Posts Tagged ‘diners’

Our mission to take in central Wisconsin’s small family diners and Cafés led us to Mauston last Saturday to visit the, “Beyond the Daily Grind Cafe”.  The light colors and natural wood furnishings were certainly a nice change from the cloudy and otherwise dreary day it had turned out to be. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s funny.  There are often places in our part of the state that I can write about online and the owners would simply never know.   As much as many of us live on the internet almost daily, there are many who don’t find a use of it in their lives. They don’t think of the internet as a way to advertise and simply depend on the locals and drive by traffic to survive.  Once such place is the “On The Way” cafe in Pardeeville, Wisconsin.  Too bad too. I think a lot of visitors to the area would enjoy the stop.

The On The Way cafe is everything you would imagine a small town diner to be, right down to the cigarette smoke wafting through the air from the patrons sitting at the counter.  Yeah, we could do without the smoke too, but we’re not offended by it. The walls are covered with a mish-mash of decorations that either at one time attracted or caught the humor of the owner; a vine of plastic flowers, a sign that says “No Whining”,  autographed dollars tacked above the service window, a framed print of a farm house, a pumpkin sitting on a toilet with a pie underneath captioned, “How pumpkin pies are made”.  Even the tables scored the old fashioned napkin holders and condiment racks. Classic.

Our waitress was a very friendly middle aged woman who managed all of the cafe’s tables and counters on her own.  When we were there, there were maybe another 7 or 8 customers besides ourselves. She always took time to chat and check in to see how we were doing.  Another advantage of small town diners is staff that is not always racing around and often seem genuinely pleased to interact with their patrons.

The menu was filled with standard sandwich and breaded steak options. We chose the bacon cheeseburgers which are the only true test of a small town diner’s prowess.  While we waited our sodas came, in cans… with straws. No glass. My cup of coffee was sadly pretty horrid, but on the other hand I had been drinking a Latte all morning and diner coffee was quite a shocking leap into the abyss.

When the burgers arrived, the smoke, the 80′s hair band music wafting from the kitchen and even the bad coffee suddenly faded away as we were suddenly lifted into burger heaven.  We all agreed, that these were the best bacon cheeseburgers we’d eaten since back in the day when diners like this one were more common.  While I could sense the a sudden jump in cholesterol, it was totally worth it.  It’s hard to describe the flavor of a properly done burger other than to say the cheese was real, and the meat has not been soaking up 10% water which is so common these days. Real food, even diner food is something special.

After our meal we learned another thing about small town diners, bring cash.  Many simply can’t or won’t pay that 3% transaction fee charged by credit card companies.  My son and I sat “hostage” on the bar stools and chatted with our waitress at the counter, while my wife drove down to Pardeeville’s only ATM.   It was about 2 pm when we finally were walking out the door.  Which was a good thing.  The diner was closing for the day.

From the outside, the out “On The Way”  cafe easy to miss.  There are no big signs or open windows to give it away.  You almost have to be looking for it.  The hours are Mon-Thur. & Saturday 5am-2pm, Fridays 5am to 8pm and Sundays 5am-noon. If you are into small town diners, can tolerate cigarette smoke and 80′s hair band rock, the bacon cheeseburger is practically manna from diner heaven.

On The Way Cafe
321 South Main Street
Pardeeville, WI 53954-9452
(608) 429-1507

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