717 S. Sylvania AvenueWe got kind of lucky with this last figure skating competition. All of L’s events were pretty close together. Sure, they were spread over three days, but on the first day, she had three events. It’s not at all unusual for those events to be scheduled at 8 AM, 2 PM, and 6 PM meaning we spend the entire day at the rink.
That wasn’t the case at the Southport Summer Classic. First event was just before 9 AM and the last was done by 1:30. We had the whole evening to actually do something other than crash from exhaustion.
L’s coach wanted all of her skaters to hang out in the afternoon. It was a pretty windy day but we decided to go to Simmons Island Park in Kenosha and hang out in the beach. The waves were huge and it was cold so we couldn’t actually get in the water but the girls ran up and down the beach and looked for rocks to skip.
We spent an hour or so there then everyone was heading back to their hotel for the night. We hadn’t had a good meal yet and it was still fairly early.
We didn’t really know where to go. We had an Extra Kid with us for a couple of days and we had to take her dietary restrictions in to account to. She kept asking for Taco Bell or Culvers but we didn’t want to do fast food.
I remembered a place I saw back by our hotel that looked interesting. It was a bar but it was part of a gas station. We looked at the menu and it worked for everyone.
Blue Badger Bar & Grill is an interesting spot. The restaurant is located inside Racine Petro station on Sylvania Avenue and Highway 20 just off I-94. There are a few other dining options at this gas station that’s more of a travel plaza but the bar takes up a pretty big portion of the building.
The restaurant takes up the upper level of the building. There’s a Dunkin, a Taco Bell, and a Danish pastry shop on the bottom level to one side of the building. There is a stairway right as you walk in bringing you up to the Blue Badger.
BUT, that’s only if you want to eat in. If you’re grabbing a to-go meal, there’s an Airstream Trailer on the bottom level. You can order anything on the menu from the Airstream and take it to go.
We went upstairs and found a table along the outside windows. The space on the upper level looks like any typical sports bar. There’s a big horseshoe bar on one end and a mixture of tables squeezed in to the rest of the space.
On a nice night, there’s even a great outdoor space overlooking I-94…but it was not a nice night so pretty much everyone opted to sit inside.
Here’s where things get interesting. There’s only one server in the whole restaurant. On each table, there is a QR code that is linked to the table. You put the order in and pay for on your phone.
When the food is done, it’s sent from the kitchen behind the Airstream downstairs via a basket to the upper level. The server grabs the boxes out of the basket and delivers them to your table.
J and I both started with drinks. I stuck with a simple beer and ordered the IPA from Lakefront Brewing in Milwuakee. It’s a solid IPA. Nothing fancy but man, did it hit the spot after sitting at an ice rink all day.
J went a little fancier and ordered the Up Nort’ Old Fashioned. Instead of whiskey, this was made with Dells Distillery Ginger brandy, simple syrup, cherries, bitters, and sprite. J loved this brandy. I looked all over for it the next day but couldn’t find a bottle. Not sure if they don’t distribute or what, but she really liked this drink and really wanted a bottle of that brandy.
There was a lot on the menu that looked but, as usual, I was in a burger mood. I picked The Tailgater which is a simple 1/2 lb Braveheart Black Angus patty topped with bacon jam on a pretzel bun. I added on cheddar cheese for $1 and extra bacon for a little more too. This sandwich was so much better than I expected it to be. The meat was super tender and the kind of beef that just melts in your mouth. The bacon was crispy and the pretzel bun is strong enough to hold everything together but soft enough it doesn’t make it tough to eat. I got the Garlic Parm fries on the side which had a little bit of a garlic parmesan seasoning on them but also a lot of salt and pepper.
L wanted the soft pretzel which comes with The Polka Plate. I had them seperate the sausage from the pretzel so L wouldn’t freak. You know how kids do that. The pretzel was a huge soft pretzel from Milwaukee Pretzel Company that came with Dusseldorf mustard and beer cheese. The pretzel was so big, L ate only about a half and took the rest back to the hotel for later. As is typical, I took the mustard for my fries and J took the beer cheese for hers. L loves soft pretzels but doesn’t like dipping them.
About that sausage, the pretzel also comes with a sliced brat. I asked for it to be put in a seperate container otherwise L probably wouldn’t have eaten the pretzel. I’m not a big brat guy but I ended up eating it. I took a piece just to try it and it was really tasty so I went back for more.
The Extra Kid wanted mac and cheese and we let her talk us into a large. The Mac & Cheese comes from Krispy Krunchy Chicken which is available at the Airstream downstairs. It came in two small cups so we easily could have just ordered the small and she’d have never known the difference but she said she was hungry and wanted the large. She ate almost one of the two cups. The second went back to the hotel for later.
Our bill for dinner was about $75.
I really like the concept for Blue Badger Bar & Grill. The ordering yourself and paying online was kind of great. The meal moved at our own pace. We could take our time ordering and get everything customized the way we wanted it pretty easily. The food was also really good.
We picked Blue Badger Bar & Grill because it was close to our hotel and we were tired. We wanted to get a meal then let the girls go swim for a while. We got the quick tasty meal we were hoping for.