After we witnessed the authentic fish boil at the White Gull Inn, Cindy and I decided to go out for a nice dinner. We got back to our hotel in Sturgeon Bay and picked up a number of menus from the front desk, checking to see what the area restaurants had to offer. We decided on a place just walking distance down the street from the hotel. When we returned the menus to the front desk, the girl asked, "So, where are you going?" After I told her our choice, she said, "Oh, my gosh! I'm sorry, you guys. I should have pulled that menu out. That place closed up earlier this year.
We ended up looking at the menus again and settled on a little supper club just outside of town called Schartner's on the Shore (see map). The girl said she'd never eaten there, so she wasn't familiar with the place. We decided to give it a try.
We pulled into the parking lot around 8 p.m. and there was only a couple other cars there. Actually, the "on the shore" part of Schartner's is a misnomer. They're about 200 feet from the lake, across the road. In fact, you can't even see the lake from the place as there's a bunch of trees in between.
Schartner's is a typical north woods supper club with pine paneling, a large bar and pictures all over the wall. One thing that I noticed right off the bat, however, is the large amount of St. Louis Cardinals memorabilia on the walls. It was actually pretty interesting to see what they had on display.
The owner, Willie Schartner (right), a congenial man in his early 50's, greeted us and told us we could sit any where we wanted. We took a larger table near the kitchen to get away from a rather boisterous group of diners on the other side of the restaurant.
Schartner's on the Shore has been around since 1986 when Schartner, a local realtor, and his wife bought Leo's Tavern and Restaurant from Leo Hinkle who had ran the place for 35 years prior. Before Hinkle bought it, it had been in business for 30 years prior to that. So this marked the 88th year the place had been a bar/restaurant. That's pretty impressive, if you ask me, for a north woods establishment.
It was a slow night for Schartner's on the Shore and there was only one waitress working. The Green Bay Packerswere on television that evening playing a pre-season game in nearby Green Bay. Schartner was glued to the set behind the bar, even though it was pre-season game.
The menu at Schartner's features your typical Door County staples - white fish, steaks, chicken and pork chops. We both wanted steaks so Cindy got a New York strip while I got the rib eye. We both ordered house salads and got potatoes for our sides.
While we were eating our salads, the group of people on the other side of the restaurant got up and left, leaving Cindy and I as the only ones in the restaurant. This afforded me a chance to get up and look around at the Cardinals memorabilia Schartner had on his walls. It turned out that Schartner used to play a lot of baseball in his earlier years, including playing semi-pro baseball in the Door County area.
During a break in the Packers game, I asked him, "OK, how did a guy who lives in Door County get to be such a big St. Louis fan?"
He said, "I used to be a big Milwaukee Braves fan until they moved to Atlanta in 1966. I was so devastated by the move, that I vowed I'd never be a Braves fan again. I decided to become a Cardinals fan because I really liked Bob Gibson and those teams in the mid to late 60's."
I told him that I spent an afternoon at Bob Gibson's home in Nebraska a number of years ago (see that story here). He said, "Really? No way!"
I told him the basic circumstances of me being with Gibson and he just sort of looked at me in a funny way. Then he clammed up, went back to watching the game and barely talked to me the rest of the time we were in there. I figured he'd want to know more about my visit with Gibson. It was sort of weird, to say the least. I don't think we even got a "Thank You" from him when we left. Maybe he was jealous, or maybe he thought I was full of shit, I don't know. But he certainly had an impressive display of Cardinals memorabilia, the best I've ever seen outside of the greater St. Louis area.
Our steaks showed up and they were cooked to perfection. The cuts of meat were large and tender, they were juicy and flavorful, and even the cheddar cheese cover potatoes were very good. Since we were the only ones in there (until right before we finished our meal), she was very attentive to our needs.
With drinks and tip, the bill at Schartner's on the Shore came to about $55 bucks. It really was a good experience as I just love these type of north woods supper clubs. If you're a Cardinals fan and want to see some great baseball memorabilia, or if you're looking for a good steak at reasonable prices, Schartner's on the Shore is a great place to go. Just don't tell Willie Schartner that you spent an afternoon at Bob Gibson's house.
(Update - Willie Schartner sold the restaurant to Eric and Marja Johnson in 2009 and they changed the name to The Cabin of Sturgeon Bay. It appears from their menu that they have a lot of the same items to choose from when it was known as Schartner's on the Bay.)
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