This local food offering is not just bar fare, or your father’s fish, but right now is fully fall flavored — as is especially fitting for what’s fast-becoming a favorite, the walleye jambalaya.
That last dish is only the most recent in a long line of likable walleye at Season’s Tavern in North Hudson. These meals have taken on new luster as the establishment’s signature dishes.
With the walleye, it’s balls to the wall, so to speak, as far as number of choices. And we’re talking stuff that goes far beyond typical bar food. And the walleye cakes, cake sliders and cake benedict really, dare I say it, take the cake.
Different types of walleye served are: deep fried, which is dusted with flour and cracker meal with seasonings; grilled, with lemon pepper and seasoned salt on a flat top grill; and blackened, spiced with Cajun seasoning on such a flat top grill.
The dishes offered are:
— Walleye and wild rice pilaf;
— Walleye basket, in other words fish and chips;
— Walleye dinner with the walleye prepared to guest’s liking and served with choice of potato, vegetable and soup or salad;
— Walleye sandwich with the fantastic fish again prepared to guest’s preferences and served with lettuce, tomato and raw onion on a ciabatta bun;
— Walleye jambalaya of course, served blackened over jambalaya with Andouille sausage on top of wild rice pilaf;
— Walleye cakes, with that offering filled with walleye, and wild rice, vegetables and seasonings, fried and served on a bed of spring greens with bernaise;
— Walleye cake sliders, their cakes topped with lemon dill aioli and served with spring greens and tomato on a slider bun;
— And last but not least, walleye cake benedict, for breakfast only, with the cakes topped with a basted egg and hollandaise and served with choice of potato.
What walleye dishes does the future hold? “We are working on a few things that will be available over the next few months as chef specials, but that is a secret until then,” owner Brad said coyly.
“Our customers have been very responsive to our selection of walleye, saying things like ‘the best walleye in the St. Croix River Valley,’ and ‘best benedict in the Valley,'” he also noted, adding that the somewhat less adventuresome but still tasty walleye with wild rice pilaf attracted a lot of sales and similar comments when served via a booth at the recent St. Croix arts fest.
“The one thing I learned is to not over-season walleye,” Brad said. “It is a wonderful sweet fish that needs little help to be delicious!”
Here are other items of note as we prep for what’s fast becoming one of the most major holidays of the year:
— Just in time for Halloween, or actually about three weeks before, is the premier party for the new season of TVs the Walking Dead, held at Dick’s Bar and Grill at 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11. They note that there will be door prizes (in case your head has been eaten away and you need a replacement), drink specials (maybe Bloody Mary style?) and free chips and dip (perfect food fodder for a zombie show). They assure us that this party will be “spooktactulous” (I think they mean spooktacular). The zombie episodes have been popular at several local bar and grills, such as when some of the staff at Green Mill made it their Sunday night fave not too long ago.
— Speaking of Green Mill, they invite you to party like the age that you just might be, circa 1975, as they celebrate its 40 years of serving acclaimed deep dish pizza. Dust off your fringed vest and platform shoes, if you can still find them in the closet, and dude yourself up like the guy in their online promo sporting disco duds. It’s a ’70s party, not to be confused with or maybe just like That ’70s Show, on Wednesday, Oct. 14. The fun starts at 6 p.m. and includes, to use another old word, a contest for best ’70s “garb” and there’ll be spinning of the again-becoming-popular vintage records, not just CDs, from that era, and several drink and food specials.