Ellison Bay
Quiet, arty, and easy to underestimate — home to The Clearing folk school and a couple of serious restaurants. The perfect slow evening: a gallery stop, a long dinner, then Ellison Bluff's overlook for sunset.
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Coffee Shops
4 places
Food & Drink
10 places
Markets & Provisions
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Restaurants
6 places
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Ellison Bay guides
Things to Do (and Eat) in Ellison Bay
Ellison Bay is a small village near the top of the Door County peninsula, past Sister Bay and before Gills Rock, and its short list holds up well: a bluff-top overlook, a scratch-made breakfast counter, a wood-fired pizzeria, and a farm-to-table splurge dinner. It's a quick, honest stop rather than a full day's destination.
All places in Ellison Bay
Bea's Ho-Made Products
A roadside stand that began in 1961 when Linda Landin sold cherries off a picnic table, now hand-packing more than 100 kinds of small-batch jams, jellies, and pickles (no artificial colors) on a family homestead the Landins have held since 1884. The name is no typo: it has read "Ho-Made" for decades. Order the chopped cherry jam, the grandmother's recipe that first turned the stand toward preserves.
Blue Bear Ellison Bay
A scratch-made breakfast and brunch spot on Highway 42 with a full bar and specialty coffee program: carrot cake pancakes, beignets, and a house Bloody Mary. The same space turns into Della Porta for dinner, so this one's strictly a morning-into-early-afternoon stop.
Brew Coffeehouse
The espresso is pulled from Stone Creek Coffee, poured in a downtown Ellison Bay room of leather sofas and local artists' work. It stays open year-round in a town where most doors close for winter, and the breakfast counter runs to homemade granola and the Brew'ito.
Clay Bay Pottery & Gallery
David and Jeanne Aurelius have thrown pots in Ellison Bay since 1976, and they still make the functional stoneware and tiles that fill the shelves — landscapes, water, birds, and florals. Come Thursday afternoons in summer for a throwing demo, and browse the printmakers and jewelers they show alongside their own work.
Cuesta Coffee
Order an espresso drink pulled from Stepwise Coffee Roasters beans. Owner Tyler Abts runs this Ellison Bay cafe out of the old Gills Rock Coffee space at the peninsula's far north end, hangs a disco ball over the bar and keeps a turntable spinning hand-picked vinyl, and works a small from-scratch menu that rotates with the season.
Della Porta
A Southern Italian trattoria and wood-fired Neapolitan pizzeria on Highway 42, led by a chef from Naples. The Boscaiola pizza (wild mushrooms, provolone, smoked mozzarella, truffle oil) is the standout, and the week runs on rotating specials like Sunday's Sicilian fried chicken and Thursday ramen night.
Door County Kayak
The Death's Door Bluff tour visits the highest point in Door County and the Schooner Fleetwing shipwreck; the Mud Lake Nature Preserve eco-tour is the calmer, sheltered-water alternative if open water isn't your thing.
Ellison Bluff County Park
The county's easiest big view: a short drive, a short walk, and Green Bay wide open below you. Best at sunset.
Henriksen Fisheries
A working whitefish fishery first, retail counter second. Charlie Henriksen has sold boneless whitefish fillets and fish-boil chunks to Door County restaurants since 1987, and the family's Fish House in Ellison Bay now puts that same catch in a retail case where the smoked boneless whitefish is the thing to take home.
Island Orchard Cider
The apples grow on Washington Island, hand-picked each fall and ferried back across the Death's Door strait to the cider house in Ellison Bay. Bob and Yannique Purman planted the orchard in 2005 with the traditional cider varieties of Brittany, the region Yannique's father comes from, so the pours come out dry and crisp with a Champagne-style finish rather than the sweet supermarket kind. Get a flight of four-ounce tastings and try the ice cider.
Kick Ash
Housed in a former Lutheran church in Ellison Bay, this gluten-free roaster and market makes its name on small-batch granola and coffee roasted onsite. Order the granola: it is the house signature, made in a dedicated gluten-free kitchen.
La Piazza
Order the Margherita. La Piazza is the outdoor wood-fired pizza and cocktail bar attached to Della Porta, the authentic Southern Italian pizzeria Napoletana that opened in Ellison Bay in 2023, so the Napoletana crust is the real thing. More than forty Italian wines round out the list.
Mink River Basin
A family-run sports bar and arcade at the north end of the peninsula, running since 2000. Expect burgers, a Friday fish fry, and an all-you-can-eat soup and salad bar, with enough flat-screens and games to make it a rainy-day option too.
Newport State Park
The wildest of Door County's parks, and the only one that's truly quiet even in July: 30 miles of trail means the crowds thin out fast once you're a half-mile in. It's also Wisconsin's first International Dark Sky Park, so if you can stay past sunset, do.
Osteria Tre Tassi
An Italian osteria in the historic 1872 farmhouse that most recently housed Wickman House: pappardelle alla Tasso in a three-meat ragù, and a whitefish piccata sourced same-day from Henriksen Fisheries down the road. Herbs and vegetables come from a 1.5-acre garden on site.
Pioneer Store
Built in 1900 and still the heart of Ellison Bay, this general store fronted local fishermen and farmers on credit long before it ran a deli counter and scooped ice cream. A 2006 propane explosion leveled it, and the town had it rebuilt and reopened within a year. It stays open every day, year-round, when most of northern Door County has gone dark for the season.
Summer Camp Antiques & Gifts
Vintage with a north-woods, lake-cabin lean, up in Ellison Bay — nautical pieces, cabin furniture, and nostalgic finds mixed with gifts. A good stop if you're headed toward Gills Rock and the ferry.
The Vault Door County
Set inside a former Nicolet Bank branch in downtown Ellison Bay, where the original safe and teller stations still stand. Owner Curt Bawden kept the vault and filled the rest with gourmet popcorn and soft-serve ice cream; Wisconsin law bars a non-bank from putting "bank" in its name, so the slogan became "Bank on Goodness" instead.
Uncle Tom's Candy
Small-batch candy made from century-old family recipes since 1973, set inside the historic 1918 Newport schoolhouse on the road out to Newport State Park. Get the peanut brittle: it's the best seller and the thing to build a bag around, with chocolate barks close behind.
White Pine Supper Club
A Nordic-inspired supper club in the lounge of the Ellison Inn, new in 2026. Order the pork schnitzel with riesling mustard and fermented pickle relish.