Wisconsin has plenty of cheese mice: large, old-fashioned sculptures of mice (often with cheese) that act as visual signals to pull over and buy some aged cheddar. They aren’t nearly as numerous in Minnesota, but Eichten’s Cheese and Bison in Center City has a classic example of the form. Eichten’s itself has some very reasonably priced and excellent ground bison, expertly seasoned lemon pepper bison jerkey, a wide selection of cheeses including gouda laced with buffalo meat — not bad, not worth the price per pound — and honey sticks.
I am a firm believe that Eichten’s makes the best string cheese in the world (available at the Wedge). It sounds silly, but I have yet to find anything even CLOSE to comparable.
You may be right, but I’d have two counter suggestions: the string cheese at Union Star (near Green Bay) and the string cheese at Cedar Valley (near Milwaukee). The former is almost like drinking pure, farm-fresh milk — incredibly light and simple. The latter is a more traditional string cheese with great texture and string-pulling appeal.
I will most certainly try them next time I am in the motherland (yes, I too am from WI)