Studabakers

Studabakers reads like the order downtown Orillia reaches for when the visit has to do several things at once. Wings for a softball team that finished a Tuesday game, nachos for a Sunday table that can't agree on what comes next, a margarita and a half-price appetizer once the clock hits three on a Monday. Studabakers Beachside opened on Mississaga Street East in October 2007, set down next to Lake Couchiching with a large summer patio and a cabana bar on it. The menu has been doing the same job since: casual bar-and-grill food, with the week laid out so a table can pick its night.

Wings are the engine. Signature Wings come plain or Southern breaded, dragged through a long sauce-and-rub list, and the weekly calendar gives them two of its prime slots — Two Dollar Tuesdays at forty cents apiece with special shooters, Thursday Pub Night at the same price with four-dollar bar rails. Around them the starter and shareable lanes do the rest of the work the menu is built for: Chicago Nachos as the table-opening move, Southern Fried Pickles when the starter list needs a sharper move than fries and dips, Tuscan Spinach Dip for a slower graze, Goat Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms and Sticky Calamari for diners who want the appetizer to do more, Rock'n Lava Shrimp when somebody wants it to land hot. The Charbroiled House Burger, the Alabama Club, and a Fish 'n' Chips that doubles as a Friday feature paired with wine or draft cover the lunch and supper plates; a longer reach into salads, flatbreads, and a Surf and Turf rounds the menu past the bar-snack frame.