Located in Marshfield, Wisconsin at 103 South Central Avenue, is a quaint historic restaurant on the corner of Central Avenue and Veterans Parkway. In my opinion this is one of the top 3 restaurants in the city where you can get a dinner that is worth your time and money. Royal Tokyo and West 14th are the other 2 choices and I am sure a lot of other people in the area will agree with me.
Chef Jesse Dolan is the man behind the scenes that makes this restaurant a great experience to eat at. He graduated from culinary school in Appleton, Wisconsin and is very passionate about each plate that he sends out of the kitchen. He is very talented in creating entrees that make your taste buds scream for more.
The atmosphere of the Thomas House is very romantic inside. The building is a restored hotel that was built right around 1887 when the previous building started on fire. The oak tables throughout the building are topped with candles, flower arrangements and wine glasses. The large windows don’t give you much of a view of Marshfield, well a gas station on one side and other businesses on the other side with cars passing non-stop. In warmer months you are able to eat outside surrounded by white lights and different plants in rock wall planters as soft music plays around you. The bad part of eating outside is the noisy location of being on the main street of Marshfield surrounded by a few local bars. If you eat outside, do it a little earlier in the evening.
The beautiful historic restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturdays from 4pm-11pm. Reservations are not necessary but a good idea if you want to eat right away. Otherwise you are able to sit at the bar and enjoy a glass of wine, martini or whatever kind of drink that you prefer. The bar seats about 15 people.
The staff at the Thomas house are dressed in black pants and white button up shirts with long black aprons. They are very professional and friendly. You don’t need to dress up to go eat here, but if you are in jeans and a t-shirt, you will definitely feel out of place eating here. You may want to dress business casual to feel better about being in there.
The menu at the Thomas House is not full of “endless choices”, but we they do offer is very tasty. For appetizers you can start with Pan seared scallops with a gruyere cream, crab stuffed puff pastry served with chipotle lime aioli and cr¨me Fraiche, Duo of Risotto with parmesan frico, Hanger Steak with Baked stuffed tomatoes in a metaxa cream sauce, or Grilled chipotle and lime marinated shrimp served with mixed greens tossed in garlic oil. Not a lot of appetizer choices, but I have had all of them at one time or another and they are all very good.
Their salad choices are ok but nothing that really stands out as being amazing. They offer a Shrimp Curry Salad with cucumber ranch dressing, a grilled steak salad with a warm gorgonzola cheese dressing, the Thomas House Salad with your choice of dressing, or Gorgonzola and saut©ed apple salad with balsamic vinaigrette. The only item that really made me impressed on the salad menu was the warm gorgonzola cheese dressing. This was the first place in the area that I have ever seen that item offered. It was excellent tasting. Once again, very few menu choices but for salads they do not offer anything that really stands out to me.
For entrees you get a choice of soup, house salad, cucumber salad, or gorgonzola and saut©ed apple salad. Definitely go for the apple salad, this one comes with the amazing dressing that I was ranting about earlier, warm gorgonzola cheese. The entr©e menu has a few more items to choose from on it. You have the option of Braised short Ribs, Pork Tenderloin with a sweet chipotle cream sauce, Red snapper with Orange risotto, pan-seared rainbow trout with a lemon buerre blanc sauce, fettuccini alfredo, new York strip steak with a roasted pepper reduction sauce, Fresh vegetable pasta, or Grilled Hanger Steak with Marsala sauce. And you can’t forget my ultimate favorite the gorgonzola encrusted Filet Mignon served with sage potatoes. It is out of this world. They also offers choices of about 2-5 specials each night that consists of steaks, seafood, or chicken prepared in different ways.
The only bad thing is they are a little expensive for the Marshfield area. You can expect to pay about $50 per person. That would be only including 1 drink and an entr©e. But I can tell you that it is definitely worth the money. Also parking is slim to none. You can park on the main street, which only offers a few spots and the parking lot in the back is shared with local bars and another restaurant. But about a half a block away is a fairly large parking lot all of the local businesses in the area share.
If you get to the restaurant a little early on a Wednesday, you can head downstairs and check out the buildings local historical museum. They are open only on Wednesdays from 1pm-4:30pm and Saturdays from 11am-2pm. Exhibits change on a regular basis and highlight items dealing with past and present events of Marshfield.
If you are in the Marshfield area, make sure you add visiting the Thomas House for a meal that will leave your taste buds craving for more.
