Small Towns, Wisconsin Southwest Region Summer 2014 | Page 33

Saturday afternoon we headed down to Spring Green for some lunch and decided to
try out the Spring Green General Store. The café is an intimate place with a simple but
varied two-page menu and customer participation; you get your own silverware and
clear your own table. We were fortunate enough to arrive shortly before the monthly
Bluegrass Jam, which provided some nice background music for our meal. I tried the
Italian Sub, which turned out to be one of the tastiest sandwiches I’ve had this year;
I’ll probably get the same thing next time we’re in Spring Green. My wife enjoyed her
burrito as well. Dessert was a brownie Sunday, which we both thought was quite good.
The General Store is in a distinctive blue building that previously warehoused cheese
for as many as 35 local cheese factories. Aside from some great food and music,
the general store also offers an interesting assortment of gifts, toys, and groceries.
We enjoyed browsing their selection after lunch. Upon leaving the General Store, we
walked across the street to check out the eclectic collection of small shops there. We
saw quite a few nice items, from clothing to knick-knacks, and enjoyed speaking with
the owner of Art to Wear, who told us a bit about what he does.
Eat and enjoy the atmosphere at:
137 South Albany Street,
Spring Green, WI 53588
www.springgreengeneralstore.com
(and on Facebook!)
I can never resist a good bookstore, so before heading home we stopped by Arcadia
Books a few blocks away. Like many independent bookstores, they feature a variety
of events and books on topics of local interest. Although it’s a small store, I felt that
their selection of books on Wisconsin easily rivaled the one at the much larger Barnes
and Noble in Madison, and we ended up finding exactly what we wanted in the food
section (food books, that is; we were still full from the General Store so we only had
drinks at the café).
Read and enjoy the atmosphere at:
102 E Jefferson St,
Spring Green, Wisconsin 53588
www.readinutopia.com & www.facebook.com/ArcadiaBooks
While we needed to head home after the bookstore, the area also boasts several
galleries and other shops of interest. We hadn’t spent time in Spring Green before, but
we’ll be back. Spring Green may be known for the big attractions, particularly Frank
Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin and House on the Rock, but it’s also a nice place to have a meal
and relax. We missed this year’s Arts and Craf