Cheap Date at the Grumpy Troll, Mt. Horeb, WI

My husband and I found another great coupon in our Entertainment Guide and it was for a nearby brewpub that I have been wanting to try. The Pub is called the Grumpy Troll and is in a small town named Mt. Horeb, WI. It's about a half hour southwest of Madison. I have been wanting to try their beer and have never made the drive over before. I would say it was well worth the drive. My husband and I have been trying to keep our dates to $50 and under, including the cost of the babysitter. The Entertainment Guide we purchased from our son as a school fundraiser is guiding us where to go for our dates. We pick a place that we have a coupon for in the book that is within a half hour driving distance. This keeps our time limited to 3 or 4 hours away ($15 or $20 for the babysitter), which gives us either $30 or $35 for dinner. So far it has worked out great. I was so excited to find a Grumpy Troll coupon in the book.

We arrived at the restaurant and it was very busy, I think this place is a pretty well known brewery around the area. We had a half hour wait, so we took a quick walk around downtown Mt. Horeb. Everything was closed, which was good because the walk was free! Window shopping was fun but we were thirsty, so we headed back to the Grumpy Troll after fifteen minutes and sat at the bar to enjoy a delicious pint. I tried one called "Trailside Wheat" which was sort of fruity and my husband got one called "Hey Now Brown Cow". We were seated shortly after getting our pints and after getting seated we ordered a sampler platter of six beers at $1.50 each. That was a great deal! I absolutely love beer tasting, if you don't like it, you are not wasting much beer at all. I liked all the beers that we tried.

Their food was also fantastic! We had an appetizer order of the Grump Chips, which were delicious. They are served with grated Parmesan over them and a side of Gorgonzola dip. My husband tried their half a sandwich/bowl of beer cheese soup combo. He loved it, the cheese soup was amazing. I ordered the open faced black bean sandwich on a wheat pita with a side of sweet potato tots. They were the most incredible sweet potato side I have ever had anywhere! A great little gem of flavor. The black bean sandwich was also great, I had to take half of my dinner home and was able to split my leftovers into two lunches. Talk about a deal, they are out there if you look! I would suggest checking out Groupon.com for daily deals in your area.

Needless to say, we spent a little more at the Grumpy Troll, $35.50 including the tip, than we did on our last dinner date at the Harley Blue Bar in nearby Blue Mounds, WI (that dinner was actually $27 including tip). We compensated for this extra money by getting home an hour earlier than last time. We kept the sitter cost down to $15. We did go 50 cents over the $50 limit, but I think it was worth it! We will definitely be visiting the Grumpy Troll again, I saw an order of their cheese curds walk by when we were eating and I almost fell over, they looked so good!