Food & Drink in Ellison Bay
10 places, each with a quick take from us — kept current as hours and seasons change.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.