Lots of Pie (Hour 1)

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Peach Wabba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who still likes to build a fort.

Peach Wabba.

Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

It is Friday.

We've made it.

We got through the week.

It wasn't that tough.

Did you have a good week?

Let us know how your week was.

Our phone lines are open.

They are always open, as is the text line, 855-752-4842.

855-755-CIVIC, or text us on the app, or on the stream, however you are choosing tonight light this evening.

It's great to have you wherever you're joining us from in Wisconsin.

I got a really fun show tonight.

You know, we're going to celebrate.

We talk about show business a lot.

We also talk about Wisconsin a lot.

And the fun goings on in our state from time to time.

And we celebrate people who celebrate our state.

So that is kind of what we are doing tonight in the first hour.

Paul Vandenplatz will be here.

I'm saying his name, right?

Correct, Conrad?

Yes, you are.

Vandenplatz.

I

just want to... I don't know if you saw me.

I went like...

This, when I saw this one, did you look at this dream right now?

Don't read it, but just... Wait, what am I looking at?

What's so bad about it?

Can you see

the comments?

Oh, no, I don't have the...

Okay.

I'll get you the comments in a second here,

but... Okay.

I don't think I have... I don't think this mouse is working.

I'm... I'm commentless.

If it's bad stuff, I don't want to see it.

You could just tell people where they can go.

Yes.

Yeah, you are saying it right,

though.

You are.

Vanda plus.

Okay.

Paul will be here at 635.

He has a site on various social media platforms called Wonderfully Wisconsin.

I watched a lot of his videos today on Facebook.

He's on TikTok, probably Instagram.

He just does a great job traveling around the state and celebrating various aspects.

It has very much a around the corner feel to it, but Paul's a pretty mellow guy and he just looks for fun stuff in Wisconsin and posts about it.

So we're going to talk to Paul about that at 635.

He's coming in.

He is coming into the studio, right?

Okay.

He will be here in person.

and we will talk to him about things that are wonderfully Wisconsin.

And I've got a lot of questions for him.

Maybe, I don't want to put Paul in the spot, but if he wants to take our Wisconsin quiz, I think he, who better?

I mean, I think he could ace it.

I think he could too, but I also don't want to, you know, what if he gets an F?

What if he flunks and then he's like supposedly the authority on Wisconsin?

He never comes

back or he gets me in a headlock or something I don't need that kind of nonsense either, but we'll talk to Paul.

Well, no pressure Paul.

It's gonna be fun So we'll do that at 635 right after the news and then It is a bar ban Friday night ladies and gentlemen.

This is exciting as you know max ink host one of the max ink hosts

Terry Barr will be here at 735 bringing new music and fun conversation.

We're gonna talk about a Band I'm gonna save the name of the band because I love the name of the band So we'll talk about that with Terry Terry will tell you who the band is We've got a couple tunes from said band and we're gonna talk about an award event coming up here in Wisconsin for musicians that

We do every year here in Wisconsin, and it's down in Madison, and it's so much fun.

And Terry's gonna tell us about that as well.

They do such an amazing job on Max Inc., so she'll tell us also what's coming up on Max Inc.

tomorrow night.

It'll be fun to talk to Terry as it is every Friday night.

And then we saw, did you see the, or did you hear that clip Mike just played of Eric

Stokes?

I did, that was kind of funny.

Taking a shot at Green Bay on his way out of town, like.

There's nowhere to eat after 10 o'clock.

Maybe he's never heard of a little restaurant called Quick Trip.

This guy's problem.

Pack your bags, pal.

There's a bunch of places to eat after 10.

What is he talking about?

Well, and he's going to Vegas, so it's like, that never closes.

That's not fair.

That's an unfair comparison.

We gotta ask Paul about this and say, what kind of places can you eat after 10 just so we can rub it in Eric's face?

Hey, that's a great question.

Let's do that after 10.

And we will find him, we'll find Eric Stokes on the Twitter.

After 10 cuisine.

Hey, I don't know if you saw on the text line.

Steady Eddie, I think, had a record on the fastest text in the show.

We weren't even, I didn't even click the button for the show intro yet.

Steady Eddie texted in.

Still like the same, like the intro music was still playing.

Oh, you just sent me what the stream text was.

Was

that meant for us?

I don't know.

Some guy, can I read this or is it obscene or what?

I mean, I think you can say it.

He just said hi.

We got five texts from the same listener who just said hi four times and then said porn.

That guy knows how to party.

Okay, fair

enough.

The

context, please?

Yeah, really.

I mean, listen, we always have porn playing in the background when we're on the air, but I don't think listeners are aware of that.

I mean, come on.

We're covert to some degree.

We just keep it on for the guests.

Hey, steady Eddie, we got to read this because he's so early tonight.

It's insane.

I don't know what, maybe steady Eddie overslept the last two nights and just got up so he wanted to be first at it.

So that is a record text time.

Steady Eddie says, Pete, it's Friday.

The Christmas Day of Weeknights, also known as Bar Band Friday Nights.

He's steady eddies on it.

He says, I think you better ask Conrad to boil some water and get some fresh clean towels together, because I believe you and your lovable producer are about to deliver another precious little 5,000 megawatt bouncing bundle of joy and entertainment that is night light.

It's time in all caps.

Let's night light it up.

Damn right, steady eddy.

I love the energy.

See, it's kind of fun when we close down the show with a Steady Eddie text, but that was fun to start the show with one.

And he put a post-script.

He says, on this March 14th, all right, we'll tie this into the question of the night, because Steady Eddie's a step ahead of us.

He says, 3.14 pi day.

Remember the words and wisdom that came from the mouth and mind of Jed Clampant when he was schooling up his nephew, Jethro Baudin.

Jethro, don't be so dumb.

Pie around cake are squared That's great And you know what let's use steady Eddie's text as a way into our question of the

night.

Let's talk about the question question question question question question question question question question question

question

question question question questions

What it's your favorite kind of pie

We know it's national pie day the math part, but we don't care Lately we've been on kind of a food kick here at night light and we talk about various foods that are good to binge watch Color television with and movies and pie is certainly one of them.

So on national pie day That's probably an international day.

Don't you think?

Yeah, I think so.

Okay Doesn't matter But what's your favorite kind of pie?

That's a fun one folks.

You can noodle that you could text right in I don't

You know, I was late to the game with pie.

I have to say I always was a cake guy when I was a kid loved chocolate cake But I don't know like pie always creeped me out because there was like fruit in it and I didn't get the breadfruit thing It was kind of overwhelming then I discovered the joy that is pie chocolate silk pumpkin Apple with like the Dutch crumbles on top.

Oh, yeah, that's good stuff so

And I'll say this, it's not a taste explosion in your mouth, but a good blueberry pie.

I like too.

There's strawberry rhubarb.

You've got your whole peach family.

Cranberry.

A nice peach color.

Is there a cranberry pie?

You know, there probably is at the

cranberry fest.

There

has to be.

But that would be not a good pie, because cranberries do not taste good on their own unless you add like pounds of sugar.

They must.

They must, yeah.

So what is your favorite kind of pie?

8-5-5-7?

Did I do that right?

8-5-5?

I just said a total pie.

Okay, 8-5-5.

7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

8-5-5-7-5.

Civic.

Pie.

Favorite.

What kind is yours?

I will start things off.

You know, it's tempting to go Apple, just to be like all American, but...

I'm gonna say part of it is because I haven't eaten in 18 hours chocolate cream

Okay,

with some whipped cream.

Oh, yeah,

I'll do that.

What about you?

My grandma's listening.

She's gonna love this.

Okay.

I love her butterscotch pie that she makes now.

What's that?

It's butterscotch like Like kind of like pudding Wow, but it's worth I feel like it's more thick than pudding.

It's it feels like a chocolate but it's

Butterscotch.

Okay.

And you put some whipped cream on top of that.

Wow.

Her crust as well.

Now that is

good.

Can you do Butterscotch without something else?

Like a combo?

Butterscotch on its own?

Yeah.

No, it's really good actually.

That's

like the only thing I actually like Butterscotch in.

Yeah.

Just the pie.

Because I remember the Butterscotch candies.

When I was a kid, it was probably before your time, but we would get those little Butterscotch candies when we would trick or treat.

It's like

They're like total old people's candy.

And you suck on it for about one second.

You're like, well, this really isn't very much fun at all.

And you spit it out.

It's a nice flavor.

And I could see where it would go good with a nice pie crust.

Yeah.

Yeah.

OK, fair enough.

Oh, that's interesting.

I never heard of that before.

A nice chocolate peanut butter pie,

too,

is dynamite.

I agree.

Heavy, but good.

So would the peanut butter be in with the chocolate, like mixed with it?

I feel like

I- I think it's separate.

There's like chocolate and peanut butter than chocolate chips, whipped cream.

We used to get it at a place called Murray Calendars.

I don't know if they had those in Wisconsin, but oh man, they were so good.

And pumpkin pie, but when I eat pumpkin pie, I like it, but I have to have like tons of whipped cream on it.

It just tastes better that way.

You can't eat it by itself?

I could, but why when I can make it more of an event?

You know who makes a really good pumpkin pie?

Costco.

Yeah, they do.

You're right.

My brother-

And they're huge.

Gets it every-

Like because they host usually for Thanksgiving at their house and they'll get one pumpkin for the party

Okay, and then

they'll get one for themselves

for the later and

then I'm like yo save me Save me a couple please

and if you run out and someone says well open that other one.

Nope.

No, that's ours We want to be alone with a pie later All right, well that's good that's a good start off we got Conrad likes butterscotch pie I like

A chocolate cream or chocolate peanut butter pie and a close second or third if you count those two as tied first would be pumpkin pie Drenched with real whip cream.

Yes.

Have you tried key lime?

Oh, you know what?

How do I I I'm gonna change my answer

Key

lime so good Key lime is dynamite and I like like lemon meringue, but key lime key lime is like

It's like they they made lemon meringue.

It was good But then key lime came along and it's like they perfected pie changing my answer key lime It is with a graham cracker crust honest to God That is a taste explosion in your mouth folks.

I Basically have four favorite kinds of pie.

We can open it up.

We can

have

ten.

All right

Let us know your favorite kind of pie folks.

Keep it under ten eight five five seven five two four eight four two Text us on the app text us on the stream.

Just text us.

We'd love to hear from you Tell us your favorite kind of pie

Tell us your thoughts in the Badgers.

What little Badger talk when we come back and we'll read your texts.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Anna from Madison says, hi, Pete and Conrad.

I have two favorite pies.

Pecan, forgot about pecan, and Key Lime.

Well, you change that curve when you mention Key Lime, Conrad.

That's it.

That's a deal breaker.

It's

dynamite.

With the graham cracker crust.

You can't go wrong.

Yeah, I'm with you, Anna.

I like pecan.

I don't love pecan, but I like pecan.

John from Oshkosh says, chill blueberry pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Yeah, another blueberry pie.

See, it's not crazy pungent.

That's not the right word, but blueberry pie is very good.

I'm with you, John.

John from Oshkosh in a wonderful city.

Have you been to Leons?

I assume if you live in Oshkosh, you've been to Leon's dynamite place.

AJ in the 608 says, hi, Pete and Conrad.

I must say, apple pie is overrated, but I love apple crumble.

I'm with AJ on this one because I just eating apples as the filling doesn't cut it.

You need something.

You need, you know, just the little Dutch sugar sprinkles, whatever they're called.

My favorite is definitely cherry.

No ice cream, no whipped cream, enjoy it as is.

Old school for AJ.

No sides, please, just cherry pie.

And telcon red butterscotch is awesome in Scotcheroo's.

Scotcheroo, wait, are those the girl's cookies?

Those are girl's

cookies.

Okay, so, okay.

We missed that last

one.

Yeah.

AJ continues and says, if you know, if you know, you know.

Well said, AJ.

Carrie from Tosa says, key lime pie is the best and is very underrated.

That's interesting, because it's the best.

And yet, it's so good, it's still underrated even though it's the best.

I could not agree more with you, Kerry.

I am literally starving right now for Key Lime Pie.

Can we Uber a Key Lime Pie here somehow or make it to our dash?

Yeah, I'll ask my parents

to send some.

Did they have it down the

street?

Did they have it like a Hagermeister?

Are they

haberdashery?

Oh, that would be dynamite.

Yeah.

One humongous piece.

Just send a pie over two forks.

We'll massacre it.

Nick from Marshall says, good choice, Pete.

Key lime pie is definitely one of my favorites, along with coconut cream.

Yes, another great one.

And my mom makes a killer pecan pie, and sometimes she puts bourbon in it.

That's just not fair, which my grandfather recommended a long time ago.

I am literally salivating right now.

It's all sound amazing.

Thank you, Nick for Marshall.

Nick continues saying, yes, blueberry pie is very good too.

I don't know if it's the color with the crust.

It's just a presentation.

Blueberry pie just looks delicious.

And blueberries are great for you too.

Pamela from Wisconsin Rapids says, lemon meringue and strawberry rhubarb, it's a tie.

Love them both, getting hungry listening

to the show

tonight.

We gotta start a nightlight pie club.

Pamela listening on WFHR, awesome people there.

James and Melissa and everybody at WFHR.

Thank you for listening.

Pamela, thanks for the text.

Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids says coconut cream pie just like Gilligan's.

How did Marianne ever do it?

Oh God, I kind of remember that, but I kind of don't.

What is that, Tyler?

I need some clarification on that one.

We got a comment on the stream too.

PJ says banana cream pie.

It's good stuff.

Totally forgot about banana cream pie.

I forgot about a lot of

these.

You know, I forget where I had it, but there was a place I had banana cream pie for the first time, and I haven't had it since, and I can't remember where it was.

It was the best pie I've ever tasted.

Yeah.

And I miss it.

I did that.

I don't know if I talked about this on the air.

It was one of my most embarrassing moments in the last year.

I was at a grocery store.

They close at nine.

I get back to Marinette just in time, and I'm really jonesing for a piece of this banana cream.

They serve these little individual things.

and I get there and I see it.

It's at the end of the aisle and they have all these desserts and I see banana cream pie.

This is so embarrassing.

And I literally said, I made a noise, I went, hmm, right as a guy was rounding the aisle and he heard me say, I have probably no idea what I was talking about.

It was just an instinct.

It was really embarrassing.

And I had to like cough and pretend I had something in my throat.

And on the stream, okay, now I see Ernestos.

Text.

Hello.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi.

Porn.

He just like got his first iPhone or something.

He's like, he's like, he's like one of those kids like typing porn and then giggling.

Thank you Ernesto.

Unless it's some kind of pie we haven't heard of.

Porn pie.

I don't think you want to, I don't think you want to saddle up with a porn pie though.

That could be very disgusting.

So the Badgers won today.

Yes.

That's huge.

They're going to play Michigan State and then it's all over, right?

If they beat Michigan State, that's it.

Nope.

They got to play one more game after that on Sunday.

So it's tomorrow is the semifinals and we'll figure out who's playing in the other game tonight.

But yet tomorrow Badgers and Michigan State, that's going to be a really tough one.

Yeah, at the very least, they didn't embarrass themselves.

They showed

up for

the tournament.

Even if they lose

tomorrow, it's not going to affect their seating.

I don't think they'll probably still be what, a four, five, right in there somewhere.

Four, five, yeah.

If they didn't lose the Penn State before, they could have been a three easily.

That was kind of a stupid loss

at

home, too.

It's terrible.

And we were talking about this a little bit before is that today they had one of the best three point like shooting in a.

the big 10 tournament actually.

They tied it today.

They just needed one more to break the record, but they can't rely on it.

That's what they did against Penn State.

They try to rely on the three point and it came back to burn them.

I just hope they don't do that tomorrow.

I hope they, if it's not working, go to the paint.

We got some good guys down there.

So

I can't, this is going to be my, like I've seen bits and pieces.

of basketball games, college basketball games this year.

This would be the first game I watch in its entirety tomorrow, probably because of the show.

It seems like there's always a conflict, but I'm gonna watch probably the whole game tomorrow.

That'll

be my

first full

college basketball

game of the season.

I gotta get warmed up for the tournament.

So that'll be fun.

What did you, what's the movie you say?

You said?

I watched, so I just came out today.

I woke up a little earlier just because I was excited to watch it because I was yearning for a movie I haven't seen.

So it's called The Electric State, and it stars Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt.

And I really liked it.

And you told me the budget, which was... I

just saw the headline, but it said 320 million, which is ridiculous, because it's a Netflix film.

They're not making that back at the theater.

I mean, Netflix has more money than they know what to do with it.

They

keep

raising prices and adding subscribers.

It's insane, but you said it wasn't worth that.

Well, lord it a little bit

after hearing that budget.

I was like, well, they probably could have done more but overall You know, you said the Gorge was a Netflix film, you know, I think this one above a streamer I think it could have been in theaters.

I enjoyed it I think the actors that they brought in it brought a lot of character to it and the meaning action film or what action comedy it was so it's about it I think it's based in 1970s, but

I don't know.

We don't have much time left, so I'll talk about it later.

But I'll tell you the story kind of later.

But

it was good.

We'll do that.

And I'm going to tell you about the new Nightlight beer again, because we're having the brewmaster who created it on Monday.

It's going to be awesome.

And we're coming back with Paul Vandenplatz, ladies and gentlemen of Wonderfully Wisconsin.

That's coming up after the news.

It's Peach Wabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media radio

network.

That's

gonna be my workout song tonight When I get back to Marinette I'm religious about my workouts folks every Friday night after my show I do four push-ups and I'm religious about it.

I don't mess around So that's that's gonna only hear about eight seconds of the song, but it's a good one

That's great, that's great.

Andy from Watertown, that's the 920, where she's, well, actually Watertown is not, Andy's running some kind of scam here, Conrad.

It's like your folks with the 920 when they're down in Key West.

Andy says, lots of munchies.

And then she says, 1974, a Key Largo memorable for pie.

Introduced to Keyline Pie and also Angel Pie, chocolate chips and whipping cream in a meringue crust.

Oh God.

recipe from Heart Tongues in Piper'sville, Wisconsin.

Sound familiar?

Yeah.

All right, we'll talk about that too.

That's our next guest.

I'm about to introduce.

I'm so excited to talk to this guy.

From the 608, Nick and Marshall says, Maple Tree Supper Club in McFarland makes an excellent mint chocolate chip pie with an Oreo cookie crust.

If you're a Conrad or ever in the area, I would highly recommend it since that place has excellent food and drinks and their prices are very reasonable.

Conrad I haven't asked you to take a memo in a while.

I think that that is definitely memo worthy Tyler says ginger pie is tasty, too.

I've never had ginger pie.

I haven't either.

That's interesting

All right, keep those texts coming folks.

What is your favorite kind of pie is international pie day?

They're going for a math theme 3.14 We're not doing that because math sucks.

Yes, so we're talking about actual delicious

pie, and I want to know what your favorites are.

You can stream us, text us, hit us up on the app, any way you see fit.

Just join the show.

Always more fun when you guys participate, and we've had some amazing tech so far.

All right, it is a Bar Band Friday night.

Terry Barr will be here at 735 with new music and absolutely fascinating conversation.

As always, great to have Terry and she'll tell us what's coming up on Max Inc.

tomorrow night.

But right now, this is exciting.

I've been waiting to have this guy on the show for a while.

Paul, Vanden Plus.

Paul, am I saying your last name right?

Yep, you're saying it correctly.

I'm crushing it, aren't I?

Yeah, absolutely.

All right, because I have the last name Schwab.

I'm very sensitive to people's last names.

Yours looks pretty self-explanatory, but you never know.

So Paul is the creator of the wonderfully Wisconsin channel.

You can find it on TikTok, help me out, Facebook, Instagram.

What else, YouTube?

Yeah, YouTube is all.

Okay.

So for those of you, if you live in Wisconsin or are from here and miss it, this is a great channel.

Paul, welcome to Nightlight.

Well, thanks for having me.

Yeah, my pleasure.

So before we get into wonderfully Wisconsin, tell us about yourself.

All right.

Well, I'm 41.

Didn't go to school for content creation, for marketing, for anything like that.

I mean, I guess I did go for marketing, but I changed my major three times.

Yeah, it happens.

So no, I work a nine to five job.

I work for a large promotional marketing company, but I don't work in the office.

I

do embroidery for clothes and that kind of stuff.

So I do not have a background in any of this.

I just have a passion and a love for introducing people to the wonderful state of Wisconsin.

Oh, man, I love that.

You do have a day job.

This isn't what you do full-time.

No, I wish.

But it kind of ties in, or does it kind of... I mean, marketing, that's kind of what you're doing a little bit.

Like, you're sort of marketing for Wisconsin.

Oh, sure.

I would think they would scoop that up.

Maybe.

Should we make a phone call?

Conrad, let's see if we can get Wisconsin on the line.

I'll get them online.

Are you a lifelong resident?

Yes, I am.

Okay, where'd you grow up?

Green Bay.

Nice, dude.

Okay, so...

All right, so tell us how you founded Wonderfully Wisconsin and what made you, like you got kids, you got a full-time gig, you're posting all the time, this seems time consuming, what made you want to dedicate a lot of your

hours or free hours to a site like this.

Not sure.

I actually fell into it.

I had a TikTok account, like most people my age, where all you did is just go on there and scroll endlessly for hours.

And then sometimes you just post a silly video that you think your friends might be interested.

Oh, here's my kids being silly, or here's my dog doing something, you know.

And so I went this last summer, there was a quick trip that I had read about in a

I think it was Milwaukee Magazine, if I remember correctly.

And they talked about these special quick trip restaurants that had a restaurant inside of it.

And

it

was, these restaurants are called the Hardy Platter.

And I think there's only two in the state of Wisconsin.

And they're one.

Attached to a quick trip?

Inside,

like

yeah.

And a full sit down restaurant.

all quick trip food, but it's plated and it's a full sit down experience.

And so I'm like, Oh, I like quick trip.

This is interesting.

So I took my family one day.

I'm like, Oh, what a fun trip.

It's just about the one I went to is in Bandoel.

So not too far.

Right.

So I had a fun day in Chano and then we went there for lunch.

All right, made a little stupid video of like, Oh, this

is what it's like, you

know, okay.

And then post it up.

And I don't know why I did that.

I still, to this day, my wife says, I don't know what possessed you.

I thought you were odd that day doing it.

They're like, well, I'm an odd guy, so it checks out.

So I just threw it up on TikTok, because I thought, oh, maybe my friends who travel and checking out new things, oh, maybe they'll like it, and it went viral.

And I'm like, okay, well, this is interesting.

So

why did this go viral?

I looked into the statistics on everything and I'm like, you know, I think maybe there's just a hunger for interesting things in Wisconsin.

So I took about three weeks and then did all the research, looked at other creators for Wisconsin and there was really not a lot of information out there.

And so I'm like, okay, well, let's do three more videos and see how they do.

And those all went viral.

And I'm like, okay,

so I'm

on

to something.

All on TikTok.

So then that.

just started is I've always had a love for Wisconsin.

I'm a big history guy.

And so a lot of people overlook the history of Wisconsin.

And, you know, it's just kind of this passion my whole life, like my parents were special Olympics coaches.

So when I was younger, my sister has Down syndrome and she was a special Olympics athlete.

So we would travel the state for her to participate in all this stuff.

I played sports myself through high school.

And so I'll travel the state doing that kind of stuff.

And I always thought Wisconsin was interesting and beautiful and had a unique history.

And so I'm like, well, maybe this is my opportunity to share that with not only Wisconsin, but the outside world.

That's wow.

That's a great story.

And what a great way that you fell into that.

I love that there was so organic and kind of just and it's funny.

Like I used to and this just came to me when you were talking like you're from here.

You still love driving around the state.

I think I just told you we used to drive up.

two, three lakes from Chicago.

I grew up in Chicago when I was younger.

And Wisconsin always just seemed like more of a state of mind.

Like when you're coming from like, we lived right in the city.

So when we would go up and we're all of a sudden we're looking at rolling hills and lakes, it just seemed like a mindset almost.

So it's interesting.

And that was from an outsider's perspective when I was young, but you lived here and you still have that.

That's really impressive.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And I think...

What I like to say too is I think a lot of people from here just kind of, for whatever reason, just develop this defeatist attitude that it's like, there's nothing to do here.

This place

is boring.

And it's like,

but it's not,

you know?

You're boring,

right?

Yeah, you gotta make your own

fun, babe.

Right, you know, and so.

I guess I've always kind of had that wanderlust.

And

so it's like, all right, well, why can't I have that within my own state?

Wisconsin is a

huge state.

So you can go to the next town over, if you're just looking for something, you can go to the next town over that you've been to a million times.

But if you approach it from a different angle and go, okay, well, what's interesting here to do instead of like, I'm just kind of just going about my motions.

Like there might be wonderful things that you never even consider to do.

Absolutely.

My guest is Paul Vandenplatz.

He is the founder of the wonderfully Wisconsin channel.

It's wonderful.

Check it out on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube.

He's all over the place and he posts a lot of really cool videos about our state.

And I'm amazed that you can live in Wisconsin for as long.

I have spent over 20 years of my life here from when we moved up here and I've been back as an adult close to 20 years.

And I'm surprised when I don't

When I haven't heard of something Like if something is so good and you're posting it on your channel, I'm like how if it's so good How have I not heard of that like you really got to get the word out even if something's

great for people to find it Oh, sure, and I get that a lot.

I mean this morning I posted a video about the pancake place here in Green Bay Okay, that place is legendary in Green Bay.

So you would think okay, everybody

knows about

it and I had several comments Oh, I've lived in Green Bay my whole life.

I've never gone.

No kidding like

Are you kidding me?

What is the plate?

What is it?

It's over on military and it is a breakfast diner.

They've won.

Now, I said in the video, I think 15 years in a row, but I think it's really 14.

So 14 years in a row, best breakfast in the Bay Area.

Wow.

You go there, their pancakes are the size of a huge plan.

Wisconsin sized portions.

Oh,

yeah, you're eating for two, three days off of whatever you get there.

It is

incredible.

And it's not just.

The portions, the food is absolutely incredible.

It's funny when they're, when I go to places, I've noticed that we like our portion sizes in Wisconsin.

And sometimes people will say, even if the food is not that great, oh, that's good food.

It's not, it did just get a ton of it.

Like they really feed you.

You said earlier, something went viral.

And I'm curious, what constitutes going viral?

How many hits, views, whatever do you have to have to be considered?

like viral, so to speak.

Well, there is a concept that it's TikTok is moving more towards and it's called viral for me.

And so something that has 10 million views, okay, across the board is viral.

That's viral, yeah.

But I've

never

had anything at 10 million views.

But at the

time, my viral TikTok, that got 350,000 views while I had 70 followers.

You know, so it's like, okay,

so that's

viral, that's viral for me.

300 is it just people kept sharing it?

Yeah.

Yeah and commenting and and that's what drives a lot of it is if you can get content that's engaging and people are sharing it and wanting to comment and you're commenting back and you're having an entire conversation.

That's what

that's

what tiktok and and Instagram and all all those platforms really like is they just want that conversation.

I tried to go viral a couple times like just from what I see other people doing but

I don't know.

People don't want to see me in a bikini, I guess.

I don't know, Paul.

Hey, so all right, so tell me, what's the, give me like three instances of something you've seen in our state that's really cool when you're traveling and posting stuff and making videos.

All right.

I will say the Driflus region of Wisconsin.

I had a separate question for that.

I love that region.

Yeah, it's

unbelievable.

It's beautiful.

And even I was spending time, I went to Galena.

in Illinois.

And it's like, so that area in Illinois is incredible.

It's just like all over there.

And so I made a joke to my wife and I said, up here, Wisconsinites like to call people from Illinois flatlanders.

And I'm like, you're driving around in Illinois and this is incredible.

How is this flat?

You know?

So yeah, things like that, Lake Superior, if

you

haven't seen it, it will just blow your mind is incredible.

Washington Island

is a place I think every

Wisconsinite has to go and just.

Hang out for a day.

All right.

So here, I've got some more specific questions for you.

And I agree with all those.

And not only is the Driftless region cool, that's a great name for the Driftless.

It sounds like Old West, like you're going to run into Clint Eastwood or something when you're there.

It even has

that feel

when you're out there.

Yeah, like you see a Tumbleweed.

You see a Tumbleweed.

Yeah, totally.

OK, so if you want to give me

a couple.

So you don't feel like you're leaving anybody out or whatever.

That's fine too.

But favorite restaurant that you've been to in Wisconsin.

Oh man.

Or an example of a good one.

That's a tough one.

I would say the 1111 burgers and beignets in Fond du Lac.

Incredible burgers.

So good.

And why the beignets with the

burgers?

No idea.

Are the burgers

like New Orleans themed

or

something?

No, not

at all.

They're smash burgers.

I have no clue why they started doing beignets,

but they're really good.

I don't mean to get off on a double tangent here, but what exactly is a smash burger?

I've ordered them.

I don't know.

Is it just a hand-tossed

burger?

Well, it's pretty much what we specialize in Wisconsin is they're super.

They smash them way down in there.

They're super thin patties.

OK, so that's what's called.

That's a smash burger?

That's a smash

burger,

yep.

I just thought it meant like not

a frozen patty, like you make them at home, like that, but okay, wow.

Yeah,

yeah.

Did you

know that?

Yeah, they actually use little pieces of parchment paper, and then they use like a steel.

A press.

Yeah, and then really push it down.

It

doesn't take long to cook either, because it's so small.

It's like a

stone washing for

burgers.

All right, so continue, please.

What was the place called?

Oh,

11-11.

And then Pancake Place that I previously mentioned.

One of the best breakfasts that you can get in the state of Wisconsin.

And then there's another great, I think it's called Four Corners Cafe in Sachsville, Wisconsin.

Tiny little cafe, fits about six people.

That, I believe, is the best

breakfast in Wisconsin.

What do you order?

Skillet.

All right, we're gonna get more into this.

We're gonna do even a more deep dive into the wonderfulness of Wisconsin with our guest, Paul Vandenplatz.

He's here in studio tonight, ladies and gentlemen.

Great to have you with me.

Let us know what your favorite kind of pie is.

It's Peach Wabba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

There

will be a nightlight inspired IPA folks.

If you're in the Madison area, Flix Brewhouse, Dave Hansen, the brewmaster there is creating a nightlight inspired

IPA.

It's going to be called Hazed on Radio, I believe, in association with Nightlight with Peach Wabba.

So that will be available, I believe, around when the Wisconsin Film Festival starts.

I poured the hops in myself.

Have you ever done something like that, Paul?

Oh, yeah.

I used to do a ton of home brewing.

That was a first for me.

It was

really, so you make your own beer?

I used to.

I'm looking to get back into it, but I don't have much time.

Yeah, you got enough in your plate.

Hey, we got a phone call, and I think my guess is that Ollie wants to chime in on what we're talking about.

Ollie from the North Woods.

Hello, Ollie.

Hi, how are you?

Doing

well,

thanks.

I was going to say my mom's homemade butterscotch pie, but since Chad already took it, I will say the fresh strawberry pie from Norskinoch.

And I was wondering if you're

Guess there tonight has ever been to Norsky Nook for pie.

I have not.

It seems like I need to get going there.

So that's up north, right, Ollie?

Yes, there's one in right place, but there's also one, I believe, in Osial.

OK.

Oh, that's down south, right?

No, that's

northwest.

So that's northwest?

OK.

I'm not the wonderfully Wisconsin guy.

Ollie, thank you for the.

Now let me ask you real quick.

Do you put whipped cream on the strawberry pie?

Yes, they load it with whipped cream and whole strawberries, and it's absolutely delicious there.

Oli is our food connoisseur, I would say, for the Northwoods.

Oli, awesome stuff.

Thank you, as always.

My mom was a cook, and my parents owned a restaurant, so I know a lot about good pies, and

good

food.

All right, well, you've given us a lot of good recommendations over the last couple of weeks.

Conrad has been taking memos, so we'll have to do an Ollie tour of the Northwoods one of these days.

Thank you so much.

Have a great night.

See you later.

My guest is Paul Vandenplatz.

Now, see, here's what happens, Paul.

Now, this is why I'm not a professional radio person sometimes.

Conrad, how do we have Paul's name initially?

It was Vandenplatz, then it was Vanderplatz.

Right.

Yeah.

Don't look at the sheet.

What do you call this guy right here?

What would you anyway?

What's his name?

Paul vanden plus vanden plus you look at that Paul.

Yeah, we're dealing with there.