Venture Wisconsin

22/10/2025

If you love coffee and supporting local, we made this for you.
🫘☕Meet: The Wisco-Roasted Coffee Subscription☕🫘

--What is it?--
Get coffee from a new Wisconsin Roaster each month. You choose, 1 bag or 2, and explore locally roasted coffee from across Wisconsin in the coziness of your own home.

Subscribe Here: https://bit.ly/4oh7sW7

It'll all be as fresh as possible. Roasted to the order, shipped to you the first business day of the month via UPS Ground, average 1-2 day arrival.

It's very competitive with what you'd pay for a bag of most locally roasted coffee: $19.95 per month plus shipping.

It also makes a great gift for coffee lovers who have everything.

--BONUS--
Buy 6 or 12 months in advance and get a free 2026 Wisconsin Coffee Shop Passport with your first shipment.

Who is your favorite Wisconsin roaster?

16/10/2025

🍷🍷Introducing the Wisconsin Winery Card🍷🍷
Explore 37 Wisconsin wineries with BOGO wine pours!

Here's the Map of Partner Wineries: https://bit.ly/4ncrsIx

Cost: $17.95

Offers are one-time and valid through 2026.

Grab a Winery Card Here: https://bit.ly/4nNUfEi

We decided to change up the Wine Tags to make higher value, more affordable tool to explore Wineries in Wisconsin and we hope you'll check it out or add it to your order to support local Wisconsin wineries. Very similar, but new and refined.

What's your favorite wine style or Wisconsin wine stop?

13/10/2025

😁☕2026 Wisconsin Coffee Shop Passport😁☕
Explore 191 local coffee shop locations across Wisconsin and get 50% off 360+ drinks, which counts for coffee, tea, and espresso drinks. Each business offers "50% off two drinks."

Year 3 is back and better than ever with over 50 new locations AND we're launching a separate Wisconsin-Roasted Monthly Coffee Subscription too.

☕Order the New Passport☕
https://bit.ly/4ffXLTD

📍Map of Participating Shops📍
https://bit.ly/4nNtyQ0

Cost: $32 (Only $30, Now through Cyber Monday)

Now through Cyber Monday, pre-purchase 6 or 12 months of the Wisco-Roasted Monthly Coffee Subscription and get a 2026 Coffee Shop Passport free with your first whole bean coffee shipment.

Learn More about the Wisco-Roasted Monthly Coffee Subscription:
https://bit.ly/4oh7sW7

What's your favorite coffee shop?🧐

02/10/2025

📍 🍦
Sara's is consistently amazing. Whether it's at one of their multiple locations around Northeast Wisconsin or at a Packer game, every time my family and I have indulged at Sara's, it has been worth it.

Noteworthy, their homemade waffle cones are next level. My son went all out on an ice cream sandwich, classic chocolate between two peanut butter cookies. I ordered pumpkin spice cheesecake and it hit the seasonal spot. If there's anything cheesecake flavored at an ice cream/gelato shop, it's what I'm ordering.

With a clean and distinct esthetic, not only will you get delicious gelato, and maybe a pint to go, but you've got a good shot at taking better photos than I did 😁

Find them in the Ice Cream Shop Passport. They just opened two new locations. One in Green Bay and one in Door County.

28/07/2025

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Year 5 of the Venture Wisconsin Original Stage at Paperfest.

Definitely the best line up yet, and the most craft beer sold. Thanks to all the craft breweries that made it possible and Appleton Beer Factory for booking the music. 🎶

17/07/2025

We're rolling all weekend at ! Year 5 of the Venture Wisconsin Original Stage.

🎤Headliners🎤
Thursday - The Psycodelics (Charleston, SC)
Friday - The Big Wu (First Band to play Bonaroo. Twin Cities, MN)
Saturday - Arts Fishing Club (Nashville, TN)
Sunday - Pendulum Hearts (Austin, TX)

Sunset Park, Kimberly, WI. Come visit.

14/07/2025

Come visit the Venture Wisconsin Original Stage this week, Thursday-Sunday at Paperfest! 😁

Year 5 of bringing craft beer and original music to Paperfest at Sunset Park in Kimberly, WI. Our best lineup yet!

🎸Original Music Lineup🎸
-Thursday -
5:00 - Pierce Merrill
6:30 - Damien Liriano
8:15 - The Psycodelics

-Friday-
1:30 - Beach Patrol
3:15 - Modern Joey
5:00 - Diggstown
7:00 - Ifdakar
9:15 - The Big Wu

-Saturday-
1:30 - Amelia Ford Music
3:15 - Mall Crawler
5:00 - More Then Merry
7:00 - Virginia Man
9:15 - Arts Fishing Club

-Sunday-
Noon - Kate Stenson
1:00 - Wire and Nail
2:45 - Pendulum Hearts
4:30 - The Deltaz

Thanks to Appleton Beer Factory, Timber Tap Taproom and Brewery, Hop Yard Ale Works , Stubborn Brothers Brewery, and TAQ Brewing for making this stage possible and supplying an epic craft beer lineup.🍺

Shoutouts:
- 91.1 The Avenue The best in community radio & original music.
- Executive Mortgage, LLC for being a huge new amplifier to the stage.
- Pfeifer Brothers Construction Co. for supplying materials for new stage signage
- Warning Lites for making the Edison-light-vibe possible.😎

16/06/2025

Cripes sakes, I'll take s'more!😋
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1D59ro5LkU/

13/06/2025

Friday the 13th Sale!🏷

$13 Off FRY-DAY T-Shirts👕 https://bit.ly/43CTGV0

$13 Off 2025 Old Fashioned Passports🥃
https://bit.ly/48Y2o2n

Now through Sunday the 15th.

Anybody have a Friday the 13th story to share?👀

07/06/2025

New song called "Door County" by Austin Skalrcki.

https://youtu.be/L9aGlT-6B6Y?si=LtE2B8muR-MFTLDl

Just released yesterday and shouts a lotnof Door County breweries. 🍻 Austin has been a semi-regular, usually bringing good vibes on Sunday's singersongwriter sets, at the Venture Wisconsin Original Music Stage at Paperfest.

Paperfest is coming up real quick. July 17-20
📍Sunset Park in Kimberly, WI

My new single, "Door County," is available now! Listen here: https://linktr.ee/AustinSkaleckiMusicCheck to see shows near you! https://austinskaleckimusic.c...

05/06/2025

🎣The Reel Story of Friday Fish Frys🎣
I just did a deep dive of the history of the Wisconsin Fryday Fish, and here's what I found.

Travel Wisconsin and, separately, The Wisconsin Foodie host Kyle Cherek (through a WUWM story) both corroborate that the reason Wisconsin loves Friday fish frys is as follows:

1. Catholics✝️
2. Proximity to Fish Sources (Lakes and Rivers)🌊
3. Prohibition🍺

🕵️‍♂️Here's what I found (I'll keep it short, the in-depth breakdown was send to our newsletter)📰

1. Catholics✝️
In short, yes. Eating fish on Fridays is a European Catholic tradition, that followed the Catholic Church around the country and world. The idea is you're supposed to not eat meat on Fridays to honor Jesus's sacrifice, buttttt.... fish aren't warm-blooded, so it's not meat, right? The tradition of substituting fish on Fridays is popular all across the US during Lent, especially in the Midwest, East Coast, and parts of the South.

2. Proximity to Fish Sources🌊
The fishing industry and availability seems to be a big factor in which parts of the country have Friday fish traditions both during Lent and extending beyond the Lenten season.🐟🐠

3. Prohibition🍺
I found little evidence from Newspaper articles from 1900-1940 to corroborate the idea that Prohibition fueled Fish Frydays or that they rose in popularity during that time. Despite my skepticism, I was able to find one original trend that may help bolster this theory, the fact that newspaper ads for Friday Fish before Prohibition were typically for local meat markets and general stores selling "Fish for Fridays" which shifted during Prohibition to more advertisements (by proportion) for dance halls and establishments selling "Fried Fish, every Friday."

My conclusion on Prohibition is, maybe, but I'm not convinced. I think with Al Capone and our alcohol-forward culture in Wisconsin, Prohibition generates a lot of lore, and maybe rightfully so, but maybe not.

I found a lot of fun newspaper ads and articles, even one from Superior, WI in 1907 where a waitress "spilled the tea" on her boss asking the staff to yell fake fish orders ("Fried Fish One!") on a Friday in Lent because the restaurant stocked up on fish, assuming it'd be a hit, and it wasn't moving. They also gave a 2 penny discount (likely 20% off) and it seems to have worked.📰

🔥Heat Maps🔥
✝️Red Map (Pew Research): Percentage of Catholics by US County
🐟Blue Map (University of Washington): Seafood Consumption by US County

Conclusion👀🍽
The conclusion I found is I'm not sure the Fish Fry is most popular in Wisconsin or unique to Wisconsin, though maybe outside of Lent we have some room to claim titles of popularity and devotion to Fridays specifically. What is clear is that we are the most aware, generally, and most proud of our relationship to the tradition. In an open Reddit thread, a New Yorker asked, roughly, "Is this a thing elsewhere? Do Friday Fish Frys go as far East as Michigan?" and Wisconsinites felt the need to point to Wisconsin as a hot-spot 10 comments to 1.

All this said, I'm still not convinced that Paul Bunyan didn't have something to do with this. I'll get back to you on that lead.🪓

If you love Fish Fryday, check out our,
1. 📘Wisconsin Fish Fry Guide: https://bit.ly/42RArbr
AND
2. 👕Preorder our FRY-DAY t-shirts: https://bit.ly/43CTGV0

What do you think? Paul Bunyan? Prohibition? Or just The Church exerting its influence through the ages?

01/06/2025

Drop 2: FRY-DAY Fish 👕

Showcase your intentions to munch some delicious seafood next Fry-Day Fish outing. Get the conversation started.🐟👀

Link: https://bit.ly/43CTGV0

These are screenprinted in Wisconsin on classic lightweight Bella Canvas cotton tees. Three color options: black, grey, and army green.

The first batch of shirts will be ready June 9th to ship in time for Father's Day. Preorder yours now.

This June drop is perfect for fathers and fish-lovers alike.😁

Who's the Fish fanatic in your life?