This Appleton eatery was named one of Yelp's best 100 restaurants in the Midwest for 2023

Rebecca Loroff, Appleton Post-Crescent
Updated ·2 min read

An Appleton restaurant captured a spot on a Yelp list of the best 100 restaurants in the Midwest in 2023.

Downtown's Author's Kitchen + Bar on 125 E. College Ave. came in at #72, making the cut alongside restaurants in much larger cities like St. Louis, Columbus, Chicago, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Yelp ranked the restaurants using "a number of factors" according to the website, such as the number of reviews and their ratings from Jan. 1, 2021, to May 1, 2023. The states considered "Midwest" for this list are Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and South Dakota.

Yelp reviewers gave Author's a 4.8 out of 5 overall, praising the restaurant's brunch menu, empanadas, salmon sashimi, cocktails and waitstaff.

An interior shot of Author's Kitchen + Bar in Appleton, Wis. The restaurant made a regional top 100 restaurants list for business reviewer Yelp in 2023.
An interior shot of Author's Kitchen + Bar in Appleton, Wis. The restaurant made a regional top 100 restaurants list for business reviewer Yelp in 2023.

As for the rest of the Yelp list, the top winner overall was Blues City Deli in St. Louis, Missouri, while Wisconsin was also represented by several Milwaukee-area restaurants: Swingin' Door Exchange (#17), Brothers Gyros & Pizza (#47), Blue's Egg (#56), Old Germantown (#87), Kin by Rice and Roll (#91) and St. Paul Fish Company (#95).

Author's Kitchen + Bar persisted through fire, pandemic

Author's Kitchen + Bar opened in June 2018 at 201 N. Appleton St. After the restaurant's original building was destroyed by an electrical fire nine months later, owners Josh Sicker and Matias Whittingslow reopened the restaurant in its current location in March 2020 — but the coronavirus pandemic forced them to offer just takeout and delivery at first.

After opening to sit-down service that summer, Author's pivoted to offering weekday brunch and lunch in February 2021 and has maintained that schedule since, along with hosting Friday dinners, tapas and empanada nights and private events.

Manager Kalen Whittingslow credits Author's success to its "exciting but simple food" prepared by Sicker and her husband Matias, their "spectacular team" and plenty of regulars who visit multiple times a week.

Author's Kitchen + Bar is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, with dinner service from 4:30 to 9 p.m. Fridays. Learn more on its Facebook page or at authorskitchenandbar.com.

Rebecca Loroff is a breaking and trending news reporter for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. Contact her at rloroff@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Author's Kitchen + Bar makes Yelp's best Midwest restaurants list