Wisconsin Restaurant of the Year Award

"So we sit on our hill beside a new-blown pasque, and watch the geese go by. I see our road dipping gently into the waters, and I conclude (with inner glee but exterior detachment) that the question of traffic, in or out, is for this day at least, debatable only among carp." Aldo Leopold, Sand County    Almanac


Eleven point four miles south of the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, from the Wisconsin River down to the Baraboo River, is the brand new Driftless Glen Distillery and Restaurant, what I would make the claim as the best new restaurant I've been in for the last year (maybe all-time) in the state. Just as the great perennial Ishnala restaurant inside the carved hollows of the Wisconsin Dells sandstone captures the essence of an area of the state, so does Driftless Glen as it stands in purposeful stationing directly on the sandy soil of  the Baraboo River.

With only seeing brief snapshots of this place, opened up last April by a native Illinois couple who had relished a dream of a distillery somewhere significant for six years, there would have been no way to predict that along the very same path as old small town farm buildings this gem would have stood, the river cascading in the background as if built to feed the thirst of the distillery.

The owners had always wanted to create a distillery of purpose, beyond the mere mass making of bourbon or whiskey. They became attracted to the language and place of Baraboo through words and experiences of Aldo Leopold, and the kind people of the city.  The city wanted the new business but also hoped for a restaurant; the owners agreed and created a venue for high end spirits and excellent food.The tower at the front of the building was – as the owner now admits with humor – an 'oops' moment: he constructed the shell of the building but then realized that it was not going to fully house the distillery apparatus so had to add-on the beautiful front tower.

The water quality is near perfect here for distilling – clean and well filtered through the sand county soil.  The fog that lifts up off of the river daily is a healthy condition for the casks.  Local farm grains are used in the creation of the rye and vodka products.  Local beers are served.  Most of the menu items infuse some form of bourbon.  The meatloaf sandwich that I ordered was one of the best pieces of meat, coated with a mushroom bourbon sauce, that I have ever had.  The panini and roasted chicken salad also close to perfect.  Two miles up the road stands the cliffs that offer the best hikes in the state at Devil's Lake.

Some restaurants are great for very small reasons – maybe they offer the best burger, or a favorite kind of seating arrangement.  Maybe it's cute looking on the outside or in.  Great service, great customers might be the draw.  But Driftless Glen is virtually all things built into not just the restaurant 'place,' but that the restaurant itself is a part of the place of the entire region.  In my mind, it deserves, with ease, restaurant of the year award in Wisconsin.