By Michael Muckian
Special to The Capital Times
October 16-17, 2004

We always wait until the temperatures cool and the leaves begin to turn color before we visit one of our favorite restaurants. With the summer hordes only a memory, we find fall is the best time to travel to Wisconsin Dells and the House of Embers.

The sign along Highway 12 still says Wally’s House of Embers, named for Wally Obois who founded the steak and rib joint in 1959. Sons Mark and Mike Obois and daughter Debbie Christensen bought the restaurant from Wally and his wife, Barbara, in 1998. Now it’s just House of Embers.

Dropping Wally’s name from the business isn’t a sign of disrespect to the elder Obois, who with his wife still helps out. If anything, the new name marks a synthesis between old and new approaches to cooking, but with a hope that the characteristics that made House of Embers one of the Dells’ best restaurants will remain.

Based on repeated visits, it appears the new generation of Oboises have maintained that standard. House of Embers continues to produce a high quality, albeit increasingly expensive menu, the kind that has come to characterize fine dining in the Dells.

House of Embers boasts an added benefit in that both Mark and Mike Obois are graduates of the Culinary Institute of America, two of a very few alumni currently presiding over Wisconsin kitchens.

But unlike stylish nouvelle cuisine often associated with the prestigious Hyde Park, N.Y., cooking school, House of Embers offers much of the same fare that it always has- steaks, ribs, fish and chicken. It’s just that the brothers Obois do it very, very well.

Dinners come with bread plates that include Barbara’s homemade cinnamon rolls, choice of tossed salad or spinach salad with warm maple pecan dressing, and choice of starch.

Sipping from an excellent glass of Erath Pinot Noir ($7.25), a bright wine with a fine nose and vivid fruit, we wasted no time in digging into our appetizer, a Portabella Rockefeller ($7.99).

The mammoth mushroom cap had been stuffed with spinach, fennel, onion and melted Swiss cheese, then quartered to give us each a bite. The cheese bound the elements together, each of which delivered a nicely conceived blend of flavors and textures.

The tossed salads were a nice blend of garden vegetables, but the spinach salad proved the more pleasing of the two choices. The plate of fresh spinach leaves, doused in the sweetish dressing, was delightful.

In addition to the traditional entrees, which top out at a 14-ounce Black Angus New York strip served with a roasted shallot demi-glace ($33.99), House of Embers now offers a Bistro Menu with lighter fare and lower prices.

The pecan-crusted Walleye pike ($16.99), baked with an orange terragon buerre blanc and served with vegetables and red-skinned mashed potatoes, showed that the new menu lived up to the traditional dishes in both quality and execution. The delicate fish burst with bright citrus flavors.

From the traditional side the salmon ($20.99) fared even better. The fish, stuffed with fresh basil pesto and accompanied by a light lemon buerre blanc and vegetable garnish, was expertly done, its flavors well-balanced and nicely delivered.

We weren’t prepared for the hickory-smoked barbecue ribs ($26.99 for a full rack, $21.99 for a half-rack.) I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat ribs anywhere else again.

At House of Embers, the ribs are dry-rubbed with a blend of spices before being smoked over a hickory fire in the restaurant’s own smoker, located to one side of the kitchen. The smoked ribs are then basted with a variety of ingredients, including vinegar, oil, Tabasco sauce, onions, Worchestershire sauce, mustard and garlic and several others, before being baked. The results are superb.

My half-rack arrived 10 bones strong. They were tender, succulent and with enough flavor for two racks of ribs. The accompanying baked potato, slathered in sour cream, was just the right size.

We somehow managed to find room for dessert, a French butter cream toffee torte ($7.95), a richly sweet dessert topped with fresh fruit and whipped cream. The dessert was wonderful, but the memory of the hickory-smoked ribs lingers on. And on. And on.