In southwestern Wisconsin, the bucolic Driftless Area is an overlooked gem
The lights are dim, my beer is full, and the Woody Harrelson look-alike to my left is boasting about his flowers. All those holiday branches bedecking the boulevards in Chicago? Right there on Michigan Avenue? That’s us, Phil Mueller tells me: Star Valley Flowers. Pussy willow. Decorative dogwood twigs in nearly every color. Tulips. Tumbleweeds. You name it.
He’d be happy to send me information. I should watch the YouTube video, his friend says.
It’s a Wednesday night at the Driftless Café in downtown Viroqua, Wis. After a year confined to my apartment, I feel like an astronaut at reentry. The conversation. The food. The glow of dusk pressed blue against the windows. It’s almost — almost — too much.
“This area has more organic farmers in one area than anywhere else,” says co-owner Ruthie Zahm, eyes scanning the room behind me. “So our menu does change every day. Everything we can get in the back door by 4 p.m. is what we do, and you’re coming in at a great time, because this is the start of the crazy.”
