Blue Bear Ellison Bay — Restaurant in Town of Liberty Grove

The new owners set themselves a somewhat daunting task here: turning a long-running small town family diner into a trendy place. Some of the locals joked that they couldn't wait to try the "veggie boil." (Viking Grill had an outdoor fish boil for decades).

For the most part, they seem to have succeeded, keeping the homey atmosphere and serving tasty generous portions of food. Friendly people, good service, and they have created a nice bright atmosphere (removed the Viking Grill's booths). The corned beef hash had to compete (to me) with the Viking Grill's hash, and passed with flying colors.

But I agree that the copper coffee mugs are not a good idea. Didn't they leave any of those nice heavy china coffee mugs behind when they sold the place? 😁 Or Blue Bear mugs would probably even make good souvenirs to sell.

The other aspect of this change would be that it's no longer a short order place where you can get two eggs with whatever. The choices are good, if pricey, but kind of "gourmet," so if you want plain old cheddar cheese on your skillet, or want to mix and match, you might be out of luck. You'd probably have to go as far south as the Carroll House now, for that kind of food. (And they have nice china coffee mugs at the Carroll House - when they're open, that is).

But the meat choices at Blue Bear are mostly from Waseda Farms and most choices are sustainably sourced, grass-fed, and so on. And there are vegan options, which were never available before dinnertime north of Sister Bay before. So time marches on and we welcome changes.

The owners seem like really nice people who have worked hard to make this an enjoyable place to eat (and drink - you can get a Bloody Mary with brunch). So I'll be returning, and I...

This place was a terrible disappointment. We went on recommendations from a long time local friend. They first told us we could not have a larger table because they place was reserved up (there was only on other party sat and the room never became more than half full by the time we left 90 mins later). The waitress asked us for our drink order. Didn't understand why I would order tap water ("just tap is fine") and brought it in a tiny glass, smaller than my companions Gin and Tonic. When I asked for a refill midway through our (appalling) appetizers, she ignored me. By the time the main course came, I asked for a pint glass of water - I could see other tables had pint glasses full of Coke, sprite, etc. It came at the end! Our starters were a small garden salad and a couple meatballs in sauce. The meatballs were 75% bread crumbs and the sauce and meatballs were so cold, the shredded cheese on top was still cold and could/would not melt. The salad was ONLY dressed with vinegar and lemon. It was so tangy, it made us both pucker. The famous "1839" main course was mostly braised onions and chopped brisket on rigatoni. It was inedible, ultimately. For this, we were charged $65. No bread, no amuse bouche. Nothing. I imagine they are having trouble staying open. Perhaps better waitstaff training, FOH training and a revamp of kitchen staff. Oh, and skip the Italian specialty. Go back to burgers which you did tolerably well. Or better yet, focus on local fish! Because this was the worst meal I have overpaid...

Let me begin by saying we really wanted to like this place. It’s a cute space with a creative menu, and we were excited to finally try brunch there. Unfortunately we won’t be back anytime soon. Here were the issues: I ordered an iced chai. They accidentally made it hot, so our server took it back to the counter and told them to just “pour it over ice.” This of course resulted in a very watery and room temperature chai. When we mentioned that pouring a hot beverage over ice doesn’t work, we were told “that’s how we make it here.” What?! That’s not how anyone makes an iced chai. Steaming the milk should for sure not be part of the process.

Hot coffee was good, but served in copper mugs. The handle, therefore, is uncomfortably hot. My dad asked for a different mug, but was told the glass mugs are reserved for “specialty coffee drinks only.” After my mom finished her latte, she gave my dad the cup so he could drink his coffee.

The quiche had good flavors, but was room temperature and super soggy.

Redeeming qualities: The side salads were very good, as were couple of the meals ordered . The mushroom omelet and cacio e pepe eggs both got great reviews.

In conclusion, if you go here you are taking a little bit of a risk. Depending on what you order, it’s gonna be really good or really bad. And if it’s really bad, there will be no effort made by staff to remedy the issues.

If they worked out the problems, it could be...