All right time for reality radio to begin in earnest I've got a jam-packed studio here, so let's turn on one two three other microphones Good morning guys.
I've got John Joe and Haley here with me all here with sand trap and and golf and Westwood And you know you've been golfing for how long there now?
We've
been golfing basically all since spring and yeah, we bought the golf course this spring and we're excited moving into the fall season.
Well, how long have you been golfing there through history though?
Oh gosh.
Probably I was a teenager, so that was a long long time ago.
I would say 50 years
I was gonna say you don't have to go numbers if you don't want to I phrase the question poorly but a fixture of the golf course and some new faces you might recognize good morning guys All right, we got some microphones here I've got people in chairs of various heights and a lot going on at the golf course So it's fall and you know when the nights get as cold as they get as they happen lately getting down in the 30 to degrees 40 degree range I know a lot of people think this is the
taper of the golf season, but it's easy to miss that some of the best golf is happening right now out there at your course, at other courses too.
How's it been going these last few weeks?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
You know, I mean, once you get past that first couple hours on a beautiful day like today and stuff like that, when the sun is shining, you know, the leafs are starting to turn, you know, the green grass that's out there.
I fall golf was always been one of my favorite times to golf.
There's less people out there.
You can just kind of enjoy the weather because we know we're gonna
have a lot six months of winter to deal with and we won't be out there for a while.
So, you know, it's a great time to take advantage of that.
Is it going to be the right kind of weather?
Think about that moment in March and in April some years where you're just, come on, break the frost, please.
And man, let me tell you, I only got out a couple of times this year.
I wasn't able to join up for League this year.
The course has been an incredible condition.
I've been absolutely blown away by just the general greenery.
And you know, if we get a dry year, it can be tough to keep
grass from Browning up.
You guys have done an absolutely marvelous job.
Any shout outs you'd like to give the grounds crew?
Anybody like that?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
John Crafts, Dan Cox, Wayne Pysic and Mr. Haskins have done a great job of keeping the course in beautiful shape.
I mean, we've gotten plenty of compliments.
You know, we have two former golf course owners that have been helping us out here.
So I mean, you know, and all four of them basically came with.
So it's
basically kind of ran itself over there and they're doing a great job.
That's got to be an absolute incredible resource to have people with experience at something that is at least relatively new to you.
So congratulations on the early goings.
It's just as fun as ever to golf there and perhaps even more so if you haven't been in a minute.
That golf course again in beautiful shape, fall a perfect time.
If you've never played sports, fall is the best time.
Golf or not, it's the time to do it.
So you're not dealing with the wild swings of weather.
Golf swing that might be that might be nothing I can help you with necessarily.
I definitely can't help you But maybe somebody there can that said quality golf a great time on the course is not the only good time going on and you guys are here to talk about some of the other things happening with Food with events.
What else are we looking at over that direction?
Yeah, we have a fall Menu coming out Octoberfest menu.
I've been trying Yeager schnitzel and this some
Thursday, we're going to have bulimian beef goulash over bread dumplings.
So we're trying to hit that check in German heritage that we have.
First of all, pounded out piece of pork that was hand breaded.
Nice mushroom gravy.
Put that over, you know, buttered spatsal.
was our special last week.
And this Thursday we have bulimian beef goulash.
kind of a beef stew if you will.
You know onions, paprika, you know, caraway and then we'll make homemade bread dumplings for soak up all that goodness.
Yeah, so run the kitchen and the chef and trying to put all the creative bits onto people's you know plates and into their palate So
when it sounds like local influences are leading the leading the dish design You know we were out at a local restaurant recently and I was sitting there thinking who designed this dish I was just blown away by it and that's something that I find myself thinking at restaurants in general How did you come to the menu that you guys currently offer?
Is it just things that you know from around here?
Where else are the influences?
I'm so as a corporate
Corporate chef for 17 years with Barry Waymiller had my own private chef business.
So we just were, you know, we kind of jumped into this and it's phase one.
And, you know, we, you know.
going to put the whole restaurant together in three weeks and open the doors and really didn't look back, look back yet.
So now we're revamping things, you know, look out for a new menu and going into phase two, you know, we're going to start soup season and all the other good things that the cold weather brings.
you know, all the other good things, you know, chicken, wild rice, you know, excellent.
Chicken and dumpling so the other good classic
you're gonna have me for soup I can already tell We're also talking to Haley the bar manager down there at the golf course at an excuse me Give me give me the specifics on the names.
What's what are the names of the the bar restaurant the golf course itself?
We've got some different names operating, correct?
Let's get some clarity there before I say something incorrect
Well
We're looking for clarity, too.
I think, you know, we're probably thinking of rebranding and just staying with the Westwood logo.
We have Westwood Sandtrap, and we'll certainly go by either.
But I think we are going to rebrand to just straight Westwood, you know, in the future.
Well, hey, I was making a fool of myself there, but I accidentally touched on a good question.
So it doesn't sound like you'll be jumping to correct people who might use an older name.
We're in the Northwoods after all.
It's going to happen.
It can be tough to move off.
But if you just go with Westwood, you're maybe more correct.
never.
So we're talking to the whole crew here leading the pack at Westwood, whether that's the golf course, the restaurant or the bar.
Haley, how's it going this morning?
It's going great.
I've been in the bar industry since maybe 15 years old working at different restaurants around Phillips up on Madeline Island.
And
got about 15 years of bar experience.
And with my very brief bar
experience I know that a little bit of experience goes a long way but you've got plenty of it so this sounds like if I had to guess you were ready and eager to be taking on this kind of role am I correct?
Oh correct I absolutely love making cocktails I love
experimenting with different, um, boozes, uh, citrus.
I make all my cocktails homemade.
Uh, no fake mixes.
Uh, we, I love making martinis, any kind of fun cocktails.
It's right up my alley.
Both.
I love a little bit of both.
Um, I love it.
Put a little twist on the classics.
It's kind of where I'm at.
No, I, I took a bartending job a couple of years ago.
and the biggest reassurance anybody could give me, it was my first one, and it was most of the ingredients are in the name.
So, you know, if you've got name drinks that you're doing at the bar, that's one thing.
But we were looking at a menu last night where people are talking about duck fat washes and cranberry air.
Can we expect that level of execution?
Not quite.
I'm hoping to get into some of, like, the smoked old-fashioned.
But for right now, I'm just keeping with, like, local cranberries.
some just unique little things to add to classics right now.
the modeling.
I love the orange.
I have orange bitters, regular bitters kind of experimenting with simple sugars.
Just just to make it a little more my
Oh,
it.
Yes, it is.
A lot of people like to come in and get a cocktail kind of to their liking.
I kind of ask them how they like it and what they want in there.
A little sweet, a little tart.
And then I kind of remember, I'll remember your cocktail before your name.
And that sometimes people like that though.
And I'm sure there's people out there who think he's talking about me.
There's people who is like, I know your face.
I know your drink.
And I've heard your name before, but one of these things is going to go over my head.
And it's, it's not the drink order.
But what a satisfying feeling for both people involved when somebody walks in, Hey, would you like your, that is such an awesome little piece of, I don't think, is that, is that possible in the larger places?
Like when you were at Madeline Island, for example,
Is that a little tougher to accomplish?
With the locals, no.
But you see one person throughout the year.
And sometimes you do, sometimes you don't.
Well, and one of my favorite things here, as far as bartending and hospitality in general, Joe, you could probably speak to this, too, is that some people, you only see three or four months out of the year.
And so you get these incredibly warm moments of, hey,
Welcome back.
Have you guys been seeing that this
summer?
For sure.
A lot of people coming back to try more of our menus, the drinks, and come back because the golf is so great.
Correct.
Yep.
all?
We got some cranberry, Moscow mules.
I enjoy
chocolate or salted caramel martinis.
Some apple cider martini, which is excellent using local well from Meryl.
They have a ten head vodka Okay, just really smooth and put that it's out of Meryl distilled out of their way from the cheese Really kind of a unique cocktail mix
engine
just real smooth.
Okay.
No, that's that's I'm I'm intrigued and I will note that in this dude I won't name names but a hand went up when you mentioned those cranberry Moscow mules It's something that I know I tend to lean if I'm trying a Moscow mule I like the tart flavor notes whether that's lime the traditional flavor Cranberry works great orange other citrus is always great But local local flavors like cranberry always an incredible option, especially as we're we're in the season here I'm just trying to think.
Oh another
one of the experiences I wanted to touch on have you managed to get people to budge every once in a while I've had people that were those fruity drinks those fruity drinks oh man
I okay over the golf season I created it's a John Haley some muddle blackberries peach crown royal and lemonade it's
like a spin on a John daily but
John Haley so
went over really well So yeah, a lot of people are actually kind of catching on and knowing that I make great mojitos Any kind of French 75s any kind of the what's kind of popular right now I'm trying to get into and learn how to do so people can come in and be like
I would like this.
Well, if I don't have exact ingredients, I'm going to kind of fudge it and make it what you want.
And yeah, I can absolutely, you can, you can go and grab your, your seven and seven, you know, that, that basic stuff.
It never goes bad.
You guys are going to have those options.
And I'm guessing you've got a good range of say vodka, for example, you've probably got, I would guess several varieties so people can go through the levels there.
And also tap beer.
We have a Yingling Oktoberfest on right now.
Also, we have a 1919 rip year on tap, which is kind of a it's a good one as well.
If it's not alcohol, we do have other options.
I do a lot of NA cocktails as well, making with NA rosés.
Just I can make an even an old-fashioned without the alcohol is pretty good.
It's just bitters, muddled orange, the cherry and I some simple sugar.
actually is pretty good even without the alcohol.
I've been mostly off of alcohol for about 10 years now and it was at the beginning of that period.
There were some weird things being tried but now the dust has settled on that a little bit.
You can see some rather extensive NA menus at a lot of places so I'm excited to try what you guys have.
Are you factoring that into the food menu that you have?
Are you thinking pairings or it's just hey I mean any German food goes well with German beers so there's some of them are easy but are you doing those kinds of complicated
Measures too?
I would just like to um...
you know, more comfort food, you know, little heartier food, bring in some pork shanks and some steak options.
Fair enough.
So
correct.
All right.
Well, we've been chatting with people from Westwood.
We can just leave it there now.
You've had former names before and we won't call those wrong, but we've been talking to people from the golf course and kind of leading the pack in general, new ownership here.
We've also been talking to people who are running the kitchen and running the bar and man, you guys
have made my studio into a more pleasant space than it's been in a minute.
I don't want to be overly complimentary for no reason.
All that to say, I can't imagine what you guys are doing in your own space where you guys are comfortable running the show.
And in fact, I can imagine it.
I popped up there a couple of times.
I haven't gotten to eat there, though.
So I'm looking forward to those fall soups and the Jaeger schnitzel and happy to explain what it is even happier to make it.
I bet you're going to be making a lot of Jaeger schnitzel this year.
Yeah, yeah.
And gulosh.
So and whatever else we can do, maybe sell a Broughton and whatever.
I'm
Yeah, we're open Monday and Tuesday nights currently and then Wednesday through Sunday lunch and lunch and dinner.
So you guys are basically open at least at some point every day of the week.
It's always a good time to stop it at Westwood.
I almost said it.
I almost said it.
I'm going to have to let go of that a little bit.
But as we pointed out, it's not entirely wrong.
Well, I'm super excited to have it.
Is there anything?
that I haven't touched on that you'd like to mention to the people.
Some of those upcoming events, for example, I know you mentioned there's some things on the horizon here.
Yeah, you know, I think that, you know, the course hasn't been open or the restaurant hasn't been open during the winter over the last few years.
We will be open more.
You know, we will be doing Christmas parties.
We are on a snowmobile trail on the chain of lakes.
So you basically can come right off the lake and, you know, stop.
So, you know, there's a lot of things that, you know, we're excited for next year, you know, maybe running some more tournaments, those type of things.
So, you know, it's kind of as
as we...
took over this business.
We were like Joe said, we were in phase one and we're kind of, we're learning now and we're just deciding what we want to do in the future.
And, you know, a lot of people with a lot of different ideas and, and, and it's kind of fun seeing it all come together.
I was just thinking that exact same thing.
Having gotten to watch it closely recently, you get that, that kind of white knuckle feeling is like, Oh my gosh, what are we doing?
But then suddenly six, seven months go by and hey, we survived.
We better plan for what's next.
And you guys are very clearly doing that.
I've heard great.
things already.
I look forward to hearing more great things out of Westwood.
Can people find you online, by the
way?
Online on Facebook on Instagram.
And then is it gonna be on that's gonna be under that Westwood name?
All right, find them on Facebook find them here on 98 Q country There's a phrase that I like to use a lot of the people who come into reality radio I call them chronically involved you guys just don't stop and the way I pointed out is one day all of us leave this earth and I think some of us you can tell from a distance because that trail of dust just isn't shooting up from behind them anymore
See what these guys are up to at the golf course, the kitchen, the bar, open every day for dinner and lunch Wednesday through Sunday as well and find them on Facebook too.
Guys, thank you so much.
One last thing, if there are people who want to hold their event at Westwood, is that still something we can look at for maybe later this year?
How far are we available for things like that?
I guess come talk to us, even offsite catering and, you know,
You know big lunch lunch catering and catering and wedding catering even so
Thank you so much I look forward to seeing you at Westwood trying the cocktails from Haley the food from Joe and everything that John I know you've got a hand in all of it and it couldn't be done without you so thank you for bringing some new life to a Long-standing business here in the Northwoods I look forward to seeing it in new hands and to have one of those any cocktails in my hand as well as some goulash man That's I think I've made my decision, but hey you might be able to
change my mind when I get there to Westwood.
You know where to find it in Phillips and hey, if somebody you know has loved what they've done there before, the experience of previous ownership and of other golf course owners is factoring into this clearly.
So expect to enjoy what you have when you stop there at Westwood, whether it's for golf, food, drinks or hey, better be all three of the above.
Thank you guys so much.
It's I know you guys are busy and I appreciate you giving us some time for reality radio on 98 Q.
Thank you.
We've got more for you.
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