{"id":18146,"date":"2018-05-12T19:54:30","date_gmt":"2018-05-13T00:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/burgersdogspizza.com\/?p=18146"},"modified":"2018-05-12T19:54:30","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T00:54:30","slug":"the-sand-bar-review-twin-lakes-wi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/?p=18146","title":{"rendered":"The Sand Bar Review – Twin Lakes, WI"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sand<\/a>Stop me if you’ve heard this.\u00a0 So a few weeks ago I was on one of my food tours, back down to the Southeastern U.S., Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and one thing I was looking forward to was a lot of seafood and fish, of course.<\/p>\n

One particular item I was hot for was grouper fish, a quite common offering in Florida, I ate it a lot living there, and it’s also popular in Southeast Asia, so I had my share living there, as well.<\/p>\n

So after having my fill at all you can eat catfish buffets, I started a search for grouper. Two places had it on the menu, both were “sorry, we’re out.”\u00a0 Pretty much gave up after that.<\/p>\n

So I spot it on the menu at this boater’s bar on the Illinois\/Wisconsin border (literally). WTH?\u00a0 They bill themselves as a “Tropical Oasis in the Least Likely of Places.”\u00a0 Apparently the owner spent quite a bit of time on FLA’s west coast, and wanted to transfer a bit of the culture and cuisine to Illinois. I mean Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

It’s cutely decorated on a marine theme, with nets and decorative fish and crustaceans, as well as theme “signage,” and a list of exotic sounding tropical drinks.<\/p>\n

But I came for the grouper, fingers crossed, please don’t be “out.”\u00a0 They weren’t.\u00a0 And chef delivered.<\/p>\n

Perfectly grilled, a dusting of blackened \"The<\/a>seasoning (not actually “blackened” as the menu states, and that’s just fine, it’s a delicate fish. It’s plated as a sandwich on a toasted bun (firm enough to cradle the contents, pretzel bun available as upgrade), with a lemon zest mayo, which is an interesting addition.<\/p>\n

Lettuce, tomato and red onion slivers.\u00a0 Fries or slaw are standard accompaniments. I upgraded to get rings.<\/p>\n

Rings have medium thickness of breading with a beer based batter. Done correctly.\u00a0 Nice crisp.\u00a0 Nice sized onion.<\/p>\n

Lots more interesting things on the menu, worth a return visit.\u00a0 I’m sure curious where they source the grouper around here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sandwich is a little spendy at $15.95 plus $1.98 upcharge for the rings, but this place is probably jammed jammed jammed in season and they have a captive audience.\u00a0 If they can do, they should.\u00a0 Oh, full bar including large selection of “tropical” cocktails.<\/p>\n

Modest amount of indoor seating, outdoor patio for more temperate weather.\u00a0 Server Cate did a fine job, checking in as necessary, but not too often.<\/p>\n

Co-located facility has water toy rentals available by hour or day.\u00a0 Boat launching facilities and dock.\u00a0 Saw a sign for live bait, as well.<\/p>\n

Finally, a note to women<\/strong><\/em>. I am told that the women’s facility is small and narrow.\u00a0 To the point that the only place to put one’s purse is in the sink basin. Unfortunately, it’s an auto-on sink.\u00a0 So if you don’t want a complimentary purse wash, have a different solution.\u00a0 Might be good if a couple hooks were placed somewhere on a wall?\u00a0 That’s all.<\/p>\n

Highly recommended.\u00a0\u00a0Menu is online<\/a>\u00a0and also below.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\"The<\/a>
Grilled Grouper with Rings<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
Sand Bar Food Menu – Click to enlarge<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Sandbar<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sand<\/a>
\nThe Sand Bar Review<\/p>\n

The Sand Bar Review<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stop me if you’ve heard this.\u00a0 So a few weeks ago I was on one of my food tours, back down to the Southeastern U.S., Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and one thing I was looking forward to was a lot of seafood and fish, of course. One particular item I was hot for was grouper fish,… Continue reading The Sand Bar Review – Twin Lakes, WI<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,27,31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18146"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}