Slinger Restaurants: Fish Fry, Supper Clubs & an 1857 Tavern

For a village this size, Slinger keeps a surprisingly full table: a couple of taverns that have been feeding the town since before Wisconsin's dairy heyday, supper-club-style bars where Friday means a fish fry, two coffee shops with completely different moods, a self-serve froyo bar, and a place where you can bowl between courses. Slinger restaurants are not a long list, but a few of them have real history and the specialty counters punch well above their weight. Here is where locals actually eat, sorted by the kind of meal you are after.

The historic taverns

Slinger's two oldest dining rooms both started as 19th-century taverns and still trade on it. The Slinger House has been a community gathering spot since 1857, and a recent remodel kept the old-landmark feel while updating the room. The kitchen does classic American plates, prime rib rolls, triple-decker sandwiches and house fries, plus a weekly fish fry with potato pancakes and a choice of fish, and there is live music out on the patio in season.

Bibinger's sits in a building from the 1840s and takes a different tack: a seasonally-driven gastropub with a scratch kitchen. The menu swings from a Nashville hot chicken sandwich to meatloaf to eggplant parmesan, the pretzel cheese curds are a reliable starter, and the bar turns out a Cream City Old Fashioned worth ordering. Between the two, the Slinger House is the one for a burger and a beer in a room with history; Bibinger's is where you go when you want the kitchen to show off a little. Both get busy on weekends, so a wait is not unusual.

Supper clubs, bars and the Friday fish fry

For a Friday fish fry, Slinger keeps to the Wisconsin script, and it is worth knowing that the fish fry here is a Friday institution rather than an everyday menu item, so plan your week around it if that is what you came for. Nite Owls Tavern is the local pick, a proper dive where the fish fry and the Reuben rolls both get named as must-orders, and the bartenders' humor is half the reason regulars keep coming back. It is the relaxed, no-frills end of the spectrum, and it is the answer if what you want is the genuine article rather than a polished version of it.

Sheryl's Club 175 is the livelier room, a sports bar known for sizable burgers and a welcoming patio, with Thursday karaoke and ladies' night, weekend DJs, and beer pong, pool tables and slots if you are settling in for the night. It also gets credit for creative non-alcoholic drinks, which is not nothing if you are the designated driver.

A few more bar-and-grills round out the casual end, and two of them tie straight into the speedway. Raceway Bar & Grill and Finish Line Bar & Grill both sponsor divisions out at the track, so they fill with the same crowd on a race night and make an easy pre-race stop among people going the same place.

That tie is worth planning around if you are heading to a race at Slinger Speedway, where the pre-race dinner is half the ritual.

Away from the track, Jug's Pub & Grill pairs American pub food with a bowling alley, which makes it an easy family stop or a rainy-afternoon plan. And out on Arthur Road, The Pub is the small neighborhood tavern nearest the Polk Kames, the closest place for a beer if you are coming off the trail.

Breakfast and cafés

For breakfast, Lina's Cafe is the homestyle sit-down, open from 6am most days and doing the eggs-and-hashbrowns morning properly: biscuits and gravy, country-fried steak, a meat-lover's skillet with buttermilk pancakes. It is the community-table kind of café where the regulars know each other and the coffee keeps coming.

If you just want coffee, the town has two options with distinct moods. Jeans Beans does coffee and specialty drinks with a side of baked treats, the raspberry walnut cheese bar gets singled out, and it is the quick in-and-out stop.

Sippie Hippie is the opposite kind of place: a sit-and-stay café with soft music, board games, a small gift shop and even vinyl nights, plus ADA-friendly access, so it is the one for lingering or getting a little work done rather than grabbing and going.

Something sweet

For dessert, Little Sweetz scoops Chocolate Shoppe ice cream in a tidy little shop and is the classic-cone stop, though it is worth trying the "croiss," a waffle-iron-pressed croissant loaded with toppings that has become its own reason to stop in.

Families tend to end up at Fill-n-Chill, a self-serve frozen-yogurt bar with a wall of toppings, and Out of the Box Baking is the spot for custom cake pops if you are marking an occasion.

Groceries and specialty food

Slinger does well for specialty food, the sort of stop worth making even if you are not sitting down to eat. Held's is an old-school meat and cheese market, and Ney's turns out premium meats and sweets, both the kind of Wisconsin butcher counter that is getting harder to find and worth a detour if you cook.

For everyday shopping, there is natural groceries and a coffee-and-juice bar at The Organic Market, while Fox Bros. Piggly Wiggly handles the full grocery run.

For local produce in season, Hearthside Farms sells fresh from Thursday through Sunday and gets especially good in the autumn harvest. The Slinger Farmers Market is the other seasonal stop worth timing a visit around.

A glass of something: Aspen Sky

For a slower afternoon rather than a meal, Aspen Sky is Slinger's winery, distillery and event center, turning out locally made wine and spirits in a welcoming, family-friendly room with tasty bites alongside the tasting. It is the answer when the question is a drink and an unhurried hour rather than dinner, and it doubles as an event space when the calendar calls for one.

A little further afield

If you are willing to drive, the next town west has a deeper bench. Hartford is about 8 kilometres away, and Hartford's restaurants cover more ground once you have worked through Slinger's short list. And a meal here slots easily into a wider day of everything else there is to do in Slinger.