Apologies to comedian Charlie Berens, but Manitowoc deserves more than a minute. There’s enough in town – Picasso and Warhol, a World War II submarine, and a restaurant serving delicious Nicaraguan cuisine – to fill a long weekend. But, at just 80 miles from Milwaukee, the city known for its shipbuilding history also makes an ideal day trip, as I discovered on a recent visit.
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I also discovered that to prepare for the day, your first stops should be sweet and caffeinated. Fill the first requirement at Hartman’s Bakery (901 N. 11th St.), which has been serving cinnamon rolls and kolaches for six decades. For the caffeine fix, try nearby Retro Eighth Coffee (801 N. Eighth St.), which combines throwback design inside an old auto body shop with Manitowoc’s most contemporary approach to coffee (tasting flights plus acai bowls).
Now you should be ready to experience the city’s most bizarre claim to fame. On Sept. 5, 1962, the Soviet satellite Sputnik IV reentered Earth’s atmosphere, and a 21-pound piece of it crashed right into the middle of Eighth Street, one of the city’s main commercial drags. Had it landed 100 feet to the west, it would have smashed into the Rahr-West Art Museum (610 N. Eighth St.).
That chunk of Sputnik was eventually returned to the USSR, but you can view a replica of it in the museum. (Better yet, beam yourself up on Sept. 6 for Sputnikfest, an annual sci-fi celebration featuring a parade and costume contest.) The impact that the rest of the Rahr-West collection makes is more metaphorical but still impressive, with works by Picasso, Warhol, Wyeth and other big names.
You can’t visit this city and not also step into Manitowoc’s rich maritime history. The Wisconsin Maritime Museum (75 Maritime Dr.) has exhibitions on everything from Great Lakes shipwrecks to Manitowoc’s vaunted shipbuilding industry. The museum’s headline attraction is the USS Cobia, a WWII sub docked in the Manitowoc River that you can explore.
A few minutes squeezing through the Cobia will undoubtedly leave you desperate for open space. You’ll find that by taking a stroll along the Mariners Trail, a 5.5-mile paved surface that borders Lake Michigan. Along the trail you’ll find lighthouses, gardens and a birding area.
If you want to come home with a keepsake or a gift, that means two places: Dr. Freud’s Institute of Fine Recordings (925 S. Eighth St.), a delightfully disheveled store to mine for rare vinyl; and Beerntsen’s Confectionary (108 N. Eighth St.), which sells chocolates and homemade ribbon candy in the same building it’s occupied since opening in 1932.
Manitowoc’s dining scene has a few standouts, including Courthouse Pub (1001 S. Eighth St.), which brews beer and offers a semi-seasonal menu that features entrées like pan-seared duck. The city’s most exciting menu belongs to a little joint out by the county airport – a Nicaraguan restaurant called Dos Caminos (2525 Menasha Ave.). Be sure to try the pork with yucca and cabbage salad or Nicaraguan-style carne asada.
Before you head out of town, there’s just one more thing to do – an unusual nightcap. At Craft Creek Brewing Co. (220 N. Ninth St.), order a glass of biohazard-green Sputnik Juice – an apple Berliner weisse sour – and toast to Manitowoc’s most famous visitor.
