My wife and I spent a night recently in Eau Claire, WI. I have an account in Eau Claire and I usually just drive over from the Twin Cities (about 90 miles) and head back after I'm done with the meeting. I've only stayed in the city a couple nights over the years, but one time it was at a boutique hotel in downtown Eau Claire by the name of the Lismore Doubletree. We stayed there on this trip and looked for restaurants in the downtown area that were open for dining. My wife was looking for a good ol' fashioned Wisconsin-style fish fry that evening. The front desk had given us some suggestions, really pushing a couple restaurants a few blocks away. But we didn't want to get back in the car, so we looked for places that were walking distance from the hotel. One place that I found on-line sounded good - a little grill and pub about a two block walk from the hotel called The District Pub.
Dave Zempel was a Seattle-area native who came to Eau Claire to study at Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He fell in love with the area and decided to stay in the Chippewa Valley once he graduated from college. Zempel dabbled in a couple of things - he owned bars in the nearby towns of Menomonie and Altoona - and he also owned a wedding venue on an old farm about an hour drive north of Eau Claire. But he also wanted to put in an upscale pub in downtown Eau Claire.
In 2016, a sports bar in downtown Eau Claire by the name of Playmakers shuttered their doors. The building was up for lease when Zempel found out about it and he jumped on it for his new restaurant concept. Extensive renovations to the interior gave the tired building new life with large windows letting in natural light, a new bar area was put in place and a new kitchen installed. By August of 2017, the District Pub was ready to open. But extensive construction work in the downtown area near and around the District made it tough for patrons to get there. Word quickly spread that the new place was nothing like Playmakers (or the previous restaurant, the Haymarket Grill) and people found ways to get to the District Pub.
The District Pub is located at the corner of Graham and Eau Claire streets near where the Eau Claire River empties into the Chippewa River. (see map) Actually, we walked a block too far before turning to go to the District, ending up along the Eau Claire River. We went around a building and walked back a block to the entrance of the District. We went inside and checked in with the hostess stand on the middle level near the bar. As we turned to walk back down the stairs to get a table on the lower level, we looked out and the sky had burst with heavy rain. 30 seconds earlier when we walked in there didn't appear to be any hint of rain. But driving into Eau Claire that day, we ran into a handful of those late afternoon pop-up hard rains. And downtown Eau Claire was getting one of those as we sat down.
There are three levels at the District - the lower level is at street level and features a handful of booths and tables. Coronavirus restrictions were in place in the dining area, so tables were spaced out and every other booth was closed off for seating. It was cozy in there to begin with, so I can almost imagine how that little area would be if there weren't any restrictions in place.
The bar is on the second level, just about five feet above the lower dining level. Corrugated metal accents were on the face of the bar as well as on the back walls. There were some high-top tables in the bar area, as well. A number of flatscreen televisions were on the wall behind the bar - all turned to a Milwaukee Brewers game, mainly because, well, there aren't much sports going on these days. The District had 30 beers on tap featuring both national, regional and locally produced beers.
Just past the bar on the second level were some stairs that took you up to the third level. We saw some people going up there, but there appeared to be a sign that said that level was closed. We never did go up there to check it out while we were there.
We took a table near the floor-to-ceiling window marveling at our luck of not being stuck in the downpour that was going on outside. Our server for the evening, Ashley, came over with menus for us to look through. I ordered a Sierra Nevada hazy IPA while my wife got a vodka/cranberry to start out.
Most of the items on the menu at the District are your typical sports pub fare - appetizers, wings, salads, sandwiches, and pizza. One page was fully devoted to their burgers. They had over a dozen specialty burgers on that page and at the bottom they had their "build-your-own" burger section. I wasn't especially certain I wanted a burger that evening.
However, I didn't want pizza and the sandwich offerings - which included 8 different variations of grilled chicken sandwiches - were sort of sparse. It looked like I was going to be forced to get a burger after all.
My wife was hell bent on getting the fish fry that evening. That evening they were featuring deep-fried haddock along with a baked potato and cole slaw. It was served on a tray with faux newsprint. My wife was more than happy with the fish. The batter was light and the haddock was flaky and delicious. It was also very filling. She had a few bites of the cole slaw, which she thought was pretty good, and a couple bites of the potato, which was on the small side. But she didn't care - she was much more interested in the fish.
I ended up getting the Swiss and mushroom burger. I asked Ashley if they could put some bacon on the burger, too. And the saving grace is that they had tater tots as one of the side choices. I asked Ashley if they had any hot sauce such as Cholula, but the only thing they had were packets Frank's RedHot Sauce. No condiments - not even salt or pepper - are on tables during the pandemic. That worked out, though.
The burger patty sat on a sliced tomato and some lettuce leaves. It was cooked perfectly, a bit of pink on the inside and it was juicy and delectable. It was a glorious mess (a nod to the Slakingfool) with the Swiss cheese and a house sauce they drizzled on top of the burger. The Swiss/mushroom/bacon burger from the District was definitely a multi-napkin burger. And the bun stayed together very well with all the messiness. It was a very good burger.
For a casual, bar-style meal that wasn't too far from our hotel, we were both happy with what we had at the District Pub. They had a pretty good beer selection with a full bar, the menu was sort of typical of most sports bars with burgers, appetizers, and pizza - but they did seem to have an inordinate number of chicken sandwiches on their menu, and it was a nice little relaxing spot to have dinner and to watch some baseball. If you make it to the District Pub at some point, I would recommend getting a burger and my wife would definitely recommend doing the fish fry, if it's available.
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