Wilson’s Restaurant & Ice Cream Parlor

When vacationing in Door County, stopping at Wilson’s is a must. A cute and cozy retro diner situated in downtown Ephraim, this restaurant is a great place to stop for lunch or dinner. However, the food is not the main reason Wilson’s is so fantastic; it’s the dessert.
Wilson’s serves a variety of ice cream flavors, including many you have probably never heard of. They have ‘featured flavors’ that are only served for a certain amount of time, and the explanations of these flavors are pinned to the wall behind the ice cream counter, along with a detailed description of the five most popular flavors. They do not give out samples mainly due to the large number of flavors they have; on busy nights giving out samples for a countless number of ice cream flavors would cause the line to get extremely backed up. In each cone, there is a jelly bean at the bottom (to make sure when the ice cream melts on hot days it doesn’t drip through the bottom of the cone). They also put a jelly bean of top of your ice cream if you order in a dish, just to preserve the tradition. If you don’t care for jelly beans, you can simply throw it away. The ice cream is from Cedar Crest, tastes absolutely divine, and is served in ginormous scoops!
If you want to order ice cream, drinks, or a junior sundae, you order from the ice cream counter. During busy times (usually nights on the weekend or during peak season ie. July 4^th) you will need to grab a number from the red machine next to the door. Then the ice cream scoopers will call out your numbers, and display the number being served on a LED screen on the wall. There are usually about 3 workers scooping ice cream, so long lines move relatively fast. You can also order to-​go food from the glass counter across from the ice cream counter.
When you sit down at a table or booth, you can order ice cream (which comes in glass dishes), food, drinks, or sundaes. If you order a sundae, you may want someone (or multiple people) to split it with. The single scoops of ice cream are huge, so you can just imagine how big a sundae (like the Wilson’s banquet with 5 scoops) will be. However, the sundaes are to die for, and I highly recommend ordering one (there are many different options). You can also order milkshakes and malts (you can order these at the to-​go ice cream counter as well) and these are also divine. When ordered from a table, they will give you your milkshake or malt in a glass cup, with all of the leftover in a separate cup (the tin cup they made it in). When order from the ice cream counter, you simply receive it in a to-​go cup (same size either way).
The drinks are Cola products, and if you don’t finish it at your table, they allow you to take a to-​go cup with the rest of your drink. If you wish to taste delectable ambrosia made in the heavens, I would recommend the root beer. HOME MADE ROOT BEER is simply the most amazing drink you will ever taste. Additionally, this root beer will not become watery, because they do not serve it with ice. Instead, they serve the root beer in FROSTED MUGS, straight out of the freezer. It is an amazing experience to taste your home made root beer out of a frosted mug, and it will make you feel like royalty.
The restaurant is very cute, it looks retro themed, but in actuality it has just looked the same since the retro days. Each booth has a mini jukebox (which unfortunately do not work, but are fun to flip through the pages), along with one large master jukebox at the back of the restaurant. The restaurant and restrooms are on the smaller side in size, but this is not a problem unless everyone decides to crowd up and bunch together. All in all, Wilson’s is an iconic experience that every Door County tourist or local must visit at some point.

Pretty decent for the price but the parties are smaller than a gourmet burger. More like the size of fast food burgers.
So if you want just a quick fill up, not a bad spot to go but if you are looking for a quality burger, no.

We heard about Wilsons from the tour bus driver and stopped in for ice cream. It was very disappointing and not worth the stop. I threw most of my ice cream away. Don’t bother stopping here for ice cream. It just tastes like grocery store bought ice cream.
Mike

Pretty darn good. Not the best I’ve ever had, especially since it’s supposed to be frozen custard, but it was delish!

Wilsons is throwback burger joint located across the street from the harbor. As you walk in it feels like the 50s with juke box music and decorations. The wait is usually minimal.
The classic cheeseburger is exactly that, classic. It comes with fries which aren’t the best you’ll ever have but a good compliment. If you don’t go for the classic, the patty melt is also delicious. The wait for the food is not long, but the root beer float is a must to hold you over. They use the family recipe for the root beer from the early days of the restaurant.
Prices are very reasonable, won’t break the bank.

Really fun place for lunch. 2 adults and 2 kids enjoyed the classic menu and the food tasted great. The adults split the Reuben sandwich, extra fries, the kids got the hamburger and chicken noodle soup. Perfect amount of food for lunch.
The best part is this huge super sized rootbeer float and vanilla malt shake. Amazing!!! We all shared the desserts and enjoyed the entire lunch.
The diner has a cool atmosphere, and the best place to sit is on the covered outside patio. It’s seat yourself outside, so there may be a wait. They have a great view of the water, fans to keep the breeze, and great service and menu as inside. Super fun lunch place!!!

Yet another spot that I always have to pay a visit whenever I’m in the Door County area. I love it because it’s such an awesome little slice of retro Americana. You can tell that much before you even get inside from the red and white striped awnings. And inside is just as cool. There’s jukeboxes on the booths, a counter, and a soda fountain. It’s pretty much the cat’s pajamas.
I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten anything from here other than a cheeseburger, a root beer, and a sundae because if your order ain’t broke than you have no need to fix it! My go-​to ice cream treat from here is a Cherry Berry Delight, which is vanilla ice cream layered with DC cherry, blueberry, and strawberry toppings, then topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Yum! The sundae is about 5 $, and I think a cheeseburger is about $ 8. How can you beat that?
There’s also a great view of the water, which is definitely a huge plus.
I can’t wait to come back again once it’s open for the season, where I can drag my girlfriend to be as excited as I am about it.

Another one of the great spots to hit in Northern Wisconsin. The place tends to be busy in the summer but it’s well worth the wait. Good Food and plenty of Ice Cream all in one spot. We Love wilson’s!

Amazing food, amazing location, and obviously a local fav. The line is INSANE and you just know people are coming here because they have «been coming here for years» or they want to someday say to their kids «we’ve been coming here for years». Reeks of nostalgia and I love it. The menu has so much and you will really enjoy indulging in things like cheese fries and turtle sundaes!

We have been coming to DC and Wilsons for years. My father in law was 80 when he passed and he had been eating at Wilsons his whole life. The ice cream is generous and delicious! My daughter just celebrated her 21^st birthday in DC and insisted on a stop at Wilsons.
Great shakes and malts, fresh whipped cream, cute kiddie sundaes when the kids are little.
Worth the wait!

The sweet nostalgia of Wilson’s makes going there a must whenever we visit Door County (okay also the sweetness of their ice cream)! I have been going to Wilson’s since I was born as my family had a vacation home growing up in Ephraim. We love stopping by Wilson’s for lunch, which usually involves sitting out on their patio (since the seating is first come first serve but also because of the fantastic views of the bay). Their meals are usually big enough to share and so are their malts. We also enjoy stopping by for a scoop of ice cream from time to time. My favorite flavor which I have yet to find a place that makes as well is peppermint stick. At the bottom of your cone, you are sure to find a jelly bean waiting for you — a practical and sweet surprise.

Stopped here on a gorgeous Saturday for lunch. I ordered the hamburger with chips and a chocolate shake. The shake came first and it was fantastic. When you order they should tell you it is more like 2.5 shakes with the amount they bring to the table. It was chocolate heaven. My husband and a flavored soda and it had cherry pie filling in it which was a fun surprise.
We both had the burgers and they were done perfectly and rather large.
Overall I would recommend you stop in for a taste of the old days and quality food. Will be back!

This place is great! Loved the root beer float and my fiancé ice cream was good too! It’s in a really cute town with a beautiful view of the lake!

Yum. Yum. Fantastic texture as far as the aeration goes. Flavor is good, sweetness is good. It easy melt point screams no thickeners and preservatives agents. Wonderful.
The food is better than middle of the road, the atmosphere fun. I usually eat custard, and Wilson’s is a wonderful option to change things up when I’m up in the Door.

Besides the place being small, it is really cute. Stopped on a Saturday afternoon and it was packed. You need to take a number when you walk in and they call by number. We waited about 15 minutes. Got the maple nut and then the chocolate peanut butter explosion, both were delicious and huge! One scoop is plenty for a normal person!

This is our second time at Wilson’s. Husband and I both had the fish basket and YUM!!! Got the chocolate malt! Sat outside. Was greeted by our server in a polite cheery manner! Got waters! Got food! Server checked in on us! Waters refilled! Wilson’s will be a place we frequesnt

What a great little blast from the past! Wilson’s is definitely retro!
We came here after dinner to try the ice cream. I never had the food, so can’t comment on it.
There were a few people ahead of us when we got there, but the wait wasn’t too long. They had a bunch of flavors of ice cream, and I was having trouble picking one. Eventually, I went with a favorite stand by of mine — strawberry.
Even though I only ordered one scoop, my cone was piled high! It probably was the equivalent of 2 – 3 scoops I’d scoop myself. The ice cream was great, very fresh tasting. I did end up biting onto something and was confused until I found out that Wilson’s serves every ice cream with a jelly bean hidden in it. How fun!
They have a few items for sale, like t-​shirts with the Wilson’s logo and other Door County souvenirs too. I ended up purchasing a few postcards for $ 0.30/piece to send to family. They were perfectly retro looking too.
Definitely worth the stop in for a great frozen treat.

A must stop when in Door County…
Pros: Good food and great ice cream.
Cons: small place and didn’t care for the root beer…

Pros: World-​class ice cream. In particular, the Sneakers flavor (malt base with caramel ripple and chocolate-​covered peanuts) is indescribably delicious.
Cons: The ice cream counter is small, causing cramping and chaos during busy periods. They have tried to mitigate this with a deli-​style numbered ticketing system, but that hardly helped us. Their freezer doesn’t display the ice cream like most places do, and it is difficult to read the menu board past all the milling and bobbing heads. Plus, most of the flavors are not described in detail: only names are given.
Worst of all, they don’t give samples! How am I supposed to decide between three tantalizing options? Fortuitously, I had read about the Sneakers ahead of time and took a leap of faith. If you want to try more than one flavor, come with a group so that you can swap around.
Oh, and one more thing: apparently they stash a jelly bean in every serving of ice cream. So as you are finishing a glorious cone of frozen ambrosia, you chomp down on a nasty fruit-​flavored jelly bean, completely ruining the mood – literally souring the entire experience. It’s like a giant middle finger from Wilson’s to your taste buds. What the hell?!
So, even with three really annoying negatives, they still get four stars – which should tell you something about how spectacular the ice cream is.

Great spot to grab some ice cream. Watch out for the stripped red and white awning. There are benches across the street on the water to sit and eat your cite cream and watch the sailboats