Restaurant Review Grand Marais Edition: Cascade Restaurant & Pub (Dinner Experience)

After our day of touristy joy we headed back to the lodge to unpack and relax. Lunch must have filled us up quite a bit because before we knew it, the clock informed us it was 8 pm and we still hadn't had any dinner. Knowing that you should never skip a meal and that we had a big hike planned for the next day we headed over to the lodge restaurant.

The setup is like a typical restaurant/pub except with more emphasis on the restaurant, as the bar had maybe 5 stools. There were stuffed animals (not teddy bears, see above) attached to the walls and awesome chandeliers made out of wagon wheels with lamps as lights hanging from the ceiling. It made Mark and I feel like we were in Dark Shadows again hanging out at the Blue Whale.

Loved the chandeliers

Given we were at a pub not located in Minneapolis, Mark was curious about the local beers they had. After our waitress listed their current selection we ordered a Lake Superior IPA to share and focused our attention to the menu. That is until Mark noticed the white board with their nightly specials listed.

He saw hot turkey sandwich and that was the end of browsing the menu for him. It had 2  slices of white bread, topped with "Thanksgiving-like" turkey, and drenched in turkey gravy. With a generous side of mashed potatoes and gravy. When his plate was brought to the table, Mark's eyes lit up. It was everything he imagined and wanted the dish to be. He liked it so much he literally licked the plate clean.

Can you see the excitement oozing from him?

Wasn't lying when I said he licked it clean

His meal was the perfect pairing for the beer we ordered as it was a very dark beer. So basically Mark had a complete Thanksgiving experience in the middle of June.

Because I wasn't very hungry and felt veggie deprived I went with the cascade greek salad. It came with tomatoes, olives, artichokes, and feta all on a huge bed of romaine. The salad was delicious but boy am I glad I got the house made greek dressing on the side because between the olives, artichokes, and feta it didn't need anything extra. The only feeling of disappointment I had about the salad was that the menu advertised that it would come with seasonal vegetables but didn't. Hmm....

My "seasonal veggie" salad

After dinner we headed back to the lodge completely stuffed and ready to rest up for our big day.