Er, actually that would be *dinner* at *The Wicked Sister*. The misspelling of “donner” for “dinner” (from The King of Cryptic Text Messages) was not lost on me 🐲 and we’ll talk about dens of iniquity in the yooperland some other time.

Seriously, The Wicked Sister is a wonderful new [within the last few years] restaurant/pub in Sault Ste. Siberia. It serves what I would call creative bar food (including a gluten-free menu) and a good beer selection that changes with what’s available, although they do not brew their own beer. This restaurant was once a bar called Benoit’s Gin Mill. I don’t think I was ever in that bar, even during the most “experimental” days of my formative youth. I did watch it burn from across the canal not too many years ago. Uber Kayak Woman and Radical Betty and I had just emerged from Penny’s Kitchen where we had had a mid-afternoon snack after a trip to Canananada to hike at Red Rocks when we saw the smoke.

I have only been to the Wicked Sister once. The only reason I haven’t been back is because when I get to the moomincabin, I kind of hate going into “town” (aka Sault Ste. Siberia). There are people who have been known to dis the selection of restaurants in The Soo. I think that the area has been trying very hard for a number of years to diversify the variety of restaurant experiences and, as far as I’m concerned, nay-sayers can go to some large city if they want something more uppity.

I spent a couple of years frequenting many of the restaurants up there while The Commander was going in out of the hoosegow and assisted living. Some of my faves from those years?

Hands down, The Palace Saloon was just about the best place to go and chill out with whine and food after a day of dealing with hoosegow stuff. Mexican food? I dunno if it qualifies as “authentic” but it is GOOD and the service is wonderful and, while we were luxury camping in the Dillon House, the wait-staff remembered us. (Easy walk from the hoosegow and assisted living.) Oh yeah! How could I fergit when we ate there on Mercury Retrograde Weekend after I picked up the GG from good ol’ War Memorial after a quick emergency surgery and fetched him over to the Hotel Ojibway (next door to the Palace)? Jeebus.

Karl’s Kitchen? Probably the “fanciest” food you can get in the area with locally sourced ingredients when possible. A plus is that it is located immediately adjacent to the Soo Locks so when freighters enter or leave the locks, you are right up close and personal with them. (Easy walk from the hoosegow and assisted living.)

Angio’s. Alas, Angio’s Italian restaurant is defunct now. Aside from one bad (slow) experience with the wait staff (years ago), this was a go-to place, especially when The Grinch was involved. I could order eggplant parmesan and whatever pasta it came with and take home enough to feed me for the next couple of days. (Not an easy walk from the hoosegow or assisted living but a quick drive. But gone now…)

Zorba! Greek food. What can I say about Zorba. It was once an adjunct bar to the Alpha (childhood bar, still exists, haven’t been there in decades). It was the Alpha Addition back then. We met the Grinch at Zorba’s for dinner after…

<Alert Alert Alert! Doorbell!>I only answered it because it’s trash night and I thought it might be lofpynet asking to put stuff in my carts (yes). But it was a young guy with papers in his hand (not election petition-type papers). I forestalled his pitch with “No thanks!” He backed off immediately. I wished him good luck and he thanked me for that. I hope he finds a better way to make money this summer because is nowhere near pushy enough to make money ringing doorbells.</Alert Alert Alert! Doorbell!>

…The Comm’s memorial get-together. Zorba serves wonderful Greek food and the Alpha owners are Greek so I wouldn’t be surprised if they also own Zorba. I’m not sure if I’ve been there since that night but only because of the same reason I haven’t been back to the Wicked Sister, that I am mainly in the area in the summer and I would rather hang out at the moomincabin. (Easy walk from the hoosegow and assisted living. Zorba, that is, not the moomincabin.)

I have skipped a whole bunch of Siberian restaurants that I like. There’s Clyde’s and Frank’s and The Antlers and PENNY’S KITCHEN(!) and then there are Brimley area restaurants like Jack’s and Pickles and The Cozy. And then there are childhood restaurants that don’t exist any more. We’ll do those some other day. For now, please please please support your good local restaurants whether they are big-city quality or not. AND TIP YOUR SERVERS WELL (if you possibly can)! They need the money and you will be rewarded 10 times over, especially if you are a regular customer.

The pic is a quick point-and-shoot from the GG at the moomincabin this morning as he was motivating to get out to some sort of NCT activity. I didn’t crop it or do much of anything to it because I wanted to show the big picture window that looks out onto our inland sea. When my parents built the cabin, they had very little money and our picture windows (there are three of them) were salvaged from an old storefront.

Love y’all,
KW

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2018 at 6:16 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.