I have only visited once during lunch and my first time was good! Â I am not a big eater and I ordered the Caprese Grilled Cheese made with fresh mozzarella, white cheddar, thick cut tomato, and basil romesco spread on a toasted baguette...I ate half of my half and it was so full of flavor. Â I did save the rest for dinner and it heated up, I wrapped it in tin foil and put it in the oven till it was warm again. It was just as good as early in the day! Â I will be back again for the same sandwich...the fries were great too.
Review Source:While out for a Sunday drive last weekend (4-7-13), my wife and I found ourselves in downtown Racine. Not sure how we got there, but we did. As we had been driving around for a while, we decided to find a place to stop for a drink and watch the Brewers game. Soon we came across Dewey's.
From the outside, the large windows running along the entire front of the place showed off  a nice large bar with plenty of TV's and lots of tables for more seating as well as offering a great view of the lake. After finding a place to park we walked in and were surprised to see just how large the place was. Very clean, warm and inviting. We found a place a the bar and ordered drinks. They arrived fast and were shown a menu.
We were not expecting what we found! They offered the usual bar and grill fare, but also stuffed burgers and additional specialty sandwiches. Not what we expected. I ordered the Smoked Swiss and Portabella burger and was given the choice of Cajun, Rosemary Sea Salt or Parmesan Garlic Dusted fries. At a bar?!? Wow! I chose the Rosemary Sea Salt. My wife order the Caprese Grilled Cheese with the Parmesan Garlic Dusted fries.
The food arrived and it was fantastic! My burger was large, cooked to medium, stuffed with delicious melted cheese and mushrooms. What a great taste. The fries were outstanding as well. No need for ketchup with the seasoning on them. My wife's Grilled cheese was a very unique twist on the traditional, and looked scrumptious. She said it was fantastic. The Parmesan Garlic fries were great and nothing was left when we finished.
The place had a steady stream of patrons coming in, and everyone was having a good time. This is one bar that seems to understand how to use the volume knob for the music. It was set so that you could hear it well, but you did not have to yell or lean in to hear the person sitting next to you. Overall we had a great time here and look forward to another Sunday drive to Racine for some great food and cold drinks.
I have to say that I appreciate anyone attempting to improve downtown Racine. Our city needs people like the owners of Dewey's to make the city a place worth visiting.
That said, I do believe that Dewey's is still in a learning phase - some growing pains, maybe. I've never had a bad time there, but I have had weird times. For example, I found the staff to be under dressed for the amount of work they put into making Dewey's LOOK like a upper-scale sports bar (by Racine standards.) I have been there two separate times where the music was off, which made for awkward silence at times. It also adds to the cold atmosphere. I have only had appetizers there - and they were fine - nothing exciting but what you would expect for bar food. The beer selection won't knock your socks off, but anyone should be able to find something that they don't mind.
I think that Dewey's will improve with time. I certainly hope that they are doing well, because they put a tremendous amount of work into rehabbing the building. It is nice to have an option downtown that isn't dark, dirty or stinky. In the summer - and of First Fridays - Dewey's is bound to be a hot spot on Monument Square.
My husband and I went here for lunch a few weeks ago on a Saturday. I had a tomato, mozzarella, spinach sandwich and my husband had a cheese and bacon stuffed burger. Both were really tasty and exceeded our expectations. We ordered the optional cajun dusting on our fries, which was really good. We migrated to the bar for a beer afterwards and had nice conversation with the bartender. It's great having another location downtown and the abundance of natural light sets it apart from the others. Â We really enjoyed our experience and will definitely go back.
Review Source:Dewey's is a testament to ambition. It must have taken a breathtaking amount of money to turn a musty dress shop into a bar and restaurant. If you know Racine, you can't help but to applaud the effort. At this point, however, Dewey's is average at best. The taps are uninspired, the crowd is there to drink, and the environment is cold. The high ceilings produce maddening echos; if it's quiet, a whisper can be heard across the bar; if it's loud, you'll lose your voice yelling. They don't play music, unless you're plugging the jukebox. Video poker and pull-tap machines add unnecessary clutter. The staff is untrained and their uniform is hoodie-chic. It's still new and the owners are not restauranteurs, but that's no excuse when there are so many successful places to imitate.
Update I: Before midnight on a Friday, they put chairs up and started cleaning while eight of us were seated with a fresh round of drinks.
Update II: We were allowed to order a round and then the owner gave us a curt "finish up, time to close." It was 6:30 on St Paddy's. Miller Lite taps were on special, but when a Lite was ordered they'd grab/open the pricier bottle version and act surprised that a tap was expected. This happened repeatedly to several people not even with my group.
Opening Day for Dewey's and I couldn't resist stopping in with a coworker for lunch. Please keep the "Opening Day" in mind, as I'm sure I'll be back in the future and report on how things have progressed.
Lunch options in Racine are not all that great (at least for someone used to working and living in larger cities) and the good options get boring after awhile. I was excited to see Dewey's was opening up, even though it seemed like it took a year after they put up signs. A sports bar with food is a nice touch and fills a gap in Downtown Racine options. It's fairly conveniently located on 6th and Main; parking is available but on warmer days in that area you may have to walk a block. There's a lot of other things to do in the area and I suspect Dewey's will do well in the location.
First impression upon walking in was "COLD!". It's 30 degrees outside and it felt like it was in the 50s inside. I generally expect a bar or restaurant to have a cozy feeling but I got the sense that no one wanted to fire up the furnace that day. I was cold the entire time I was there and I could see other people were keeping their jackets on. The decor is good but a little sparse for the "sports" theme. Walls are painted a light color and there's only a handful of memorabilia. So I never really got that sports bar feel. While there are lots of TVs you can only see them well from certain positions. If you face the windows, forget about catching the game. There's one TV angled towards those patrons but it's also the smallest one in the place. Two TVs with Fox News doesn't help (it doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on, Fox news inside a bar is off putting). I would suggest they get some more TVs or move around some of the ones from behind the bar to above the windows and also re-paint the walls to a darker (cozier) color to make it easier to see the TVs. And get rid of the pull tab and bar game machines. The jukebox and arcade as well, none of these really fit in with atmosphere. They're clearly going for more of an upscale feel and these things are just jolting to me. I expect them in a dive bar but not here.
Service was good, no complaints there. The kitchen was slow, however. The place wasn't packed but being the first day, I can't blame them for not being able to get the dishes out the door quickly. I had the Italian beef, which was good overall. The bun was sliced through into two separate halves which makes for a difficult time eating this type of sandwich (at least neatly). They offer a good selection of french fry "flavors" (garlic, rosemary, Cajun), which I liked. I opted for the Rosemary and they were good but had an odd flavor to them (my coworker said his did as well). The fries used a flaked salt and perhaps it was a mineral taste we were picking up on. It wan'y bad or wrong, just different from what I expected. My coworker went with the Asiago Reuben. It was clearly overloaded with sauerkraut , which is easily fixed with a fork.
We didn't have beer or drinks other than soda but the taps seemed like a common Milwaukee/Racine area lineup: Miller Lite, Bud Lite, Riverwest Stein, Spotted Cow, Stella Artois and a few others. The bar appeared well stocked but not overwhelming.
Overall, Dewey's is a good addition to the area. Opening Day isn't the best place to judge from but I'd say they've made a good start. I'd like to see a little more emphasis on the "sports" portion and I'm sure the food delivery will speed up in the near future.
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