Delta Diner is an unexpected vision in the Wisconsin Northwoods. As you come around the bend on an old county highway, a classic aluminum diner appears at the roadside, shining like brand new in the sun, alongside a smoking open-air Jamaican jerk shack, a coffee and ice cream stand, and a craft-beer bar built into a couple of shipping containers connected by an arcing steel rooftop. Stop for the photo; stay for the food.
From Dream to Diner
In 1994, Todd and Nina Bucher left the “career” world on the East Coast, cashed in their 401Ks, and bought some land near the edge of the Chequamegon National Forest between Ashland and Iron River in Todd’s home state of Wisconsin. They lived a year in a 13-foot trailer with two dogs and two cats while both of them worked and Todd built a house near Delta, where there was practically nothing but a small stone storage structure and the ruins of the 1923 Delta Store, a grocery, bar, restaurant, gas station, and post office that succumbed to fire in 1973. So many times the Buchers had passed that lot, imagining what could be done with it. Finally, they bought it.
Todd and Nina Bucher. Courtesy of Delta Diner
