Wilderness Bar & Grill now Roadside Bar & Grill

Restaurateur Heidi Asipi has much to celebrate during this holiday season.

On Thursday, Dec. 3, she opened the Roadside Bar & Grill (formerly the Wilderness Bar & Grill) at N5575 State 57, Plymouth. She and her daughter Heidi Emini purchased the log-constructed building this past fall.

Emini is manager at the Roadside Bar & Grill. She recently completed two years at Lakeland College.

“I took off now to learn the restaurant trade,” she said.

Meanwhile, Arif Farizi, former proprietor of the Wilderness Bar & Grill, still owns and operates his Hub City Restaurant business at 409 E. Mill St., Plymouth.

The Roadside Bar & Grill, a completely smoke-free facility, offers three meals per day, seven days per week. It also features a bar room that seats 35 people.

Asipi is no stranger to the local restaurant business. From Sept. 1, 2001 through this past Nov. 30, she operated the Plymouth Family Restaurant at 506 E. Mill St.

“But I wanted my own building and business,” she said. “I had leased the Plymouth Family Restaurant.”

Now, she has fulfilled her dream. Prior to moving into the new quarters, several face-lifting projects were completed to the Roadside Bar & Grill. The front dining room, that seats 65, and the banquet room, accommodating 102 patrons, were re-carpeted. The interior was repainted. And the owners purchased new furniture for the front dining room.

The Roadside Bar & Grill features an expanded menu from that which was offered at the Plymouth Family Restaurant. For example, six types of wraps are now available, including: chicken Caesar wrap, Roadside tuna or chicken wrap, taco wrap, steak or chicken fajita wrap, BLT wrap, and all-American wrap.

A new salad on the menu is the Asian chicken salad – mandarin-orange segments, broccoli slaw, whitemeat chicken and lettuce, combined with an Asian, sesame-ginger dressing. And Caesar salad, former available only on the summer menu, is now offered year-round.

Two of the new selections on the breakfast menu are the Santa Fe skillet and the breakfast burrito.

“All foods on the menu are homemade,” Asipi said. “That includes all of our soups, and we don’t use frozen potatoes. We boil the potatoes for mashed potatoes and make our hash browns from scratch.”

Also, “Breakfast items are available all day, and carry-outs are available for all items offered on the menu,” she noted.

The Roadside Bar & Grill’s banquet room is available for parties, showers and other special occasions.

While the Plymouth Family Restaurant had a staff of 16 employees, the Roadside Bar & Grill has a 35- member staff. The Plymouth Family Restaurant served beer, but the Roadside Inn has a fully stocked bar.

Emini emphasized there are adjustments for the staff, in making the transition to the new facility. “We are involved in a learning curve, so please be patient with us, at least during the first month,” she advised.

Asipi is gratified that her customers from the Plymouth Family Restaurant followed them to their new location.

“The Plymouth Rotary Club, the Kiwanis Club, some retired workers from Borden’s who meet at the restaurant on Tuesdays, and al my other clients followed me,” she said.

“In fact, we opened on a Thursday, and the Rotary Club meets here every Wednesday. So, we opened the doors to them on Dec. 2, the day before we opened to the public, and we served them sandwiches that day.

“I am overwhelmed by the support from our customers,” she added. “The people of Plymouth have been so good to me. Without them helping my business, I would not have survived.”

She noted that she and her family receive excellent feedback from diners who come to the restaurant. “We receive lots of letters and flowers,” she said. “And with the move, some customers brought us champagne.”

Asipi’s husband Ziggy works in the restaurant too, as does their son Vinny, a University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee senior, when he is home on vacation.

It seems Asipi inherited her passion for the restaurant business. Her father was employed as a cook. And her sister Zula Alili owns and operates the Riverview Restaurant in Kiel.

“My aunt Zula is a crowd-pleaser at her restaurant,” Emini said.

Asipi owned another restaurant, the Patio on the Square in Kenosha, before moving to Plymouth. And prior to that, she was the manager of the Archfield Restaurant in Chicago.

“I like dealing with the public,” she said. “I like the one-on-one with customers.”

In 2000, Asipi and her family moved to Plymouth from Kenosha, where she had resided since 1975.

“We had been in Green Bay earlier that year and had stopped at a restaurant in Plymouth for coffee on the way home,” she recalled. “We fell in love with the Plymouth community at that time.

She has no regrets about their decision to relocate. “Plymouth has been wonderful to us,” Asipi said. Note: For further information about the Roadside Bar & Grill, phone 893-1770.