Where to Eat in Ripon, Wisconsin: Cocktails, BBQ & Dessert
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
If you’re looking for places to eat in Ripon, Wisconsin, downtown Ripon is a pretty great place to start.
I’ve been to Ripon before for events and the concert series at Village Green, but this time I wanted to slow things down and actually explore Main Street through the food. Ripon Main Street, Inc. invited me out and helped point me toward a few local businesses, so I decided to make the day simple: start with a cocktail, grab dinner and finish with dessert.
Watch the Full Ripon Food Adventure
You can watch the full Dang! That’s Awesome episode below and come along with us as we eat our way through downtown Ripon.
For this trip, we stopped at Crimson Still, J’s BBQ and Ripon Dough Co.
Three stops. Three completely different experiences.
Craft Cocktails at Crimson Still
Our first stop was Crimson Still in downtown Ripon.
The best way I can describe it is part coffee shop, part cocktail bar and part speakeasy. It has a laid-back, vintage feel and feels like the kind of place where you can hang out for a while before dinner or before heading to an event downtown.
One thing that stood out right away was how much they use local ingredients, including local syrups, spirits and other products throughout the cocktail menu.
The Dilled Margarita
Yes, a dill pickle margarita.
Since I like both pickles and margaritas, there was no chance I was passing this one up.
It mixes tequila with pickle flavors, pickle salt and pickles on top. The easiest way I could describe it was almost like taking a shot of tequila followed by pickle juice, except turned into an actual cocktail.
It sounds a little strange, but it works!
The Eclectic Cocktail
Crimson Still also has something called the Eclectic Cocktail, and this was probably one of the coolest ideas we found all day.
You choose a spirit and tell them the type of flavor you want, and they create a cocktail for you.
I went with vodka and something fruity, and they came back with a drink featuring tangerine vodka, elderflower and lime. The coolest part is that it comes in a vintage glass you get to keep.
If you’re looking for unique cocktails in Ripon instead of just ordering the same drink you can get anywhere, this is a fun stop.
BBQ at J’s BBQ in Ripon
After cocktails, it was time for dinner.
I had already heard a lot about J’s BBQ, so this was one of the stops I was most excited about.
It’s also right near Village Green, which makes it a really convenient dinner spot if you’re already downtown for a concert or event.
We started with brisket mac and cheese.
The mac and cheese itself was creamy and simple, but the brisket was the standout. It was tender enough to fall apart while still having those smoky, slightly crispy pieces of bark you want from good BBQ.
Then came the brisket tacos with cheese, corn and bean salsa and white BBQ sauce.
But the real star was still coming.
The J-Man Sandwich
The J-Man might be one of the wildest BBQ sandwiches I’ve had.
It combines brisket, pulled pork, coleslaw and white BBQ sauce, with another giant piece of brisket sitting right on top.
This is probably the photo I’d make the biggest in the entire blog post.
The pork and brisket give you all of that smoky richness, while the slaw adds some tang and cuts through everything.
It’s messy.
It’s huge.
And that’s exactly what a sandwich like this should be.
There’s also a personal story behind the J-Man and the family behind J’s BBQ that we talk more about in the video.
If you’re searching for BBQ in Ripon, Wisconsin, this is definitely one of the places I’d put on the list.
Dessert at Ripon Dough Co.
At this point, I was already full.
Naturally, that meant it was time for dessert.
Our final stop was Ripon Dough Co., where we started with a nitro cold brew flight featuring four flavors: banana bread, cookie butter, s’mores and birthday cake.
The cookie butter cold brew was easily my favorite.
The banana bread was smooth with a lighter banana flavor, the s’mores leaned more into chocolate, and the birthday cake had the strongest traditional cold brew taste of the four.
The full flight was $15 when we visited, giving you four completely different drinks to try.
If you’re someone who likes coffee flights, this alone makes Ripon Dough Co. worth checking out.
Don’t Skip the Cookies
Then the cookies started showing up.
We tried several, including chocolate cookies, an almond raspberry-style cookie and a gluten-free monster-style cookie.
One of the biggest surprises for me was actually the gluten-free cookie. It had a great crunch on the outside but was still soft inside.
And then they brought out a cinnamon roll.
That ended up being one of those things I wasn’t originally planning on trying, but once it hit the table, there was no turning it down.
Is Downtown Ripon Worth the Drive?
For me, yes.
What I liked most is how easy it would be to turn downtown Ripon into an entire afternoon or evening.
Start with a cocktail. Walk over for BBQ. Finish with coffee and dessert.
Then, depending on when you visit, head over to Village Green for a concert or another downtown event.
We came down looking for a cocktail, dinner and dessert. We definitely found all three.
But the day also reminded me why I like exploring smaller Wisconsin downtowns.
Sometimes you don’t need one giant attraction. Sometimes you just need to park the car, walk Main Street and see what you find.
Thank you to Ripon Main Street Inc for inviting us out and letting us try some awesome eats!
Watch the Full Ripon Video
Want to see everything we tried and my actual reactions?
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