Thirsty Horse Pub & Grill

In my daily rant, I'd like to say that during the day you can see the same wandering around, twirling on the thumbs they've stuck up their butts, with Wisconsin road construction crews that you see here in Illinois. However, if you want to see actual construction, done at an intelligent time (i.e. away from peak travel hours), as opposed to the political patronage feigning of road construction in Illinois, check out the perpetual night construction on I 94, where they construct at night and deconstruct during the day much like Odysseus's wife Penelope pretended to weave his funeral shroud during the day and undid the work at night to put off her suitors.* Sorry!
   Great little bar right up 45 after you cross the state line. Clean and open it's got log cabin construction outside and in. Pine wainscoting and very light painted steel blue walls rise to a high peaked cieling of the same color with silver exposed ductwork. There's a nice contrast of decorative metal plating behind and underneath the bar and in the men's restroom. A few beer promtional mirrors are on the uncluttered walls.
   Plenty of windows keep it bright as well as the windowed door on the north wall to the deck. There's a shag welcome mat with the bar's logo just inside the front door.
   Five gambling games, two electronic dartboards, and a pool table that two kids can play the same game of eight-ball on for 20 minutes give you something to do other than staring at the 8 strategically placed TVs. Great surround sound system coordinated so that all the TVs are in synch and you don't get that "translation of Japanes B movies to English" effect.
   Knowledgable bartender Rob walked me through the beer list and menu. Not lots of hard liquor and only eight taps but the bottle selection of stuff like New Glarus that you can't get outside of Wisco was pretty decent. The menu was abbreviated, always a wise choice and if the fried pickles and jap poppers were house made rather than pre-packaged they'd be a solid four star joint.
   The appetizers however were of very good quality. The pickles were spears rather than bottle caps for a change of pace. The poppers and pickles both had enough breading on them to adhere to the product and not be thicker than wallboard, were cooked golden brown, and not greasy.
   Nice stop if you want to avoid 94 on your way north.
   * Nice sentence, eh?