Lucky's Landing Bar & Cafe

After a very long day on the road I wrapped up the last site of a three-day trip, unfortunately running out of daylight and forced to work in the dark.  I'd originally planned on heading straight back home, but given the delays prevalent throughout the trip I found myself in Wright, MN at night, facing a 6 hour drive back to Madison (eta around 1:00 AM).  When the site acq agent said he knew of a great little place in Tamarack and asked if I had time for dinner, I knew that I wouldn't be making the trek home that night.  Overall I'm happy I didn't, because Lucky's Landing was a better destination.  I agreed and followed him and CM over on 210 to Tamarack and pulled into the gravel lot next to this bar and cafe.  It was a bit late on a weeknight so it wasn't too unexpected to find the cafe side of the building empty, with the last group of diners leaving as we walked in.

I was still suffering from a strange jaw affliction that had come on earlier in the trip, making it difficult to chew anything and also preventing me from opening my mouth very wide.  It was like the left side of my jaw came dislocated and it actually didn't get better until later in the week when, after cheering a goal at a Badger hockey game, my jaw made a huge popping noise and hurt like hell for a few minutes before returning apparently to normal.  With this in mind I went through the menu looking for the softest, least painful items.  I ended up ordering a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of the wild rice soup.  The server/cook, who was the only person present in the cafe, indicated that she'd made up a batch of the soup earlier this afternoon and that I was wise to order it, leading the site acq agent to add a cup of it to his order.  The bowl of soup was huge, clocking in at least 18 oz.  I had initially been worried about not getting enough to quiet my hunger, but once the server brought out this tureen I realized that the grilled cheese sandwich might well be superfluous.  Aside from quantity, the wild rice soup was excellent in every regard.  Creamy but not overly heavy, this was by far the best wild rice soup I've ever had.

The rest of meal was OK but was definitely overshadowed by my soup experience.  The grilled cheese was par for the course, the coffee standard diner issue, and the atmosphere sparsely comfortable.  I believe the SA and CM both enjoyed their meals sufficiently, and we stayed afterward to discuss matters for a good 15-20 minutes.  I could have used a few refills of my coffee, especially considering I still had a couple hours to drive to get to a hotel along 53.  I picked up the check for everyone and the prices were fairly cheap - under $25 for the three of us.  The only real sour note of the evening was that after the SA got into a conversation with the server about how much he enjoyed this place, she went on a bit of a rant about the incompetence of the owner and the declining quality of the food.  It turns out she was a long-time cook but now only fills in on certain nights, and it was her opinion that the regular cook "didn't know shit about cooking."  So we may well have hit Lucky's Landing on a rare good night, if you take the angry opinions of our cook at face value.