On this week’s episode of On the Road with that Wisconsin Couple, we travel to THE MOST CORNISH TOWN IN THE USA— Mineral Point. Mineral Point is of the oldest towns in Wisconsin! This adorable town is tucked into Wisconsin’s beautiful driftless region, full of art, great food, and has a fascinating history.
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On this week’s episode of On the Road with that Wisconsin Couple, we travel to THE MOST CORNISH TOWN IN THE USA— Mineral Point. Mineral Point is of the oldest towns in Wisconsin! This adorable town is tucked into Wisconsin’s beautiful driftless region, full of art, great food, and has a fascinating history.
CLICK HERE FOR A FULL RECAP & ALL THE LINKS!
G: @thatwisconsincouple
FB: @thatwisconsincouple
Leave us your feedback here!
Well, hello everybody. And welcome back to another episode of on the road with that Wisconsin. Couple episode 31. I'm Hayden. And I'm Julia. And today. We are talking about the beautiful little town of mineral point Wisconsin. We love mineral point. Mineral point is in Iowa county. It is about one hour and 13 minutes or 63 miles away from where we live. And the last time. We were, there was, it says on my birthday, is that my birthday or your birthday? I don't remember. Is that a joke? If you would have been there a billion times. Since my birthday. Well, I go there every other week. Yeah. So I was last there on my birthday. I don't know when you were there last. Gotcha. So Julia was last there on her birthday. And. As always. Hit him with a fun fact. So my fun fact for you is that mineral point caused themselves. The most Cornish town in the USA. I don't know if that's actually accurate or if it's just like their claim to fame or I don't really know how you would like. Study that I guess, scale that I guess if they have the most. People from Cornwall per capita, but it is a very fascinating history of this little mining town. So that's your fun fact. Mineral point. The USA is the most Cornish town in the USA, or at least that's what they call themselves. Mineral point has a very fascinating history that includes mining and Cornwall, England was known for. They're mining skills and a lot of people. Came from Cornwall to mineral point to mine led. So that is kind of how mineral point became one of the first cities in Wisconsin. So it's one of the oldest towns in our state. And again, fascinating history. And we'll kind of talk about that a little bit later. And if you listen to the historic road trip episodes, you've probably heard a little bit about that as well. But we love this little town. We love it. So much. Yeah, it is located Southwest of us. And if you don't know where that is, you could always grab our Google map. And get it for a one-time fee. You keep it forever. And every week gains new pins. On everything that we record on this podcast. So, yeah. Basically every recommendation we make on this podcast will show up on that Google map. It's super easy to use. It's color coded. And it's right on your Google maps app on your phone. So we love that resource for you all. And thanks so much for your support. Absolutely guys, we appreciate it. We can dive right in here. A couple of places that you can stay if you want to extend your time more than a day in mineral point. Yeah. So we have two very charming hotels to recommend to you. I've stayed at both of them. Mineral plane, hotel. Is so charming and cute. It's like very aesthetic. It's a whole vibe on the inside is so cute. The owner is John is so sweet and kind they have the most adorable little patio that you can sit outside and have a glass of wine. It's just the cutest little place could not wreck. I have nothing bad to say about it. So cute clawfoot tub, little balcony in the room. Super cute and cozy. Yeah, the other place. A is. Right down the street. Yeah, literally like less than a block. Less than a block. You'll probably throw a football down the street and hit the building. It is the commerce street. Brewery hotel. So wait, before we get into this, we should mention that this is you work in this town. Yeah. So if you are drinking at a bar or a restaurant in mineral point, and you're having a cocktail. Hayden sells the liquor to these bars and restaurants. Pretty good trance. You're drinking my product that I sell. Yeah. So this is cool. Another reason why we love going here, but We love it for way more than that, but both of these hotels are your accounts, right? Yes, absolutely. Calmer Sri brewery. Talk to down the hill. I don't know what street Connor street. But it's a very beautiful old well-maintained. Hotel. It's got a nice brewery and little restaurant built right into the basement of it. The hotel is so cute. We had a really nice room, very spacious room with a jacuzzi bathtub. Massive bathroom, very cozy, high attention to detail. Cute place comes with breakfast. Breakfast is included in your stay there. And then the brewery itself is cutie and nice. And we liked their fish fry. It was a very good fish, right. I liked. I don't. I think they still do it where you can buy somebody a beer. And read their name up on the chalkboard. I yeah, super cute place though. So like the upstairs is the hotel part with like a couple of rooms and then the downstairs is the restaurant. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. Cute little places say. Mike is very inviting, super nice guy. Unfortunately, neither of these hotels are dog friendly. But they're both super cute. I would not consider mineral point to be the most dog friendly spot. But it's very cute and cozy and artsy and fun. So I would leave the dogs at home. Yes. But it's totally fine. Yeah. Totally worth the trip. Just a heads up though. Like, I don't have recommendations for you with your pops in this town. We can move on to places to eat. Well, we were talking about the commerce group or we brewery. We can start with that. Fish fry, absolutely fantastic fish fry. They made darn good cocktails as well. It's a good spot to pop in and have a drink. But they do make their own beer though. Right? Yes. I didn't have a beer there. I had an old fashioned. I had liquor as well, and it was delicious. They have a good selection of liquor. Behind the bar. And they'll mix you up a delicious cocktail to go along with your fantastic fish fry. That is the only food that I have eaten there. So. We also have you're basing it off the fish for, I would imagine the other food is good. We also liked their curds. It came with like a sweet sauce, like a raspberry sauce. That was good. And I think we had coconut shrimp too. That were also good. So yeah, no, nothing bad to say about the conversation brewery. The next one I want to touch on is red rooster. So red rooster cafe is very cute and it's like, I can't remember how many years it's been there, but it's been downtown mineral point for like forever and they serve pasty. So if you're unfamiliar Cornwell England like that, that would be their traditional food. Like they would eat a Cornish pasty. And if you're unfamiliar with that, think about it. It's like a GI end Cal zone. But instead of being filled with pizza, it's served with like stuffed with like meat and potatoes. So it's like a very heavy high calorie, like dish, but it's like very traditional, but they still serve that every single day at the red rooster cafe, you can get a pasty. You didn't even get one frozen to go. It would take out what'd you compare it to like a Like a chicken pot pie. Yes. But like, Okay. I like pasty, but it is like dryer. Like it's like a dryer dish than like, like chicken pot pie. But, yeah, it's very traditional. And like, if you're going to the most Cornish town in the USA, you probably should have a Cornish pasty. I feel bad because I did not have one. You did not, but it is. It's a really cool spot. The breakfast food is amazing. And again, they're known for that pasty served every single day. So I would definitely check that out. Have like a really good. Sausage skillet. So it was like a layer of sausage on the bottom and then hash Browns, cheese. If you wanted to add vegetables to it. Very Hardy filled you up. A lot. Yeah. Big portions. Like, like a typical diner, but that they just also have like pasty. So like that school. I want to say it's like been serving pasty everyday since like 73, but I don't know if that number is actually right. It's just, what's coming to my head. My phone down there. Yeah, it fell under the dog bed. It's whatever. But I can't remember the exact group, basically the serving Passy for everyday, for a really long time. That's what mineral point. Like it's known for you better have some, okay. Oh, so do you want to stay on breakfast? No we can do, or yeah, we can go wherever. Another spot you can hit up for your morning coffee, get a muffin. Get. Freshly baked pastries would be cafe 43. Super cute place. Coffee shop fives, but with more of a fuller menu also have a super cute market inside, like a local like Rocher where they're serving a lot of like locally made products. And then also just some like unique, fun things you won't find anywhere else. So definitely toggled the market as well. You can buy liquor there as well. They have Bottles of. Bottles of booze bottles of liquor. Like a fancy, a little mini grocery store. They used to have a bar. That you could Sit down and have a drink on, but unfortunately I. They do not have that option anymore to sit and have a cocktail there, but you can still go to the market and grab a bottle to take on the road. Yeah. And it's just really cute. Like the space itself is really charming and cute. We always have like the nicest servers Love cafe 43. The next place I want to talk about is Pablo's Avalose so this is a wood fire pizza restaurant, but like they don't just do pizza. They also have some pasta. When you walk inside this restaurant, it does not give you a Italian restaurant vibes. It's very chill, very cool decor, not Italian vibe, but the food was really good. We. We both really like my sister and I both really liked it. You can also get a very good cocktail there as well. Yeah. Hm. They have fancier stuff there. It looked like, like there, their bar is really cool. Yeah. Like you can get like a higher end cocktail there. The next one. Where are you going to go get a Papst that's our dog's name? Pats. The next one where you're going to go have a paps is Tony's tap and Hayden, why don't you tell them why? Tony loves Pabst. That bar is basically Pabst blue ribbon themed. They have, it is just decked out. Han of paps. Blue ribbon memorabilia. Everything, cops signs, lights. Just really cool decorations and stuff. They're just. Old-school awesome. Papst stuff in there. Great place to have a Pabst. I'm sure Tony will have one with you. If you're down there. He's really nice. He's a super nice guy. Obviously, we love to visit Hanes accounts, but like the first time I was there, he wasn't there. But then we happened to run into him later that evening and he was like, so kind introduced himself to me. Kind of give me a hard time for like dating you or. Like being married. That sounds like Tony. He's just very sweet. So I love like the people of mineral point, everybody we've met all of the like these establishment owners are usually at the restaurants or bars and they're all, so, so kind like I have met them all, which is like, not easy to do because Hayden's accounts are so far away. But they're also nice. So speaking of nice people, we have to talk about midway. Nicole is the sweetest. She's the owner of. This bar. I love her. She's so kind, we got to sit and talk with her for quite some time. And then we recently tried her pizza, which is like an award-winning pizza. They also have like award-winning burgers and bloodies right. So she said, yeah. So pizza is excellent. When we first saw it, I was like, oh, I don't know if I'm going to like this, because it's kind of like thicker crust, but it was so crispy and good. Pepperoni's hidden underneath the cheese. I have nothing but good things to say love midway, if you're in mineral point and want some really good bar food. I would highly recommend what midway. I absolutely. And then after you get your fill and you're looking for a little sweet treat, You can head to Julia's favorite place in town. It's so cute. It's like a little throwback. Candy shop like you walk in and they have like, essentially quote unquote penny candy, but like all the candy recombine individually for super cheap. They had butterbeer. What else did we buy? Oh, mystery bags for a dollar. And then it's just filled with a bunch of random treats, but like great value for a dollar. What was the thing we got your mom. Oh, we got her an admin killing. Calendar though. So it was like this giant ball and you peeled off a layer of a tie at a time of like tin foil or wrapping paper or plastic wrap. And behind every layer was a chocolate. So like some, like all different kinds of chocolates from the store. So that place is called high street sweets. I don't know if we. Oh, yeah. I don't know if we did that. When we were talking, we just were so excited to talk. Talk about it. The main drag is called high street. So high street sweets. Super cute. Like, even if you're not the biggest candy person, stop in there, just because it's so charming and adorable. Yeah, there definitely be something in there that I would say. Everybody could at least find one thing in there that they would enjoy. Yeah, there's something for everyone for sure. So that pretty much wraps up the places to go out and eat and men report. Oh, the crews in. You can also more of like a. Traditional bar food burgers. You know, they got the menu on the wall. They have like one of those tack menus where you like put the letters oh, cool. On the wall. That's, you know, that's their menu. It's super affordable. Just a really cool. Hometown. Downtown or. Bart. Nah, I wouldn't say downtown. By far, like. Just good. Traditional burgers, chicken wings, chicken strips, bar food. And it's really good. It's like right at the, I haven't. I've been there. I don't know if we went in there when we were you'll have to take me there. Yeah. But where is it? It depends on. So like where you turn up to go up high street. Yeah. It's on commerce on the left. Like right at the intersection of commerce and high street. Like if I'm coming from Penn Darvis to turn right on high street, or if I'm coming from. The other, like from Platteville. Nah, like if you're coming from Penn, Darvis going to high street, take a right. So. It's on my right. It's a couple of doors down from the mineral point hotel. Oh, okay. Yeah, no, I haven't been there. Yeah. It's a. Actually it wasn't open when Haley and I were there because it was during the week for my birthday. We were there on like a Thursday night. Sure. Yes, but okay. So let's get into places to drink. Everywhere we mentioned. Yeah. Everywhere. But also the first one I want to talk about is American wine project. So this is where it actually, we went for my birthday. My sister and I, and the winemaker is so awesome. She's kind of a one-woman show, just doing the damn thing. And she like, her story is very impressive. The wine is unlike Wisconsin wine. It's not sweet, juicy, fruity wine that you're used to in Wisconsin. It is great dry, full flavored, full body wines. The artwork on the bottle is beautiful. And like it, like, it it'll stand out to you when you grocery shop. If you're looking for American wine project line, once, you know what it looks like, you'll see it because it's so beautiful. I absolutely loved everything. I tried here. So good. There is a blood orange Rosa that everybody needs to try. I haven't. In our wine rack right now. I have nothing but good things to say the patio is beautiful. If that is a dog friendly patio, That's about the only one I got for ya. In mineral point, but yes, American wine project is simply amazing. I can't recommend it enough. Put it at the top of your list. For a mineral point, there is another. Like cafe. That I've never been to. It's behind the train station. No, it's the wa it's right by the American wine project. Huh. It's cool. I can't pine something. I'm I'm I apologize. A restaurant. It's like, yeah, it's like a breakfast lunch cafe. They don't serve alcohol. I know, not to my knowledge, unless they just have a beer license. But yeah, I've never been in there, but I always see cars there. I'm sorry about the name. We'll figure it out and we'll put it in the. We should do. We should try it next time too. Yeah. I mean, it's hard though, because I always want to go to the red fruits. We'll we'll we'll put it in the. Yeah. So to recap for you, for sure. The mineshaft, the mine shaft. M I N E. Mineshaft. Like a minor. NO food. Just bags of chips there. At pizza, I think I can get pizza. Oh, yeah. But it's a Subar. It's a dry bar pool table. They have a ton of live music all the time. This seems like the nightlife, the bar for sure. Kate. You know, Kate usually behind the bar bartending So it's just a, it's a good place to go have a beer unwind for the night, listen to some good live music or they have a DJ. Just always seems to be something happening at the mineshaft. So another great place to go check out on high street mural point, all these places we've mentioned walkable. Okay. Yeah. So mineral plain is so walkable and cute. The other one I wanted to mention though, is the new one that the owner of cafe 43 did. Oh, Eliza's place. Well to go there when I was there for my birthday, it wasn't open yet. So I have not been able to get in there since they both, I know. It's called Eliza's place. Eliza. Eliza's place. They have, they've had a few like soft openings where they're more like open on the weekends where they have Where they have like a band. And they'll, you know, they'll be open on a Friday, Saturday night, so their kitchen. I don't think it's quite up and running yet, but they're there. We're going to serve food too. It's going to be like a barbecue. Oh, I don't know if I knew, I don't know if he told me that I thought it was going to be like a cocktail lounge. I don't know why. The cocktail officer, but there is a pretty decent sized kitchen in there as well. It is a cool. Cool new spot. Well, new to them. It's been there for a long time. The building's been there for a long time. And. It's. Got a really cool high-end cocktails. Like. This is a place where you, you know, Hey, maybe. You're trying, looking to try something new or like you're looking for somebody to make you like a correct Manhattan or. The Negroni and the groaning of paper, plane, stuff like that. Like old school. Delicious cocktails. Huge selection. And it is the same owner as craft beer 43. Cause she's super sweet. Yeah, Molly's really awesome. Trevor shout out to Trevor as well. This is just kind of what we mean though. Mineral mineral point is that kind of tell them where, like, you're going to get your bar, your beer served by the owner. Like they are, everybody is so nice. You meet. Like so many owners like you meet the people like who this is their dream, and they're just really cool people. And it's really fun when you get to hear the stories behind of place. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to when. When Eliza's places is open, full tilt to go there and try some of their food and get a chance to experience the bar when it's popping. Yes. I would really like to go back to mineral point when it like always, but like when that's open, that would be really nice. Maybe we could do an overnight again, like we did. Yeah, for sure. Or we could just go for a day trip and do some holiday shopping. I like that. Everything like. Supports everything too. Like, oh, there's an art for this weekend. Every single business is going to participate. Yes. Like on on the art tour or. You know, you'll be, you'll be somewhere and you bet. And they'll and they'll tell you, oh, you should go check out this other place that's in town. Like, yes. Like super supportive of each other. Yeah, very strong sense of community. In this town. Absolutely amazing. But. I will talk about the historic site, but just a couple of things to mention before then. Downtown mineral point has some great shopping. It is pretty artsy towns. There are ton of galleries. That you could shop. If you're looking for some like unique or handmade gifts. There are also just a bunch of shops. And like little boutiques w we bought like a bunch of random Christmas presents when we were there last year. I bought my key. You bought me my cute little kitchen timer to put in my stocking. And they just have like a bunch of really cute shops. Like you could spend a whole afternoon walking around here. I love the bookshop, the Republic of letters that was new and Haley and I were just there from the historic road trip. But. Like we, there was also that shop that had like that whole Christmas. It was like all Christmas. And it had the old world ornaments. Your mom likes. Yeah, that was down by the. By the, where we bought the timer. Right. I think so. But just basically walk the town. All the shops are super cute. There's something for everyone. It's just. Like, it's such a charming little town, like, and it's not massive. Like Hayden said, everything is very close and walkable. Very cute and little, just love this town so much. So the other thing is the cheese country trail. Which is like, It goes from mineral point. To Monroe. Right. Yeah. Mineral point to Monroe cheese country trail, and it's like a rails trail bike trail. So if you wanted to like bike to mineral point, keep that in mind. Or if you just wanted a nice, easy paved, flat walk. Be a good place to check out while you're in town. Also mineral point is very UTV. ATB friendly. Well, yeah, we always see my Tony's. Yep. Yeah. But the next place I'm going to talk about is the historic site of Penn Darvis. So if you miss it this summer, my sister and I went on a road trip. It was 10 days long and we went to all 11 Wisconsin historic sites in those 10 days. So one of those sites is located in historic mineral point and it is called pin Darvis. Service. So pen Darvis is. Very, very fascinating because it kind of talks about mineral points, transition from led mining, being there like economic impact to how it became tourism. And this. Site is very, very cool because you kind of see how this, the historic sites came to be. You kind of learn about these two men. Okay. Couple Bob and Edgar. And how they decided to save these buildings because they didn't want them to be torn down and restore them. And in the midst of that to make money. In the pen Darvis house opened a restaurant. And so in this restaurant, They served pasty traditional Cornish fair to like an ode to the history of the town and to one of their like family heritages. And they, it became one of the busiest restaurants in all of this state. It was a huge tourism boat. Boosts, you had to, had to have a reservation. People were coming from all over to have this Passy. Served by this couple in pen Darvis so like that tourism impact and then kind of got the historic part going, but they were restoring this. The site before there was like rules and regulations to restoring buildings. So they were kind of paving the way. But it's kind of funny because now it's like a 1930s take on the 1850s. So like, you know, they did their best. But it's like what the 1930s thought. So not completely historically accurate to the time period, but they did the best they could. And kind of just turned a mineral point into more of a tourist destination once the mining industry had left. So it's a very, very cool, I highly recommended to urban Darvis. If you're a member of the Wisconsin, historic society, it's free. And if not it's a very affordable tour and those are available spring through mid-October. But yes, I have nothing but good things to say about pen Darvis and shout out Bethany. Who was our, she's like a site manager there and she was super kind and gave us a tour. And it's just awesome. And then also, while you're in the area, another historic site, which is literally just right up the road, less than 20 minutes away is. The first capital that's technically in Belmont. So if you didn't know now, you know, Belmont was the original capital of Wisconsin before Madison These buildings sit very close to their original location, quite literally in the middle of a farm field. So it is. Quite silly to think about. This is where important decisions were made. At one point in our say history. And this could have been what Madison is today, but instead it is still a cornfield. There you go. So, and I'm sure they love it that way. They're in Belmont. So, yes, that is my little history portion for you. But yes, a lot of Gandharvas so much. But hidden, what are we coming back to mineral point for what haven't we done? I'm going back there to work every other week. But I would like to see a show pretty much of any kind at the theater that they have there. I can only imagine with how. Artsy. Yeah. With how, yeah, how much they They appreciate. All the art galleries and everything. Yeah, I can only imagine that the theaters Guild there is fantastic. Yeah, and I feel like you always tell me about it because it's one of your accounts. And I hear so much and I hear it so beautiful. I would love to see it. So yes, going to a shoulder would be awesome. Do you remember when we stayed there last year? It was right before their candle light shopping event. Yeah, we were, we had some of them the next day. We couldn't stay right. We didn't stay that night, but I would like to go back for something like that. Like one of their community events. Like really see the town popping. Yeah. I think that'd be really fun and do some more shopping and I dunno, I can eat that midway pizza. Again, so save me back. But we, this, we, this will not be our last trip to mineral point. We will be back over and over again. It's a super fun town to, just to go spend an afternoon to, yeah. Shopping eating, drinking. Very cutesy. And again, the history, the art scene also good and fun. You'll love it. They just built a brand new, quick trip in town, too. That's right. They didn't do that. Market Jaz for. Thanks so much for listening to another episode of on the road with that Wisconsin. Couple, if you are doing anything that we've recommended, don't forget to tag us on Instagram or Facebook. And if you have mineral point recommendations for us, or we left something out in this adorable little town feel free to send us a message, you can also contact us via. The episode recap in the show notes. So we wish you all the best and most happy Thursday or whatever day you're listening to this. And we'll chat with you next week. Absolutely guys think so riding along.