Road Trip: Escape to the Dells, Eat Bluegill at Showboat Saloon
Ghost Molly’s Showboat Saloon is hard to miss when in downtown Wisconsin Dells. Photos by Kevin Gibson
One of the highlights of any vacation getaway is finding interesting restaurants and pubs at which to dine. A recent trip to the Wisconsin Dells turned up an historic place called Ghost Molly’s Showboat Saloon that was a charming, part tourist stop/part local tavern. And while I have no idea when I’ll be back in the Dells, if and when that happens, I’ll be having at least one meal at Showboat.
The oddly-shaped building, which is on an ever-narrowing corner, was built in 1907 as a tavern on the ground floor and office spaces for a railroad on the second. The original name was Stanton’s Palm Garden, a business which flourished for 13 years until, you guessed it, Prohibition forced its closure. In the interim 13 years, it operated as Stanton’s Sweet Shop.
It resumed operating as a tavern until 1965, when it became the Showboat Saloon, which focused on live music – a focus it’s kept ever since. We, of course, were there for the food.
After having worn ourselves out playing in water parks and then walking around quaint downtown Dells, we were understandably starving. The Showboat Saloon sits downtown and it had caught my eye a couple days earlier, so we set our sights on it. We found a table in the bar, but the bar was full and there was a lone bartender trying to take care of everyone. Hungry as we were, we stayed patient, and the good-natured barkeep finally made his way to us.
It was then that I understood why the place was so busy – happy hour at Showboat Saloon features half-price drafts. Like, all of them. And the craft beer list there is lengthy indeed. Suffice to say, I ended up getting an IPA for three bucks. Ridiculous.
Mmmm, bluegill.
But what made me even happier was that a staple on the menu is a delicacy we rarely see in Louisville: fried bluegill. I mean, did I have to even look at the rest of the menu?
When the bartender brought our drinks back, he took our menus and I started exploring the space, which originally was referred to as the Hiawatha Bar; it is reminiscent in the dearly departed (but returning soon) Spring Street Bar & Grill, with antiques and sports paraphernalia plastering the walls, along with signed album flats presumably from touring musical artists who’d played there in the past.
When our food came out a few minutes later (it didn’t take nearly as long as we’d figured it might, given the brisk business), it took my fiancée Cynthia’s son Nikolai about three minutes and roughly four bites to destroy the chicken bacon ranch flatbread he’d ordered for dinner. (He’s 16, so …)
Cynthia, meanwhile, ordered the house nachos, and it was quite a pile of food, strewn with seasoned ground beef, pico de gallo, black olives, jalapeno slices and slathered with melted cheese and sour cream. Cynthia is known to be one who will often get an appetizer for dinner, although she wasn’t able to inhale hers the way Nikolai did his. She said the beef reminded her of tacos you might make at home – that’s a compliment coming from her.
I did get a couple bites of the nachos, and I have to admit she chose well.
But the bluegill platter before me was my focus: It featured five crispy-fried pieces of fish, and I ordered it with mashed potatoes and gravy as the side. It also came with broccoli slaw and a piece of crispy baked bread. I mean, fried fish and mashed potatoes? It was like I was 10 again.
The breading on the fish was light and mildly peppery, allowing the clean flavor of the ever-so-lightly sweet bluegill to take center stage. And while bluegill aren’t what you’d call large fish, combining all five medallions with most of the tasty skin-in mashed potatoes, a couple bites of bread and a few munches of the surprisingly good slaw made me more full than I expected to get. And the whole platter was only around 15 bucks, as I recall.
Typing that last paragraph just made me hungry. Let’s see, the Dells are only about seven hours away …
Vintage photos below courtesy of Showboat Saloon website.
