Eating like a local:
Regional food specialties
- Roadfood Favorites in Racine Wisconsin
I love all the little lake towns found up and down Lake Michigan. I’ve taken the circle tour twice in life which allowed me to visit many of them. Though my favorite is just a short ride from home. Racine sits at the mouth of the Root River just 22 miles south of Milwaukee and 60 miles north of Chicago. It’s neighbors with Kenosha though Racine is typically looked at as the rougher of the two which is probably another reason I like it. Racine isn’t all that different from most Rust Belt towns but its location on Lake Michigan adds some prettiness to the grittiness of it. I’ve been exploring this area for a long time but never for more than a day at a time as it’s so close to home there’s no point in visiting longer than that. But I recently had a work related gig that had me in town for four nights which meant I got to hit up all the classics in one swoop. Racine is a big Roadfood town which is the main reason I like it so much. I always enjoy stopping in at the city’s iconic eateries but usually have to pick and choose as I’m typically only in town a few hours max. Racine has as good of a starting five of iconic eateries as you’ll find in a town of around 75,000. Four of the places we’ll visit have been featured on here before but never together in one swoop like this. Let's check them out.
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Bendtsen's Bakery
The Kringle is Racine’s claim to fame in the food world so it’s only appropriate that we start out at the locally loved Bendtsen’s Bakery. The Kringle is said to have come to this area with the Danish in the late 1800’s. Racine would later earn the nickname Kringleville giving you an idea of just how popular the kringle is in these parts. The shareable rings of buttered and glazed pastry come in many flavors and are found all over town but my favorite comes from this fourth generation bakery. I just cant decide if it’s the cherry and cream cheese or the pecan - so I always get one of each. Since 1934.
Kringle from Bendtsen's Bakery
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Kewpee Sandwich Shop
There’s just 5 locations left of this once thriving franchise that Dave Thomas frequented as a kid (he once credited Kewpee as the inspiration for Wendy’s). I’ve been to them all - three are in Ohio and another is in East Lansing - but the Racine location is by far the best of the bunch. In fact it’s one of the better burgers anywhere. Kewpee is the second oldest hamburger chain in the country having been founded in Flint Michigan all the way back in 1923. Named after the Kewpie doll it’s currently headquartered in Lima Ohio where their downtown location is a local landmark. Though both the Racine and East Lansing locations are separately owned meaning the burgers are a bit different at each of them. There’s a rumor they still grind beef hearts into the blend here in Racine but I don’t know for sure. What I do know is the beef tastes like it used to and the double cheeseburger here is one of my favorite burgers anywhere. They have some weird hours (8a-2p) and some even weirder dolls staring at you as you eat sit in their oldest of old school dining rooms, but this is a burger worth seeking out. Not just one of Wisconsin’s best but one of the best burgers anywhere. Since 1926.
Double Cheeseburger at Kewpee Sandwich Shop
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DeMark's Bar & Restaurant
It only took me a decade since first learning of it but I finally made it to DeMarks Bar & Restaurant for their popular Pizza Burger for the very first time last summer. You may have had a pizza burger before but unless you’ve been here you haven’t had the original which is unlike all others. It starts with what they simply call “pizza sausage” but it isn’t just sausage like that on a pizza. It’s a full fledged patty that’s 100% pork but texturally it’s just like a thick and juicy burger. I don’t know how they get it like they do but my best guess is they grind their Italian sausage into a more coarse product than usual. The end result is a fennel forward flavor bomb that’s easily the best “bomber” I ever ate in Racine and or Kenosha - bombers are what they call Italian beef, sausage, and meatball sandwiches loaded with marinara, melted cheese and hot peppers on French bread in these parts. DeMark’s is a textbook tavern with a fully sized shuffle board and all sorts of cold booze available for there or taking out. They started serving drinks back in 1939 although the business itself goes all the way back to 1906.
Pizza Burger at Demarks
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La Tapatia
Racine is a crispy taco town as evidenced in this post from 2016. But not the kind made of store bought shells, the type made crispy by frying them to order. There’s handfuls of spots around Racine making real deal tacos dorados but this family run convenience store with a restaurant in back was the first and is still the best. Get them with ground beef and be generous with the salsa. Since 1981.
Crispy Tacos at La Tapatia
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What more can I say about this place? There was a time when there was little info online about the legend that is Wells Brothers Pizza. It was named one of the country’s best pizza spots in a random list in USA Today circa 2005 which sparked someone on LTHforum to ask about it but the thread went silent for four years until I visited back in 2009. I posted about it on here around that same time and have been hyping it up ever since then. No I’m not taking total credit for its popularity outside of Racine but I can tell you right now I’m the one that set it in motion as there was a time when my blog post would pop up as the first result when you searched Wells Brothers online as there was little coverage of it outside of that. Wells Brothers was also featured in a New York Times piece by Kenji Lopez who learned about it thru Steve Dolinsky who was taken there by me. The sausage pizza is why you’re here - it’s my favorite pizza anywhere. It’s pretty much the only thing I ever get but sometimes I’ll also add a side of spaghetti and meatball and yes meatball is meant to be singular in that you can get a side of spaghetti with a house meatball for like $3 and it’s pretty damn good.
Spaghetti and Meatball 
Pizza Burger
The pizza isn’t quite as thin as that at Zaffiros in nearby Milwaukee but it’s still one of the thinnest anywhere and I love the cornmeal crust on the bottom. They almost always cook it perfectly which is a bit on the well done side resulting in a crispy crust throughout. Wells also makes the best Italian sausage so that’s what you should get as far as toppings. You can also try a pizza burger here which is made with that same incredible made on site sausage and it’s worth an order should you need something on top of the pizza. While not quite as good as DeMark’s it's different enough to stand out on its own. When I was working up here in December I knew I would be taking a pizza home with me so I was finally able to stop in and try their popular lasagna which is $12.25 with soup or salad on Wednesdays. On top of that you can add a piece of Italian sausage for a buck. What a deal! My only complaint was I wish they put more melted cheese on top but other than that it was peak red sauce Italian. I’ll always have a special spot for the 2009 inaugural winner of the “Roadfood Stop of the Year” which is why I almost always stop here anytime I’m near. The pizza reheats really well so I often take it home but dining in at Wells Brothers is an experience in of itself. Sit at the bar and get a large sausage pizza and indulge in a cold Spotted Cow or one dollar cans of Hamm’s for full effect. Since 1921 - though the pizza recipe came up from Chicago with some relatives post World War II.
Sausage Pizza at Wells Brothers
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See ya next time @chibbqking
