The Boat Bar opens for cocktails and revelry tomorrow, July 2nd at 5 pm. We have a beautiful black granite bar top thanks to Kevin Buzicky from Lake Superior Kitchen and Bath. We are bringing Yappy Hour back this year- every other Thursday stop by with your dog and have a drink in Wisconsin’s first and only boat bar. Hope to see you at the boat bar this weekend- have a drink and start the holiday weekend off right!

Summer is here and we’re smoking free range chicken for dinner Sunday night. We are bringing Smoked Chicken with Alabama White BBQ Sauce to the Bayfield Peninsula! The combination of hickory smoked chicken, Bad Byron’s Butt Rub and the Alabama BBQ sauce is divine….you’ll be hooked! An ice cold Pacifico beer or Palm Beach Margarita will seal the deal. Call for reservations or stop by after 5 pm tomorrow.

We are opening for dinner this Sunday at 5 pm. We will be open every Sunday through the end of September. We are looking forward to a great summer and can’t wait to catch up with everyone who is coming back to Bayfield this summer. The boat bar (with newly added granite counter tops…thanks to Lake Superior Kitchen and Bath!) will be open for drinks the end of June. I think it is the only boat bar in Bayfield, the Apostle Islands or the Midwest??!! We have a couple great new entrees on our menu- a gorgonzola charred and stuffed bistro tender with sauteed wild mushrooms, a crab crusted salmon served on wasabi mashers and our famous Northwoods burger made with wild rice, blue cheese and Leinenkugels beer. Our Friday fish fry is still going strong- we have heard it is the best on the Bayfield Peninsula! I just finished our wine list for the season and added two new cocktails- a Palm Beach Margarita and a Loaded Arnie Palmer. I have been busy planting the gardens and will post pictures soon!!

We are going to donate proceeds from Pasta Night tonight, December 16th, to the CORE Community Resources in Bayfield. Come for a great pasta meal and support CORE at the same time!! We open at 5 pm- call for reservations or just stop in for dinner.

Renee and I spent last Monday and Tuesday foraging in the woods around the restaurant for branches and berries for our containers outside. Here are a few pictures of the final product:

Winter Landscaping

Winter at Good Thyme

Apples, anyone??

A little Northwoods decorating!

Another view of the mantle

We are getting ready for a busy holiday season-  our dining room upstairs is getting a lot of use for Holiday parties! I revised the wine list and added some great Pinot Noirs and three fantastic Italian white wines: Zuani Vigne, Zuani Zuani and Terre Dora Grecco di Tufo. The Zuani is one of my favorite white wines. Both Zuani wines are comprised of the same grapes (Tocai Friulano, Chardonnay, Sauvignon and Pinot Grigio) but the Zuani Vigne is aged in stainless steel and the Zuani Zuani is aged in oak. I still am head over heels for Pinot Noir- a fantastic Pinot makes my head spin! Currently, my favorite is a Sonoma wine called Taft Street Russian River Pinot Noir (although the Anne Amie Pinot Noir is a favorite).. I am on the hunt for a few good Cabernet Sauvignon’s that are not overly tannic. If you have any suggestions, please send them my way! I added a new beer to the list as well- Boddingtons Pub Ale. I remember the first time I drank it about 15 years ago- Ted and I were at Haskell’s in Highland Park and the cans with the CO2 cartridges had just landed on the market. Time flies when there is so much beer and wine to explore!!

We are planning our New Year’s Eve Menu- we are thinking of a couple of exciting specials with lobster and beef tenderloin or lamb?? We haven’t settled on anything yet but will get the word out as soon as we nail it down. We will run the regular menu on New Year’s as well so if you are hungry for BLT pasta or Mongolian Lamb, you won’t be disappointed!

As you can see (since you have gotten to the blog)- we have a new website. We will be adding additional catering information in the very near future and updating our philosophy section. It is suprisingly hard to articulate our philosophy. A very good friend of mine shared the poem with me that we have in the philosophy section right now and I think it is a very good start to distilling down what we are doing and how we want our guests to feel. Looking back on the summer, I am so thankful for everyone who came in to join us for dinner. I love looking around and hearing the laughter and seeing the smiling faces that are a beautiful result of time spent around a table.  I have spent some time updating our wine list (and learning a lot in the process) and I am excited to share some of the new wines with you. Recently, I have fallen in love with Pinot Noir and a couple of my favorites are: Anne Amie Winemakers Select Pinot Noir and Mount Eden Estate Pinot Noir. I also have a beautiful blend of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Carignane and Barbera  from California called 10 Mile The Broken Road that is definitely worth a try if you are looking for a reasonably priced red wine.  Another favorite of mine is Kaesler “The Stonehorse” Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvedre- it is a big Australian red wine.  We do have a great selection of white wines as well, I will pick a couple of favorites for the next post (something to look forward to!).

Just in time for the holidays, we are hosting a Pampered Chef and Bejio Bags party at Good Thyme on December 3rd from 5 pm to 7 pm. Pick out some Christmas presents for yourself and your friends and family!! Come downstairs to the bar with your receipt from Bejio or Pampered Chef and we will give you half off a glass of wine, beer or a cocktail at the bar. Hope you can make it!

Well, it is finally warming up in Bayfield and I think we have had our last frost/freeze warning for a few months! Pasta night is still going strong on Wednesday nights until June 24th. We have completed our deck and it is a great spot to have dinner or a drink…the sunsets are amazing !! The ‘dock’ is going up around the boat bar and we should be ready to set sail in a few weeks. I will take a few pictures  this weekend and post them on the blog. We are changing the menu next week and I am nearly finished putting my summer cocktail list together- Moscow Mules, anyone?? We hope to see you soon!