Angry Trout Cafe is a fantastic name for an eatery. The name itself drew me to it. It inspires t-shirts, clip-art and photographic creativity, just Google "angry trout pictures".
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| Photo from here. |
What's more, it is in a spectacular part of the world: Grand Marias on the north shore of Lake Superior.
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| View from our hotel on Lake Superior in Grand Marais. Lake Superior is so large that it seems like an ocean. |
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| View in the other direction from our hotel, toward the Angry Trout, which is on the other side of the jutting peninsula. |
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| Photo of the Angry Trout, from here. |
And they have some fun art to go along with it. Just a couple of examples:
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| Neon angry trout. |
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| Great blue herons on the front door. Could the one to the right be eating an angry trout? |
We ate there one evening shortly before it closed and shortly before we retired for a night of rest before our hike to Eagle Mountain. Aside from the name, they claim to provide fresh-caught fish on their menu, including grilled fish sandwiches, a smoked trout salad and locally caught fish in their deep fried fish and chips. Following the goal of eating lake-caught cuisine in this part of the world, I planned on having a fish sandwich or fish and chips for dinner.
We had to wait about 30 minutes to be seated and could not see the harbor or lake because of the dark. I was really disappointed when our waiter informed us that there was no local fish on the menu, the fish in the fish and chips was either sole or cod from out of the area. I'd pretty much decided on the fish and chips ahead of time, and went ahead with that, even though it no longer had the same draw. It turned out okay, not bad, not great. I did enjoy the squeeze bottle of tarter sauce left at the table and I consumed quite a bit of it both on the fish and on the chips.
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| Fried fish, Carl's Jr. type fries and some good coleslaw. |
Better was the potato soup with nice chunks of vegetables, a delicious creamy broth and a sprig of dill. I got a cup and wished I'd ordered a bowl.
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| Very nice home-made soup. |
Judy saw the shrimp cooking in the kitchen and ordered it along with locally grown wild rice. The shrimp and rice were delicious.
This is a part of the world I wouldn't mind coming back to again. I would love to try canoeing back in the Minnesota Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and hope to see another wolf, or some moose. Fall was a perfect time to be here. Beautiful fall colors and no bugs. And if I do come back, I would really like to try some locally caught fish in the fish and chips.
It's hard to believe they can be on the edge of that huge lake and not serve local fish. This was a nice restaurant with average food for me. I did love the decor.
ReplyDeleteThat really is a great name for a restaurant. I don't understand the not serving local fish--kind of like our last trip to Fisherman's Wharf in SF when we got fish from the East Coast.
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