Going Stag
Italy was wonderful, but it was equally great to come home to my dear Empanada Boy. After singing carols, opening presents under the tree and eating way too much at his parents’ house in Madison (the first real Christmas celebration of my lifetime), we decided to head up north to his family’s vacation home in Eagle River.
Along the way, we stopped in Rhinelander (although it may be closer to Sugar Camp) at one of EB’s family’s favorite stomping grounds, the White Stag Inn. The White Stag is an old-fashioned steakhouse and supper club with dark wood walls, decorated with antique plates, deer heads and other hunting trophies and replicas of paintings by the masters. It is the kind of place that hip, neo-hunting-lodge places like Portland’s Doug Fir are trying to emulate.
EB’s family has been coming here for a long time, but it’s clear that the menu has been the way it is for much longer. As EB explained to me, each entrée, most of which are beef in some form, comes with a salad, bread and a baked potato.
The rolls were nothing special. Next time I won’t even waste my calories by sampling one. But the salad here is like nothing I’ve ever seen at a restaurant before. A bowl filled with large wedges of iceberg lettuce is delivered to the table with some tongs for serving. Each diner takes a wedge in his or her bowl and then begins to dress it, gradually dismantling its leaves. Under normal circumstances, I might have stopped at the iceberg lettuce, but I could sense that this was a cultural experience.
There are three different house-made dressings at the White Stag: a creamy Russian, a French with garlic and a vinaigrette. They come in a tripartite serving tray. Servers actually recommend that a blend of all three be drizzled on the lettuce. Why don’t they just blend them all together to begin with, you ask? Good question. Perhaps it’s because not every diner is partial to all of them. I, for example, was not a fan of the Russian, but the other two were suprisingly good, making even iceberg edible. Under EB’s direction, we also ordered bleu cheese crumbles to sprinkle on top. Once again, only in the Midwest.
My entrée was a half chicken, cooked “Dave’s way,” which means coated in lots of garlic and roasted. It was delicious in the way that roasted chickens from the grocery store tend to be, but this one obviously had less salt (a good thing) and a better balance of flavors. There was enough left over to make some nice chicken sandwiches for lunch the next day.
The baked potato on the side was fine, though hardly necessary considering the amount of chicken on my plate. The White Stag makes its own cottage cheese and chives adornment, which gives the potatoes a nice kick.
Ever true to himself, Empanada Boy could not refrain from ordering the filet mignon. At $20, it comes in a bit above the Mango Lassie’s price range, but considering that it comes with salad, it might cut it. Plus, a filet mignon for $20 is a deal good enough that even the cheapest of cheapskates might make an exception once in a while. This was as tasty a piece of meat as a filet mignon should be, coated in a rich, buttery sauce.
There was absolutely no room in our stomachs for dessert, although it is available. Perhaps some of my readers can recommend a dessert they’ve tried. I, for one, would admire the diner who could make it that far.
The White Stag Inn
7141 State Highway 17
Rhinelander, WI 54501
715.272.1057
Flava Flav said,
January 10, 2007 @ 5:08 pm
I like the way EB thinks. How can you really turn down a filet mignon. Especially at that price! I miss you Mango Lassie! We made pasta from scratch the other night. I wish you could have been there!
Empanada Boy said,
January 30, 2007 @ 11:25 pm
Tromping through the snow and cold and into the warm and friendly confines of the White Stag is the best. I’ve been doing just that since I was a boy, (a real boy, not an empanda boy). And the best thing about this particular trip was that it was super cold and there was enough snow to warrant boots (see picture of the snow-covered statue of the White Stag in the posting). While it was 45 degrees and raining in the end of December in Madison and at home in Chicago, I could still count on getting little good ol’ fasioned winter up in Northern Wisconsin. I loved it. And it made the steak taste even better.
Paul Noel said,
August 1, 2007 @ 9:45 am
While the steaks are great and the chicken was good, you need to try the grilled haddock on your next visit to the White Stag. I have had haddock prepared many different ways at many different restaurants and have yet to find anything that comes close to the flavor of the fish at the White Stag. In fact, I will be dining there tomorrow evening to celebrate my wife’s birthday. Give it a try….you won’t regret it!
Stag Pioneer said,
September 1, 2007 @ 1:40 pm
This restaurant is fucking terrible. You must have been high when you ate here.
They rip you off anyway you can. They don’t even have ranch dressing! And you want Jagger?!
NO! No Jag or mojitos! I hate this place and all it stands for.
Bobby Sue Walker said,
June 12, 2009 @ 7:35 pm
Our family vacationed at Burr Valley Lodge on Sugar Camp Lake from 1950 to 1962. I was 11 when we first came from Illinois. We connected with many families and ended up through the years, signing up for the same two weeks in July each year. The adults took one evening out of the vacation to dine at the White Stag. When I was 17, I was invited to join them. I remember that the wait staff memorized the order of each patron. In 1968, I reconnected with a wonderful young man from Wisconsin, whose family also came to Burr Valley each year. We were married in 1969, and have brought out family to dine at the White Stag at least once every year since then. Great food, and great memories, passed on from generation to generation.
Carolynn Campbell said,
August 25, 2009 @ 2:39 pm
We use to have land in Sugar Camp we camped on winter and summer. We found the White Stag on a four corners on one of our family trips. Went there to eat and what an experance. Absolutly FAB!
Have since sold the land, But our kids have past down to their kids the legend of “The White Stag”. Some have made the trip up from east central Iowa to glory in the legend with their familys. My husband and I keep hoping to make one more trip up to Sugar Camp and eat our hearts out before–well–you know! Here’s to a GREAT place to really enjoy good good food.
Dave Bunch said,
September 16, 2009 @ 1:00 pm
Our family had a summer/winter home on Duck Lake, in Watersmeet, Michigan and I spent every summer from there until I went and move to Florida in 1965. From 65 to late 90s every vaction trip to the “lake” I would always have dinner at least two or more times at the White Stag during my two week vacation. Never a bad meal (I always had the shrimp), always good service, priced right, and took home to Florida a “bakers dozen” of White Stag dressing hmmmmmmmmmmm. I have not been there since 1999, but will be retiring in June 2010 and will be RV’ing in my motorhome, and the White Stag is already on the list of stops!