Fronting the sand-fringed shores of Lake Michigan, this Wisconsin city offers a slew of things to see and do, from biting into bratwurst to riding the surf
By Randy Mink, Senior Editor
I couldn’t leave Sheboygan without having a bratwurst. After all, the Wisconsin city has been declared the Bratwurst Capital of the World.
For an authentic experience, a staffer at the city’s visitor center directed me to a downtown tavern called Sly’s Midtown Saloon & Grill, where I ordered the Brat Plate. For $11.95 I got a double brat with American potato salad and baked beans. Just as scrumptious was my bowl of beer cheese soup garnished with slices of bratwurst.
Sheboygan and the Bratwurst
The bratwurst sandwich, I should point out, was made the Sheboygan way. First of all, brats there are fried, not grilled, and they are served, with onion and brown mustard, on a hard roll, not an oblong hot dog bun. My brat at Sly’s was from Miesfeld’s, a family-owned and -operated meat market that’s been around since 1941. It came with a pickle spear on the side.
Sly’s Midtown Saloon & Grill in downtown Sheboygan is known for its bratwurst sandwich. (Randy Mink Photo)
Sheboygan has been the official Bratwurst Capital since 1970, when, in a grueling duel, it won out over Bucyrus, Ohio. The judge’s decision bestowed the title on Sheboygan and barred all other claimers from using it.
As printed in the Sheboygan visitor guide, this is the oath that serious locals are advised to take:
“I, (insert name here), do solemnly swear before all brat-certified sausage makers, bakers and backyard chefs, that I vow to respect the brat ritual with all its rights and privileges endowed upon its practice, and I will hold steadfast to its meaning and tradition.
The oath continues: “With resolution, I proclaim the promise to always fry brats, to always serve them on a hard roll and to always protect them from non-sanctioned preparation techniques. I hereby swear that I denounce pre-boiling. I denounce overdressing with pickled cabbage and other offensive forms of condimentation. I denounce the oblong bun, and I will deny all temptation to engage in inter-relations between brat and cheese rituals.”
I wonder if my beer cheese soup with bratwurst slices goes against the latter rule. Oh well…..
Surfing on Lake Michigan
Besides the title Bratwurst Capital of the World, Sheboygan claims to be the Malibu of the Midwest, a reference to its fresh water surfing culture. Hugging the shores of Lake Michigan, the city lures surfers with rideable waves when winds of 20-25 mph blow from the northeast, east or southeast. Several times a year, winds on Lake Michigan produce an open water swell of 24 feet or higher. Surfing is year-round, but the biggest waves form between September and March, the peak season. Eos, a downtown retailer on Eighth Street, specializes in surfboards and gear.
John Michael Kohler Arts Center women’s restroom (Randy Mink Photo Credit)
Downtown Sheboygan for Chocolate Tasting and Art Appreciation
I found my downtown thrills at another store—Victorian Chocolate Shoppe. Housed in an old streetcar terminal built in 1925, it makes all my favorites—milk and dark chocolate cashew clusters, dark chocolate orange rinds, and decadent truffles in flavors ranging from cappuccino to cheery cheesecake. Also tempting are the nostalgia candies and gums—Chuckles, wax bottles, bubble gum cigars and candy cigarettes.
Another downtown magnet is the free-admission John Michael Kohler Arts Center, a treasure house of rotating contemporary art exhibitions. Don’t miss the artist-designed bathrooms that everyone talks about. One of the men’s rooms is done in blue-and-white Delft tiles—walls, sinks, even the toilet bowls. Artistically tiled restrooms also are found at the museum’s satellite facility, Art Preserve, which exhibits large-scale installations called “artist-built environments.”
When it comes to the performing arts, the place to be is downtown’s Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts, which presents concerts, plays and films in a lovingly restored 1920s movie palace. It is home to the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra.
On the Water in Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Commanding such an impressive presence on Lake Michigan, Sheboygan naturally attracts visitors to its lakefront and riverfront.
On both sides of the Sheboygan River, where it approaches Lake Michigan, original and recreated fishing shanties house coffee shops, restaurants and boutiques. Charter fishing businesses line the riverfront.
Sheboygan’s Blue Harbor Resort & Conference Center as viewed from the beach. (Randy Mink Photo)
Blue Harbor Resort & Conference Center, within walking distance of the riverfront, rests on the sandy shores of Lake Michigan. Sporting Victorian-style architecture, the rambling 179-room hotel also has 38 private villas.
The resort’s Breaker Bay Waterpark, open year-round, features:
- Water slides
- A lazy river
- A surf simulator
- Two indoor mini golf courses.
Other facilities at Blue Harbor include:
- Four restaurants
- A spa/salon
- A fitness center
- A game arcade
- An outdoor pool with Lake Michigan views
- A beach boardwalk for leisurely strolls
Nature enthusiasts gravitate to Kohler-Andrae State Park, a lakefront preserve where hiking trails feature sand dunes, wetlands and forests. The park has 135 campsites, including two group sites.
The Little Blue Truck series comes to life at Sheboygan’s Bookworm Gardens. (Randy Mink Photo)
More Ideas for Crafting Sheboygan Itineraries
Two special attractions—Fresh Meals on Wheels and Bookworm Gardens—merit a spot on Sheboygan group itineraries.
Groups can arrange a tour of Fresh Meals on Wheels, considered one of the country’s top food-providing programs, a model that others study. Partnering with local farmers and home gardeners, it makes 500 made-from-scratch meals a day and delivers them to homes of area residents in need.
Besides the elderly, meal recipients include those recovering from surgery or injuries. Lunches and dinners, planned and prepared under the supervision of a registered dietician, are customized for those who require heart-healthy, bland, renal and other special diets. Fresh Meals has its own on-site greenhouse and gardens. In conjunction with a facility tour, a group lunch can be arranged on the premises.
Sheboygan’s Bookworm Gardens is the only botanical garden inspired by children’s literature. Fun for the young and young at heart, its trails in the wooded ravine lead to more than 75 book-themed gardens. Guests will see houses from fairy tales like Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs. A pioneer cabin and covered wagon (for crawling into) recall Little House in the Big Woods, an autobiographical children’s novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. There are plenty of benches where parents and grandparents can sit and read laminated copies of books depicted in the scenes.
Also worth a visit is the Sheboygan County Historical Society & Museum. The museum complex comprises four historic buildings (barn, house, cheese factory, log cabin) and a main building with exhibits on maritime history, the furniture industry, Native Americans, sports and entertainment.
Sheboygan Celebrates the Holidays in Style
At Christmastime, Making Spirits Bright, a nightly display of electric artistry, transforms the winding roads of Sheboygan’s Evergreen Park into a winter wonderland. Choreographed to music, twinkling outlines in the light-festooned woodlands may range from a gingerbread house to a 3-D mega star and jolly hippopotamus. On Friday and Saturday nights at the Quarryview Center across from the park, visitors can board the trolley for their tour and will find concessions, entertainment and Santa Claus. The much-anticipated holiday spectacle (from the Friday after Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve) is staged by the Rotary Clubs of Sheboygan County.
The Wade House visitor center displays an impressive collection of vintage horse-drawn carriages. (Randy Mink Photo)
Side Trips from Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Out in the county, west of the city, groups have more itinerary options. Johnsonville Marketplace, a popular shopping stop near the Sheboygan Falls plants of sausage manufacturer Johnsonville, sells not only the company’s many varieties of bratwurst but its summer sausage, breakfast sausage, jerky and other meat products as well. The store also stocks Johnsonville-branded grilling tools, clothing, drinkware, golf balls and even cornhole sets, plus locally made cheeses and other Wisconsin-made food specialties. Outside the store entrance, start your visit by posing in an oversized beach chair with a Wisconsin-shaped back.
Road America, a motorsports complex in Elkhart Lake, boasts one of America’s premier road racing courses, offering a variety of experiences for those who feel the need for speed. The four-mile, 14-turn track, renowned as one of the world’s most challenging road courses, sweeps around the rolling hills and ravines of the highly glaciated Kettle Moraine area.
A stop for most major North American race series, including the prestigious NTT INDYCAR Series Grand Prix, Road America annually attracts more than 800,000 spectators.
Half-day group adventure programs at the self-proclaimed “America’s National Park of Speed” include go-karting (up to 40 mph) and racecar driving on the world-famous track. An 18-hole disc golf course is entirely surrounded by the track, and there are more than 1,000 campsites.
The “Pace Car Hot Laps” experience straps a passenger into an official pace car for two white-knuckle laps around the track with a Road America driver. On select dates you can take your own car on a leisurely spin for three laps.
In the hamlet of Greenbush, groups get a guided tour of the Wade House, a Wisconsin Historical Society site centered on a restored inn that served 19th century stagecoach travelers on the road between Sheboygan and Fond du Lac. The pastoral campus, complete with chickens and vegetable gardens, also includes reconstructions of a working blacksmith shop and sawmill.
At the Wade House’s modern visitor center, the Wesley W. Jung Carriage Museum displays a magnificent collection of horse-drawn carriages and wagons used by merchants and wealthy individuals in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Most were manufactured by the Jung Carriage Company of Sheboygan. Included are wagons owned by dairies, breweries, grocers and meatpackers. A video tells the story of the Wade House and carriage industry. Horse-drawn wagons provide transportation between the visitor center and other buildings.
On private tours of the Wade House, groups may have a chance to bake cookies or scones. Hearth dinners can be arranged for groups of up to 18, and the visitor center’s Walnut Room can host catered meals.
Other Wisconsin itinerary ideas await tour organizers in the 2024 edition of Circle Wisconsin’s Wisconsin Tour Planner. For more information on Midwest destinations, you can subscribe to Leisure Group Travel for FREE.
Lead Photo – Large-scale installations wow gallery-goers at the Art Preserve, a satellite facility of downtown Sheboygan’s John Michael Kohler Arts Center. (Randy Mink Photo)
