Minnesota North Shore, Grand Marais, the Gunflint Trail & Brick Ovens - A Culinary Odyssey

Since my fourth trip this year to the North Shore I personally had the good fortune to meet with both NancyPalooza and wanderingjew just before they embarked on roadfood tours of the North Shore themselves. So, the area has been well tread this year with their recent trip reports here…

NancyPalooza's, The Wolf's Nose: Duluth, Grand Marais, and assorted small towns of Minnesota

and here…

wanderingjew's, Heartland Through the Breadbasket

What else could I add? We had compared notes and they added new and fresh slants on the area. Still, I had an agenda for my fifth trip of the year to the North Shore, Grand Marais and the Gunflint Trail. My wife and I were hosting the Northern Minnesota BSG Social in Grand Marais. BSG stands for BEE Social Group, or a very loosely organized group of Class B RV camper van owners that agree to get together at a campground on a given date. I was challenged by the group last April in Kerrville, Texas to come up with a place in Minnesota. I stated at the time, since most socials had taken place in the warmer climes (Moab UT, Pagosa Springs CO, Lafayette LA, Niobrara NE) that I doubt anyone would come. As it turned out 18 RVs from 12 states did come. It did turn a little cold and they may all be happy to return again to the warmth of Tombstone, Arizona the next social in April.

Our trip from the Twin Cities to Grand Marais was a circuitous trip by first heading south to La Crosse, WI to visit the grandsons and make the next leg to the Brat Challenge in Pewaukee where I posted my photos of that event.

We then headed onto the North Shore via Northern Wisconsin camping at a national forest campground near Eagle River, WI, a north woods lake area I vacationed numerous times back in the 50s with my family driving non-stop from Indianapolis overnight to arrive on a Saturday afternoon. That area has fond memories.

We had breakfast at Faye's Dinky Diner in Eagle River. The diner has three booths and 8 stools. Now that's dinky, but there was nothing dinky about the food. I had this Philly Skillet of shaved prime rib, onion, green peppers and melted swiss cheese topped with two eggs over easy.



I had reported on Faye's Dinky Diner from another trip about their pork tenderloin sandwich. Sad to say I did not see it in their new menu.

We headed on to the Minnesota North Shore in a downpour of rain and arrived two days earlier than we had planned in Grand Marais in hopes of finding better weather. We did managed to drive through and out of the rain.

Our first night in Grand Marais I finally gave in and visited Sven & Ole's Pizza. That completed my tour of nearly 25 eateries over the past couple of years in town save for the Dairy Queen and Subway.

Sven & Ole's has an order counter where you take a number and then have your pizza delivered to your table when ready. If you want a beer you have to go up to the mezzanine Pickled Herring Club and get it yourself. The interior is a typical north words motif complete with tin ceiling, old signs, skis, snowshoes, lumberjacking tools and the obligatory deer or moose heads on the walls.



The pizza surprisingly was not that bad. We opted for a generous 12" size Uffda Zah comprising of the common ingredients of Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, black olives, green peppers and onions.



They had a similar wild rice version, but Nancy talked me out of it. Wild rice pizza would be had later anyway.

Did I say Pickled Herring Club? I guess pickled herring is Scandinavian. The mezzanine bar is kind of an intimate place to enjoy a beer.

If you are going to eat like we had been eating one had better get some exercise. So the next morning we set out for the Oberg and LeVeaux Loop hikes near Lutsen that are part of the Superior Hiking Trail.



The Oberg Loop is a 2.25 mile walk with several vista views like this one of Lake Superior.



The LeVeaux Loop is a longer more dense woodsy hike of 3.5 miles crossing the Onion River on the Superior Hiking Trail. We came across this interesting ladder of shelf mushrooms climbing a dead birch tree.



We hiked one after another and then returned to Grand Marais and stopped at the Java Moose for a cup of coffee and check in on the Internet. The Java Moose offers free internet access. This is their stained glass sign. It is meant to be read from the outside but the photo was better with the outdoor backlight shooting from inside so in order to get the word "Java" to read correctly I flipped the photo in editing.



  We were still a day early for the social so that evening we went to the Angry Trout Cafe for dinner. Wanderingjew showed you and had this same dinner only mine was Whitefish instead of Lake Trout.

Thursday arrived and was the day most everyone would show up for the Social. We hiked the trails in Cascade River State Park that morning for about 2 miles along the Lake Superior shore and then up to More Mountain mostly on the snowless but grassy cross country ski trails for a total of about 8 miles in all. In the past we had hiked up to Lookout Mountain and up and down the Cascade River. So all in all we have pretty much covered the park.

That gave us enough appetite to hit My Sister's Place, a bar/restaurant on Highway 61 on the east end of town. I had this Philly Cheesesteak sandwich with a cup of Beef Stroganoff, the soup of the day. The sandwich was tasty but the purist are going to cry since they used mozzarella cheese instead of provolone.



That afternoon people started arriving for the Social. The campground started filling up with Class B camper vans.



I originally tried to reserve Chez Jude for a first night group dinner but found trying to get everyone to respond and commit was like trying to herd cats. It just could not be done since many were on the road already and had no or sporadic access to the internet. Still we mustered enough to commandeer the upstairs dining room.



I ordered the Lake Superior Whitefish en Papillote w/Lobster Lemon Dill Butter
in parchment pouch, autumn vegetables, trio of potatoes with a dinner salad.



This is in the parchment pouch that comes with scissors to open it. The whitefish is baked with the vegetables.



Now I am going to have to disappoint you. After I opened the pouch the sun had set and my camera focus malfunctioned and I ruined all three shots. Just imagine a delicious piece of whitefish with various steam baked vegetables.

On my last trip up to the North Shore I met with George and Lesley who live a few miles up the Gunflint Trail. They had just bought a camper van and wanted to join in with our social. I previously reported about them. This was very fortuitous since they offered to host a pizza party for our group. So we made plans for a Friday afternoon. They were very well organized in that they started advertising and doing this on Thursday and Saturday evenings during the summer to help amortize the cost of their oven that was built on-site by a North House Folk School class a couple of years ago. They said they usually got less than 10 people. We were a group of over 30.

Most of us took a bus from the campground and arrived at about 1 PM. The brick oven was already fired at over 800 degrees. Toppings were set up on the screen porch and Lesley's plan was to take three pizzas at a time and baked them. Most baked under 5 minutes. The weather was perfect and no one could complain about his/her pizza since each was responsible for making his/her own.

Arriving at George and Lesley's Pizza party on the Gunflint Trail.


George and Lesley at their wood-fired brick oven. George described the routine for us to follow so from beginning to end we would not lose track of our pizza.


Making your own pizza. All the toppings were laid out and labeled.


Even the wasp likes the prepped pizza before it is baked.


Pizzas going into the oven.


My pizza was the 30th out of the oven. I topped mine half and half. One side I did traditional with marinara sauce and the usual traditional ingredients. On the other side I used pesto sauce along with wild rice.

So how was pesto-wild rice pizza?  It sounds great.
 
I think your papillote picture is awesome just as it is--there's something so exciting about the bag unopened.  Is there a fish inside, or a million dollars?
 
Terrific pictures!  Even the Sven & Ole's pizza looks delicious!

Davydd


I ordered the Lake Superior Whitefish en Papillote w/Lobster Lemon Dill Butter
in parchment pouch, autumn vegetables, trio of potatoes with a dinner salad.

 
How is the Sir Duluth Oatmeal Stout?  The only Lake Superior products I've had are the Special Ale and Kayak Kolsch so I'll have to look for it next summer.
 
Brad

Your piece of corn was somewhat larger than WJ's

TJ I think Dale got a plate where somebody was trying to stretch a supply.  :)

The Lake Superior Oatmeal Stout is excellent. I also had the others on this trip as well as some Surly brews I brought along myself and at the the Gunflint Tavern.
 
The pesto wild rice pizza was also good. Most people that tried it raved about the wild rice. I guess it goes well with pizza but I doubt you will find it anywhere but in Grand Marais at Sven & Ole's. I've never seen it anywhere else.
 
If you want a larger ear of corn you've got to learn to set your camera down on the table at the beginning. It could make them nervous and search out a better ear.
 
BTW, I am about half way through the week on this trip report.

Did I mention Grand Marais is a walkable city? Yes I did for a few of reasons. One, you can get around everywhere; two, there are a lot of interesting places; and three, you do have to walk off all those food opportunities. Both NancyPalooza and wanderingjew easily discovered Artist Point, a breakwater that protects the bay. One end terminates into a lighthouse. The other point, the artist point, is a difficult rock climb that just terminates into a point when you emerge from a woods or the craggy shoreline and points northeast to Isle Royale National Park.

 
Going the other direction you'll find a concrete wall that leads to the lighthouse point buffered by granite stones. There are many loose stones and both NancyPalooza and wanderingjew discovered these in their reports. Those loose stones are randomly stacked by the many hikers. They are known as cairns. In this instance, there is no reason other than for fun and creativity. On rocky hiking trails where there is no discernible path they are purposely stacked to show the way. They are also know as hoodoos all along the Lake Superior North Shore through Ontario, Canada. Where there is a loose rock humans must stack. And why not?

Saturday afternoon a lot of us went on a pub crawl. That meant The Gunflint Tavern and My Sister's Place. Our first stop was the Gunflint Tavern. We all walked into town from the campground. The men had one single minded intention. The women were going to shop but it seems the Gunflint Tavern was a priority for all.



What I like about the Gunflint Tavern is it is one of the few places outside of the Twin Cities that serves Surly brews, a craft brewery in the Twin Cities that features Furious, Bender, Coffee Bender and Cynic brews. They are indeed Surly and becoming one of my favorites.

Surly Brewing Co.

But the main attraction was not the beer but the more healthful "salad" for a few.



There were some more serious luncheon eats in this Bruschetta appetizer.


…and this Grilled Walleye sandwich.


Our next stop was My Sister's Place sans the women to drink more beer out of a Mason jar this time. The women did go shopping.


Those red plaid shirts and jackets are not hung there by the customers. It is part of the decor along with animal skins tacked to the ceiling and the usual north woods kitsch on the walls. Under previous ownership if sisters came in to the bar and got their pictures taken the owner tacked them up on the wall at the bar. We went looking the pictures and found them on the women's restroom door hidden around the corner.  I'm not sure if that is a message or not.

What was on the bruschetta?  It looks great.
 
Tell the truth.  You guys without the ladies around were thinking maybe the pictures were naughty?

Nancypalooza


TJ I think Dale got a plate where somebody was trying to stretch a supply.  :)

That's it! I'm asking for my money back!!

The night you've been waiting for. No restaurant but PIES!

We had our social tradition of a Saturday night potluck dinner where each RV made a special dish to share. I had reported about my stews in a cast iron Dutch oven pot on two previous social Roadfood.com trip reports to Lafayette, LA and Moab, UT, but this time my wife Nancy volunteered to make wanderingjew's favorite Minnesota roadfood pursuit - the Wild Rice Hot Dish but without the Tator Tots. Too bad he couldn't join us.
 
If she were going to take over the duties at this social I only insisted she use Minnesota hand harvested and native processed true wild rice. If you are curious about what I am writing about, I invite you to read this Minnesota Conservation Volunteer magazine article, After the Harvest

Seeing the various potluck plates probably will not excite many. What people choose varies in the millions of possible combinations. I'll spare you the counter.


So let's just get to the pies. In this overall thread I believe I have probably sampled all the pies along the North Shore and previously alluded the best was to come. We are talking about Lesley's pies. Lesley is a native New Zealander living on the Gunflint Trail. She and George had the wood-fired brick oven built for breads, pizzas and pies. I'm not sure any restaurants bake on the North Shore a pie in a wood-fired brick oven. There is a difference. No you cannot tell by taste. There is no wood-smoke flavor imparted since all the embers are raked out and the hearth swabbed before baking bread and pies. What it is, is the combination of radiant deep heat from the dome and conducted heat from the hearth to give an overall bake no regular oven can equal. Well, you'll just have to trust me on that if you have never had a wood-fired brick oven pie. If you don't believe me, believe the mind can make it so.    I might add the pedigree of Lesley's pies are that of previous best sellers at the Grand Marais Farmer's Market and dessert offerings at a Gunflint Trail Lodge.

Clear the counter. Bring on the pies.


The first pie sampled was the Fruits of the Forest. This was no SYSCO pie as I believe one person mentioned in another thread that from which all fruits of the forest pies come. This was the real thing of wild picked blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries.


Followed with a traditional Rhubarb and Raspberry pie.


The potluck dinner pretty much wrapped up the social save for the Sunday morning goodbyes and departing. A few of us caravanned up the Gunflint Trail Sunday for some more surprises to come.

Lesley's pies are *gorgeous.*

Sunday morning we all said our goodbyes and fond farewells at the Social. Some were planning to stay at least another day. We were heading up the Gunflint Trail and as it turned out two other Bs were planning to follow us up. So the way we went.

We got a late start so I figured we would make the Trail Center Cafe for lunch. We arrived at about 11:30 AM only to see this on a table as we walked in.


The lady had two pancakes larger than the amply large plate. It appeared she ordered more than she bargained for. That was also the clue. On Sunday breakfast lasted until noon before they switched over to a lunch menu. Either that or we could twitter around and wait another half hour. We decided to order breakfasts.



The Hash Browns


Something like a garbage plate?


Wild Rice Cakes


It's worth looking around. The Trail Center is Esquire Magazine's  highest ranked Minnesota Bar and one of the Top 10 in the nation. It is one of the first stops for canoers coming off the BWCAW and where snowmobilers meet skiers in the winter. I've shown you north woods bars with everything tacked onto the walls and ceilings. I believe this one tops them all.

Ceiling over the bar


The bar


Chairs nailed to the ceiling?


Entry wall after walking through a gift shop.


Old time piano. Have no idea if it is used.


South wall.


That was halfway up the trail. We drove onward another 20 miles to the recently opened Chik Wauk Museum dedicated to the history of the Gunflint Trail and its early pioneers. This was once a Lodge that was just recently converted to a museum and opened in July of this year.


Inside are exhibits..


Dominated by a huge central stone fireplace and the customary moose head of course.


The pay off for this trip was at the end, Trails End National Forest Campground. As luck would have it, we found three sites in a row.


Our view from Campground No. 6 looking out toward the BWCAW


And the river flowing into the lake


We closed out the day with a campfire and leftovers for dinner. That's the good life.

 
I think this is the third time in this thread alone I have ended a day at Trails End. As you can gather I don't get enough of it and it is always sad when we leave. But we have two more days.

I can't wait!

The Philly Skillet is my kind of breakfast and I love the sign on the piano. Great report!!

This most recent report is wonderful. With you ,Dale and Nancy all reporting from the north country, I have areal hankering to visit there. thanks for sharing.

Once again we broke camp at the Gunflint Trails End Campground and said our goodbyes to our traveling friends from Texas and Wisconsin. We ambled back down the Trail checking out some of the other campgrounds and many of the lodges for future reference. We stopped for lunch at the Windingo Lodge about midway up the Trail on Poplar Lake. This lodge is not the prettiest site on the lake. It is an oversized out of proportion building. I believe this is a rebuild after a fire.

Windingo Lodge


The lunch was OK but it certainly was not of the calibre of Trail Center Cafe less than a half mile away or the Red Paddle Bistro at the Gunflint Lodge 20 miles up the Trail. Nancy had the BLT and I had a Denver omelet.





Before we got off the Trail we encountered a bald eagle and a turkey vulture hovering in the same area. So we stopped to investigate. It turned out there was a dead deer in the woods and it had already been pecked considerably. Sorry, no picture for you of the grisly scene but here is one of the bald eagle before we spooked it deeper into the woods. This is a hand-held shot using my 300mm DSLR telephoto lens.



In Cook County, the northernmost county up the North Shore are three dead end road trails terminating at the BWCAW. The longest is the Gunflint and it is paved. The other two are gravel roads and are called the Arrowhead and the Sawbill Trails. We haven't traveled the Arrowhead yet but we were taking our second trip up the Sawbill. The Sawbill was where I captured the moose shots previously. NancyPalooza called the area the Wolf's Nose in her report. It certainly could be interpreted as that but most call it the Arrowhead in references. Maybe because Arrowhead Realty might be a tad more appropriate than Wolf's Nose Realty for a business name.

What do you see? Arrowhead or Wolf's Nose?


The Sawbill Trail is every bit as alluring as the Gunflint Trail. There is much less development since it is mostly all forests for its full length with the exception of the beginning few miles of paved road. We explored this area last May. This time we camped, if you call it camping, at the Sawbill Lake National Forest Campground. This is camping. Sleeping in the B van and making campfires. We grilled our brats on this campfire for dinner.


Once again our campsite was on a lake, the Sawbill Lake, and look across into the BWCA.


The Sawbill is another embarking and debarking place for canoeist. So, the first connection to civilization on coming out of the wilderness is in Tofte at the end of a 24 mile drive where right across the road intersection with US 61 is the Coho Cafe Bakery & Deli. Our goal that morning was to stop at the Lemon Wolf Cafe down the road in Beaver Bay, but we too as did wanderingjew found it closed on Mondays. Luckily, we decided to stop at the Coho Cafe if for nothing but coffee. It turned out to be fortuitous and we stayed for breakfast.

The Coho Cafe


The Coho Cafe is an order at the counter and take a number place and have your food delivered to the table except dinner is full service. Nancy had an Eggs Benedict Wrap.


I had the Sunrise Breakfast Pizza


What we didn't try but would have if we weren't planning on stopping at the, as it turned out, closed Lemon Wolf Cafe was their full array of baked on premise pastries, pies and cakes. Definitely another stop is anticipated in the future.




From there we beat it straight home. I think after 5 trips this year we have exhausted the season and the North Shore. We do have the itch to head north again but may aim for Voyagers National Park. We have been to most of the national parks in this country but have never been to Voyagers in our home state.

I was really jealous when I first saw the picture of the bakery case--looks awesome.  And that breakfast pizza doesn't look half bad either.  I'm so glad you put an establishing map in here--all these little town names don't make so much sense together unless you see the layout of how they're related.  I didn't think this thread could get better, and there you go, it is.  :)

Awesome pictures!  That eagle is magnificent.
 
How close did you park from that rock???

Really enjoying the photos and the commentary.

The Coho Cafe is part of Bluefin Bay resort, we've stayed there a number of times but only ate at Coho once. We try to try someplace new every meal. The cove there is exceptionally pretty.

kland01s


The Coho Cafe is part of Bluefin Bay resort, we've stayed there a number of times but only ate at Coho once. We try to try someplace new every meal. The cove there is exceptionally pretty.

That went right over my head because the Coho Cafe is disconnected with Bluefin Bay Resort by at least a block east, has a different exterior color motif of tan vs powder blue, and I knew the Bluefin Grille at the resort also served breakfast. I've never stayed at Bluefin Bay and now that I have an RV probably never will now even though I know several people who have and like it. If we do a winter trip and stay in a resort it would most likely be the Gunflint Lodge again.

Bluefin has expanded quite a bit over the years.  I think the shoreline there is exceptionally beautiful, here is a link,
 
http://www.bluefinbay.com...ining/coho-cafe-bakery

That's it.  I'm moving to Minnesota!!!!