The Tire Station Kitchen & Tap: Medford’s Best Dining Surprise
Restaurants • Taylor County
The Tire Station Kitchen & Tap: Medford’s Best Dining Surprise
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Medford doesn’t always get the credit it deserves as a food town. Sit at a table at The Tire Station Kitchen & Tap for an hour and that starts to change.
The place pulls people in from Wausau, Eau Claire, and points well north on Highway 13. Not because there’s a shortage of places to eat in central Wisconsin. Because Marilyn Frank built something worth making the drive for — and she did it inside a building that’s been a Medford landmark since long before it was ever a restaurant.
The Tire Station Kitchen & Tap
148 S Whelen Avenue, Medford, WI 54451
Phone: (715) 785-5009
Facebook: The Tire Station Kitchen & Tap
The Tire Station Kitchen & Tap, 148 S Whelen Avenue, Medford, WI — the old Medford Co-op tire building, reborn.
The building tells the story
Walk up to 148 S Whelen Avenue and you’ll understand the name right away. The Tire Station Kitchen & Tap occupies what used to be the old Medford Co-op tire and auto building. The bones of the place are still there — wide commercial windows, high ceilings, that solid working-building character you don’t find in new construction.
What Marilyn did with it is the interesting part. The interior is modern, bright, and nothing like what you’d expect from the outside. Lots of windows. A tap bar that actually looks like it belongs. Enough space upstairs to host a wedding or a conference. She didn’t erase the history. She put a real kitchen inside it.
That contrast — old building, new energy — is kind of the whole vibe of The Tire Station. It fits Medford. The town has been reinventing itself block by block, and this place is one of the better examples of what that looks like when it works.
Modern interior, big windows, and a tap bar that fits the space. The bones of the old co-op building are still there underneath it all.
Marilyn Frank built this from scratch
Marilyn has been feeding people in Medford for a long time. Her catering business, Marilyn’s Go-Go Catering, started over 15 years before she opened The Tire Station. From there she moved into her first restaurant location — a rented fire station across the street that she described as “a big empty garage that had been used for various things over the years.” She ran it that way for more than a decade.
Then the old co-op building across the street opened up. She made the move.
She’s in the building most days. That’s not a small thing. There are a lot of restaurants in Wisconsin where the owner’s name is on the sign and that’s about it. Marilyn is actually there, and you’ll notice it in how the staff carries themselves and how the place runs.
Her partnership with Chef Luis Arellano was the piece that took the kitchen to another level. Luis has been cooking professionally for more than 12 years, including time back in Mexico before coming to work with Marilyn. He and Marilyn built the menu together from zero — combining the homestyle cooking Medford regulars expect with dishes that give people a reason to come back and try something new.
What comes out of the kitchen
The menu at The Tire Station lands somewhere between a Wisconsin supper club and a scratch kitchen. It’s not trying to be a fine dining spot. It’s trying to be the kind of place where the food is actually made the way it should be — fresh ingredients, real preparation, portions that don’t send you home disappointed.
What people keep ordering
Guests rave about a few things consistently: the “Fire and Tire” dish, the candied bacon, beef stroganoff, the fiesta bowl with shrimp, and the fire burger. The homemade rolls get called out a lot too — even by guests who are harder to impress than most. The California Skillet is another regular mention. Whatever version of a skillet dish you’re hoping for, they do it right.
Portion sizes are a recurring theme in reviews. Nobody’s leaving light. That tracks with what Marilyn tells every first-time visitor: “You’re not going to walk away hungry from this place.”
She means it.
Local first, always
One of the things that makes The Tire Station different from a lot of bars and restaurants in the region is how seriously they take local sourcing. There’s a display on the wall that names their farming partners. That’s not decoration — it’s how they buy their food.
Chef Luis puts it plainly: they try to keep everything local. Marilyn’s daughter farms and brings in garlic. Around the year, they buy tomatoes and lettuce from growers in the area. When you’re eating at The Tire Station, you’re probably eating something that was grown somewhere in Taylor County or nearby. That matters, both for the food quality and for what it says about how they operate.
The upstairs event space
The Tire Station has a large second-floor event space that gets used for a wide range of things. Banquets, business conferences, live music nights, private parties. The Medford Area Chamber of Commerce Women’s Weekend is one of the annual events that Marilyn ties into — she’s hosted an all-male staff night each February that’s become a tradition.
If you’re planning an event in Taylor County and looking for a venue with food handled in-house, the upstairs space is worth a conversation. Call (715) 785-5009 or reach out through their Facebook page to get details on availability.
Is it worth the drive?
If you’re coming from the Wausau area, Medford is about 50 minutes north on Highway 29 to Highway 13. That’s not a short haul for dinner. But people make it regularly, and The Tire Station is a real part of why.
Medford itself has more going for it than most people outside of Taylor County realize. Grahl Park. The Ice Age National Scenic Trail access. The Black River running through town. If you’re building a day trip or a weekend up north, Medford is a reasonable anchor and The Tire Station is a good place to start or end the day.
Wisconsin has no shortage of supper clubs, sports bars, and family restaurants. Places that feel genuinely one-of-a-kind are rarer. The Tire Station is one of them. A 100-year-old commercial building, an owner who’s been at this for decades, a chef with real training and real investment in the menu, and a community that shows up for it. That combination doesn’t happen everywhere.
It’s worth the drive.
Frequently asked questions
Where is The Tire Station Kitchen & Tap located?
148 S Whelen Avenue in Medford, Wisconsin 54451. Right in downtown Medford, Taylor County.
What kind of food does The Tire Station serve?
A mix of homestyle Wisconsin comfort food and more creative dishes. Think elevated bar food, fresh-ingredient entrees, and Wisconsin supper club-style service with a real scratch kitchen behind it. Portions run large.
Who owns The Tire Station Kitchen & Tap?
Marilyn Frank, who built the restaurant from a catering business she started 15-plus years ago called Marilyn’s Go-Go Catering. She’s in the building most days and is the reason the place runs the way it does.
Does The Tire Station have an event space?
Yes. There’s a large upstairs event space available for banquets, conferences, live music, and private parties. Call (715) 785-5009 to check availability and pricing.
Does The Tire Station source food locally?
Yes. Chef Luis Arellano emphasizes local sourcing, partnering with area farmers including Marilyn’s daughter, who supplies garlic and seasonal produce. The restaurant has a wall display naming their local partners.
Is The Tire Station worth the drive from Wausau or Eau Claire?
Plenty of guests come from well outside Taylor County specifically to eat there. The combination of the building’s character, the quality of the food, and Marilyn’s hospitality makes it a real destination rather than a convenient stop.
Getting there
The Tire Station is at 148 S Whelen Avenue, Medford, WI 54451. From Wausau, take Highway 29 west to Highway 13 north into downtown Medford. From the Twin Cities, take I-94 east to Highway 29 east, then Highway 13 north. Phone: (715) 785-5009.
