The Coffee Pot in Kenosha

Harbor Benedict

Last week hubby and I took a little road trip up to Kenosha, Wisconsin. Their restaurant week is coming up, running from February 2 - 10, and we were going to preview some of their participating restaurants. Our first meal was breakfast at The Coffee Pot.

First off the place is adorable. It's a classic retro diner with a u-shaped counter with barstools. The neon sign out front was commissioned in the 1930s. It was taken down and found deteriorating years ago, but thankfully was saved and restored and now greets all those traveling down 7th Avenue.

They also have a secondary dining room next door. In the warmer months that room gets closed and they open the outdoor patio. It's such a fun nostalgic place - the kind of diner every community should have. You can't help but feel happy walking through the doors and thinking about all the warm meals that have been served there over the years.

Kenosha Kingfish Benny

Now, on to the food. It's A. Maze. Ing. For restaurant week, they're offering a benedict for $10 or for lunch a reuben and fries for $10.

I had the Harbor Benedict made with ham on the bone on homemade toast. I opted for a scambled egg. I'm a huge fan of hollandaise sauce (I always say I'd eat anything covered in hollandaise!) and this is some of the best I've ever had - and they didn't skimp on it. The whole grain white bread is made on-site daily and it is magnificent. The ham was so flavorful and in such a generous amount. If you don't get a benny, at least order some of the toast so you can try the homemade bread and enjoy it with some jam. It's a must!

Hubby had the Kenosha Kingfish Benny with smoked salmon, poached egg, red onion, spinach and hollandaise sauce with dill and capers. I wish I could tell you how good it was...but he finished off the entire thing before I got a bite. I guess the fact that he cleaned his plate tells you a lot.

Some of their other specialties are stuffed French toast, quinoa breakfast bowls and their reuben sandwiches. They prepare meats in-house, like the corned beef that is slow-roasted overnight and hand shredded the next morning for their corned beef hash. 

They serve Torke Coffe, which has been roasted in Sheboygan since 1941.

Here's a look at the rest of the meal. We dined with Meredith and Laura from the CVB, so it wasn't just the two of us eating ALL that food. :)

Corned Beef Hash - Corned Beef is slow roasted overnight.

Now, let me take a few minutes to tell you about The Coffee Pot Inn. We made our trip into an overnighter so that we could have meals at 6 different places and maximize our time there on our foodie trip. Our lodging was at The Coffee Pot Inn. Above The Coffee Pot restaurant is a three-bedroom apartment and we stayed there. So after we ate we were able to go up and check in. 

The place was so cute and comfortable and it was so nice to stay right downtown. In my travels I most often stay at standard hotel rooms - and it's always nice to stay somewhere that is consistent and usually has breakfast included and you know what to expect. But I also always love to seek out places that are not typical hotel chains - bed and breakfasts, air BnBs, historic inns and other unusual overnight accommodations. This place could not have been more adorable. Look at that vintage kitchen!!

The kitchen had a counter with stools on both sides and there was also a large dining room table that seats six.



The living room was bright - I LOVED all the window. And my husband was in love with the radiator heating system. He loves old buildings and loved this feature. Each time when we came in from the frigid outdoors, he'd put his gloves and hat on the radiator to dry them and before we left he put them there for a couple minutes to warm them up. The was a year etched into the upper bricks on the building's exterior. I believe it said 1924. 

Next time we visit Kenosha, we definitely will have to stay here if it's available. It was centrally located in the downtown area, so many of the other places we were visiting were nearby. If we didn't have temperatures in the single digits or a foot of snow on the ground, we would have enjoyed walking to the lakefront or to some of the other restaurants or breweries.

There's also a cozy enclosed porch on the back that is ideal for a morning cup of coffee. You can find out more about the diner and the inn on the website at kenoshacoffeepot.com.

**Our visit to Kenosha was hosted by the Kenosha Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.