It was dark outside, and the temperature was uncharacteristically warm for a December evening in Wisconsin. My copilot/mother was craving a salad, so we popped into Salty’s Seafood and Spirits, a place that, according to their website, offers “awesome seafood with a Key West vibe.” They also have an enticing salad bar which was calling our name as we drove through Fond du Lac that day.

 
Two trips to the salad bar and an order of Crab and Shrimp Nachos were ordered. Could this day get any better? Yes. Yes, it could. We had also stumbled on a happy hour special of Double Bubble – 2 for 1 drinks. We ordered a round of Old Fashioneds – brandy, sweet, with olives. Off to the salad bar we went, and before we made it back, the delicious drinks were waiting. Salty’s has great service. Mom wondered aloud if we were enjoying the Double Bubble pricing on our current drinks, or if we would each need to have two in order to take advantage. With one look from me, she knew we would be ordering another round anyway.

The Salty’s salad bar is a destination for the curious. Mom likes it because they have fresh peas. I enjoyed the fresh vegetables and pickled beets. While I didn’t try them, the offering of what appeared to be two different jello-based “salads” caught my attention as well as an impressive number of potato salad options. In the end, we both ended up with refreshing, custom-made salads.

 
The nachos came next and were yet another curiosity. Here at Nachos and Dreams, we love, love, love the cheese. It’s arguably the best thing about nachos. These crispy flour tortilla chips were topped with what I can only describe as an obscene amount of cheddar and jack cheese. So much cheese that it nearly over-powered the highlight of the dish, which was the crab and shrimp. It was an odd combination, the heaps of cheese with tiny shrimps and shreds of crab. Luckily, we’re also ok with all things odd. A more accurate description of the dish would be an open faced extra cheesy quesadilla with crab and shrimp. Sure, I’d eat that.

Along with the nachos came sour cream and a disappointingly institutional brand of salsa. I would have loved a fresh salsa, perhaps with some pineapple or mango to compliment the seafood toppings. The dish served more as a rich comfort food, than a nice fresh seafood-forward dish you might find in a tropical location like Key West. While that may sound overly critical, it should be noted that we finished the whole plate, and enjoyed every single bite as well as the second round of delicious old fashioneds.

Ya er No?

Ya! It’s ok to dream about what these nachos could have been. The reality is that they were exactly what they claimed to be. They were satisfying and interesting. And all that cheese! So. Much. Cheese.

Author: Nicki Dowland

Nicki Dowland is a teacher and retired nacho blogger. She documents shopping, cooking, and eating local over at her substack called Cooking The Harvest. Nicki would like to see more awareness for gender and racial equality and the movie Wayne’s World.