I'm back with Part 2 of my Best of the Midwest Food Tour! 🎉 Hopefully you enjoyed exploring some of Illinois' tastiest spots with me last week (click here!) because this week, we are headed to Wisconsin, home of the cheese-heads. As you all know, I'm a bit of a cheese-head myself, so you can imagine I fit in quite well.

#sorrynotsorry

Naturally, I just had to visit a cheese factory while I was in the land of cheese but unfortunately the one day we went, the factory wasn't having tours. Talk about bad luck. BUT, there was still plenty of cheese to be sampled and you know very well I took advantage of that cheesy goodness.

Let me just say, you haven't lived until you've tried real Wisconsin cheese curds. The word "curd" might not be the yummiest sounding but don't let it fool ya. Fun Fact: cheese curds are actually the "squeakiest"--yes, you heard that correctly--when served warm. Happy cheesin' folks.

First Stop: Pizza Brutta

After our long, three-hour drive from Illinois, we were pretty starved and very much ready for dinner. After doing some quick research, or as I like to call "Yelp-ing," we decided on some quality pizza from the highly reviewed Pizza Brutta.

This restaurant reminded me a lot of Blaze in Orlando where you have the option of picking and choosing whatever you want on your pizza or as I like to call it: the Chipotle of pizza. But, if you are indecisive like me, Pizza Brutta also has a decent selection of "already-thought-of" pizzas you can pick from.

Of course, every time my mom and I see a Caprese Salad on a menu, we just have to try it. As expected, the sliced tomato, basil, and fresh mozzarella medley is absolutely delicious, drizzled with olive oil, sea salt, and cracked pepper. I promise nothing is more refreshing than this salad. Plus, Pizza Brutta served theirs with this toasted rosemary points...I approved.

Perhaps it was the hunger making me too impatient to create my own cheesy masterpiece, but I decided to go with Pizza Brutta's Prosciutto Arugula pizza for the evening. It had a sea salt and olive oil base rather than crushed tomato and was topped with rosemary, prosciutto, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, arugula, and parmesan.

This pizza had quite a few of my fave ingredients and I was very pleased with it's flavor. However, the crust was a bit crispier than I prefer, but overall, I was able to eat the entire pizza --minus the crust!! I was pretty proud of myself, not gonna lie LOL. Overall, I could definitely see us returning in the future. Nothing beats quick counter service with high-quality pizza flavor. 👍

Foodie Fast Facts:

Service: Counter Service

Type of Food: Pizza

Price Range: $8-12 unless you decide to "build your own" pizza, then the price varies

Location: 6712 Frank Lloyd Wright Ave., Suite 102, Middleton, WI

Menu: click here!

Overall Foodie Girl Rating: 🍕🍕🍕🍕 out of 5

Next Up: Craftsman Table and Tap

Oh my goodness. 😍 I was really, REALLY impressed with this restaurant you guys. My mom, aunt, and brother had already discovered Craftsman Table and Tap the last time they were in Wisconsin--without me, I might add--so this was my first time and man was I smitten.

The atmosphere was very similar to a traditional European-style tavern, very much like the pubs I would visit in London, England a few years back. There was just something about the place that was really comforting and welcoming.

Not to mention, we had a super sweet waitress who listened to me blab about the Bachelorette and my absolute FAVE contestant, Peter, who is a Wisconsin native. May have low-key died when I found out my waitress was good friends with his brother (sorry to all the non-bachelorette watchers who have zero clue what I'm gushing about LOL).

It was barely 11 am when we arrived at the restaurant but we had been up since 5 am so a nice alcoholic drink was in order. I hate to be cliche but it was 12 o'clock somewhere right?! 💁 My mom and aunt decided to go with a Craftsman Bloody Mary which was made with the Craftsman's bloody mary mix and Tito's vodka and garnished with a slice of Jones Dairy Farm bacon, a blue cheese-stuffed olive, citrus fruits, pickled asparagus, celery, a pickle, and a Carr Valley cheese curd.

If that wasn't enough, they also came with Surly Helles Lager beer chasers on the side. HOLY SMOKES. 🔥 Not only were these drinks massive but they were hella strong too! The best part was, you got all of that for only seven bucks!! SCORE. I am not a Bloody Mary fan --you can probably guess why if you've been following me for awhile LOL-- so I went with a nice mango Mimosa instead.

As mentioned before, nothing beats some Wisconsin cheese curds so of course we ordered the Carr Valley Curds as one of our appetizers. These Surly Helles Lager beer-battered cheddar cheese curds were served with Craftsman buttermilk dressing.

As tasty as these guys were, I had a hard time eating more than a few just because they were so greasy. I can never really do fried stuff to begin with, but the handful I had was more than enough to satisfy my cheese craving. 👌

When we saw the German Pretzels on the menu as well, we just couldn't resist. Hand-rolled pretzel rings served with beer cheese sauce and horseradish mustard...what could be better than that? I've always been a pretzel girl so of course, I approved of this mix, especially with the beer cheese sauce.

Ah, so good as the pretzels was super soft, just like I like. 😋 I always joke about how I can totally live off of pretzels and cheese when I'm lazy or too poor to get real food. It's a true story LOL, just ask my pantry around finals time.

Then for the main event, I went with the Craftsman Scrambler--scrambled eggs served with Jones Dairy Farm bacon and sausage, crumbled cheddar cheese, and green onions--as suggested by our waitress. This was so yummy that I'm going to figure out to recreate it at home. The potatoes were good, but a tad more fried then my tummy could handle. Don't you worry though, no potatoes were wasted in the making of this review. You can thank my lil bro for taking care of that when he devoured them like no tomorrow LOL.

You can count on us returning to Craftsman Table and Tap the next time we are in Wisconsin. This place was definitely one of my top faves the entire road trip and I would 10/10 highly recommend. 👏

Foodie Fast Facts:

Service: Sit-down

Type of Food: "Rustic Home Cooking"

Price Range: $7-15

Location: 6712 Frank Lloyd Wright Ave., Middleton, WI

Menu: click here!

Overall Foodie Girl Rating: 🍳🍳🍳🍳🍳 out of 5

Pit Stop: Greenbush Bakery

It wouldn't be me if I didn't try to scope out the best local bakeries and I may have hit the jackpot with Greenbush Bakery. Voted in Madison Magazine as the 2017 Gold-Best of Madison: Bakery Sweets, you can totally see why in the quality of the donut--I mean c'mon, look at that cross section below. Even though my nut allergy made it difficult for me to try most of their "fun flavors," I was still SO impressed with how flavorful even their simplest of donuts were. Not to mention, each donut was massive in diameter and thickness. I'm already having withdrawals and I want more...right now. 😭 💔

Foodie Fast Facts:

Service: Counter Service

Type of Food: Bakery/Donuts

Price Range: $1-5 each or $11 a dozen

Location: 1305 Regent St., Madison, WI.

Menu: click here!

Overall Foodie Girl Rating: 🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩 out of 5

It's definitely safe to say that the next time we return to Wisconsin, we've got the restaurants and bakeries already figured out. On top of all the cheese, this state knows whats up in regards to good, quality food. 👌 Check back soon for Part 3 of my Best of the Midwest Food Tour when we travel to Minnesota!

💕xoxo foodie girl

Food for Thought: