Whet your appetite for a weekend of fun! Our Margarita Island Dinner features a playful island theme. Fresh fruit flavors are showcased in the form of delicious coladas, margaritas, and mai tais. (see menu below)
Saturday: Margarita Island Dinner, 6:30pm, $75
Chef Keen spent several seasons living and working in Hawaii. He brings his knowledge of island cuisine to your table, using traditional Caribbean and South Pacific ingredients like limes, olives, poblano peppers, fruits, salsa, and rum. You’ll enjoy a soup, salad/appetizer, sorbet, entree, dessert, and four specialty cocktails. This event is included in the weekend package, or available ala carte for $75 per person plus tax and gratuity.
Margarita Island Dinner Menu (subject to change)
Soup: Melon Kiwi fruit puree with lavendar yogurt sauce and lavendar buds.
Drink: Spotted Lizard
Starter/Salad: Seafood cocktail with fresh prawn, scallop, and mussel, spicy cocktail sauce, and microgreens salad with lemon vin.
Drink: Snakebite
Dessert: 5 spice pineapple upside-down cake with (rum or kiwi lime or vanilla compote) sauce.
Drink: Guava Colada
Margarita Weekend Package
This year’s annual spring Margarita Weekend takes place in the warmer days of mid-May 20 -21, 2011. Guests who Reserve Friday at the seasonal rate, Receive Saturday night’s room for only $99!!
Double occupancy rate for Margarita Weekend is $240 and includes:
* Hearty 2-course breakfast each morning (Sat/Sun.)
* 5-course Tropics Dinner with cocktail pairings (Sat. 6:30pm)
* Gratuity of 20% for dining service.
Lodging rates are dependent upon the room or suite selected.
Pay our standard seasonal rate for Friday and get Saturday night’s lodging for only $99
I’ll never forget Mary and my first sight of Bayfield. It was a sunny, warm day in June, 1969, when Mary and I drove in from the south and were mesmerized by the lake. Sparkling like a million diamonds, we were spellbound. The town was quiet, not the tourist haven it has become. There were vacant buildings and many “For Sale” signs. We drove the streets, exclaiming about historic house after house, the steep hills giving everyone a view. We stopped at the Community Lunch for a bite, visited Jim and George’s Antique Shop, the Pot Shop of Bob Eckels, the Kerr Gallery.
The Boutin Mansion, now called the Chateau, was for sale by Mose Theno, the nuns still living there, and we knocked on the door. A Nun was very cordial and showed us around the first floor, which was very dark…. both from the darkly stained wood as well as the layers of curtains over the windows. We were back outside almost before my eyes had adjusted to the lack of light, and I can’t say that my focus was on the visual as much as the emotional rendering of that visit.
At the time, we were engulfed in the process of renovating a Victorian home near Madison that had been beaten up during 30 years as a nursing home. The Chateau in Bayfield was a much grander home, on a magnificent site, with few of the signs of disrespect we were dealing with. Try as we might, the envy was palpable.
The Ferry to Madeline Island is Running!
Schedule subject to change due to ice/weather conditions. Monday – Friday
Trips leaving Bayfield: 6:15 am, 7:30am, 9:15am, 1:45pm, 4:00pm, & 5:30pm Saturday – Sunday
Trips leaving Bayfield: 7:30am, 9:15am, 1:45pm, 4:00pm, & 5:30pm.
No Fooling! All Rooms $99 w/Dinner
For prices listed below, $99 refers to the rate for those who wish to dine at Landmark Restaurant one night of their stay. The second rate is the discounted weekend special for those who DO NOT wish to dine with us. For example: Room 9 is $99 w/ dinner; $129 w/out dinner, a great deal either way! All rates based on double occupancy. To reserve call 715-779-5111 and mention the Last Minute Specials email by 5pm, Friday, April 1.
FRIDAY ONLY April 1, 2011*
Rittenhouse Inn
Room 7: King, Whirlpool, Fireplace @ 99/129
Suite 11: King Suite, Whirlpool, Fireplace, Lakeview @ 99/175
SATURDAY ONLY April 2, 2011*
Rittenhouse Inn
Suite 12: King Suite, Whirlpool, Fireplace, Lakeview @ 99/175
The Fine Print
* This Last Minute Internet Special applies only to the weekend of April 1-2, 2011. The prices are per night, based on double occupancy, and include a continental breakfast for two. When space permits, additional guests are welcome at $35/person/night. Rooms are sold on a first come, first serve basis. This week’s offer does not apply to existing reservations, is Not Valid in conjunction with other promotions, and is not available for online. Please CALL 715-779-5111 and mention the last minute emails.
**Additional $50 for Saturday-only stays in suites.
Any questions, please call or email. We look forward to your visit.
2011 will go down as another year when the “ice road” between Bayfield and Madeline Island was only open about a week. A long time resident of the Island has kept a calendar for the past fifty years on how many days he could drive across the famous “Ice Road.” It started with over 90 days of an open road, and steadily dropped until that infamous year not long ago when the ice road was never opened.
Going across the ice is a great novelty for visitors and sheer good fun, but for local residents who live on the island it’s a big deal. Not having the ice road means the Island residents are always at the mercy of either the ferry schedule or that of the “ice boat”…a propeller driven boat that can go across the unreliable ice or on water. They must be back for the “last boat.” They cannot attend their children’s evening sports or other extra curricular events unless they stay overnight on the mainland.
I remember the time a couple went to drive across the ice road. It was early March. They were a Japanese couple who came to stay at the inn. They spoke broken English. They asked if the road was open and I told them I didn’t know, as it was near the end of the season and that they would have to go down to the Pier Restaurant, which served as the unofficial road condition info source. They said they wanted to go after they checked out and I told them they should go earlier than that, as the melt water from the warm March sun would cover the lake, making it look like open water… a scary picture.
Right after breakfast they drove off, leaving their things in their room to pack up when they returned from their joy ride. Some time later the fire department brought them back to the inn, as their car went thru the ice and was being fished out by local divers. The good news was that the car went down in only 50-60 feet of water, as the center trough is 250 feet deep or more. Amazingly, when the car was retrieved, they were able to start it almost immediately! The couple decided to stay another night and drove home on soggy seats….. but happy to have their car, and happy they left their clothes at the Inn!
Whet your appetite for a weekend of fun! Our Margarita Island Dinner features a playful island theme. Fresh fruit flavors are showcased in the form of delicious coladas, margaritas, and mai tais. (see menu below)
