The Landmark Restaurant is in the Queen Anne Victorian home called the Rittenhouse Inn in Bayfield, Wisconsin. Located on a hill, overlooking Lake Superior it provides a wonderful view of the water and quaint town. The well-maintained brownstone also houses a bed and breakfast inn, there and in other buildings off-site. Three rooms on the main floor make up the dining area, kitchen, and the beginning of the cherry staircase that leads to 12 guest rooms upstairs. The 1890 house was purchased in 1973 by Mary and Jerry Phillips who began running the B & B. It was expanded in 1985 to add more guestrooms upstairs. Out back is a dedicated parking lot. The menu is small and one special was featured the night we were there, but you do have the option of making it a 5 course tasting and choosing from the soup, salad, sorbet, entree, and dessert options, some of which have an upcharge. Each small room has a different color scheme, with lots of windows to the outside, a fireplace, and various decorations. The tables come in an assortment of shapes but most are large and are covered with white tablecloths. They do not have a bar but your server can make cocktails. The wine list is limited but there are some ‘special’ bottles in the cabinet out front you can additionally choose from. Service was friendly and fairly efficient.
Set-up
Meal
We started with a well-made martini while we looked over the menu. For dinner, we had a bottle of wine.
Bacon-wrapped dates are made with Medjool dates that are sliced and wrapped in smoked bacon served with a cheddar mornay sauce. They were on 2 skewers with 3 dates on each. There was a good bit of grease underneath them. The sweet dates were good with the maple-flavored bacon that was nicely crisped on the edge, but the sauce was weird. It was too stiff and not that cheesy. It really didn’t work so I’d give them only an okay.
Crostini were made on toasted baguette slices topped with fig spread, Quattro Fromage, caramelized onion, and crumbled bleu cheese. Oddly, the menu said the bread was toasted but it was not. However, it was really good and perfect with the cheese, figs, and onion. There were 4 slices and they were really tasty. Give this one a great.
The server brought out bread for the table which was 2 rolls and packages of whipped butter. The rolls were throwaway, especially after the wonderful baguette bread in the crostini.
Grilled NY Strip was a char-grilled NY Strip served with a creamy mushroom and green peppercorn brandy sauce with mashed potatoes and asparagus. We each had one, so that’s why there are 2 photos. The meat was cooked rare as ordered with a good sear on the outside. It was fairly tender and well-seasoned. The micro-greens on the top were a horrible touch. The thin asparagus were okay – a bit late in the season. The mashed potatoes were underneath the steak and they were fine but not as buttery as they should have been.
Turtle Sundae was made with praline pecan ice cream with their famous buttered rum sundae sauce, hot fudge, whipped cream, and candied pecans. The fudge sauce was on the top and quite thick. There were a few praline pecans tossed on the ice cream and they were tasty. The buttered rum sauce was good and caramel-like. The ice cream was only of average quality – too fluffy. It was plenty to split for 2 and a reasonably good sweet ending for the meal.
