Well, I can’t tell if this is the most epic blog or the most embarrassing blog post I will have ever written. If you can believe it, I ate all of the food listed below from a Friday afternoon to a Sunday morning. I may never eat again, but I’m not going to lie…it was AH-MAZING. And even though the food stood on it’s own, the company I had in my dear friends Dana & Adie made the experience even better, so cheers ladies!

We started out at the Old German Beer Hall, and despite me being a fan of Bud Light (yes, I’m made fun of for this constantly, so I get it), I certainly enjoyed the tall, cold Hefeweizen I ordered to go along with my delicious fish fry. And of course, there were fried cheese curds dipped in ranch.

Okay, then let’s just say there were a LOT of beers, maybe a martini, possibly even a shot between the fish fry and us maybe, maybe, maybe (okay we did) hitting up an Applebees at 12:30am to get some nachos. The clarity of this picture should describe the tone which with this decision was made. Don’t judge.

Alas, we made it to bed and woke up, let’s say, extra hungry. So we located this cute 2-floor restaurant outside of town, Cafe Hollander. I got jalapeno cheddar biscuits topped with fried eggs and chorizo gravy with a side of fried potatoes. It was just what the doctor ordered.

After a couple hours of antiquing we were once again famished and had driven by this Smoke Shack and thought it looked interesting. Also seeing the smoke drifting up from the back where there were likely meats being smoked for hours made it a done deal. I’ve had some pretty good BBQ in my day, mostly from Texas (yeehaw), but this is some seriously good BBQ, probably better than anything I’ve had in Chicago. I had the pulled pork sandwich doused in their Kansas City BBQ sauce with a side of creamy coleslaw and 4-cheese mac & cheese. Oh Lord.

After a low key night we woke up and headed to the Milwaukee Public Market and browsed the amazing vendors. Lots to look at, lots of fresh seafood, pastries, chocolate, preserves, meats, etc.

We just grabbed a quick pastry before we hit the road (I had raspberry) and it was so buttery, flaky and delicious, I would consider going back just to get another one.

Then it was time to hit the road and put my gorging behind us (or so I thought). Anyone who has ever driven from Chicago to Wisconsin knows about the Mars Cheese Castle – it’s a must hit if you’re ever driving north on I-94. It’s full of beer, cheese and meats (let’s just refer to this as the golden tri-fecta from here on out.)

Then, despite not being very hungry (you only live once, right?) I decided to order the best chili cheese dog I’ve ever had.

With that my blogosphere friends, I will be eating salads for the next week. But damn, it was worth it!