Sunday morning we awoke to a breakfast of coddled eggs with ham and hollandaise over English muffins. This is the breakfast we liked the most at The Bailey House and is a variation of eggs benedict made with coddled or shirred eggs, which is basically a fancy version of eggs with milk and butter baked in a ramekin.
After a few cups of coffee (flavored, much to Scott’s chagrin) and a darling little muffin cooked in a tiny terra cotta pot, we checked out of our room and headed to downtown Lake Geneva where we stopped at Flemings, Ltd, 711 Main Street, one of our favorite Irish shops, and a wine store called Pop More Corks, 617 Main Street.
Pop More Corks was great for a few reasons, most notably that the owner was spot on in his assessment of his wine stock; he claimed he sampled everything he had on the shelves, and after listening to his notes on a few of the varietals I am familiar with, I am quite certain he has sampled everything there. His specialties are great bottles of wine for under $20/bottle, although he did have some fun reds running up into closer to $100/bottle. We settled on a Vouvray which wasn’t knock our socks off good, but for $11, was still something a little out of the norm for a moderately priced bottle of wine.
We headed out back towards Milwaukee and swung by what is quite possibly the home of the best mushrooms ever, in Slades Corners, Unincorporated. River Valley Kitchens has a technical address of 39900 West 60th Street, Burlington, and is about 8 miles outside of Lake Geneva. We stopped by and picked up a pound of portabellas, some sweet and spicy Asian nuts, and a killer five cheese and garlic spread. (When we got home, I mixed a couple tablespoons of the spread with ricotta cheese, spinach, artichoke hearts and parmesan, and stuffed the mushrooms with them on the grill for dinner. Yum. And even better when we fanned slices of grilled tenderloin over the tops.)
A little ways down the highway, we found the Sly Fox Inn, 32800 Geneva Rd., where we walked into some excellent bar food. For $26.88, we had a great Texas style cheeseburger, a French dip sandwich with au jus, homemade French fries, and two Bud Lights each. This place rocks for a midday sandwich and a cold beer. They have a huge outdoor patio, everything inside smells sweetly of wood, and the bar is a giant horseshoe packed with locals and travelers alike.
Fat and happy, we headed back to Milwaukee and away from our weekend away, but with an entire new reserve of new great places to eat, drink and relax, all only about an hour away from home.
Amy L. Schubert is a 15-year veteran of the hospitality industry and has worked in every aspect of bar and restaurant operations. A graduate of Marquette University (B.A.-Writing Intensive English, 1997) and UW-Milwaukee (M.A.-Rhetoric, Composition, and Professional Writing, 2001), Amy still occasionally moonlights as a guest bartender and she mixes a mean martini.
The restaurant business seems to be in Amy’s blood, and she prides herself in researching and experimenting with culinary combinations and cooking techniques in her own kitchen as well as in friends’ restaurants. Both she and her husband, Scott, are avid cooks and “wine heads,” and love to entertain friends, family and neighbors as frequently as possible.
Amy and Scott live with their boys, Alex and Nick, in Bay View, where they are all very active in the community. Amy finds great pleasure in sharing her knowledge and passions for food and writing in her contributions to OnMilwaukee.com.
