This week we are visiting Plae Bistro in Green Bay. A casual atmosphere serving contemporary American cuisine.  Owner Jill Bassett refers to Plae as “a place  to laugh and eat”, definitely two of my favorite things in life.  Plae came highly recommended from a friend who lives in Green Bay, we gladly took the short road trip to see what they have to offer.

Atmosphere: Entering the front doors of Plae Bistro you are greeted by a beautiful, dimly lit, rich colored interior.  There is one main room filled with tables and a bar at the far end.  The room reminded me a bit of Wild Truffle, although Truffle did put more emphasis on interior design.  I tried to get some pictures but there was not enough light to shoot anything decent. The pictures below are terrible , but give you an idea of the interior.

Food: Plae’s menu offers a little something for everyone.  From gourmet pizzas, sandwiches to entrees, you are sure to find something that pleases you.    There is an extensive wine list and several specialty items such as martinis and mojitos.  Make sure to hit the menu link below to check it out.  Since we were with friends tonight we decided to sample two appetizers, you know… for the blogs sake.  We started with bruschetta and spinach & artichoke dip.  Appetizers were a tough choice tonight, lots of good selections here. The dip was definitely the better of the two.  The pita points that came with the dip were ok, but the bread bowl and the dip were excellent.  We all enjoyed them.   The bruschetta was average, nice presentation, but lacking in flavor.

Time to order entrees and once again everything sounded great.  My wife and her best friend chose the apple brie stuffed chicken breast with risotto and sweet potato as their sides. They both seemed to like the chicken, but said without the cherry sauce topping it would have been a little on the plain side.  The one thing that was missing was the true flavor of the brie in the dish.  The risotto was amazing though.  Prepared to perfection.  One of our friends ordered the pan seared salmon.  He talked very highly on how the salmon was prepared and was very happy with his selection.  I decided on cajun shrimp & andouille sausage pasta. The menu describes it as sautéed in a spicy oil & herb sauce tossed with penne pasta & topped with tomatoes and fresh basil. My dinner was excellent. It was rich, flavorful and everything was done just right. My only complaint was that I wanted more! lol.  Bread with olive oil and some chopped black olives were also served with dinner.

We tried three different deserts, as you can see below each one looked beautiful and tasted great.  From left to right they are pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate lava cake and orange creamsicle cake.  If I had to choose a favorite I would choose the cheesecake.

Our bill tonight with an appetizer, 3 drinks 2 entrees and 2 deserts was $62.00 + tip.

Conclusion: Overall we had a great time, and good food.  The atmosphere was nice and our service was excellent.  What a refreshing change of pace to have excellent service!  If your looking for a good place for “date night”  this is one to visit.

Plae Bistros information:
address - 2615 Decuria Lane, Suite 10 | Green Bay WI
phone - 920.632.7065
email - jill@plaebistro.com
google map
menu (pdf) - lunch and dinner - drink -wine

Brian $16-$22, $9-$15, Casual

Brian Event

Bates City BBQ is located in Appleton close to the Northland mall.  Not only do I love eating BBQ, I consider it a hobby!  I have 2 smokers and enjoy making ribs and pulled pork on the weekends.  Between constantly tweaking my own recipes and learning from great sites like thesmokering.com I know what I like in BBQ.  This week I am visiting Bates City BBQ on my lunch hour.

Atmosphere: As you look at the front of the building you see stacks of wood on either side of the front door and a large BAR-B-QUE sign in the window.  It instantly got me excited for some real authentic BBQ.  Stepping through the front doors you are greeted by that fantastic smell of smoke you get from your charcoal grill or smoker.  You can choose to sit in either a both or at a table.   Some of the walls have tongue and groove wood giving the place a warm and cozy feeling.  You choose your meal from a large menu on the wall before placing your order. Food is served cafeteria style, served on paper plates and trays.  Your meal is prepared behind the counter and you take your food to your table.   After receiving your food there is a traditional soda dispenser and a condiment counter.

Food: The menu consists of everything BBQ, ribs, pulled pork, chicken and brisket to name a few. I wanted to try a little of everything so I ordered the brisket and rib combo plate.  Luckily with a little persuasion my friend ordered the pulled pork sandwich.  After ordering I was immediately not liking what I saw!  I saw them take a large tupperware container full or ribs out of a refrigerator.  The meat was put on my plate then popped into the microwave.  A microwave?  I thought at lunch time they would pull a rack of ribs out of the large smoker behind the counter and cut me off a few.  Same story with my friends pulled pork, out of the fridge and into a microwave.

My plate came with 2 spare ribs, 6 to 8 thin slices of brisket and a bun. Sides and soda are extra, I ordered coleslaw. My friend received a decent  sized sandwich and french fries.  The ribs and brisket both looked good, ribs were juicy and they both had a good smoke ring.

The flavor side of things was a different story.  The brisket was definitely on the dry side, without some sauce on these I would have just passed.  The ribs were done just right, very tender but yet you had to bite them off the bone, just the way I liked them.  Although tender and done right flavor was also lacking here.  It was just plain pork in my opinion.  I really enjoy the flavor from the rub and smoke to compliment the pork, I was not getting any of that.  My friends comments were about the same as mine, without some sauce this sandwich it was just to dry.  Both the french fries and cole slaw were very good.

My lunch combo plate, a side of cole slaw and a soda was $10.50.

Conclusion: I really like the atmosphere of Bates City and the service was great. Unfortunately I was let down by the food and left unsatisfied.  This was my first visit and would love to hear your experiences either as a comment on this post or in our forums.

Bates Information:
Website - bcbarbque.com
menu (pdf)
Phone # -  920-882-2959
Address -  651 W. Ridgeview Appleton, WI
Hours - Monday - Thursday 10:30am - 8pm
Friday - Saturday 10:30am - 9pm
Sunday 11am - 6pm
Google map

Brian $0-$8, $9-$15, BBQ, Casual