TheLakeInsiderThe insider's guide to America's luxury lakes
← Delavan Lake
The local guide

Everything worth doing.Within 20 minutes.

Editors' picks across 8categories — the dock with the deepest channel, the winery with the view, the restaurant with the right wine list, the trail nobody's on at sunrise.

The table

Restaurants

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Delavan
1878 on the Lake

Lake Lawn Resort's signature restaurant, named for the year the original farmhouse became a guesthouse — panoramic waterfront views and a menu built on Midwestern roots.

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Delavan
Lookout Bar & Eatery

Lake Lawn Resort's casual second restaurant — pub-style fare, craft beer, and signature cocktails for lunch and dinner daily.

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The water

Boat launches

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Delavan
Lake Lawn Marina

A 261-slip marina on the lake's northeast shore, protected within a private break-wall — pontoon, speed boat, jet ski, kayak, and paddleboard rentals in summer.

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Delavan
Delavan Lake Marina

A boat rental operator on North Shore Drive — pontoons and fishing boats, run under Kustom Parts & Service.

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Iconic stops

Iconic stops

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Delavan
Lake Lawn Resort

The lake's historic anchor on 200-plus wooded acres — the Mabie family's circus-era farm became a 50-room guesthouse in 1883 and has operated as a resort ever since, now with 271 rooms, a golf course, a spa, and the lake's largest marina.

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Delavan
Delavan's Circus Heritage

Twenty-six circuses wintered in Delavan between 1847 and 1894, starting with the Mabie brothers' United States Olympic Circus — Edmund Mabie's circus is credited by local historians with inventing pink lemonade. A historical marker downtown documents the circus colony; the town's clown-history connection later relocated to the International Clown Hall of Fame in West Allis.

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