelato. This was delicious in every way, nothing but happy.

Conclusion: This Pizzeria has alot going for it and we will definitely be back. Service here was great, and the prices were reasonable. An appetizer, 1 pizza, 1 dinner salad, desert, 2 beers and 2 glasses wine was a total of $60. Take a look at the menu links below for more details.

I was lucky enough to talk to the owner during out visit and I asked him what he is doing about the lack of a waiting area  and the lack of a bar for patrons.  He mentioned that there is more room next to the current restaurant and they are considering an addition.  I could tell by the look on his face he has heard that question a time or 10.

Wild Truffle information:
Web site - wildtrufflepizza.com
Phone Number - 920-733-3330
Fax - 920-733-3447
Address - 5120 W. Michaels Dr. Appleton, WI 54913
Hours - Mon - Thur 11:00am - 10pm
Fri - Sat 11:00am - 11:00pm
Menus (pdf) - Main Drink
Google Map

Brian $9-$15, Casual, Italian