Goat cheese curds, Old-Fashioned mix, model trains: Molly Crosby's highlights from her time in Green Bay
Spend 16 years in Green Bay and you can't help but get to know the city and surrounding areas, but if you're also a mom of five and the wife of a Green Bay Packers player, it significantly elevates your game.
It's why Molly Crosby, wife of former Packers kicker Mason Crosby, can not only point you in the direction of some of the best playground slides or her go-to spot to grab school snacks (The Apple Store) but also recommend something off nearly every menu in town, from the pesto fries at Rustique Pizzeria + Lounge in Suamico to Zesty's Frozen Custard's Berries & Creme Sundae (her "pregnancy cure all").
She knows her way around local boutiques and Lambeau Field alike, could write her own playbook on how to entertain out-of-town guests on a game weekend and drops fun little insider nuggets like how Rummele's Jewelers "is where every Packer player/coach shops."
With Mason now a free agent, the family sold their Green Bay house in May and purchased a home in Tennessee, but Molly leaves behind a wealth of insight and fondness for her time in Wisconsin. She recently wrote a series of blog posts for Discover Green Bay that break down her must-dos, tips and suggestions into four areas: Lambeau Field/Titletown, De Pere, downtown Green Bay and Howard/Suamico.
We read through them and picked out a few of our favorites from her favorites — some that maybe even longtime residents didn't know.
Goat cheese curds at Bleu in Ledgeview
Cheese curds were bound to come up, and they did — multiple times — but it’s the ones at Bleu Restaurant & Lounge in Ledgeview that Molly Crosby called “legendary."
What distinguishes them? For starters, the goat cheese comes from LaClare Creamery in Malone.
“We think their goat cheese has an exceptionally creamy texture with a bit of tang that sets them apart from the classic cheddar curds you find on traditional menus frequently,” said Jason Krentz, Bleu's general manager. “We lightly batter them in house and fry them golden brown. They are served with our house sriracha ketchup for a bit of spice and sweetness.”
Gather on Broadway's homemade Old-Fashioned mix
If there was any doubt about just how deeply Crosby immersed herself in Wisconsin culture, check out what a pro she sounds like writing about the state’s cocktail of choice, the Old-Fashioned.
“Knowing your Old-Fashioned order is a bit like ordering a Starbucks latte ... this is a nuanced and highly specific process," she wrote in the June 29 blog post. "Brandy or whisky? Sweet or sour? Press? These words might mean nothing to you now but don’t you leave Green Bay without an answer to all these questions. I mean it. Report back.”
Crosby specifically mentioned Gather on Broadway’s homemade Old-Fashioned mix and hopes someday it’ll be available for shipping.
“The secret to our Old-Fashioned mix is our ratio of fresh juices, premium bitters and burnt cinnamon sticks to add a smokiness,” said Gather on Broadway owner and executive chef Jyll Everman.
It’s available for take-home purchase on Wednesday nights when Gather on Broadway is open for the Farmers' Market on Broadway.
Model train layout at Brown County Library's Kress Family Branch
The Green Bay Area Model Railroaders Club has been leasing space in the lower level of Brown County Library’s Kress Family Branch in De Pere for the better part of a decade, but if you had no idea there’s an elaborate layout down there, you’re not the only one.
“We get that a lot. ‘I never knew you were here. How long have you been here?’ About 10 years. ‘What?!’” said Jeff Henslee, president of the club.
Crosby said marveling at the model train layout (2,000 lineal feet of main track and 4,000 to 5,000 all together) is one of her dad’s favorite stops when he’s in town.
The space is only open when members of the club are there to operate the trains, so you'll want to strategically time your library visit. The club doesn’t have set hours, but members are generally there from 9 a.m. to noon on mornings the Kress Family branch hosts storytimes (no storytimes Aug. 14-Sept. 4; check website for upcoming dates), 4 to 7 p.m. Thursdays for its weekly meeting and noon to 3 p.m. Sundays.
An easy way to know if the area is open to the public is to check the set of crossing signals outside the back of the library. If they’re flashing or blinking, Henslee said the trains are running.
“We love running trains for the kids,” he said. “They ask so many nice questions. They’re always really curious.”
First stop from the airport: Kroll's West
With a history that stretches back even decades before it moved to Ridge Road across from Lambeau Field in 1974, Kroll’s West is a local institution. So what could Crosby possibly teach us about the place acclaimed for its butter burgers, cheese curds and classic Green Bay charm that we don’t already know?
Just that she was smitten, too.
She often takes guests straight from the airport to Kroll's to get cheese curds before heading home so they feel immersed in the Green Bay experience right off the bat.
Two parks, two pro tips for kids to burn off energy
It’s so easy to head straight for buying a bag of corn to feed the ducks and geese at Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary that you can miss all the good stuff inside, including the two-story slide in the Nature Center that Crosby says “can tire out even the most wired kid.” It's designed like you're sliding into a beaver dam and then out the bottom of a stream.
She also likes the playground that opened in 2018 at Voyageur Park in De Pere for its unique swings, large slides and interactive music installations, which are “helpful to hear your kids even when you might momentarily lose sight of them.”
The Puddle Duck in De Pere for green and gold baby gifts
Next time you need a baby gift for a future Packers fan, feel free to steal Crosby’s go-to gift for the families of teammates and coaches who are expecting: a magnetic onesie, teeny little Packers knee socks and “Green Bay Packers ABC: My First Alphabet Book.” (Of course, "K" is for kicker, with a photo of a certain No. 2.)
You’ll find the latter two, along with other gifts for kids and adults, at The Puddle Duck in De Pere, which Crosby calls “my absolute mainstay for gifts forever.”
“Creative Packer gifts you won’t find anywhere else as well as the perfect hostess gifts, travel items, kid's clothing, and toys, and even hilarious socks for adults," she wrote in the June 21 blog post. Puddle Duck has single-handedly made me a better friend and family member because Kristy, the owner, has everything you need for celebrating babies and new homes to consoling the deepest of hurts.”
Kristy Bohun grew up with the boutique, which was founded in 1986 and then purchased by her mother and aunt in the early 1990s. When they were ready to retire, Bohun took it over in 2016.
Voyageurs Bakehouse take-and-bake cinnamon rolls
Who doesn’t want to look like a rock star when they have out-of-town guests at their house for a home Packers weekend? That’s where the take-and-bake version of Voyageurs Bakehouse’s sourdough cinnamon rolls comes in. It’s all the smell of the downtown Green Bay bakehouse without the pesky having-to-spend-time-in-the-kitchen part.
Crosby likes them as an option for Packers fans renting an Airbnb or staying with friends. “Game changers,” she called them.
“These cinnamon rolls are the perfect way to kick off game day, but if it were a night game, I would save them for Monday morning and be ready for school/out-of-town guests with less than adequate sleep," she wrote in the blog.
The one catch is that you must schedule them for pickup or delivery on the day prior to the day you plan to serve them, because the dough needs to proof overnight before you pop them in the oven. They come in a tray of five, glaze included.
(If you’re going to Voyageurs for lunch, Crosby recommended the Grilled Pastrami Reuben with sweet potato, if available, in place of the pastrami and with extra kraut and extra Russian dressing. And maybe extra napkins?)
Friendly reminder: Dress appropriately at Reforestation Camp in winter
Layering is an art form in Green Bay, particularly at late-season Packers games at Lambeau Field when you might need 10 or 15 of them. But there can be too much of a good thing, even in a Wisconsin winter.
Crosby humorously shared a story about the time she signed all five of their children up for the Bay Nordic Cross Country Ski Club. While her husband was at Saturday morning Packers walk-throughs, she would load all the kids in their minivan and head for practice at the Reforestation Camp in Suamico. Their first one on a 0-degree day was memorable.
“I dressed us warm. Like really warm. Like two-layers-of-fleece-under-their-parkas-barely-any-skin-showing-ready-for-a-Packer-game-in-December warm," Crosby wrote.
"Has anybody reading this ever gone cross-country skiing? If you have you know this was an absolutely terrible idea. Cross-country skiing gets your blood pumping instantly! We were all sweating and miserable. ... it felt like herding cats. Overheated cats. Overheated cats with poles that were piled on top of other overheated cats. It has aged nicely into a funny memory but no one was laughing at the time.”
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Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KendraMeinert.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Mason Crosby's wife, Molly, shares tips from her time in Green Bay
