Well what is this? Decent weather for patio dining on a Wednesday night? I’m shocked, Mother Nature. I mean, I guess us taking the week off last week threw you a little bit, maybe? Surprise!

The Jetty has been on our radar for a bit now, but because it’s pretty much all outdoor dining, we honestly needed a nice evening like this one in order to finally visit.

Well, and it turns out we also kinda needed to do a little more research on where this place actually was. This thought occurred to me as we were driving around the parking lot for a hot minute trying to figure out where the door is.

Hint: look for the big banner on the side of the building. It’s underneath that. Who would’ve guessed?

And if you hit the river, you’ve gone too far. Because this patio is quite literally hanging over it. Kind of like Shane’s chair leg, which was precariously perched over the edge.

Also wasn’t really sure we should trust the wood under the carpet here but we figured we would just try not to think about it that hard. I mean, if you’re reading this clearly we survived.

You know what else is a good idea on a breezy patio over water? Several pages of paper menus on a clipboard. Thanks for keeping us on our toes there, Jetty. That was a fun pre-meal game.

There actually was a drink menu (yay) on one of the many pages … but then when the server came over to take our orders we pointed out that you had to ask your server for the draft list, so that was still kind of a lost cause having a menu? Oh well. Nice try, I guess.

Ted got the Great Lakes Hefeweizen. The server said she’s been telling everyone that the flavor of it was hoppy – which made me disappointed because I hate that taste but usually love Hefeweizens. But Ted was kind enough to let me try his before I ordered my own glass, and we both decided it tasted more like Shane’s Blue Moon than anything overly hoppy. So you’re welcome, I guess. The more you know.

The food menu is kind of small – it’s mainly sandwiches, flatbreads and apps. So it’s really good that we had all kinds of extra time to look it over since the server was a bit slow to come back over after getting our drink orders.

Shane and I ordered the loaded tortilla chips for an app. They were super quick coming out. Which is exactly what you want for melted cheese that you have to touch with your fingertips.

I wasn’t that thrilled with them but Shane thought they were excellent. Now on the scale of hungriness Shane was also at about “eating two appendages,” so that maybe could’ve influenced his decision just a bit. Take that as you may.

So typically we try to avoid everyone in the group getting the same meal for dinner, just so we can have the experience of trying several things on the menu – but since it’s already been mentioned that it was a small menu here, and also because the three of us all have a particular love of burgers, it shouldn’t been a surprise that it was Jetty Burgers all around the table for our dinners.

Well two regular Jetty Burgers that is, and one with no cheese for Ted. Shane said he would be happy to take Ted’s cheese if it was just going to go to waste anyway, but I don’t think that actually happened.

Now when we ordered the server mentioned she tells everyone this is the meal they should get if they’ve never been there before, for “the experience.” I mean, it should be mentioned that this was also the same server who told us that the Hefeweizen was hoppy … so we probably should’ve stopped listening at that point. But whatever.

Because they were just OK. We all agreed that they needed … something. A sweet relish? Or a spread like a spicy Mayo of some kind? Something to balance out the super sweet bacon topping, because it was a whole lot of meat on meat, and it just needed something else to bring all the flavors together. Especially for $14 a burger – and that only comes with some regular chips.

We all agreed that this is a great spot for drinks … because the atmosphere on the patio with the river is really amazing … but maybe earmark it for a stop after a dinner somewhere else. Or as someplace to come if you’ve had that super big lunch and it’s about 8pm now so you aren’t hungry enough for dinner but know you need something in your stomach with drinks so you aren’t pulling through the Taco Bell drive-thru at 2AM.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that by any means. And it will definitely save you a lot of money compared to what you’ll eat at The Jetty.

But for drinks on an amazing summer night you really can’t beat the view, that’s for sure.