Mansion Views: Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
ECOVORE: http://www.theurbn.com/category/feature/ecovore-feature/
Last edition from Ecovore: Ski Resort’s 3 Rs: Reduce, Recycle, Renew
Geneva Lake dusk after rain. Photo by Robin Tierney.
Would you really want a mansion, with the energy costs, taxes and servant headaches? But how about the chance to enjoy estate lakeside views without being given the heave-ho by bodyguards? Welcome to Geneva Lake in southeast Wisconsin.
Land-owners here are required to grant the public free access to the lake’s shoreline. They comply, and most even maintain footpaths that together form the 26-mile Lake Shore Path. The same trail was used by Potawatomi Indians as far back as 2,500 BC to circle the crystalline 5,500-acre lake carved by a crawling glacier.
Lake view of mail boat from Lake Shore Path. By Robin Tierney.
Chicago industrialists built summer estates here starting in the mid-1800s. Since then, the area has attracted mansion-dwellers with luxury yachts and folks who’ve opened indie businesses in the towns ringing the lake. There’s great hiking and biking, rides on the mail boats that still deliver to dockside postal boxes, and in the winter, ice-boating on specially adapted craft.
Simple Cafe by R.Tierney.
In downtown Lake Geneva (the lake is Geneva Lake; the town Lake Geneva), restaurants and markets feature local-grown produce and handmade products. Simple Cafe attracts crowds of all ages with its colorful design and old-school reverence for seasonal farm-fresh produce. Talk about small-town: I complimented the salvage-collage lamps only to find that their maker was eating lunch under one of them.
Chef/co-owner Young Cho sums up Simple’s mission as deep-flavored nutritious fare sourced from local farmers who employ ethical and healthful practices. All dishes are priced under $10 so that everyone can enjoy the fare. Cho walks the farms’ fields and orchards; he knows “Lynn’s chickens” who lay the eggs. I ate every morsel of the wheatberry salad and counted the pudding-like butternut squash soup as dessert.
Butternut squash soup at Simple. By Robin Tierney.
Church turned indie shopping mall. By R. Tierney.
After lunch, I bike around, visiting the lamp-maker’s shop, Refined Rustic, I Love Funky’s vintage home décor, Clear Water Outdoor, and Lake Geneva Brewing Emporium. These newer enterprises fill preserved storefronts between long-timer spots. There’s also a church adapted as Geneva Village Shops, all indie boutiques, and the Baker House, a lakeside 1885 Queen Anne beauty restored as an inn and restaurant with some veg-friendly choices. Guests don vintage hats from the proprietor’s 200-plus collection; a musician plays standards on piano and pocket trumpet.
“I wanted a place with foods we ate before food conglomerates changed what we eat,” explains Rose Mennella over at Rose’s Fresh Market, whose wares span fragrant honeycrisp apples to locally crafted Blue Collar Blackberry Pepper Jam and River Valley Kitchens Heirloom Tomato Salsa.
Car by barn in the lakeside town of Linn. Photo by Robin Tierney.
The next day I pedal around the lake on winding roads, since the shoreline path is just for walkers. I pass Big Foot Beach State Park, named for a Potawatomi chef, and various towns, each having a distinct character.
Residents and guidebooks tell stories about the estates. One, Stone Manor, was built by a German costume jewelry salesman turned real estate magnate after Chicago’s fire of 1871. Boasting seven levels, gold fixtures, a ballroom and bowling alley, it served several uses after the family sold it – an inn, restaurant, Christmas tree museum and condos. More proof that mansions don’t square with the simple life.
Stone Manor. Photo by Robin Tierney.
Ecovore eats:
Simple Cafe (see above).
Sprecher’s Pub: Low-on-the-food-chain choices include savory flatbreads topped with grilled seasonal vegetables. Plus their house brews.
Ecovore sleeps: The Bella Vista Suites are clean, comfy and lakeside.
Visitor info: LakeGenevaWi.com and VisitWalworthCounty.com.
Artful bridge on Lake Shore Path. Photo by Robin Tierney.
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