Late September and the colors are starting. The days are cooler, the evenings are shorter, and the county has a quiet that comes after the last of the summer visitors have gone home.

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This week:

A few things worth knowing about this week.

La Sirena makes the Times list. Again. A few weeks after the New York Times named La Sirena one of the best Mexican restaurants in America, the paper has now placed the 22-seat Ephraim restaurant on its 2026 Restaurant List, an annual ranking of the 50 best restaurants in the country.

The Times sent 16 reporters across the nation to compile the list. Carlos and Emilie Salgado's restaurant is the only Wisconsin entry. It is the first Wisconsin restaurant on the list since Birch in Milwaukee in 2023.

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Door County Housing Partnership breaks ground on a new home. The Door County Housing Partnership recently broke ground on its tenth permanently affordable home in the county.

The organization works to keep homes affordable through long-term land agreements. DCHP is now launching its fundraising campaign to support construction of more homes in 2027.

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A new sporting clays course near Door County. The Luxemburg Sportsman's Club, just south of the county, opened a fully automated sporting clays course this month, funded in part by a Wisconsin DNR grant.

With ten stations along a wooded trail and QR codes at each station to preview clay trajectories, the course is handicap accessible and open to beginners.

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A 3D shipwreck worth seeing. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society have added the first of fourteen Green Bay and Door County shipwrecks to its database.

The unidentified vessel, known as the Green Bay Sloop, measures 39 feet with a 38-foot mast still standing upright on the lake floor. One theory is that it may be the Sloop Etta, lost in an 1856 storm near Sturgeon Bay's north entrance.

Kelly and I have a handful of restaurants we always come back to. Same places, same orders, same routine. If you have been coming to Door County for years, you probably have your own version of that list.

But we have made a conscious effort lately to change that. The other night we sat down and talked about what places we have not been to, or have not been to recently, that we want to try.

We are still debating the list. But one we both agreed on was La Sirena. It has been on our radar since it opened. After back-to-back New York Times honors, it has moved to the top.

If you have your own Door County routine, I get it. The favorites become favorites for a reason. But it just may be time to try somewhere new.

The color is coming. If fall foliage is on your list, the complete guide to fall color in Door County covers when and where to go to put you right in the middle of it.

The timing shifts a little year-to-year depending on temperature and rainfall, but the third and fourth weeks of October are typically the sweet spot.

Read the complete fall foliage guide here.

Every week we spotlight a recently sold home and an active listing to give you a feel for what the real estate market looks like.

JUST SOLD: Egg Harbor

A four bedroom, three bath home in Egg Harbor sold for $911,500. On 1.5 acres near downtown Egg Harbor, the property features a patio that overlooks a yard frequented by deer.

FOR SALE: Sturgeon Bay

A three bedroom, two bath home in Sturgeon Bay is listed at $1,995,000 with Green Bay shoreline and a portable dock.

Set at the end of a quiet dead-end lane, the home sits slightly elevated above the water with panoramic views of Potawatomi State Park and Sawyer Harbor across the bay.

La Sirena. It only makes sense this week.

Chef Carlos Salgado and Emilie Coulson Salgado left a Michelin-starred restaurant in California to open a 22-seat tasting menu restaurant in Ephraim. A year later, the New York Times has named it one of the best restaurants in America.

The menu changes with the seasons, built around the local harvest and premium ingredients. It’s a menu that tastes unmistakably like Door County.

Fresh Coast Motel is a boutique property in Fish Creek, steps from the public beach, Harbor View Park, and the village's shops and restaurants. The motel has been part of the community since the 1940s, originally known as the By the Bay Motel, and has been meticulously renovated under new ownership into one of the most talked-about stays in Door County.

USA Today named it one of the top three new hotels in the country. Better Homes and Gardens, Midwest Living, and Milwaukee Magazine have all featured it since.

Check availability on Booking.com or if you want to check other Door County listings, browse Door County availability here.

Pegasis at The Cramer Exchange on Thursday evening. The kind of live music that makes a fall weeknight feel like an event worth driving up for.

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Twilight Tours at Eagle Bluff Light Station run Friday evening as dusk settles over Green Bay. The lighthouse is stunning any time of day but there is something about seeing it at dusk that makes it feel like a different place entirely. A guided tour in this setting is not something that comes around often.

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Talk of the Town is Friday evening, one of the most entertaining local performances in the county. If you have never been, the format is part variety show, part community inside joke, and entirely Door County.

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Pat McCurdy plays Saturday afternoon. Pat McCurdy is a Milwaukee legend who has been making audiences sing along to songs for years. It’s a performance that is impossible not to enjoy.

Fall has arrived. Tuesday should hit 58 degrees with low rain chances, a genuinely cool autumn day. Wednesday clears to 60 and dry. Thursday similar. The weekend warms to the mid 60s with light rain possible Friday and Saturday.

Sunrise Tuesday is at 6:35 a.m. Sunset comes around 6:59 p.m. Just under 12 and a half hours of daylight. The evenings arrive noticeably earlier every week now.

The Replacements are one of those bands I have come back to at every stage of my life and they always sound right for wherever I am.

I got into them in high school and college and never really stopped.

Pleased to Meet Me came out in 1987 and is one of their strongest records. Paul Westerberg was writing some of the best songs of his career at the time.

I had tickets to what turned out to be their final show. I did not go. It remains one of the few genuine regrets I have.

This one is a little different and worth taking a moment with.

Tank came to Door County every year with his family. Every trip. Every park. Gills Rock was his favorite, the small park at the tip of the peninsula where the water opens up in every direction.

Tank has since passed. His family is heading back soon and though he will not be there in the way he used to, he will be there with them in memory.

We want to see your pets enjoying Door County. Send a photo with a name, a village, and anything worth knowing about the moment.

Another great week!

See you up here,
Brian.