Transcript for Beef-A-Rama, McGregor’s Blink Bonnie

– Luke Zahm: This week on Wisconsin Foodie… We are at downtown Minocqua judging beef at Beef-A-Rama.
Beef-A-Rama!
Beef-A-Rama!
– Krystal Westfahl: We call it kind of our Northwoods Mardi Gras.
– Luke: This is like a giant cow cosplay.
[attendee mooing] This is a party that I would come back to and back to and back to.
That is lovely.
That black pepper, the garlic.
Ooh, look at that smoke ring.
– Dan Hagen: The meat sweats are definitely– – Yeah.
[laughing] The Northwoods party.
Beef-A-Rama.
We’re outside of St. Germain, the home of Blink Bonnie, a hallmark of Wisconsin’s supper club culture.
– That’s my late grandmother.
She was the original chef.
I felt like I was born and bred for this place.
We’ve been finishing our steaks on hot plates and serving ’em since day one.
And that’s really what draws the people in here.
– This place is a carnivore’s dream.
Ooh.
[laughs] This is gonna be good.
Blink Bonnie’s in all of her splendor is rolling out the party tonight.
– If you’re here, you’re here.
If you’re not, you’re not.
– Luke: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.
[gentle music] – Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?
So are we an organic food cooperative that protects land, or land conservationists who make delicious food?
Yes; yes, we are.
Organic Valley.
– Twenty-minute commutes.
Weekends on the lake.
Warm welcomes and exciting career opportunities.
Not to mention all the great food!
There’s a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.
Learn more at InWisconsin.com.
– Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.
Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer’s made.
– As part of the seventh generation at Jones Dairy Farm, being part of the leadership at our company is extremely important.
I’m really fortunate that I have a lot of the sixth-generation family leaders that I can look up to.
– The Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable growers are proud underwriters of Wisconsin Foodie.
It takes love of the land and generations of farming know-how to nurture a quality potato crop.
Ask any potato farmer and they’ll tell you, there’s a lot of satisfaction in healthy-grown crops.
– With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.
From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.
The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.
– Also with the support of the friends of PBS Wisconsin.
[bright, driven folk pop music] – Luke: We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.
We are a merging of cultures and ideas, shaped by this land.
[sizzling] We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.
[glasses clinking] We are storytellers.
We are Wisconsin Foodie.
[upbeat bluegrass music] – On the day we made our vows We promised to be true – Today, we’re in Minocqua, and we’re here for an entire island celebration of Beef-A-Rama!
That’s right, people come out from all over the Northwoods to savor, to sample, to be in community over the grounding force of beef.
– I like the way you work it No diggity I gotta bag it up I like the way you work it No diggity I gotta bag it up – Luke: Krystal!
[laughing] – Hi, I’m Krystal Westfahl, president and CEO of the Let’s Minocqua Visitors Bureau.
Well, this is the 59th Beef-A-Rama.
We call it kind of our Northwoods Mardi Gras.
And it’s just one of our biggest fall festivals and biggest festivals, actually, in the Northwoods.
[attendee mooing] So when it started out as Fish-A-Rama, you know, it was really about kind of that Northwoods spirit and having a bunch of fish left over after the season.
But now it’s really about how much food can we produce, and fish isn’t sustainable.
So obviously, a good transition is beef.
Though we don’t have beef cattle here in the Northwoods, people really embrace that beef spirit.
So you’ve got folks dressing up all up and down the street to really encompass that Beef-A-Rama spirit.
So it’s a competition amongst many of our local area businesses and nonprofits.
We do have some outside folks that are really competitive that come in every year.
This event with the roasting competition, we bring judges in from all over the place.
We have about 31 roasters this year.
We ordered 36 roasts, and we’re probably gonna roast all of them.
We have a wood-fire smoke category, which obviously is highly competitive.
We have a charcoal category and a gas grill category.
And so those three, we’ve got about 10 to 15 year after year that participate in those different categories.
More than anything, it’s really about community and it’s about being part of something bigger than themselves.
So when they come here, traditionally the folks that are coming here have been here year after year.
Their parents came here, their grandparents came here.
And it’s about continuing that tradition and that spirit.
So our community is really blessed to have all of these folks coming up year after year.
And that’s what this event is all about, is giving back to them and saying thanks.
– Luke: We are at downtown Minocqua, and I’m at the Best Western meeting with all the other judges for Beef-A-Rama.
So today, I’m gonna be learning a little bit about the criteria for judging beef at Beef-A-Rama.
I’m really excited to meet some of these people that are putting their hard work into it.
The Northwoods party: Beef-A-Rama.
– Katie Thoresen: All right, Dan, Tina, Luke, let’s go eat some beef.
– Luke: All right, let’s do it.
Beef-A-Rama!
– Katie: So our first stop is Adams Generator.
I don’t think they were on our list last year, so they might be a new one.
– I’ve never smoked anything before.
– So we’re outside the Adams Generators.
This is my first beef bite of the day.
A top round.
It’s been rubbed down with herbs and spices.
You know, smoked, roasted over hickory pellets.
All right, first bite, beefy bite.
I really like this.
I mean, the trick is cooking it to the point where it’s tender, so, like, all that sinew and connective tissue in that top round kind of breaks down and melts, but it doesn’t shred.
That is lovely.
That black pepper, the garlic punches through.
Well, for our second barbecue tasting today, we are at Kathleen Thayer, a local real estate mogul.
Ooh.
– This one’s more of an Asian thing.
– Okay.
– Cook: It had about a pint of sweet mirin injected in it overnight.
– Luke: Sweet.
– That rub, that’s got chilies.
It’s got sesame seeds, it’s got tamari.
It’s got brown sugar, it’s got fish sauce, coffee.
– Thank you, friends.
This should be a pretty fun bite.
– Cook: You guys need anything, all good?
– Katie: No, it’s good, thank you.
– We’re three through right now at Beef-A-Rama.
We’re downtown in Minocqua, which is, you know, this is like a giant cow cosplay party.
I mean, it’s awesome.
I’ve seen more cow costumes here than, uh… Well, really, anywhere.
I mean, but I love it, you know?
The Northwoods is looking for a reason to bust it out.
Cow hats, cow glasses, cow shirts, cow pants.
Take that, Michigan.
No Beef-A-Rama there.
Boom.
Nicolet Bank took this round roast and they rubbed it down with Irish butter, salt.
They injected it with garlic.
They really wanted to permeate as much of this flavor in the outside and inside of this beef bite.
And then they smoked it over pecan wood for four hours.
That’s a good bite of beef.
Delicious.
I’ll cue you in more in my notes.
[bright music] – Judges, thank you for being here today.
We appreciate you doing this.
– Thank you.
I hope you enjoy.
– Thanks.
It’s the best bite I’ve had all day.
Shaved thin to win.
That’s, like, an essential when you’re dealing with top round.
You want it to be thin, so it breaks down that protein structure, breaks down all those connective tissues.
It’s got good salt, I can taste the smoke.
I get a little bit of that fruitiness in the olive oil.
It’s a pretty bangin’ bite.
It’s a whole herd of ’em.
[groovy music] All right, first things first.
This is the first one of these pieces that I’ve seen.
Because he cooked it so slow and low at 180 degrees, you can really see that ring right there, right?
So, like, in pork, that turns bright pink when you see something come off, or like a brisket.
But what we wanna see there is that nice smoke ring that shows us that it permeated.
Now, on top of the round, you can see right here where it’s a little less done.
But that ring, still nice gradient all the way through there.
It’s a lovely bite.
[cutlery clinking together] Yum.
– Well, we have our traditional slices, and we tried something a little different today, tried some burnt ends for the judges as well.
We cut those out separate this morning and kind of cooked those on a little different pace.
– Ooh, thank you.
– Good morning, everybody.
My name is Mick Finn.
My partner is Dan Stark.
And together, we’re Two Smokin’ Dudes.
That’s our team name.
We do some, just a lot of amateur stuff.
So obviously, you know, the cut of meat is a rump roast.
– Luke: Yep.
– I’m a part-timer up here.
I’m up here about six, seven months.
The rest of time, I’m in Oklahoma.
So you go to any barbecue in Oklahoma, burnt ends are on the thing.
– Yeah.
– Mick: So we tried to give you guys both the slices and some burnt end.
– Luke: Look at that smoke ring.
That’s the brightest and most even one I’ve seen today.
It’s like eating butter, honestly, it’s so soft.
You guys aced it.
I mean, honestly, that fruit wood, first.
Getting that smoke on there.
It just, it’s simple.
– Cook: All right, I’m sure you’ve had a busy day.
So we’re gonna start with our first course.
– Luke: Okay.
So we have a tap round injected with Wagyu beef tallow, rubbed with their special homegrown rub.
– Luke: The thing I really like about this, it’s very simple, very straightforward.
It’s like a love letter from the Midwest.
– We have two more left.
– Two more.
– Both restaurant establishments.
So this is the real part for me, like, where the rubber meets the rub.
Rubber… – Rubber meets the rub?
[all laughing] – Luke: Where the rubber meets the road.
– So we would first and foremost like to tickle your taste buds with a little bit of imported charcuterie from Italy.
And then you’ll have an opportunity to taste our beef preparation, which we sous vide for a nine-hour period at 134 degrees with Italian seasonings and roasted garlic.
– That’s some good meat.
– And then I would like to invite you on a little trip to Italy, where you will be dining on our beef and a preparation of wood-fired Italian beef pizza with homemade giardiniera and a side of au jus.
– That looks great.
– Yeah, mm.
– Luke: New York style.
That’s a good pie.
With that giardinieira, you get the pickle, you get the vegetable crunch.
We get the richness, that umami, in the beef.
The cheese, the crust.
And like, honestly, I saw a pie come out.
I was like, “Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t.”
But this slaps.
It’s a fun bite.
– Katie: First Beef-A-Rama a success here?
– Luke: Heck, yeah!
Seriously, I love it.
This is a party that I would come back to and back to and back to.
– Dan: What are your thoughts?
This is your first time, but what are your thoughts?
– So actually, I was really, really impressed with the technicality that everybody approached this from.
There was nobody who took it like, “Oh, whatever, we’re just gonna do some beef.”
Like, they were hardcore about it.
Hearing some of the preparation and the amount of time and energy that they put into that, it’s a really serious gig.
And then when you see what feels like the entire Northwoods community come out and show up for it, it’s a delightful time.
There’s so much pride in what’s going on here.
It makes every single bite completely worth it.
Completely worth it, even though I feel a little broken.
And, you know… – Yeah, the meat sweats are definitely– – Yeah.
[all laughing] – Dan: Okay, so we’re gonna tally these up.
– Okay, can you total each of your… – Oh, you want me to do the math?
– Yes, could you?
– Luke: Nobody said that there was gonna be math– – Katie: I have to do even more math.
Now I get to total things up.
And I am gonna use a calculator.
– Luke: Look at you.
– Katie: So that no one yells at me for bad math.
[Luke laughs] – Were we the smoked meat?
Yeah, where’s my hand?
Yeah.
– Good stuff.
– Tina, ooh, yeah!
– Krystal: Hello, Beef-A-Rama!
[audience cheering] I hope you’re all in the right place.
We’re gonna do the award announcements right now.
– What’s up, Minocqua?
How are we doing?
[audience cheering] You can get louder than that!
Come on, Northwoods, make some noise.
[cheers and applause] I wanted to come up here and lead with a joke, but I figured out that most of my jokes weren’t very well done.
So I’m gonna leave that at that.
I was looking for a beef pun, but there’s none that are quite rare enough.
[laughing] Yeah.
Judging in the smoke, the wood smoke, the essence of the Northwoods, we had a real barn-burner here.
Anything you want to say about this, friends?
– You got this, you’re doing great.
So, third place… Redman Realty.
[cheers and applause] Second place… Sallet’s.
This beef was truly fantastic.
The first place winner in this year’s wood-fired smoke competition… Two Smokin’ Dudes.
[cheers and applause] Dudes, dudes, dudes, dudes, dudes!
Minocqua Northwoods, you’re great.
Thank you so much for hosting us.
[cheers and applause] The Northwoods, known for its many beautiful forests and lakes, but it seems like for every lake, there’s a supper club associated with it.
Today, we’re outside of St. Germain, the home of Blink Bonnie’s.
You can smell the steak sizzling.
You can smell the butter in the air.
You know that this is going to be a hallmark of Wisconsin’s supper club culture.
– Brian McGregor, Blink Bonnie’s supper club in Saint Germain, Wisconsin.
Yeah, it’s just a big game of Tetris.
Some of the things you could know before you come here, it’s first come, first serve.
We don’t seat incomplete parties, so everybody’s gotta be here.
And that’s, I feel, the “club” aspect of the supper club is you gotta be here.
If you’re here, you’re here.
If you’re not, you’re not.
The line, that varies from day to day, different times of the year.
Sometimes people are lining up there two hours before we open.
And then when we open the door, it’s bananas.
You’re at full capacity.
The bar’s at full capacity, the dining room’s at full capacity, kitchens are operating at full capacity, and everybody is on point.
The old-fashioneds are flowing by 4:01.
Sometimes they have the cocktails lined up for ’em if we see ’em in the line.
Yes, we go through a lotta brandy, a lotta whiskey, a lotta liquor.
A lot of it goes in old-fashioneds.
The energy in here is usually pretty rockin’.
There’s no radio or TV, but the noise in here can get pretty deafening.
But it’s all with conversation of people having a good time and enjoying theirselves.
It’s not just a meal, it’s a whole evening.
It’s a whole experience.
Business opened up by my grandma and grandpa in 1971.
It’s been rocking for 53 years.
I’ve been cheffing full time 16 years.
Everybody in my family’s pretty much worked here, helped out in some way or another.
That’s my late grandmother, Judy McGregor.
She was the original, original chef.
I heard stories that she smoked cigarettes in the kitchen back when you could do that, and she ran a tight ship and was also super great.
And people that she’d call on people to work and make the evening happen.
I usually get here about 2:00 p.m. and start cooking.
A lot of mushrooms, usually about 25 pounds of mushrooms, and every day, you’re hand-cutting ribeyes, usually standard orders.
We’ll see our filet mignons cooked medium rare, hash browns, baked potato.
But the main thing we work on here is consistency.
Just making sure everything is on point and the quality control is right there.
We cook everything on a broiler.
It’s been back there forever.
It came with the place.
Cooking steaks takes a long time to figure it out.
Each steak’s done differently, but I usually do it with sight and touch.
Every steak goes through my hands, and pack that full of filets and ribeyes and New Yorks and T-bones and pork chops and everything on there.
And it’s taken a long time to get each one down.
Oh, we go through a couple hundred filets a week.
Our meat truck comes twice a week, sometimes three if we need some more.
We’ve been finishing our steaks on hot plates and serving ’em since day one in ’71.
And that’s really what draws the people in here.
It really finishes the good sear on the steaks and the people really enjoy the show, the platters with the steam and the butter spitting at ’em.
Yeah, we put a lotta time and energy working into the flow of the kitchen.
It’s a very small, tight space.
I say I dance on two kitchen mats all night, just back and forth all day.
But it’s almost nonverbal.
Everybody knows where you’re gonna be and your movements, and people let you know when they’re behind you.
What I really love about this place is our clientele.
It’s what really makes this place special and unique is the people that have been coming here for their entire life.
The entire time we’ve been open for 50 years, people coming in saying, “I remember coming in as a kid, “and now I’m bringing my kids in here, and the place is the same.”
I feel like I was born and bred for this place.
And some of my early child’s schoolwork was, “What do you wanna be when you grow up?”
It was own the Blink Bonnie, and we’ve achieved.
[gentle acoustic guitar music] [pager beeping] – Pager just went off.
It’s time to eat.
We gotta go.
Hey, hi, guys.
[laughing] Thank you.
I’m so excited.
I mean, first off, when you walk into this joint, the decor is classic Northwoods.
The walls are adorned with walleye, bass, sunfish.
Of course, there’s a muskie.
I mean, why wouldn’t there be?
[laughing] When I close my mind and picture the quintessential Wisconsin supper club, this is forever going to be etched into my brain.
With all the aromas around me of the butter and the beef, like, I’m thinking ribeye.
Dinners are served with hash browns.
Yes, please, thank you.
For a salad, we’re gonna go with the house creamy garlic dressing.
I’m stoked.
[claps] Let’s eat!
– Brian: There you go.
[groovy music] [steaks sizzling] Oh, my goodness.
– It’s very hot.
– Thank you.
– You’re welcome.
– When you get this sizzling, steaming plate of food and the aroma of brown butter that’s caramelizing underneath it and giving you all that really delicious, nutty, caramelly olfactory sense, it makes you salivate.
The seafood, the perfectly crispy hash browns, cocktail sauce.
This is a fine night indeed.
Mmm, yeah.
This is about as perfectly medium rare as you’re gonna find.
One of the things that’s really interesting to me, at the caf, we always rest our steaks.
So I want that temperature to fall before diners have a chance to cut into it, because essentially, this keeps it cooking longer than when you take it out of the kitchen.
But I love the fact that this place has dialed in, over three generations, the idea that you can still serve it on a sizzler and it’s gonna come out, and look at the even cook on both sides.
Not one side is over-seared and the other side is raw.
No way.
This is an equal eighth-inch sear on both sides, which is impressive to say the least.
That’s nice.
The mushrooms, the onions.
The beef, that brown butter.
Mmm.
That’s a good bite.
I mean, I talked for a little bit here.
You know, one of the things I love about the mushroom and onions and the supper club combination is it’s, for whatever reason, so nostalgic.
Like, the mushrooms really take on butter flavor.
And the onions are, you know, sweet.
But this is the essence of Midwestern comfort food.
All right, I gotta jump to the hash browns.
I love that crispy outside texture.
Look at that fluffy goodness in there.
Steaming off hot.
You get that nice crisp on the top, a little bit on the bottom.
Down the hatch.
That’s a formidable hash brown.
That’s super good.
And last but not least, like, to get good seafood in Wisconsin is a feat in and of itself.
But these seared scallops in the little goblet of butter?
[laughing] Oh.
This is gonna be good.
Buttery, rich, delicious.
This place is a carnivore’s dream, honestly.
Blink Bonnie’s, in all of her splendor, is rolling out the party tonight.
I love it.
One of the things I love about supper club cuisine is its lack of pretension.
This is food that has united generations of Wisconsinites together.
And in this instance, three generations of kids have come through here and really put their personalized stamp on what it means to be Blink Bonnie’s.
But here’s the game.
This isn’t super technical food.
This is good food, prepared precisely, and it shows.
If I had to place a bet, I would say that Blink Bonnie’s has probably got about three more generations in her.
[groovy music] Quick time out, would you, if I choked, would you give me the Heimlich, but you would have Shea tape it?
– Yeah, are you one of those people that think that ketchup is spicy?
– Not that bad.
Cinnamon, yes.
[Luke laughing] – There’s gonna be a lot of outtakes today.
– Producer: Put it down.
Pull it back up.
Like, just pull it out, don’t hold it.
– Zuke Lahm here on the street.
Beef-A-Rama, yeah!
[attendees cheering] – Moo!
– Luke: Moo!
Do you know the difference between jam and jelly?
– Cook: No, don’t ask me.
– You can’t pump up the jelly, dude.
[high voice] Hi, Arthur.
And I’m on woodsmoke and wood.
– Producer: What’s up today, how are you feeling?
– I’m feeling great.
Unfortunately, I’m here from Illinois.
– Producer: Oh.
– I just kind of lost my train of thought on there.
– Luke: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.
[gentle music] – Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?
So are we an organic food cooperative that protects land, or land conservationists who make delicious food?
Yes; yes, we are.
Organic Valley.
– Twenty-minute commutes.
Weekends on the lake.
Warm welcomes and exciting career opportunities.
Not to mention all the great food!
There’s a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.
Learn more at InWisconsin.com.
– Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.
Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer’s made.
– As part of the seventh generation at Jones Dairy Farm, being part of the leadership at our company is extremely important.
I’m really fortunate that I have a lot of the sixth-generation family leaders that I can look up to.
– The Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers are proud underwriters of Wisconsin Foodie.
It takes the love of the land and generations of farming know-how to nurture a quality potato crop.
Ask any potato farmer and they’ll tell you, there’s a lot of satisfaction in healthy-grown crops.
– With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.
From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.
The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.
– Also with the support of the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
– Luke: Still hungry for more?
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