Gays Mills bar under new ownership

A Dash of Driftless

MIKE AND MELINDA EHDE are the new owners of M&M Bar on Main Street in Gays Mills (formrly J&J’s). The menu offered by the establishment will feature many local items, such as beef from Eastman Locker, feta cheese from the Mt. Sterling Co-op Creamery, and locally produced vegetables in season.

New Owners M&M Bar — MIKE AND MELINDA EHDE are the new owners of M&M Bar on Main Street in Gays Mills (formrly J&J’s). The menu offered by the establishment will feature many local items, such as beef from Eastman Locker, feta cheese from the Mt. Sterling Co-op Creamery, and locally produced vegetables in season.

Published: Apr 8, 2021, 7:21 PM

DRIFTLESS - There's a new kid in town! Mike and Melinda Ehde recently purchased M&M Bar located at 312 Main Street in downtown Gays Mills. They opened the doors with a full food menu, including appetizers, baskets, sandwiches, and pizzas this past January.

In addition to slinging fine food and delectable drinks, Melinda works remotely for the Trane Company out of LaCrosse, and Mike owns and operates Ehde Construction in Eastman.

The couple had a dream to open a bar/restaurant. Their plan was to wait until retirement, but as life sometimes happens, plans changed. Melinda cheerfully explains, “this was supposed to be our retirement thing, like five years down the road, but the opportunity fell into our hands now and we decided to just go for it”.

The Ehdes have made some major investments in the kitchen, including the purchase of a Turbo Chef Pizza Oven, which cranks out made-from-scratch pizzas in five minutes. An array of pizzas, including a Hawaiian pizza and a Philly Steak pizza, are on the menu, in addition to garlic cheese bread which is cut in strips and dipped in zesty marinara sauce.

A wide variety of menu items are made from local sources. The Eastman Locker provides the ground beef for their juicy burgers, as well as the BBQ beef brisket, which is smoked with BBQ flavor, for their scrumptious hoagie sandwiches.

Their Greek pizza is topped with the rich flavor of feta cheese crafted at the Mt Sterling Co-op Creamery. During the gardening season, veggies will be purchased from growers at our local farmers market.

Driftless Brewing Company tops the charts with both Dirt, a smooth brown ale, and Local Buzz, a golden blonde ale made with local Kickapoo honey, served on tap.

M&M has daily specials which are posted on their Facebook page, ‘M&M Bar.’ As the business grows, their menu will continue to expand.

For even faster service, Mike and Melinda encourage you to call ahead. Their phone number is 608-735-4488. The spacious and open dining room easily lends itself to accommodating large groups, meetings, and business lunches.

If you're looking for summer activities, this could be the place for you! Monthly activities are scheduled, including a pool tournament on April 10, an old car club ride on May 8, live music events, bean bag tournaments, UTV rallies, as well as volleyball in the summer. Pool leagues and possibly dart leagues will commence in the fall.

“We plan on doing activities at least once a month,” Melinda adds.

M&M is open seven days a week at 10:30 a.m., with lunches starting at 11 a.m. The bar closes at 9 p.m. on Sundays and Mondays, 11p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and doors remain open until bar time on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Summer hours will be longer and will still include Happy Hour from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, with $2 beers and 50 cents off mixed drinks.

If you've got a craving for a juicy, flavorful burger or a passion for homemade pizza washed down with a Driftless brew, this is the place to go. Welcome to the neighborhood, Mike and Melinda!

Mice paddling a canoe?

Random Thoughts, August 3

This is a reproduction of a Huppler card drawing, done with tiny black dots. He gave it to me in 1961 when he was living in Muscoda with his father.

Mice paddling a canoe — This is a reproduction of a Huppler card drawing, done with tiny black dots. He gave it to me in 1961 when he was living in Muscoda with his father.

Wendell Smith

Updated: Aug 10, 2023, 3:25 PM

Published: Aug 10, 2023, 3:24 PM

MUSCODA - Probably few folks in this village remember when mice in Muscoda paddled canoes and/or drove a Hudson roadster automobile. Don’t worry, the little rodents existed only in the mind of a Muscoda native and artist, Dudley Huppler.

Huppler was born in Muscoda August 8, 1917. He attended high school in Muscoda where he developed a life-long interest in reading. He then enrolled in the University of Wisconsin-Madison, receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

He first worked for the WPA, a make-work federal program during the Great Depression when jobs were scarce. He later returned to the U.W. as a teaching assistant.

Through the years he made frequent visits to Muscoda to visit his family who operated a meat market here. I interviewed Dudley in September, 1961. By then he was an international traveler with many connections throughout the art world. He also spent time teaching at the University of Minnesota and had studios in Santa Monica, California and New York City

As an artist Dudley developed a system of tiny black dots to portray mice and other characters. He used the method in children’s books and on sets of cards that he marketed in New York City and small places like Ed’s Store and Ruth’s Dress Shop in Muscoda.

One of his books has characters who lived in “Mouscoda” during the 1920s, including a young girl who is given a croquet set and struggles to learn the game. 00

His books for children are not among the collection at the Muscoda Public Library. However there is a book on local shelves that chronicles Huppler’s life and accomplishments.

His life ended in August, 1988 in Boulder, Colorado. By that time he estimated he had created more than 38,000 drawing and paintings.

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