Road Tips

Smoke Shack - Wauwatosa, WI

I was up in Milwaukee last fall and I was staying at a new-ish hotel on the west side of the city.  It turned out that it was part of the Mayfair Collection, a mixed-use development that featured residential, retail shops, and restaurants.  There was a barbecue joint just across the parking lot from the hotel and I decided to give the place a try.  This is my experience at Smoke Shack.  

Smoke Shack is one of the restaurants under the umbrella of the Hospitality Democracy company originally founded by Joe and Angie Sorge.  In addition to Smoke Shack, other Milwaukee area restaurants they oversee include Onesto, Holey Moley doughnut and coffee shop, Blue Bat Kitchen and the popular burger joint A.J. Bombers.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on A.J. Bombers.)  Joe Sorge is a New York native whose family had deep ties to the restaurant business.  Sorge went to Cornell University to study hospitality management before working at a handful of restaurants, then moving to Milwaukee with his wife in 2000.  Sorge started Hospitality Democracy with help from Marcus Investments, a Milwaukee-based capital investment firm with roots in movie theaters, hotels and restaurants.  

The original Smoke Shack opened in 2010 in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward as a collaborative effort between Sorge, Street-za Pizza owner Scott Baitinger, and developer Robert Joseph.  Smoke Shack's downtown Milwaukee location wasn't large - it could only hold less than 50 patrons - but business exceeded Sorge's wildest dreams after it opened.  

A little over 6 years ago, ground was broke in suburban Wauwatosa for a multi-use shopping, entertainment, and residential district called The Mayfair Connection.   Sorge was approached about putting some of his restaurants in the complex and in late 2016, Smoke Shack, A.J. Bombers, and the coffee/donut shop Holey Moley opened in a shared building.  

In the summer of 2018, it was announced that Joe and Angie Sorge were leaving the Hospitality Democracy group after being bought out by Marcus Investments.  The Sorge's founded their own restaurant consulting firm - SideWork Hospitality Consulting - later that year and continue to work with restaurants in the greater Milwaukee area.    

The Wauwatosa location of Smoke Shack is just north of Burleigh St. next to Interstate 41.  (see map)  There's a parking garage very near the restaurant with lot parking across a four-lane road that feeds cars in and out of The Mayfair Collection.  I walked across the parking lot in front of the hotel and passed by the outdoor seating area at Smoke Shack.  It featured a fire pit and a bar area under a canopy that was fronted by corrugated metal sheets.  It looked like it would be a nice area to hang if the weather was warm - which it really wasn't that fall evening.  

Inside Smoke Shack, the decor was sort of a contemporary rustic theme.  There appeared to be a lot of reclaimed barn board used in the bar and along the walls of the place with corrugated metal panels mixed in.  Opposite the bar was a number of tables in a small narrow nook-type area.  On a wall above a couple tables in an alcove were a number of bicycle handlebars - ram-horn, butterfly, and regular handlebars - that were on wood mounts to sort of parody big-game horns or racks.  I got a chuckle out of it.  

I sat at the bar and was greeted by Erika who was working behind the bar that evening.  She gave me a menu to look over and I took a look at the beer selection they had to offer in the glass-doored refrigerator behind the bar.  I saw that they had Surly Furious IPA in 16 oz. cans and I ordered up one of those.  

It's pretty basic barbecue offerings at Smoke Shack - baby back ribs, pulled pork, brisket, smoked chicken and smoked sausage.  Sides included sweet and spicy baked beans, cole slaw, sweet potato fries, and chipotle creamed corn.  Sandwiches included a brisket Sloppy Joe, a pulled pork sandwich topped with pimento mac & cheese (which was also a side choice), and a sandwich called the "Shack Daddy" that featured ham, brisket and sausage.  They had appetizers on the menu including burnt ends (of which they were out of that evening), smoked chicken wings, and something they called "Kansas City Eggrolls" which featured Iowa pulled pork and Monterey jack cheese with honey mustard and served with Smoke Shack's Kansas City-style sweet and smokey sauce.  

For my dinner that evening, I got the pulled pork and brisket combination.  For my side, I got the baked beans.   They had four different types of sauces to choose from - the aforementioned sweet and smokey Kansas City-style sauce, a Carolina-style mustard and vinegar sauce (of which I don't care for), a Texas-style sauce that was basically the Kansas City-style sauce with a bit of a kick, a house barbecue sauce that - well, I'll get into that later, and a habanero sauce that I figured I'd give a try.

Now, do you ever look at something that is served to you and it doesn't take much to tell you that this may not be very good?  That's sort of how I felt when the barbecue plate was set down in front of me.  I could tell that this would not be a very good meal from the first glance at the meat.  

And my eyes certainly didn't lie - it was pretty bad.  The pulled pork was lifeless and bland.  The brisket was dry and tasted like it had been left in a crock pot a little too long.  Neither had any smoke flavor to them.  And the baked beans seemed like they had opened a can of Van Camp's pork and beans, poured them in a bowl and heated them up.  They were neither sweet or spicy.  

Even the sauces couldn't help this meal.  The Kansas City-style sweet sauce was not very good.  And since the Texas-style sauce was based off the Kansas City-style sauce, even with a bit of a spicy kick on the back side, it couldn't have been saved.  The house sauce - which is supposed to be a little bit of everything - was completely blah in taste.  And I had to try the habanero sauce just to see how spicy it was.  It wasn't spicy at all and it was very flat in flavor.   The meal was highly disappointing.  

I understand that Smoke Shack has won numerous "people's choice" awards for having the best barbecue in Milwaukee since they opened in 2010, but I have to say the meal I had at the Wauwatosa location was some of the most disappointing barbecue I've encountered in my years of travel.  The meat was lifeless and bland with nary a hint of a smokey barbecue taste, the baked beans were akin to the canned variety, and I found their sauces to be pretty flat and underwhelming in their flavor.  While Smoke Shack is a nice place with their rustic decor, their barbecue was pretty mediocre - if that.   And that's too bad as I had high hopes for the place.  

Double B's BBQ - West Allis, WI

About a year ago, I was staying at a new Hampton Inn across the street from the Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis on the west side of Milwaukee.  I was driving down National that evening to go find something to eat and I passed what appeared to be a barbecue joint.   Driving back after dinner, I went slowly by the place and it turned out that it was a barbecue place, but they were closed because it was Monday.  I made a mental note to head back to West Allis at some point to try Double B's BBQ.  On a non-Monday evening recently, I had the chance to do just that.  

You could say that the restaurant business is in Mark Timber's blood.  He started out as a youngster working in his father's pizza place, Dino's Pizza, just north of General Mitchell International Airport on Milwaukee's south side.  From there, Timber moved on to manage the Telstar Drive-in just down the road from Dino's.  When his father sold Dino's, he moved to Taos, New Mexico to retire.  Mark followed his father and he started working in a fine dining establishment, La Doña Luz (which is now a bed-and-breakfast in Taos).  It turns out that the elder Timber couldn't handle retirement and he ended up buying a restaurant in Taos.  But Mark Timber found that he missed Milwaukee and he moved back after five years in Taos. 

Now married to his wife, Judy, the Timber's bought a custard stand in south suburban Oak Creek in the early 80's, selling it in 1987.  From there, Mark Timber went to work for the new Potawatomi Bingo (now the Potawatomi Hotel and Casino) helping design their kitchen and coming up with the menus for the burgeoning gambling establishment.  After his time at Potawatomi, he moved on to help run Butch's Old Casino Steak House for 12 years before the place closed in 2015.  

A few years ago between jobs at restaurants, Timber was working part-time at a cabinet shop in the Milwaukee area.  He was talking with one of his co-workers about his restaurant experience and his co-worker suggested that Timber to go out and invest in a smoker.  What started out as a casual home hobby for Timber turned into something of an obsession.  After his time at Butch's came to an end, he saw an on-line ad looking for someone to take over the kitchen at Double B's, a small bar on West Greenfield.  He decided to jump in with both feet and start up his barbecue operation.  

Pictured at right - Mark and Judy Timber.  Photo courtesy Timber's Catering Facebook Page.    

At first, the regular clientele who were used to a non-barbecue menu at Double B's were a little weary of the change.  However, it wasn't long before the Timber's Memphis-style barbecue offerings won many of them over and created their own following that includes people from Chicago coming up to have their barbecue.  The family also runs a catering company and a food truck with their son, Phil.  Their daughter, Christina, runs the bar now at Double B's, and not long ago the family bought a spot a couple doors to the east of Double B's that they're going to use as a banquet/celebration hall for their catering company.  

I pulled up in front of Double B's around 6:30 that particular evening.  I was able to find a parking spot just down the way from the place on Greenfield Ave.  (see map)  Actually, I could have walked from the hotel to Double B's as it was less than a half mile away.  But it was a cool evening - spring was having trouble making a normal appearance in the Upper Midwest this year - and I thought I'd just drive to the barbecue joint.  

I was greeted by Stephen, who turned out to be my server for the evening, as well.  The place was filling up fast and the bar was packed.  He took me to a table that had a banquette seat across the west wall of the place.  As much as I detest sitting at tables with banquette seats, I decided I could work with it on this visit.  

Stephen dropped off a menu for me to look through.  They had a number of good craft beers available at the bar and I ordered up a Karben4 Fantasy Factory IPA, it's quickly becoming one of my favorite beers.   

They have the usual barbecue offerings at Double B's - brisket, pulled pork, smoked chicken, sausage, as well as both baby back and spare ribs.  They also feature a number of smoked meat sandwiches as well as burgers, and some pretty interesting appetizers including smoked chicken wings, burnt ends and bacon-wrapped meatballs.  I damned near ordered up some of those just to try.  Next time.  

For dinner that evening I got the brisket platter.  It featured thick cuts of tender brisket with a combination rub consisting of a bit of ground chile and black pepper with a bit of sugar.  The meat is smoked with hickory wood - low and slow.  I had a choice of sides with the brisket.  I got the baked beans and the cole slaw.  (Cornbread, French fries, sweet potato fries, and a house-made mac & cheese were also available as sides.)  Some bread and butter pickles came with the platter.

The brisket was very good.  It pulled apart very easily when I cut it with my fork.  I really didn't need a knife with it.  The rub combined with the smokiness of the hickory wood flavor in the meat was a great taste sensation.  

I know I shouldn't have even dallied with the barbecue sauce, but Double B's had three that I tried.  They had a XXX Picante barbecue sauce that I didn't really think was all that hot.  It did sneak up on me after a few moments, but it wasn't anything that I couldn't handle.  But they had a Kansas City-style sauce that was thick and sweet.  But the one I liked the best of the three was the Texas bold sauce which was basically the Kansas City-style sauce with some ground hot pepper mixed in.  It had great sweet and somewhat spicy taste quality.  

The cole slaw was a creamy/vinegar blend that I thought was very good, as well.  The beans, I thought, were good, but they got extremely better when I added some of the Texas bold sauce to them.  Overall, I thought the barbecue was very solid.  

Before I took off, I went to the restroom and then ventured out back to their patio area.  The patio was empty that evening, but I'm sure that it fills up when the weather warms up.  Filament heaters and Edison lights were hanging from the rafters, but the focus of the patio was large hickory wood smoker - one of two that Timber uses.  Timber employs 3 pit masters and his two smokers are running 24 hours a day to keep up with the demand for his meats for both the restaurant, the food truck and the catering business.  Timber's catering company provides food for over 100 events annually, the vast majority of them are weddings.  Many of the customers that come into Double B's probably had their first taste of Timber's barbecue at a wedding held out west of Milwaukee at some point.  

I've tried some barbecue places around Milwaukee over the years and I have to say that I really wasn't impressed with any of them - until now.  Mark and Judy Timber's Double B BBQ is solid Memphis-style barbecue with a simple rub and a wonderful smoky flavor to their meats.  Their baked beans were good - even better with the addition of their Texas Bold barbecue sauce - and I thought their cole slaw was good, as well.  They had a wonderful selection of local and regional craft beers, and had a full bar, as well.  Double B's is closed on Sunday and Monday, but you can enjoy their barbecue the other days of the week.  I know I'll be going back at some point to try the bacon-wrapped meatballs appetizer.

Eagle Park Brewing Company - Milwaukee

My neighbor is a craft-beer enthusiast who likes to take drives to brewpubs and microbreweries around the Midwest. He's turned me on to a number of brewpubs over the past few years.  He likes to go to Milwaukee as he's a big Brewers fan and I was telling him that I was going to the city to call on a couple three accounts last fall.   My neighbor told me of a place that I really needed to check out called Eagle Park Brewing Company.  After meeting with an account in the afternoon, I sought out Eagle Park Brewing Co. for an early dinner and a few beers.  

Jackson "Jack" Borgardt and his older brother, Max, were musicians living in their parents home in the Milwaukee area.  Once Jack reached legal drinking age (which, in Wisconsin, could be 16 in most families, but 21 legally), Max and he started to brew their own beers in the family garage.  Their parents were supportive of their budding musical career - the brothers formed a band by the name of Eagle Trace along with their younger brother, Cass - and they were equally supportive of the home brewing hobby the brothers developed.  

The first beer the brothers brewed was an India Brown Ale that they liked immensely.  After the success of their first small-batch brew, the brothers were as hooked on brewing their own beer as they were with their music.  

Like most home brewers who are proud of their beers, the Borgardt brothers had a number of their friends try their unique brews.  One friend, Jake Schinker convinced the brothers to do their own micro-brewery and the brothers made him partner in the venture.  Starting the brewery out of their parents garage in 2015, the trio named their new nanobrewery Eagle Park Brewing Co.  

The trio needed to get out of their parents garage to expand their brewery and they found a spot on the second floor in the Lincoln Warehouse, a former warehouse built in 1928 that was refurbished to house businesses as diverse as recording studios, hair salons, a distillery, and boutique shops.  The Borgardt brothers and Stinker started out with a single brewing vessel and a small tap room.  They brewed 10 different styles of craft brews and almost immediately they realized they were outgrowing their space in the old warehouse. 

Like Minds Brewery opened a restaurant/tap room/seven-barrel brewing operation in 2016.  After a partner left in 2017, the operation just became a craft brewery/tap room.  It was in late 2017 when the owner of Like Minds decided that he needed to find another spot for his operation and was looking at relocating to his hometown of Chicago.  Like Minds closed in December of 2017 and put the building up for sale.

The Borgardt brothers and Schinker immediately jumped on the property in early 2018.  It gave them a larger space to brew more beers and room for a canning facility.  The kitchen was intact (Schinker joked that the only thing they had to buy was a can opener) and the group hired Nathan Heck to run their kitchen.  And true to the brothers musical roots, they added a small live performance area in the space.  Eagle Park Brewing Company relocated to their new location in April of last year.  

That new location is at the corner of E. Hamilton and N. Marshall just north of downtown Milwaukee.  (see map)  There's a parking lot on the north side of the building, but there is also parking along Marshall if needed.  

Inside the small brewery was an open taproom with a skylight that allowed natural light to filter in during the day.  A number of tables were placed in the middle of the room with a small conversation area in the corner that could be taken out when live music was played.  Dark gray walls featured a flat screen television surrounded with a number of music posters.  The original floor still had oil stains from back when it was a garage for the owners of the tannery that originally occupied the space years ago. Exposed duct work and brick walls gave the space a sort of industrial vibe.    

The brewing area was in the back of the building down a long hallway.  It was tough to see how big the brewery was, but the smell of hops and grains were prevalent in the air.  A small window underneath a sign that said, "Order Here" was the portal into the brewery.  Cans of Eagle Park beers were in coolers near the window.  

I ended up sitting at the bar in the corner of the taproom.  A door to the outdoors beer patio was off to the side.  One of the bartenders, Sarah, came up to great me.  The beer menu was on a flat screen television mounted to the wall behind the bar.  The selections rotated two or three times on the screen with the beers they were serving that day.  

Kind of a hip urban millennial kind of place, Eagle Park falls in line with their owners - who are musicians - by playing vinyl albums on their sound system behind the bar.  They played the first side of Abraxas by Santana, but when someone put on Make It Big by Wham!, the selection was roundly booed down by the crowd that was in there.  That record was quickly taken off the turntable and replaced by Tattoo You by the Rolling Stones.  It was a much better choice in my opinion.  

Eagle Park has a number of seasonal brews and at this time they had over a dozen beers available on tap.  You can get full pints for generally $7.00, half-pints for $4.00, or you can get a trio of half-pints for $10.00.  That's what I ended up doing and I went with the Goon Juice New England IPA, the Loop Station Golden Ale, and the Demon Haze New England IPA that didn't have as much alcohol content as the Goon Juice.  Out of the three I liked the Goon Juice the best - I wasn't too enamored with the Loop Station Golden Ale.  

They do have a limited food menu at Eagle Park with appetizers, burgers and a handful of sandwiches.  The burgers consist of a combination of ground chuck and short rib beef, smashed during the cooking process.  They also had a smoked brisket sandwich, a smoked pulled pork sandwich, a fried chicken breast with a buffalo curry sauce, and a grilled cheese sandwich made with Hook's Cheese Company's five-year old cheddar.   

I ended up going with the Smashburger - a 1/3 pound patty topped with in-house cured bacon, Hook’s aged American cheese, mixed pickles, pickled mustard seeds, lettuce, tomato, caramelized onions, and finished with a garlic mayo.  Eagle Park's karate chopped fries - basically hand-cut fries mixed with a Cotija cheese, pickled mustard seed and herbs - came on the side, but I asked Sarah if I could get a side salad instead.   

The burger was served along side the salad in a wax paper lined oblong tray.  The fringes of the burger had that signature flat-grilled crust and it came on a toasted bun.  The burger, itself, was very good - a good burger for a good burger city like Milwaukee.  It was juicy and very messy - it was at least a four napkin burger - with all the toppings on it.  But the toppings didn't mask the overall taste of the ground chuck/short rib beef patty.  It was a surprisingly outstanding burger.  

Eagle Park Brewing Company was a good place to visit.  Beer is really the focus at Eagle Park, but food is also available in terms of burgers, sandwiches and appetizers.  A couple of the beers I had were good, the burger was even better, and I really liked the urban industrial atmosphere of the place along with the selection of 70's and 80's vinyl music they were playing on the stereo system.  With a number of choices of small craft breweries in Milwaukee, Eagle Park may not be the biggest or the most popular, but it's definitely worthy of a visit.  

Crawdaddy's - West Allis, WI

 

I was happy to hear last summer that one of my favorite Cajun food places in the Midwest - Crawdaddy's in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis - had reopened.  It shut down after the death of one of the co-founders/owners a few years back, but I found out last summer that it had reopened down the road from the original location.  On a trip up to Milwaukee earlier this year, I made a point to head to the new Crawdaddy's for a meal.  

I wrote an entry on the original Crawdaddy's in one of my early Road Tips posts before I found a voice and formula for the blog.  (Click here if you'd like to see the difference in styles from early posts to the present day.)  The original Crawdaddy's was located on Greenfield at 64th Street in West Allis and was opened in 1995 by managing partner John Vukelic and chef-partner Jonathan Klug.  Crawdaddy's was a huge hit from the start winning a number of local "Best of" local awards over a number of years.  

In addition to the restaurant in West Allis, Crawdaddy's had a food place on the Henry Maier Festival Park grounds, home to a number of festivals, most notably Summerfest - the largest music festival in the world.  My wife and I used to go to Summerfest nearly every year starting in the mid-90's and it became a tradition that our first stop would be at Crawdaddy's to get a "Gator-on-a-Stick".  It consisted of ground alligator meat (it tastes like chicken) mixed with mild ground alligator sausage.  It was all right, but it was a tradition.  

Sadly, in 2012 John Vukelic passed away unexpectedly and Jonathan Klug kept the doors to Crawdaddy's open.  However, about a year later financial troubles brought on by the death of Vukelic forced Klug to close Crawdaddy's.  Milwaukeeans lamented the loss of the wonderful Cajun restaurant on Greenfield Ave.

However, Klug was able to find a new managing partner in Mike Weier.  The two searched for a new location, not far from the original Crawdaddy's location.  Big Dog's Sports Bar located 30 blocks west of the original Crawdaddy's at Greenfield and 94th, near the Wisconsin State Fair Park, had closed in early 2015 and Weier and Klug took over the space in late 2015.  They remodeled the place into a larger version of the old Crawdaddy's and reopened in the summer of 2016.  Crawdaddy's was back and people from all around Milwaukee flocked to the place in droves.  And the "Best of" local awards began to pick up where they had left off three years.

I pulled up in front of Crawdaddy's and was able to find a parking spot out front.  (see map)  Parking at the original Crawdaddy's was always an adventure as it was mostly on street parking along a busy stretch of Greenfield.  The new Crawdaddy's has a parking lot that can handle over 30 cars.  

Upon entering Crawdaddy's, I found an expansive place with a main dining area that was much larger than the original Crawdaddy's.  Waits of up to an hour - or more - were common at the original Crawdaddy's.  But the new place looked like it could accommodate double the number of patrons versus the old place.

There a back dining area that served as an overflow or private party area.  Drawn portraits of a number of musical artists hung on the walls throughout the place and the sound system was playing some great music from various New Orleans artists such as Earl King, Dr. John, The Wild Tchoupitoulas, Clarence "Frogman" Henry, and one of my all-time favorite bands, The Radiators.  

The bar was a festive area on the opposite side of a wall from the main dining room.  It had some nice lighting accents in front of and behind the bar.  I contemplated sitting there, but decided to have a seat in the dining room.

Off to the side of the bar was a small lounging/gaming area.  It appears that the new incarnation of Crawdaddy's can handle a large number of people in the dining room and in the bar for those waiting for a table.  

I was shown to a table in the middle of the dining room and given a lunch menu.  It's not as extensive as the dinner menu at Crawdaddy's, but it still offers some Cajun specialties such as Po' Boy sandwiches, shrimp and grits, and a Cajun stir fry consisting of a mixture of alligator meat, alligator sausage, andouille sausage, surimi (a Cajun flavored paste made out of minced seafood) and crawfish tails that are tossed with mixed vegetables with Crawdaddy's Cajun Power garlic sauce.  It's all served on a bed of creamy grits and topped with a spicy Cajun gravy.  Had I been more hungry, I would have gone for that.  

My server was Mary Beth, a pleasant lady who was outgoing and effervescent in her demeanor.  I immediately liked her when I asked for the beer menu and she said, "You look like the kind of guy who likes good beer.  We have the Abita Wrought Iron IPA on special during lunch.  $3.00 a pint."  I couldn't pass that up.  

I was sort of up in the air with what I was going to get, but I ended up starting off with a bowl of Crawdaddy's gumbo.  Their "Ya Ya" gumbo was exactly as I remembered.  It featured chunks of chicken, chopped smoked ham, andouille sausage, okra, and the "Holy Trinity" of onions, celery, and bell peppers with chunks of tomatoes in a spicy chicken broth.  It was served with rice that I spooned into the gumbo once I was able to eat some of it down, and a couple pieces of fresh baked bread came on the side.  I zipped up the temperature of the gumbo a bit with some Tabasco sauce and it was just fantastic.

Along with the gumbo, I got the fish tacos.  They were three flour taco shells filled with blackened Icelandic cod (deep-fried tempura cod was also available), topped with a lime-cilantro slaw and a spicy chipotle mayo.  Fresh pico de gallo came with the fish tacos.  They were very good and very filling.  I was able to get through two of the tacos and a couple bites of taco No. 3.  I had filled up on the gumbo - which was fine with me.   The gumbo was outstanding.   

All hail the return of Crawdaddy's!  It was one of my favorite restaurants in Milwaukee for a number of years and its demise in 2013 had me - and thousands of Milwaukeeans - bummed out.  But they're back and bigger than ever with a new space that is gargantuan compared to the original Crawdaddy's 30 blocks to the east.  The food is still outstanding - the gumbo I had was superb and the fish tacos were very good.  And the service I received from the fun and outgoing Mary Beth was excellent.  I'm glad to see that Crawdaddy's is back and I can't wait to go back some night to try some of their other Cajun specialties.  

Pizza Man - Milwaukee

"Hello, Pizza Man Pizza?  This is the King.  Uh, huh.  Elll-vis.  Send me over a large, no, make that an extra large cheese, no, make that two extra large cheese, no, make that two extra large double cheese pizzas."  (Singing)  "I'm young, I'm alone and I'm hungry..." 

That was a comedy bit I used to hear back in the mid-70's before Elvis Presley passed away.  I always liked the name of the place in the piece - Pizza Man Pizza.  So, when I started to travel to Milwaukee a number of years ago, I found that there was a popular place on the city's east side that was named Pizza Man.  I had tried to get in a couple times before, but the 55-seat restaurant was packed both times and it would have been an hour wait to get a seat.  Then, and quite unfortunately, it burned to the ground in January of 2010.  There was talk for awhile that Pizza Man wouldn't be back in business, but they did reopen in a new location in late July of 2013.  I finally had the chance to go try a Pizza Man pizza on a visit to Milwaukee in the late part of last year. 

Mike Amidzich was a mid-20's hippie entrepreneur who would take his barbecue wagon around to outdoor concerts in the Midwest in the late 60's and into 1970.  After a disastrous weekend at the Wadena rock festival in NE Iowa in 1970, Amidzich found himself completely broke and had to shut down his small enterprise. 

Coming back to his hometown of Milwaukee, Amidzich went looking for a job and was talking to someone about becoming a pizza cook.  However, that opportunity was pulled out from underneath him at the last moment.  But when Amidzich found that another pizza place had recently gone out of business, he got a small bank loan - co-signed by his parents - and bought the former Rudy's Pizza, a take-out place at the corner of North Ave. and Oakland Ave. on Milwaukee's east side, and opened Pizza Man. 

Initially, he used the recipes that were left from Rudy's Pizza, but found that most of the ingredients were frozen beforehand.  He decided that he wanted to use only the freshest of ingredients on his pizzas.  Customer's immediately noticed the better taste of the Pizza Man pizzas.

Amidzich embraced the counter-culture atmosphere that was growing in Milwaukee and decided to market to the people who liked what he liked.  Nearly all of the pizza places in Milwaukee at the time either closed at 10 p.m., or they didn't deliver.  (Or both!)  Knowing that people who liked to party late in the night usually meant that they had the munchies, Pizza Man delivered up to 3 a.m. during the week and 4 a.m. on the weekends.  And to help quench their customer's thirst, Amidzich provided free quart bottles of Pepsi products with each pizza.  Business got so good for Pizza Man that they became one of the largest independent Pepsi accounts in the state of Wisconsin - and they gave away the vast majority of the pop! 

A year after opening and with business booming, Amidzich asked the bike shop next door if they would mind moving to a larger location down the street so he could take over the space for a dining room.  Pizza Man started sit down service in 1971.  He built a small bar area and stocked the back bar with a number of higher-end liquors - Scotch, vodka, liqueurs, and appertifs, mainly.   But that didn't seem to go over well with the patrons eating pizzas.  He eventually took out the back bar liquor cabinets and put in wine racks.  Amidzich loved wine and he felt that it was a better companion with pizza than hard liquor.

Intially, Amidzich (pictured right - photo courtesy Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) turned to a wine sommelier to help him pick the wines.  California wines were beginning to become the rage and Amidzich and the sommelier picked out a number of wines to stock at Pizza Man.  Within a short period of time, he garnered an impressive collection of great wines one of the best in the greater Milwaukee area earning Pizza Man the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence.  At one point in time, Pizza Man offered 600 different bottles of wine - all of them available by the glass.  Suddenly, Pizza Man became one of the largest wine bars, not only in Wisconsin, not only in the U.S., but in the world!

In July of 2010, a fire erupted next door at the Black and White Cafe destroying both the cafe and Pizza Man, along with a couple of other businesses and a number of apartments that were located on the second floor of the building.  (Photo at left courtesy Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)  Authorities eventually indicted the cafe's owner for setting the fire to garner over $100,000 in insurance money so he could move to a new location.  (Even though the cafe owner was acquitted by a jury in 2013, the judge in the case still gave him a 2 1/2 year sentence for probable cause.  That sentence was thrown out on appeal in 2015.) 

Amidzich lost everything.  Even the bottled wine stored in the basement had to be destroyed.  It was a low part in his life, but he decided he wanted to rebuild.  However, banks were unwilling to work with Amidzich regarding his financial needs to build a new Pizza Man restaurant.  Down in the dumps, Amidzich announced that Pizza Man would be no more, and that his wife, Deanna, and he would focus on their other business - Stinky Gringo pre-mixed margaritas. 

But Pizza Man was his number one love and toward the end of 2012, Amidzich announced that a group of Pizza Man fans had approached him about helping him reopen in a new location.  The funds from the private investors allowed Amizich to find a new building on Downer Ave. less than a mile from the original Pizza Man in what was the former Lixx Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt shop.  Amidzich worked with the progressive Milwaukee architecture firm Rinka Chung on the design for the new Pizza Man.

After extensive remodeling of the space including putting in an upstairs eating area with rooftop and deck seating, a larger bar with 12 taps and coolers for 50 different types of bottled beers, and the installation of the same-style of the huge barn-style wooden doors that were so heavy that they needed a counterweight to control their opening and closing, Pizza Man had a soft opening on July 30, 2013 featuring a limited menu.  However, thanks to a mix-up via social media, hundreds of people showed up for the soft opening overwhelming the staff.  Pizza man officially opened with a full menu a couple weeks later.

In the meantime, Amidzich - who is in his early 70's - opened a second Pizza Man location in the summer of 2015 at the Mayfair Collection, an upscale mall in west suburban Wauwatosa.  Both locations have about 250 different bottles of wine - all by the glass.  It's not quite the over 600 bottles of wine Amidzich had at the original Pizza Man location, but it's a nice start as he and his sommelier, Heather Korte, are trying to add about 10 new varieties a month. 

I was staying in downtown Milwaukee and I made my way up Prospect Ave., then after a couple jogs I was on N. Downer Ave. pulling up to Pizza Man which sits on the corner of Downer and E. Belleville Place.  (see map)  The parking around the place is primarily street parking and I was able to find a spot just down the street from the restaurant. 

Many of the tables and booths were filled when I got in around 8 p.m.  I asked the hostess if I could get food at the bar.  She said it was no problem.  She let me pick out my spot at the crowded bar - I think I got the last seat - and she left off a menu for me to look through.  My bartender/server that evening was a young man with the distinctive name of Eder.  I had a quick look through the beer list and I had him bring me a Lagunitas IPA while I looked through the wine list just to see what they had to offer.  It was an impressive collection of West Coast U.S. wines, most of them from California, but they also had a number of wines from Washington and Oregon. 

The inside of the place had sort of a rustic, yet urban look to the place.  The back bar was sent in an arch of bricks with a long tall bar in front.  There was a tin roof ceiling above the bar and the famous wine bottle Christmas tree at the old Pizza man has been replaced by a wine bottle chandelier that hangs above the staircase.   (Photo at right courtesy Milwaukee Business Journal.)

All the pizzas at Pizza Man start with a choice of thin crust, pan, or gluten free dough.  From there, you choose a sauce - the classic is Pizza Man's original red pizza sauce, the Italia features a red sauce made out of San Marzano tomatoes, the bianca is a white garlic sauce, and they have a pesto sauce base, as well.  The toppings start with a dozen different types of meat including spicy lamb sausage, pancetta and prosciutto from the La Quercia artisan meat company out of Norwalk, IA, and grass-fed ground beef.  Vegetable toppings to choose from number over 20 including raddachio, rappini, Brussels sprouts, Kalamata olives, Calabrian hot peppers, and caramelized pineapple.  And Pizza Man offers nearly a dozen different types of cheese including goat cheese, a 3-year-old cheddar, smoked provolone, gorgonzola, and cream cheese.  Of course, they have fresh mozzarella, parmesan and romano cheese. 

Pizza Man specialty pizzas - which number over a dozen - include the Atomic made with the San Marzano sauce, salami, pancetta, Calabrian peppers, red onions, smoked provolone, and oregano; the Greca has the white garlic sauce base, spicy lamb sausage, pine nuts, oregano and red onions; the Apugliese is topped with sausage, rapini, romano cheese, and an anchovy-garlic oil; and the Avantgardner is Pizza Man's vegetarian specialty pizza topped with grilled egg plant, rapini, red peppers, onions, oregano, ricotta cheese and a lemon oil. 

The one thing about it, because of the eclectic sauces, vegetable and meat toppings, the pizza at Pizza Man isn't cheap.  Many of the specialty pizzas started out at $17 for a small (12") thin crust pizza.  A small pizza made with the San Marzano sauce base starts at $12.  From there, meat toppings run $3 or $4 dollars each and vegetables run $2 each.  Additional cheese toppings run $3 bucks.  And it doesn't matter with the size of pizza - the price of the toppings is the same no matter the size (small, medium - 14", large - 18"), so getting a larger pizza is a better value.

I went with my old standby Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  I went with the thin crust - a small - and with the San Marzano sauce and fresh mozzarella cheese.  The sausage served on Pizza Man's pizza comes from Vinny's Sausage Company, a Milwaukee-based meat company known for their bratwurst, Italian, Hungarian and Polish sausage.  The pizza you're looking at on the left ran right at $23 bucks.  Ouch! 

So, it had better be great, right?  Well, it wasn't THAT great - I mean it was very good with the fresh toppings including the zippy pepperoni slices, the chunky and zesty Italian sausage, and the fresh and earthy sliced mushrooms.  The San Marzano sauce was difficult to decipher on the tongue - I would have liked to have tried the classic Pizza Man sauce to see if there was a significant difference.  The fresh mozzarella was very good, however.  And the crust had a caramelized ring with a soft, yet crunchy texture.   This was a very good pizza - but $23 bucks worth?  For a 12" pizza? Hmmm...  Tough to say.

I can see where some people would get sticker shock if they didn't know what to expect with the prices of the pizzas at Pizza Man.  And for those of you who haven't been there before - like me - that's why I'm telling you.  With my pizza and three Lagunitas IPA's (beers were $6 bucks each - double ouch!), my bill came to over $50 bucks with tax and a tip for Eder's fine job of taking care of me.  I mean, the pizza was very good.  I don't know if it was that good of a value, but it was different than most any other pizza in the Milwaukee area.  And given that the place was packed - and they've opened a second location in Wauwatosa - the people who go to Pizza Man realize that they're getting a better pizza and are willing to pay for it.  And that's what Pizza Man is evidently going for - a better and different pizza than what's available elsewhere.  I just don't know if it's worth it, though.  (Photo courtesy Milwaukee Business Journal.)

Palomino Bar - Milwaukee, WI

During a visit with one of my dealers in Milwaukee recently, we decided to go out to dinner.  Always coming up with great places to eat, he asked me what I was in the mood for that evening.  I told him anything was fine and he asked if I was up for a bit of a drive.  "There's a place in Bay View called the Palamino Bar that my girlfriend and I really like."  I remember trying to go to the Palamino Bar for a burger for lunch one time, but found that the place doesn't open until 4 p.m.  I eagerly took him up on his suggestion and we ventured off to the Palamino Bar for dinner.  

The Palamino Bar is sort of an upscale neighborhood corner bar.  In fact, when it  opened in November of 2002, it took the place of Nellie's, one of the many names that adorned the sign out front since the building became a tavern in the 1950's.  When Leslie Montemurro and Scott Johnson - the people behind other Milwaukee establishments such as Milwaukee Fuel, Comet Cafe and the Hi-Hat Lounge on Milwaukee's east side - bought Nellie's, they didn't do much to the place before they opened up as the Palamino Bar.  They added some booths, put in a fake fireplace and changed some lighting, but that was it.  They selected the name Palamino because, well, they thought it was a cool name.  

About three years ago, the Palamino Bar closed for a few weeks for some updating in the dining area and kitchen.  It reopened with two new partners added to the ownership group to run the place, the brother and sister team of Adam and Valerie Lucks.  Adam Lucks had been associated with Montemurro and Johnson's MojoFuco Restaurant Group for a number of years and Valerie Lucks joined the team about 10 years ago to help run the Comet Cafe.  The Lucks also owned the Honeypie Cafe that featured made from scratch Midwestern-style foods.     

Palamino Bar is on the corner of S. Superior and E. Russell streets in Bay View, a couple blocks from Lake Michigan.  (see map)  My dealer and I drove separately and I found some parking just down the street while my dealer was lucky to find a spot in front of the restaurant.  

The interior of the Palamino Bar is a throwback to the old time neighborhood taverns that populate the greater Milwaukee area.  Low-ceilinged, soft lighting, a classic bar - there's even an old juke box with pool tables in the back.  A large portrait of a horse head hangs on the back wall. (Photo courtesy On Milwaukee.com)

My dealer is one of those guys who likes to belly up to the bar and I had no problem with that.  We were greeted by an urban hipster bartender who handed us a couple of menus.  I ordered up a Ballast Point Sculpin beer to go along with the vodka tonic my dealer ordered.

The food at Palamino Bar could be categorized as Americana with a flair for Southern-style cooking.  My dealer couldn't quit raving about how great their fried chicken is.  "I don't eat a lot of fried chicken," he told me.  "But theirs is the best I've ever had.  In fact, we were here just the other night eating the fried chicken.  My girlfriend loves it, too."  

I had been told a few years back that the burger at Palamino Bar was definitely worth the stop and I had my sights set on that.  But some other things caught my eye - the Cheddy Shredder sandwich featured pulled braised beef short ribs topped with a red onion jam, cheddar cheese and pickled chilies and served on a housemade pretzel roll.  And Palamino's take on a Cuban sandwich - the Ropa Vieja - featured Cuban-style pulled beef brisket topped with mayo, Swiss cheese, fried onions and served on a hoagie roll.  (Palomino Bar also has a vegan friendly menu and is highly regarded among the vegan community.)

But I went anti-vegan and ended up getting the Burger Deluxe featuring locally-raised grass-fed beef topped with bacon made in-house, American cheese, diced onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and a secret burger sauce and served on a brioche bun.  

The burger was fat and juicy, sitting on a bed of veggies with two pieces of thick-sliced housemade bacon on top.  I normally don't care for grass-fed beef as much as corn-fed beef, but the burger patty was extremely flavorful.  The brioche bun held together very well - the mark of a truly good burger.  I also got a side of the sweet corn with bacon that was sort of "meh!"  I had higher expectations for the sweet corn with bacon bits.  

My dealer got the fried chicken - again.  He truly loves the fried chicken at the Palamino Bar and he got the two piece dinner with a biscuit and a side - he picked the mashed potatoes topped with the sausage gravy.  He offered me a bite of the mashed potatoes and I immediately realized that I should have gotten that instead of the sweet corn and bacon bits.  My dealer also insisted that we get an extra side of the cabbage slaw to share.  It was also sort of "blah!" to me, but better than the sweet corn and bacon.     

But the burger was very good at the Palamino Bar.  I'll have to come back at some point and give the fried chicken a try upon the wholehearted recommendation of my dealer.  I liked the retro atmosphere of the place and the service was fine for sitting at the bar.  Yes, it looks like a typical corner bar on the outside and it looks like a typical corner bar on the inside.  But the very good food and excellent selection of beer and whiskey makes the Palamino Bar something special.  (Photo courtesy On Milwaukee.com) 

Cosmos Cafe - Milwaukee, WI

I stopped by one of my dealers in Milwaukee, Ultra Fidelis, in the early afternoon on a recent trip to the area and they were getting ready to have lunch.  They asked me if I'd like to get something with them and I said, "Sure!", joking that I knew they waited for me to show up so I could pay.  One of the guys suggested getting burgers at a place called Cosmos Cafe.  When I asked where it was, he said it was just up the street.  I said, "Is that the little place back off the street up at the corner?"  He said it was.  I have walked past that place a number of times walking to Ono Kine Grindz, a Hawaiian market/cafe that I like to go to when I stop at Ultra Fidelis (click here to see my entry on Ono Kine Grindz) and the aromas from the grill emanating from the little place has always been excruciatingly enticing.  They told me they have great burgers at Cosmos Cafe, so they called an order in for us for me to go pick up and bring back.   

The owners, Theo and Helen Tselentis, got their start in the business by running the Friday night fish fry's at a local Greek Orthodox Church.  People told them all the time that the fish was so good that they needed to open their own place.  Finally in 2009, the couple opened Cosmos Cafe specializing in Greek food, burgers, and kept the tradition of their own Friday night fish fries.  Initially, they had breakfast on weekends, but they discontinued it after awhile after sales began to decline.  However, people kept asking about their breakfasts and the Tselentis' decided to start up serving weekend breakfasts again a couple years ago.

Cosmos Cafe is technically located in Wauwatosa along North Ave. (see map)  It's set back from the street with a parking lot out front and shares the building with a tax service company.  About 15 minutes after we placed the order by phone, I walked up the street from the store to get our lunch.  

The dining area isn't all that large and all orders are placed at the front counter.  The menu is located on a board above the counter.  In addition to Greek specialties (gyros, Mediterranean salad, saganaki), they also feature sandwiches such as a Jamaican jerk chicken sandwich, a shrimp po' boy pita, and a beef tenderloin sandwich.  They also have platters with your choice of chicken or gyro meat along with rice, chopped tomatoes, black olives, feta cheese and pepperoncini with pita bread.  

Behind the counter was Tina, a family member with an outgoing personality and a great sense of humor.  She knew the guys from Ultra Fidelis well and when I told her I was there to pick up the order she said, "Oh, they have YOU doing their work for them!"  When I explained that I was picking up the tab for lunch, she said, "Well, of course!  That figures..."  Theo Tselentis was finishing up our burgers and a couple orders of Cosmos Cafe's Greek fries - French fries topped with Greek herbs, lemon juice and feta cheese.  

Now, I was just going to have water to drink with my burger, but the guys at the store told me to pick up a couple bottles of Dang root beer at Cosmos Cafe.  (They also sell regular beer there, too.)   I wasn't familiar with Dang and one of the guys told me that it was made locally in Milwaukee and was the best root beer they've ever had.  To me, that was saying a lot because I've always liked the root beer from the Sprecher Brewery in Milwaukee.  When I told them that I didn't drink pop any longer, one of the guys said, "I don't either.  But the only time I do drink pop is when I have a Dang root beer."  

Butterscotch was his favorite.  "Butterscotch," I asked incredulously.  "I love butterscotch!"  

He was talking it up so much that I damned near got one for myself.  I haven't had a pop in over five years, but I came very close that day.  In addition to the butterscotch root beer, Dang (as in "Dang, that's good root beer!") also features a regular root beer, a red creme soda and an Italian cherry soda that mimics the taste of maraschino cherries.  For the fun-haters, there's also a diet regular and a diet butterscotch root beer from Dang. 

Getting the burgers and the fries back to the store, the smell of the flat grilled burger was making my stomach do jumping-jacks.  Opening the styrofoam container, I found a 1/2 pound hand-pattied burger with the melted cheese still bubbling on the top.  Fresh onions (Greek restaurants always have the freshest raw white onions), dill pickles, tomato slices and lettuce came with the burger.  The taste was, well, outstanding.  It was one of those burgers where you first bite into it and go, "Mmmmm...."  The bun was soft and airy, the cheese just dripped off the top of the burger and coagulated with the juices from the beef in the bottom of the container.  When asked how I liked it, I said, "This burger is unbelievable."  Even though it was less than five minutes after it was taken off the grill, I couldn't help but think how much better it would taste if you bit into it seconds after it was served in the cafe.  

The fries were plentiful in the container, topped with the feta cheese, the herbs and lemon juice.  They, too, were excellent fries.  The potato taste inside the crunchy shell came through fine and mixed favorably with the cheese, herbs and lemon juice.  I ended up eating more of the fries than I originally thought I would.  They were very good.  

There are a number of very good burger joints in the greater Milwaukee area.  I think that you have to put Cosmos Cafe in the mix when you discuss the best burgers in Milwaukee.  The burger was simply outstanding and the Greek fries were very good on their own.  This is a family business - the kind I like to support when I can.  However, the next time I get a burger at Cosmos Cafe I'm going to eat it there.  I can almost imagine how good that will given how good it was with take out.     

The Butler Inn - Milwaukee, WI

My regular hotel that I had been staying at in Milwaukee for over the past 10 years had quit being a Hilton property, so I've been trying new Hilton family hotels in the area to see if one comes up to my liking.  I was staying at a Hampton Inn on the northwest side of Milwaukee late last year and was not familiar with many of the restaurants in the area.  I went to the front desk and asked one of the guys where the good restaurants were in the area.  He told me of a family restaurant next door, but I said that I wanted to go to a place that served beer.  Then he told me of a sports bar/gentleman's club that was across the road.  I nixed that suggestion and then one of the other desk clerks came out from the office and said, "If you're looking for good food and some beer, you need to go to The Butler Inn."  Asked what they served and he said, "Everything - pizza, burgers, fish, steaks.  My wife and I go there all the time."  He told me that it was less than a five minute drive from the hotel.  I decided to set out to find The Butler Inn.

The Butler Inn is actually in a small town called Butler, but it's more known to the locals as being in the Timmerman West neighborhood of Milwaukee.  In the early 1900's, the railyard in Butler was the largest north/south track facility in the area.  The building where The Butler Inn stands today used to be a hotel for railroad employees who would be passing through the railyard. 

When the golden age of railroads began to die in the 60's, The Butler Inn was turned into a bar/restaurant.  A devastating fire in 1980 rendered the building a total loss, but the owners at the time - the Marks family - rebuilt the building using the foundation footings of the original building.  

The Marks family sold The Butler Inn in 1988 to pub owner David Tomter.  Tomter had run his namesake bar in Milwaukee's west side since 1974 (he closed Tomter's Inn in 1994) and after purchasing The Butler Inn he remodeled the interior, came up with an expanded menu for food and drinks, and added an outdoor beer garden.  

It was a pretty cold night when I pulled into the parking lot of The Butler Inn around 7:30 p.m. after a short drive from my hotel  (see map)  The beer garden was definitely not open that evening.   Entering The Butler Inn, you come into bar area with a three-sided rectangular bar.  Sort of an eerie red glow envelopes the bar area from a number of beer signs that are hung on the wall.  Looking at the fixtures, some of the decorations and the furniture in the place, I'm guessing the place hasn't been updated since Dave Tomter refurbished the place 25 years ago.  It was far from dated or tired, however.

There's a dining area that's next to the bar area divided by a half-wall with wooden pillars.  The Butler Inn had sort of a cross between a supper club and pub feeling to it.  A banquet/reception/party room is located on the upper floor of the place. 

I ended up sitting at the bar and my bartender/server, a nice lady by the name of Jill came over to greet me and handed me a menu.  She asked what I would like to drink and I noticed that they had Alaskan Amber on tap.  Jill poured me a pint of beer in a frosted glass which I thoroughly enjoyed while I looked through the menu.

The menu at The Butler Inn is very extensive.  I was a little leery of that because of my adage that a restaurant that has a large menu probably does everything just all right, but nothing really well.  The problem I was having was that there was almost too much to choose from on the menu at The Butler Inn. 

The guy back at the hotel wasn't kidding - they had a lot of stuff to choose from.  They have a dozen and a half appetizers on the menu, as well as over a dozen soups and salads (and any combination within) to choose from.   Additionally, they have a slew of sandwiches, burgers, chicken sandwiches and brats on the menu.  Seafood, steaks, ribs, rotisserie and broasted chicken, and pasta dishes populated the menu.  Friday nights, The Butler Inn features a fish fry that they're locally famous for.  They also had a pizza menu that featured housemade thin-crust pizzas in sizes from an 8" personal size pizza up to 32" party pizza that can feed 15 to 20 people.  

I was in a quandary as what to get for dinner that evening.  When Jill came back to get my food order I was still up in the air.  I asked what they were famous for at The Butler Inn and she said, "Well, we do sell a lot of reubens."  I had a reuben earlier in the day.  "If you like burgers, ours are big and juicy," she said.  I was getting burnt out on burgers.  I said that I was just in a food funk from being on the road so much and I didn't quite know what I wanted.  She gave me a few more minutes so I could decide what to get.  I thought I'd give their pizza a try.  I got a small (10") sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  

The pizza looked hand-tossed, but I guessed they probably had a machine to get the crust so thin.  The pizza was cut into party squares and was topped with a plethora of mushrooms, chunk sausage and pepperoni.  There was a bit of charred caramelization on the perimeter of the pizza.  

The sauce they use was sweet and tangy, the mozzarella cheese was thick and stringy.  The pepperoni slices were a bit spicy and salty allowing the pizza to taste good with the Alaskan Amber.  The sausage chunks were good sized and had a bit of a fennel taste to it.  This was a very good pizza.

I was able to finish the pizza with no problem.  As I finished and contemplated getting another beer to savor the pizza, the other bartender - his name was Dave and I'm guessing he was the owner - came over to check on me.  He asked how the pizza was and I told him it was damned good.  "We started to do pizza about nine years ago," he told me as he poured another beer for me.  "It's one of our more popular items on the menu."  

The next day, I told one of my dealers that was calling on that I had gone to The Butler Inn the previous evening.  "We don't live far from there," he was telling me.  "My wife and I go there all the time."  When I told him of my fear of a menu that had too many things on it, he said, "Actually, they do everything very well.  Not excellent, but very well."  And that was my feeling with the pizza I had at the Butler Inn.  It was a very good pizza - not the best I've had - but it would easily hold its own against other pizza places I've eaten at in Milwaukee.  And Milwaukee has a lot of good pizza places.  I don't know if I cared for the Hampton Inn I stayed in all that well, but I'll probably try other places to stay on the far west side of town.  And I'm sure I'll find myself at The Butler Inn again at some point.  

The Anchorage - Milwaukee

For the last nearly 12 years of traveling with my company, my defacto "home-away-from-home" in Milwaukee has been the Hilton Milwaukee River on N. Port Washington in Glendale near Interstate 43 and - of course - next to the meandering Milwaukee River on Milwaukee's north side. (see map)  I like staying there - even though it's out of the way from most of my dealers in the Milwaukee area - because it's cheaper than the other Hilton properties in the Milwaukee area (especially downtown), and because I'm a Hilton HHonors Diamond member, I get a couple free drinks at the bar which is part of the Anchorage restaurant at the Hilton Milwaukee River. I've eaten breakfast at the Anchorage a couple times in the past, but never dinner.  I got into the hotel after 8 p.m. one night and decided not to venture out to find a place for dinner in the area.  I ended up walking down the hall to the Anchorage for dinner.

Since 1973 when the hotel first opened, the Anchorage has hosted families and travelers serving seafood, steaks and pasta dishes.  Long time executive chef Jerry Taylor - who has been with the Anchorage for nearly 30 years - oversees the menu.  But like many older hotels, the Anchorage had grown a little shabby in appearance and corporate edicts cut back the menu.  In 2010, hospitality industry veteran Michael Dietrich - whose father, Axel, was the executive chef at a handful of restaurants including the former English Room at the venerable Pfister Hotel and the upscale Harold's - came to the Hilton Milwaukee River to become its General Manager.  The first thing Michael Dietrich did was to refurbish the tired old Anchorage.  Sprucing up the decor, adding an outdoor patio and redubbing the bar area as the River's Edge Pub, Dietrich went against corporate philosophy allowing Jerry Taylor to broaden the menu at the Anchorage to go from simple dishes back to the exciting and interesting menu entrees that once made the Anchorage a popular culinary destination.  People who hadn't been to the Anchorage in years came back to the restaurant after a glowing review in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel after the "re-opening" of the restaurant in 2011.   

From the times I'd stayed there, I knew the restaurant was a little tired.  I think I'd had a couple meals at the bar and - as I said - breakfast (from the buffet) a couple times.  It was your typical cookie-cutter hotel restaurant.  But I had been hearing that after the shake up the food had gotten pretty good again.  I walked to the hostess stand around 8:30 and was greeted by a very friendly lady who showed me to a table next to a window looking out onto the Milwaukee River.  It was a nice evening and watching the nearby river flow by was very relaxing.  

She dropped off a menu for me and I was soon greeted by my server for the evening, a younger guy by the name of Kyle.  I had some free drink tickets and I ordered up a beer for my first beverage of the evening.  But I figured that I'd be getting some wine with the meal.  

Fresh water fish and seafood entrees dominate the menu at the Anchorage.  They also have steaks, veal dishes, pasta entrees, herb-crusted chicken breast and braised short ribs on the menu.  Seafood appetizers including oysters on the half-shell, steamed mussels, shrimp cocktail, and crab cakes, as well as nightly specials are also on the menu.  

I was thinking of getting some seafood that evening - I almost went out to a sushi restaurant - so fish was on my mind.  One of their signature dishes - bacon-wrapped scallops topped with a Hollandaise sauce - sounded very good.  The char-grilled salmon served with a lemon butter and white asparagus was also appealing.  And a true Spanish paella - shrimp, clams, mussels, chicken, peas, onions and roasted red peppers served with a saffron rice - sounded damned good, too.

In the end, I narrowed my choices down to two dishes both with pasta - the Sole Provost featured a filet of Sole fish wrapped in Maryland crab meat, topped with a shrimp sauce and mussels, all served on a bed of angel hair pasta.  And the seared scallops with a creamy risotto, chopped portabella mushrooms, seared cauliflower, asparagus spears, and roasted red peppers topped with asiago cheese and a white truffle oil was my other finalist.  In the end, I ordered the seared scallops with the risotto.  I also ordered a wedge salad with both the creamy blue cheese dressing and blue cheese crumbles.   

The wedge salad came out first.  Along with it came a basket of housemade raisin pumpernickel bread.  The wedge salad was large with chopped tomatoes on one side, chopped real bacon on the other, blue cheese crumbles on top of the salad and the blue cheese dressing was in a small lamp server.  The salad was good - the lettuce wedge was cold and fresh.  The blue cheese crumbles were pungent and flavorful, as was the creamy blue cheese dressing.  The raisin pumpernickel bread was also a pleasant surprise.  It tasted great when dipped in the dressing.

Before my meal came out, I was ready to switch from beer to wine.  I had found a Malbec by-the-glass on the wine list and I ordered one of those.  I had used one of my free drink tickets on the wine, and I had a "buy-one/get-one-free" ticket for the wine, one of the great perks the Hilton Milwaukee River gives me for being a Hilton Diamond member.  And I knew I would be having a couple glasses of wine.  I ordered a glass of the Malbec from Kyle when he picked up my salad dish.  

 
Not long after, he brought out the seared scallops and risotto.  There were five large bay scallops on a bed of the creamy risotto.  A single seared cauliflower was underneath some parsley greens, a nice sized strip of roasted red pepper also rested underneath a leaf of something that was purple, asparagus and, surprisingly, cut carrots came on the side.  A few chopped portabella mushrooms rounded out the dish.

The scallops were fresh and very good.  They had that nice butter/flat-grilled char to the top and bottom.  The risotto was very good with a nice creamy sauce and a hint of truffle oil.  The whole meal was very good.  

The only problem is that Kyle forgot about my wine.  He was busy - it was still pretty busy after 9 p.m. in the Anchorage - but he just plain forgot about getting me a glass of wine.  Getting it out to me, he apologized.  It was far from a deal breaker.  I did end up finishing that glass and getting a second one to sit and savor the very good dinner I just had. 

For the past year, rumors had been going around Milwaukee that the Hilton Milwaukee River was on the verge of being bought by a local college to house Asian students.  That deal fell through, but I heard on my visit this time that the hotel had lost its lease with Hilton Hotels and would become a Holiday Inn property sometime this summer.  When I stay in hotels on the road, Hilton properties are my foremost choice with Marriott properties a distant second and Holiday Inn's coming in a close third.  I felt bad that this would possibly be the last time I was going to stay at the Hilton Milwaukee River, but I may go back and stay at some point just to be able to have another fine meal from the Anchorage.  Too bad I didn't take it seriously enough until it's no longer a Hilton hotel.  (Photo courtesy OnMilwaukee.com)

Riviera Maya - Milwaukee

If you're a regular reader of Road Tips, you'll know that there are a number of very good to excellent Mexican restaurants in the greater Milwaukee area.  Most of them are centered in the Walker's Point neighborhood and on the near south side of Milwaukee.  One that I've wanted to try for quite sometime is a place in the Bay View neighborhood called Riviera Maya.  On a recent trip to Milwaukee, I stopped into Riviera Maya for lunch.  

In 2004, a small Mexican restaurant opened on the south side of Milwaukee by the name of Xel-Ha, named after the natural aquarium on the Mexican Riviera.  The restaurant took the place of a former Mexican restaurant and became one of the more popular places for Mexican food on the south side.  Faced with big crowds and long waits for their customers, the owners knew that they had to move to a larger location.  They found a bigger location on S. Kinnickinnic Street (known as "KK" Street to the locals) and reopened as Riviera Maya in November of 2007.  On line reviews of the place tout their tortilla soup, mole and guacamole as some of the best in Milwaukee.  

 
I pulled up in front of Riviera Maya just before noon on a soggy week day. (see map)  Walking in, I immediately saw a lively looking dining area - well, let me rephrase that.  A decidedly interesting - yet, somewhat scary - colorful dining room.  It was just after Halloween and I wondered if some of the decorations were still up because of that.  I couldn't tell if the figures were supposed to be some sort of deceased circus performers or what.  The large skeleton face on the wall behind the bar would have scared the bejeezus out of most little kids.  It startled me for a split second.  

I took a seat along the banquette wall lined with fluffy pillow backs.  A large colorful mural was to my back.  My server, Marcos, came over with a menu and asked me if I'd like anything to drink.  I ordered a Dos Equis Amber for the time being.     

Actually, Marcos left me with two menus.  There was the regular menu and a lunch special menu.  Compared to other Mexican restaurants, the menu at Riviera Maya was pretty small.  You had your basic tacos, tostadas, enchiladas, burritos and fajitas with your choice of fillings such as garlic grilled shrimp, steak, pulled pork and shredded beef.  Their chile relleno was available with your choice of meat or vegetable filling other than just a cheese-filled chile relleno that most other Mexican places have.  They had a number of torta (Mexican sandwiches) to choose from - all of which came with a cup of their tortilla soup.  

The mole part of the menu was the most interesting.  You don't see a lot of mole dishes featured on Mexican restaurant menus, but Riviera Maya had a number of mole sauces that you can order to go over enchiladas with your choice of meat or fillings.  They had five different mole sauces including a pumpkin seed mole sauce with onion, cilantro and green peppers.  There was a choice of either an almond or sesame seed mole made with broiled tomato sauce, peppers and onions.  Another mole featured chocolate and peanut sauce with blended pasilla and ancho peppers.    

There was also a number of vegetarian dishes on the main menu at Riviera Maya.  I understand that the restaurant is popular for catering vegetarian dinners.  And one thing that is different at Riviera Maya from other Mexican restaurants - the chips and salsa are not free.  A basket of their chips with their combination red and green sauce is $1.95.

Looking over the lunch specials menu, many of the items they serve on the regular menu are available from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.  The one thing that I had my eye on with the regular menu were the enchiladas verde with your choice of chicken, shredded beef, pork or steak.  (Vegetarian enchiladas verde were also available with your choice of potatoes or zucchini for the filling.)  On the regular menu, you get three enchiladas - at lunch, you get two.  I got two of the pork enchiladas verde.  

Not long after I ordered my enchiladas showed up at the table.  A side of Xel-ha rice - basically rice with diced carrots, corn and peas - came with the enchilada.  A healthy bit of goat cheese was on the top of the enchiladas along with chopped tomatoes and lettuce.  The enchiladas were swimming in the verde sauce. 

The enchiladas had a crispy crunch to the shell, but the pork was tender and succulent. It was seasoned and had a bit of a bite to the taste.  With the chile verde sauce had a nice little spicy kick with a little lingering aftertaste.  The enchiladas weren't big, but they were big enough for lunch.

The Xel-ha rice was perfectly steamed and the bits of carrots, corn and peas gave it a nice flavor above and beyond what you normally get with rice.  The rice didn't have any Mexican seasoning which I kind of liked.  Overall, the meal was about as authentic of Mexican food that you could have without being in Mexico.

There are some other Mexican restaurants in the immediate area that I'd like to try at some point, but I may be coming back to Riviera Maya first to try a shredded beef filled chile relleno or a Taco Xel-ha - a corn tortilla stuffed with steak, pork, chorizo and bacon.  The service was adequate.  The food was very good and the atmosphere was, well, trippy.  Riviera Maya holds its own against some of the other very good Mexican restaurants that I've visited in the greater Milwaukee area. 

Oscar's on Pierce - Milwaukee

Talking with Chris at Ultra Fidelis in Milwaukee about burger joints in the area, he suggested I find a place that had just opened nearly three years ago - Oscar's on Pierce.  He boldly told me that it was the best burger in Milwaukee and that they had a great selection of beers.  After a morning meeting in Milwaukee before heading to Chicago, I sought out Oscar's on Pierce to see if what Chris said was true.  

Oscar's on Pierce is not to be confused with Oscar's Frozen Custard, a burger and custard shop with two locations in Milwaukee.  It is owned by Oscar Castaneda, a native of Mexico, and his wife, Elisabeth, who hails from Vienna, Austria.  Oscar made his way from his hometown south of Mexico City to Milwaukee and eventually worked for another very good burger place in Milwaukee - Sobelman's (click here to see my review of Sobelman's).  It was at Sobelman's where he met Elisabeth.  Oscar eventually went to work at The Wicked Hop in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward entertainment and restaurant district.  Wanting to own their own bar to offer great burgers and a great selection of beers at a reasonable price, Oscar and Elisabeth found a nearly 100-year-old building in the Mitchell Park neighborhood of Milwaukee and transformed it into what would be Oscar's on Pierce.  They opened in mid-March of 2011 and have become a solid neighborhood burger joint ever since.  They built an outdoor patio on the back of the building and every once in awhile they'll have bands and music out back in the warmer months.   

Pictured right - Oscar Castaneda

Oscar's goes by many names - Oscar's on Pierce, Oscar's Pub and Grill, Oscar's Bar and Grille - but no matter what you call it, it's pretty much the same place.  Most of the locals refer to it as Oscar's on Pierce, although their Facebook page is under Oscar's Bar and Grill, the same as what is on their logo.  Oscar's is located - of course - on Pierce Street, a block north of National and a block west of S. 16th St. (see map)  There's a good sized parking lot to the east side of the building and more parking available up and down Pierce.  I got there during the lunch rush on my visit and I was able to get a parking place just below the outdoor patio.  

The place was understandably packed.  I found an open seat at the bar and watched the bartender - who looked almost eerily similar to the actor Tim Robbins - make a number of Oscar's signature Bloody Mary's.  They start with a homemade bloody mary mix (and vodka, of course), then add in everything but the kitchen sink - celery, pickle, olives, fresh mozzarella balls, lime and lemon wedges and then, surprisingly, a thick strip of crisp bacon.  The bartender was an artisan making the six or so Bloody Mary's for a group.  But it also meant that he was getting backed up for drink orders.  When he finally extracted himself from the Bloody Mary's, he finally got over to me and asked what I wanted to drink.  They had a fine selection of bottled and beers on tap and I ordered a glass of Anchor Steam.  He asked me if I wanted a menu and I said I did.  He handed one to me when he landed my beer in front of me and he said, "My name is John.  I'll be back with you in a minute."  

There are two areas inside Oscar's on Pierce - the bar area has a handful of tables and a long "L" shaped bar that seats about 15 people.  Antique tin tiles are on the ceiling with antique style lamps hanging down.  There's a small dining room in the back that features a number of tables.  Oscar's probably seats 60 to 70 people inside their building.

All the burgers at Oscar's feature a half-pound of premium Black Angus beef.  Chris had told me that their signature burger - the Big O - was the one to get.  It's a burger topped with smoked gouda and chipotle jack cheese, then topped with hickory-smoked bacon, fried onions and jalapenos, and served with a side of housemade guacamole.  It sounded very interesting, but it also sounded like there would be a lot of different flavors that would mask the taste of the beef.  I looked for something that wasn't quite so "busy" for my burger.  

The Big Gringo featured a burger topped with American and white cheddar cheese with bacon.  The Big Foot was topped with Boursin and blue cheese.  The Big Aloha was topped with ham, a pineapple slice, havarti cheese and a slice of avocado.  The Big O was a little more expensive than the others - $7.25 versus $6.75 - very reasonable, indeed, for the type of burgers they were.  And if you didn't want an eclectic burger, you can get an Oscar burger for $5.00 and an Oscar cheeseburger for $5.50.  

What I settled on was the Big Hondo - a half-pound burger patty topped with Swiss cheese and sauteed mushrooms.  I asked John if I could get bacon on it, as well.  "No problem," he replied.  Handcut French fries came with the burger, but John wanted to know if I wanted to substitute them for their parmesan/garlic fries.  Knowing I had a couple meetings scheduled later in Chicago, I should have said, "No!"  But I ended up going the parmesan/garlic fry route.   I knew I wasn't going to have many.  

About 20 minutes after I ordered my burger, it was brought out to me. The buns at Oscar's are made by the Wild Flour Bakery, a local bakery/cafe in the Milwaukee area.   The crown of the bun was sort of crisp and crunchy, but was soft inside.  It was chewy, but not too chewy where it detracted from the taste of the burger.  Two strips of thick hickory-smoked bacon were laid across the top of the patty that was swimming in Swiss cheese.  Fresh sauteed mushrooms rounded out the toppings on the burger.

The burger was very good.  I could get a good taste of the beef which tasted fresh and flavorful.  The combination of the bacon, Swiss cheese and fresh mushrooms were a winning taste sensation.  The burger, for me, was a little overcooked and didn't have that juiciness that look for in a good burger.  But it was still very good.  

The fries were lightly sprinkled with parmesan cheese and they did have a garlic taste to them.  It wasn't overpowering in taste.  But, as I said, I only had a half dozen or so of the fries.  I was more interested in finishing the burger.

The lunch crowd had filtered out as I was working on my burger.  John came over and asked if I wanted another Anchor Steam.  I told him, no, I was fine.  He said, "You know, my girl friend and I are going out to the Bay Area in January.  We have some friends out there and we like to head out there from time to time.  I called the Anchor Brewery, I don't know, a couple weeks ago, and asked if I could get a brewery tour.  You know what they told me?  They said their brewery tours are sold out into March!"  (This was in November when I was there.)

I told him of the time that Cindy and I were in San Francisco around 15 years ago and I called the brewery up and wanted to get a tour.  They pretty much told me the same thing - the tours were sold out weeks in advance.  I told John, "I grew up in the hometown of the then-owner of Anchor, Fritz Maytag.  He was the grandson of the guy who founded the Maytag washer machine company.  I tried telling the lady on the phone that I was from Fritz Maytag's hometown of Newton, IA and that didn't matter a bit to her."  

John laughed along with me and said, "She wouldn't have cared if you were the President of the United States.  You weren't getting in!"  His quick smile and outgoing nature made him a natural to work the bar at Oscar's.

So, is it the best burger in Milwaukee?  Man, I've had some very good ones at Sobelman's, Matty's, Jake's Burger, Stack'd Burger Bar, and AJ Bombers, to name a few (click on the links to take you to my reviews of these Milwaukee burger joints), all of which have probably passed the venerable Solly's in what I thought was the best burger in Milwaukee at one time.  (I do need to make a return trip to Solly's for a more in-depth review on the place.)  The burger at Oscar's was very good, don't get me wrong.  I would have no problem recommending the place and I would go back for a Big O burger at some point.  I don't know if I can call it the best burger I've had in Milwaukee, but it's gotta be damn close.  

Meritage - Milwaukee

I've owed the guys from Ultra Fidelis in Milwaukee a nice meal for a little while.  All are followers of Road Tips and have turned me on to - or have taken me to - some pretty nice places in the Milwaukee area over the years.  On this journey to Milwaukee, they suggested going to a place called Meritage in the Washington Heights neighborhood on the city's west side.  On a rainy evening, we drove over to the place on W. Vliet Street. (see map)

As with Meritage wines - a blending of different varieties of grapes to create a Bordeaux-style of wine - chef Jan Kelly blends a combination of locally grown foods that work well with the wines she has on hand at Meritage.  The menu at Meritage changes with the seasons allowing Kelly to get the freshest foods from local farmers and producers.  

Jan Kelly comes from a culinary family and has her own rich culinary background.  Her parents ran a unique fine dining gourmet restaurant in Southern California called The Hobbit.  The Hobbit is housed in a Spanish-style home and offers only one seating an evening serving a seven-course meal.  Jan Philippi, as she was known then, didn't necessarily want to get into the restaurant business, but she found that working in the kitchen was fun and rewarding.  Her idea of being an animal training soon waned and she ended up moving up to Northern California to work in other restaurants.

Pictured right - Jan Kelly 

Philippi took a fill-in job in a kitchen in a restaurant in Santa Cruz, CA, making salads and shucking oysters.  It was there that she found her first mentor, a classically-trained French chef.  Had she not had that experience working with that chef, her career in cooking would have ended when the full-time worker came back.  She ended up going to work for another restaurant in the Santa Cruz area, this one headed by a Swiss-trained chef, eventually becoming the pastry chef.  

After her brother took over The Hobbit, Jan Philippi eventually moved back to Southern California to become the chef in the family restaurant.  In the meantime, she met and eventually married Gary Kelly, a former speed skater who had trained at the Olympic speed skate track in Milwaukee and who attend the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.  Each summer Gary and the-now Jan Kelly came back to Milwaukee to visit.  Jan Kelly fell in love with the city and when her husband was offered a job in Milwaukee in the mid-90's, she jumped at the chance to follow him to the Midwest.  It was quite a leap of faith for a girl who lived her whole life in California.  

Jan Kelly's first job in Milwaukee was as the sous chef at the old Delafield restaurant, with other sous-chef stints at a couple other restaurants.  She had a couple of other jobs at other restaurants around Milwaukee before she became executive chef at Barossa in the city's Walker's Point neighborhood.  When Barossa closed in 2007, Kelly and her husband took another leap of faith by opening Meritage in what was formerly the Highlander restaurant, but had most recently been a martini bar.   

Kelly's goal is to make people get out of their comfort zone when it comes to food, to allow her customers to trust her when it comes to the clever blending of ethnic foods and ingredients.  Kelly says that she likes to give her patrons a new flavor within a familiar dish, trying all the time to have fun with the food.  And it's worked.  A couple years ago, Kelly was named a semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundation award for best chef in the Midwest.  

It was a rainy night when we went to Meritage.  Parking is on the street only in the neighborhood and I got a little soaked running from my car a block and a half away to the restaurant.  But inside, I found a small, cozy and comfortable place with a bar area off to the side.  I was joined by Jon - one of the co-owners of Ultra Fidelis, Bob - who had just come off knee replacement surgery, and Chris - a part-timer at U.F. whose main vocation is a traveling sales guy like me, and who has shared with me some of his favorite places to eat in the Midwest.  We were seated at a table near the bar and we were greeted by our server that evening - a 20-something young man with an urban hip look to him.  He dropped off menus for us and told us of a couple specials that evening.  One of the specials was a sea bass entree.  It sounded intriguing, but so did a couple of other things on the menu.  

Not knowing what to expect, I immediately saw that I, indeed, needed to think outside my culinary comfort zone at Meritage.  There was a mix of Mexican, Asian and European influenced foods, sometimes in the same entree.  The Duck Stir Fry entree consisted of a braised duck leg with carrots, daikon (an Eastern Asian type of radish), and bok choy served in a black pepper sauce with Udon (Chinese) noodles and fried duck wings.  The Stacked Enchilada featured layers of grilled shrimp, smoked pork rice and corn tortillas served with adobo sauce.  The Pork Tenderloin at Meritage consisted of a juniper berry-encrusted pork chop topped with a parsnip and celery root puree, and served with an apple, arugula, beet, fennel and walnut salad.  And I thought the prices were pretty reasonable.  Each of those entrees were $19 or $20 bucks.  There was a lot of stuff going on in those dishes.  

When it came time to order, however, I was torn between the Machamentales Stew - a Mexican stew consisting of bison meat, green chilies, pineapple and sweet potatoes served with mashed plantains; or the Saffron Pasta and Braised Veal entree that consisted of homemade pasta served with white wine and herb-braised veal chunks with an assortment of seasonal vegetables.  When everyone started to order they made the waiters job easy - all three of my guests ordered the sea bass special for that evening.  I was just shaking my head when the waiter got to me and I said, "Geez, guys.  You were each supposed to order something different so I'd have more time to figure out what I wanted."  I did a quick mental "eenie-meenie-mynie-mo" and came up with the Saffron Pasta and Braised Veal.  Jon picked out a nice bottle of white wine that I neglected to note what it was.  

We each had salads or soups to open the meal.  Jon, who was seated to my left, had the beet salad.  It was very interesting.  It consisted of chopped roasted beets with a horseradish and blue cheese dressing mixed in along with walnuts and arugula.  He said, "Boy, this is tough to beat."  

 

I opted for the green chile with lamb soup.  I've been on a roll with green chile soups since a couple of recent trips to Colorado.  But having the lamb in the soup instead of pork made it even more appealing.  I was never really big on lamb until I got deep into Indian food.  The soup had chopped cilantro mixed in with the green chile broth.  The lamb was tender and flavorful, but the soup wasn't overly spicy.  At least not for me.  And for five and a half bucks, it was a great bargain to start the meal.  

As I said, Jon, Bob and Chris all got the sea bass entree.  It featured a fruit blend sitting on top of a pan-seared sea bass filet which was then perched on top of, I believe, roasted vegetables and arugula.  It was a healthy piece of sea bass that all three got.  And each of them said it was delicious.  

 

My saffron and braised veal dish was a potpourri of colors and flavors featuring large chunks of tender veal that was somewhat shredded and an assortment of veggies mixed in with the homemade pasta.  A piece of garlic bread with bone marrow spread on it came with the dish.  It was an absolutely fabulous meal.  

Afterward, as Jon and I are wont to do when we get together for a good meal, we got a glass of Scotch - The Balvenie doublewood.  But Chris was familiar with the bartender, Dave, and his penchant for smoking alcohol such as bourbon.  Chris said, "He had this smoked bourbon and he called it 'Campfire'.  And after you took a sip of it, you really thought you were drinking the smoke of a campfire."  He said it wasn't unpleasant, but had a smooth, silky and smoky flavor to it.  Chris asked Dave if he had any of the "Campfire" and he said he didn't.  But he had a smoked brandy that evening.  Chris got one of those and we asked if we could get a sample for Jon, Bob and me to try.  

It was interesting, to say the least.  It had the initial smoothness of brandy with a smoky aftertaste.  The smoke wasn't overpowering, but had a nice lingering slow fade.  I was asking Dave about his technique and he said that he takes a couple bottles of whatever he wants to smoke and puts them into a canister to infuse the smoke into them.  I asked him how he came about finding out about smoking alcohol and he said it was sort of an idea that he had after reading about getting a smoke taste into beer.  He said the first time he tried it, it sort of backfired on him.  "Actually, the first time I tried it, I didn't think I smoked it long enough after sampling it.  Then I put it in for, I don't know, three or four hours and it was too smoky.  I figured that a couple hours of smoking the alcohol works about the best."  That's how long it took him infuse the smoke into the brandy. 

Overall, our meal at Meritage was very good.  We had great service and it was fun talking with Dave the bartender about his penchant for smoked alcohol.  And I thought the price of the meals were very reasonable for all that was going on with our dishes.  I can't find much of anything to complain about Meritage.  There's a lot of good places to eat in Milwaukee, but if you're looking for something different with out-of-the-box thinking when it comes to the menu, I'd heartily recommend Meritage.  

Erv's Mug - Oak Creek, WI

There's a place with a unique name in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek that has intrigued me for awhile - Erv's Mug.  I've passed it a couple times while traveling to the American TV store location in Oak Creek.  On a recent trip up to Milwaukee, I took the Ryan Road exit off of Interstate 94 and headed east for a mile to have lunch at Erv's Mug.

Erv Kazik was a longtime bartender in the Milwaukee area, gathering a legion of fans that followed him from places like Schneider's in downtown Milwaukee and De Salvo's Italian Restaurant in Cudahy out to the Oak Chalet at the corner of S. Howell and Ryan Road in Oak Creek.  Erv had an idea for a bar that he'd like to run.  He envisioned a bar that was open only through the week days, selling burgers and beer.  

Just to the west of the Oak Chalet was a dilapidated building that once housed the Oak Creek volunteer fire department.  In 1979, it came up for sale and Erv Kazik bought the building, complete with an attached apartment.  Erv and his wife, Barb, along with friends cleaned out the building and put in a bar and a grill.  Erv's Mug became a place for Erv and his friends to hang out through the week.  And when he was closed on Saturday's, his friends would still come by in the morning to play cribbage.  Invariably, one of them would be hungry and Erv would fire up the grill.  Seeing cars in the parking lot, more people would come in and Erv suddenly was forced to open up on Saturdays.  

(Pictured right - Erv Kazik and his daughter, Danielle.  Photo courtesy of onmilwaukee.com) 

A year after he opened, someone suggested to Erv that he do a Friday night fish fry.  Suddenly, Erv's was a destination for hundreds of south Milwaukee area residents on Friday nights.  But one thing that Erv did not waver from - he never opened on Sundays or holidays.  He believed that the people that worked for him needed to be with their families on those days.  

Erv and Barb never wanted their daughter, Danielle, to get into the family business even though she literally grew up in the place and they encouraged her to do something big in her life.  Danielle got her law degree in 1990 and had been practicing law in the Oak Creek area for a few years when Erv and Barb decided to retire.  Wanting to keep the family legacy going, Danielle took over Erv's Mug in 2004.  Retirement was a loose term for Erv and Barb - you'd find Erv in the place nearly every morning talking with friends and making sure people showed up for work.  Unfortunately, Erv passed away in late April of 2012.  I was told the memorial service at the church and the celebration of life get together afterward at Erv's were both "packed with people".  

Getting to Erv's from the west on Ryan Road is a bit of a challenge.  Oak Creek has a traffic control design that doesn't allow for left hand turns within what seems like a quarter mile of major intersections.  You have to either go east of S. Howell, do a U-turn and head back to Erv's, or do like I did - go south on Howell, do a U-turn, then take a left at the light back on to westbound Ryan, then to Erv's Mug that sits just past the Walgreen's.  In fact, the old Oak Chalet stood where the Walgreen's now stands.  (see map)   Getting out of Erv's if you want to go east on Ryan Road is also a hassle, as in you have to go west and do a U-turn to go east.  Thankfully, I just had to go west back out to Interstate 94 when I left.  

Pulling into the parking lot, there were a number of cars at 1:30 in the afternoon telling me it's a popular place.  I went inside and came into the bar area with a back bar with well over two dozen beer spigots on the wall.  Just one gentleman was seated at the bar, so I went back to the entry of the dining area.  I looked inside and noticed that most of the people in there were older - as of possibly retired-aged people.  The dining room looked friendly with a number of decorations on the wall and hanging from the ceiling.  I understand that Erv and Barb used to make regular trips to similar family-type taverns in the Chicago area to get ideas for their place including decorations.  

 
A hostess came up to greet me and I asked if I could get lunch at the bar.  She said,  "Oh sure!  You can get food at the bar."  I walked over to find a seat at the bar and she dropped off a menu for me to look at.  The bartender/server - Jason - came over to greet me.  He asked me if I wanted anything to drink and I took a long hard look at the over two dozen beer taps that were in front of me.  He said, "Here, we have a beer menu, too."  They certainly had a lot of eclectic beers on tap and in bottles at Erv's Mug.  But I found one of my favorites on tap that is tough to find outside of the state of Wisconsin - Wisconsin Amber from the Capital Brewery.  

 
The bar area at Erv's Mug had a lot of natural light coming in from the south facing windows and featured some interesting beer signs - many of them attached to the ceiling.  There was a nice old fireplace along one wall with a number of old beer spigots on a shelf rack over the mantle.  The bar area was cozy with some small tables and I could see where the place could get pretty packed some evenings with people waiting for tables in the dining area.  

The lunch menu at Erv's is somewhat different from the dinner menu that they serve after 5 p.m.  While both menus feature a number of burgers, sandwiches and appetizers, the entrees served at lunch are smaller in size and selection from their dinner entrees.  They do feature a filet steak at lunch, but they have five different types of steaks to choose from at dinner.  Ribs and a number of seafood and lakefish entrees are available in the evening, as well.  

As I was looking through the menu, Jason pointed out their special that day was something called the "Garbage Sandwich."   He explained to me that they take the leftover cuts of roasts, prime rib and steaks, cooking them in an au jus sauce with leftover chunks of vegetables, then serving them on ciabatta bread.  He said, "We call it the garbage sandwich because if we didn't make it this way, they'd just go into the garbage.  It's pretty good, one of our most popular sandwiches."  

I had been looking at either getting the reuben, the prime rib sandwich, or something that was called the Bavarian Triple Decker - cold turkey and corned beef topped with Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and a creamy horseradish sauce and served on black Bavarian rye bread.  But after Jason described the sandwich, I couldn't pass it up.  He said, "It also comes with a side of our apple pecan baked beans."  Apple pecan baked beans?  I don't care for pecans much and I don't like apples.  But, what the hell.  I'd give it a shot.

Jason brought my sandwich out and it was cut in half flanking a small bowl of the baked beans.  An interesting barbecue-type sauce also came on the side - sort of a honey-mustard barbecue sauce.  The beef had been pulled apart and was more shredded than sliced.  The ciabatta bread was airy and spongy with a nice crisp outer shell.

The sandwich was, well, it was all right.  I mean, I guess I thought it was going to be some taste sensation that would blow me away.  The beef was tender, but not too flavorful.  The interesting barbecue sauce helped give the sandwich a little more zip in taste, but it wasn't spicy by any sense.  

I will have to say that I was surprised by the beans.  Although I don't like the taste of apples, there was a subtle and sweet apple taste to the beans.  I couldn't detect any taste of pecans in the beans, but that doesn't mean they weren't there.  They were actually very good and very different from any type of baked beans I've had at anytime.  

One of the cool things about Erv's Mug is that the third Tuesday of each month they have a "Beer Dinner".  They pair a number of eclectic craft beers with a menu their in-house chef comes up with.  It's a four-course dinner that starts with a beer-based soup, then it goes on to a salad with ingredients that go well with a specific beer.  The main course is usually a meat or seafood entree, then followed by a dessert.  Beer dinners at Erv's begin at 6 p.m. and I saw on the poster they had on the wall that reservations are strongly recommended.   

Even though the sandwich was just sort of average in my category, I enjoyed my visit to Erv's Mug immensely.  They had a great selection of beers, it looked like much of the items were made from scratch, and it was the type of place that I wished we had in our neighborhood back home.  It's easy to see why Erv's Mug is such a popular place and has been for nearly 35 years.  I probably won't go with a Garbage Sandwich on my next visit, but with as extensive of a menu that they have I'm sure I'll be able to find something that trips my trigger.  

Matty's Bar and Grille - New Berlin, WI

I was in Milwaukee recently and had some time to kill between appointments on the west side of town. It was getting close to lunch time and I was getting a little hungry.  I had read about a place called Matty's Bar and Grille and how they're supposed to have a killer burger.  The only problem is that Matty's is out in New Berlin (pronounced BER-lin, not ber-LIN like in Germany) and it was a little bit of a drive from where I was.  I put their address into my GPS and about 20 minutes later I pulled up in front of the bar on W. College Ave. (see map)

Matty's has been around since 1997 and is owned by Matt Anderson.  Anderson transformed a sleepy little bar into one of the top destinations to watch sports in the greater Milwaukee area.  While it's not as big as Major Goolsby's in downtown Milwaukee, nor does it come close to the number of televisions that Goolsby's has, it's more like a friendly little neighborhood bar that has better than average sports bar food.  Their signature burger, the Smokehouse burger - part smoked beef brisket and certified black angus - was concocted by Chef Bob Nicholson who has run the kitchen at Matty's for the past seven years.  In addition to their burgers, Matty's also has a number of delectable sandwiches and their own in-house thin-crust pizza.   

 
Matty's is situated in a building with a stone front around the entrance and it looks like the place has been added on to two or three times.  It definitely had been added on to in the back of the place with their four seasons room which, in contrast to the main part of the place, features a high ceiling, large windows and an exit to an outside beer garden off to the side of the building.  The main part of the bar area is more cozy than the open and airy four seasons room in the back.

I was greeted by a young lady who asked me if I wanted a table or to sit at the bar.  I opted for the bar and sat down just as the noon news started on the television in front of me.  On the back bar of Matty's, there was a somewhat sophisticated computer than controlled the multiple satellite receivers they had for receiving sports on their 18 televisions.  Matty's subscribes to DirecTV so they have access to every professional sports television package, as well as all the regional networks that feature college sports in the fall and winter.   

A young lady who was working behind the bar - Gabby - offered me a menu and told me that it was "chili day" at Matty's.  For $9.99 you got a sample of three different types of chili that Chef Bob Nicholson came up with for that particular day.  Chili did sound good on a day that had come on the heels of a cold front that plowed through the area overnight, but I was still in the mood for a burger.  

After getting a Capital Wisconsin Amber that they had on tap, I looked through the menu to see if anything else jumped out at me other than getting one of their burgers.  One of the interesting items was the Mama's Meatloaf sandwich, a secret meatloaf recipe that is topped with a sauce and served on ciabatta bread.  They also had a pastrami sandwich - "Matty's Style" - that featured thin slices of warm pastrami, topped with a brown mustard and served on marble rye bread.  I'm a sucker for a good pastrami sandwich and the description of the one on Matty's menu almost made me forget about a hamburger.

But, no, the Smokehouse burger was the draw for me on this visit.  (I figured that I could come back to Matty's at some point for the pastrami.)  At Matty's, you build your own burger - first choosing from one of over a dozen different cheeses that range from American to smoked cheddar to provolone to crumbled blue cheese to exotic cheeses such as black peppercorn and white cheddar, and dolcina cheese that is part cow and goat milk cheese with a sweet creamy gorgonzola taste.  Being that you're in Wisconsin, you wouldn't expect anything less for a good burger with cheese. 

After choosing your cheese, you have the option of ten different toppings including green peppers, jalapenos, fried egg, sauerkraut and sun-dried tomatoes.  Then you could get your choice of over a dozen spices or sauces such as cajun or Caribbean jerk seasonings, blue cheese butter, black bean corn relish (probably more for the grilled chicken sandwiches) and garlic aioli.  The combinations were endless and I was in a little bit of a fog trying to figure out what I wanted.

When Gabby came back to take my order, I ended up getting the Smokehouse burger topped with pepperjack cheese, bacon that is smoked in house, and mushrooms.  I had my choice of a side with the burger - sides that included homemade potato chips, cottage cheese, fruit, pasta salad and cole slaw.  I decided upon French fries to go with the burger.  

 
With the lunch rush kicking in while I was there, my burger came out less than 20 minutes after I ordered - long enough for me to down a pint of the Wisconsin Amber and time to order another.  The burger came out wrapped in a paper half-wrap that could be used to hold the burger without getting any juice or condiments on your hands.  I quickly tore it off so I could inspect the burger with the bun open.  It featured copious amounts of chopped mushrooms, two thick slices of smoked bacon and a gooey amount of pepperjack cheese.  The fries were nothing special to me, but there was a nice little treat sitting on top of the fries - a homemade chocolate chip cookie.  I'd never had a cookie as part of the overall meal before.  

The first bite of the burger elicited an "Mmmmmmmm..." from yours truly.  The 1/2 lb. Smokehouse burger was lean, but juicy.  The combination of the cheese, bacon and mushrooms only heightened the taste sensation I was having.  The bun was light and chewy, yet firm, holding together wonderfully with everything that was on the burger.  It was cooked to what I would call a perfect medium with a slight hint of pink the very middle of the burger patty.  It was simply one of the best burgers I've ever had.  

So far this year, I've had a handful of burgers that would either make my Top Ten Burger List or would be high honorable mentions.  And the Smokehouse burger at Matty's Bar and Grille was one of the best I've had this year.   While I may think about getting a pastrami sandwich or to try their pizza when I make it back down the road, it's going to be tough to pass up having another Smokehouse burger with some other combination of toppings.  I immediately liked Matty's and was jealous of the people who were regulars of the place.  It was one of those places that I could see going to time and time again to watch sports and grab a bite to eat if I lived nearby. 

El Fogon Tacos and Beer - Oak Creek, WI

I found myself in the south Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek one evening as I had a training session at a nearby dealer scheduled for the next morning.  Thanks to winter hanging on deep into spring, I had been driving in a mixture of rain and sleet before it finally turned to all snow just as I got into the greater Milwaukee area.  Being a little burnt out from the drive, I just wanted to eat at some place close to the hotel, and quick to eat - preferably, a place that sold alcohol.  Driving south down Howell Ave., I passed an interesting looking restaurant with an equally interesting name called El Fogon Tacos and Beer.  "Hmmmm....", I thought to myself.  "I like tacos and I like beer!"  I decided to make a U-turn and head back toward the place.  It turned out that going north on Howell and getting into El Fogon was sort of a challenge.  But a left turn on Puetz Road, then another U-turn later down the street with a double back, I pulled into the parking of the restaurant at the corner of S. Howell and Puetz Rd. (see map) (Getting out of El Fogon to go back north on Howell was a problem, as well.  You're cut off from entering the northbound turn lane onto Howell and you have to go east on Puetz, then do a U-turn to come back to take a right on Howell.)

El Fogon - which translates into "The Chimney" in English - is owned by Filberto (Phil) Lando and his wife, Nelly.  It's been open for about two and a half years and is situated in a small strip mall - curiously, it's right next to a bank.  It's not a large place, it probably seats 40 people,  The decor wasn't fancy in the least in the well-lit dining area.  I was met by a waiter who wanted to know if I wanted to sit at a table or sit at the bar.

 
I ended up sitting at the bar that had a gas fireplace in the middle of back bar.  At least I thought it was a gas fireplace.  Hell, it probably could have been one of those fake ones, considering all the alcohol they had on shelves around the bar.  

The waiter dropped off a menu for me and for a place that touts "tacos and beer", they didn't seem to have a very good selection of beers to choose from.  But they sure did have a lot of tequilas on the shelf and their menu touted a number of specialty margaritas including a cucumber margarita served with cucumber slices and lime juice, and a pineapple/cilantro margarita.   El Fogon has some "secret ingredient" that they add to a number of their margaritas.   I wanted a beer, so I got a Dos Equis Amber.

I also got a complementary basket of chips along with two different types of sauces.  One was a spicy green sauce that was just outstanding.  The other was an even hotter red sauce that was very peppery to the taste.  My server asked me if if I wanted anything more mild like their pico de gallo or their homemade peanut salsa.  I told him the green sauce was fine and dandy with me.  It was killer! 

And don't let the name fool you - they definitely have more than just tacos on their menu.  They had Alambre, something I'd not had since our visit to Isla Mujeres off the Yucatan peninsula about 15 years ago.  Alambre is basically a skewered meat that is roasted and then mixed in with onions, peppers and topped with cheese.  El Fogon gave you the choice of chicken or steak with their Alambre.  They also had fajitas, enchiladas and something called Chicken El Fogon - a grilled chicken breast that is topped with grilled onions and jalapenos, with a side of lettuce and guacamole.  

I'm usually a sucker for fish tacos and they had them on the menu at El Fogon, as well as shrimp tacos.  Of course, they had steak, chicken, ground beef, and al pastor (spicy marinated pork) tacos, as well.  You could make a combination meal out of tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, mini chimichanagas or quesadillas.  But one thing sort of jumped out at me when I was looking through the menu.

They had flautas on the menu - basically thin-rolled tacos stuffed with your choice of meat and deep fried.  They had a choice of either shredded chicken or shredded beef for their flautas.  Those sounded really good for some reason that evening and I ended up ordering the shredded beef flautas.   

The flautas came with sides of refried beans, rice, guacamole and sour cream.  Actually, the guacamole was very interesting.  It was unlike any guacamole that I'd had before.  It had some additives that gave it a very fresh and somewhat fruity taste.  I wasn't certain that I liked it at first, but found myself liking it more with each bite on a chip.

The flautas, themselves, were all right.  It's pretty tough to screw up a flauta other than overcooking the beef.  But the shredded beef was tender, moist and very flavorful.  I poured some of the green sauce on the flautas to pep them up a bit and it helped the overall taste tremendously.  

My meal at El Fogon was above-average for Mexican food, but not on the same par as some other excellent Mexican restaurants in the greater Milwaukee area that I've eaten at in the past.  For the suburbs, it was fine.  The Mexican restaurants around the 5th and National area of Milwaukee definitely had it beat.  But if you're in the south suburbs of Milwaukee and are looking for good Mexican, I can wholeheartedly recommend El Fogon.    

 

Jake's Burger - Brookfield, WI

I'm not a restaurateur - I only know how to eat in them.  So, it was interesting to me how a local Milwaukee area chef could take what was a popular casual Mexican restaurant featuring tacos filled with eclectic ingredients and turn it completely around into a gourmet burger joint after 4 years of being in business.  That's exactly how chef Jake Replogle, Jr. did in transforming the former Haute Taco eatery into Jake's Burger in suburban Brookfield.  A tip of the hat to Dawn for giving me the "heads up" on Jake's. On a recent visit to Milwaukee, I had lunch at Jake's Burger before leaving town. 

In 1960, Jake Replogle, Sr. bought a supper club called Wally Behl's in Wauwatosa and opened his eponymous steakhouse - Jake's Steakhouse.  Living above the restaurant, he and his first wife (it was said Jake Replogle, Sr. married 8 to 10 times) worked to make the restaurant a destination for steak lovers, as well as offering duck dinners and seafood.  In 1967, he bought another Wally Behl steakhouse/supper club in Pewaukee and named it Jake's, as well.  He closed down the Jake's in Wauwatosa and concentrated on the new location in Pewaukee.  As the area grew up around Jake's, it became a favorite of thousands of people for great steaks and good food.  (Replogle also owned the Ocean Grill in Vero Beach, FL, spending half his time in Wisconsin and the other half of the year in Florida.) Jake's son, Jake, Jr., helped his father in the restaurant business and he ended up buying the restaurant from his father in 2005.  (Jake Replogle, Sr. passed away in 2009.  His son, Charles, runs the Ocean Grill in Florida.)

The younger Jake Replogle - along with his wife, Karen - opened Haute Taco on the north side of the Sendik's Towne Centre in nearby Brookfield.  Sendik's Towne Centre is a small shopping complex that has a number of shops and restaurants and is anchored by a Sendik's supermarket (see map).  The shopping complex has had trouble attracting both merchants and patrons since it opened just before the economic downturn in 2008.  Proposed housing projects in the immediate area have not come to fruition as quickly as planners had hoped.   Today, the shopping complex still has a handful of empty spaces, but it's much better than the 18% occupancy rate the center had about four years ago.  

The younger Replogle had spent part of his youth growing up in Mexico and he remembered some of the casual foods that he had in Cuernavaca, Mexico.  He opened Haute Taco with the Milwaukee diner in mind.  Although beef tongue was one of the delicacies of the area he lived in Mexico, he knew it wouldn't go over well as a taco filling in suburban Milwaukee.  He developed tacos that had beef short ribs or duck as the main filling.  Haute Taco was in business for four years before the Replogle's decided to shift gears, close Haute Taco, completely remodel the space, and then reopen as Jake's Burger in the spring of 2012.  

The basic burger at Jake's Burger is the same one that is served at Jake's steakhouse - a blend of brisket, sirloin and short beef.  Extras include Nueske's bacon, port-caramelized onions, brie, Wisconsin aged-cheddar and blue cheese.  The "Haystack" onion straws at the burger place are also the same as the very popular onion rings served at the steakhouse.   Most of the burgers start at less than $10, but the extras can add up pretty quickly running the total cost of the burger to well over the $10 buck mark. 

It was right at the noon rush when I made it into Jake's Burger.  I was able to find a spot up front as there was an empty store space next to Jake's and a frozen yogurt shop on the other side of the empty space.  Not many people were hankering for frozen yogurt on a cold late winter day.  

As you walk into Jake's, there's a bar area up front with small bar and a number of top shelf and call liquor bottles on a glass shelf behind.  A couple three televisions are on the wall in the bar area.  Near the front door when you come in, there's an old Coca-Cola machine that stores vintage cans of beer.  During "Happy Hour" - which comes twice daily at Jake's Burger from 2 to 5:30 p.m. and once again from 8 p.m. to close Tuesday thru Friday - vintage can beers from the Coke machine are $2.00

 
I was seated in the dining room behind the bar area underneath a wall that had a potpourri of "Jake's Burger" logos stamped on the wall paper.  From what I understand, there used to be a colorful mural in its place when Haute Taco was in the space.

Looking through the menu, in addition to their sirloin/short beef/brisket mixed burger, they also feature turkey burgers and grass-fed beef burgers.  They also have something called "raft burgers" that are served open faced and meant to be eaten with a fork and knife.  They had an albacore tuna raft burger as well as the Cali raft burger with Nueske's bacon, butter lettuce, special burger sauce, and oven-roasted tomato with avocado.  There was a portobella mushroom burger on the menu, as well as a beer-battered cod burger.  Jake's Burger also had a handful of salads to choose from if you didn't want a burger.  

One other great thing about Jake's Burger is the beer menu.  I'm not big on Belgian beers, but they had a nice selection of those, as well as a number of lager, wheat and pale ale-style beers.  I noticed that they had the Bell's Two Hearted pale ale on the menu and I got one of those while I was looking through the menu.  

With the extras that you can order to put on a burger at Jake's, you can come up with some pretty interesting combinations.  Their signature burgers include the Truffle Burger that is topped with brie truffle cheese, white truffle oil and arugula, and the Wisconsin burger topped with beer-cheese sauce, their haystack onion straws and Nueske's bacon.  I was looking to do some additions to my burger so when my server came back to take my order I got the Classic burger - with the mixed beef - and it came with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion and topped with a homemade pickle slice.  I added a fried egg for a buck more and for $2.50 more I got a couple of slices of Nueske's bacon.  Nueske's has been called "the caviar of bacon" by a food critic for the New York Times.  My server asked me if I wanted any fries or onion straws with my burger - also an extra charge.  Something told me to order up the onion straws.  Later on, I found that I was glad I did.  

It took about 15 minutes from the time I ordered my burger to when it was brought out to me.  It was topped with a large sesame seed bun and cut in half.  On the menu they said they cooked their burgers "medium +", but I asked for a more medium burger with some pink in the middle.  They couldn't have gotten it any closer to how I like my burgers.  

 
The cheese was draped over the top of the burger with the Nueske's bacon sitting on top.  The fried egg was underneath the burger patty resting on the veggies. It was a big damned burger to say the least.  

The first bite was wonderful.  The taste of the burger meat was flavorful and juicy.  Coupled with the cheese, fried egg and bacon (I ended up pulling off most of the veggies because they were falling off anyhow), it was an excellent tasting burger.  About the only quibble I would have with the burger at Jake's is that there was a little too much bun.  But it was tasty and chewy, and didn't overpower the overall taste of the burger.   

As good as the taste of the burger was, the highlight of the lunch were the onion straws.  I prefer onion straws over onion rings and these were just outstanding.  They had a little bit of a spicy taste to them in addition to the beer-batter flavor coating the rings.  Oh, man!  My stomach is doing jumping jacks just thinking about the onion straws!  I normally don't get fries or onion rings when I order a gourmet burger, but I'm telling you - I'm glad I decided to try the onion straws.  

I've read some on-line reviews on Jake's Burger where a handful of people didn't like the place.  I thought my burger was excellent and the onion straws were out of this world.  Most of the time when people say they don't like the place, it usually comes down to price.  And I will say that Jake's Burger is not cheap.  If you want to stay basic and get one of their Classic burgers with no extras and a soft drink, then, yeah, you can stay under $10 bucks.  But to me, that's not too fun.  Yeah, the extras - especially the Nueske's bacon - really zip up the price of a burger.  Unless you live in the Brookfield area, Jake's is a little bit of a haul from anywhere in Milwaukee, but I think it's worth the trip to try it at least once.  I'd go out of my way a couple three miles when I'm out in Brookfield to try another burger at Jake's Burger.

Ono Kine Grindz - Wauwatosa, WI

One day last summer, I was at one of my dealers in the Milwaukee area, Ultra Fidelis, and one of the guys said that he was going down the street to get some lunch from a Hawaiian restaurant/market - Ono Kine Grindz.  Wait a minute - a Hawaiian restaurant in Milwaukee?  He handed me a menu and said, "Pick away!  Our treat!"  At the very top of the menu they had Kalua pork listed.  Remembering how good it was from our trip to Hawaii three years ago (has it really been THAT long now?), I had to see if this place's Kalua pork was as good.  Well, it was.  And the portions that were served to me in a large disposable container were just like in Hawaii - a lot of food for a little amount of money.  Along with the Kalua pork, I got a healthy serving of Hawaiian purple sticky rice.  It was like I was back on the islands again. It was all very excellent.  

A few weeks ago, I was up in Milwaukee again and stopped by Ultra Fidelis to see the guys one afternoon.  I was asking questions about Ono Kine Grindz, primarily about the coffee selection they had to offer.  My wife is addicted to Hawaiian Kona coffee, but it is so damn expensive to ship directly from Hawaii.  One of the guys at U.F. said, "Oh, yes.  They have some varieties for sale there."  After I was through with them and before I left to head to Chicago, I walked down the street to check out Ono Kine Grindz. (see map)

My question, like so many others - why is there a Hawaiian cafe/market in Milwaukee?  It all starts with Milwaukee-area native Guy Roeseler, a former chef, who moved to Hawaii a number of years ago after owning a small bistro in Seattle.  Managing a handful of restaurants during his time on the islands, Roeseler partnered up with Oahu native David Lau out in Hawaii during his ten year stay on the islands.  Lau was also in the food service business and his goal was to eventually buy a little neighborhood grocery store/cafe near his boyhood home, a place he used to go into each morning for sodas, candy and shave ice, a Hawaiian treat.  When it turned out the cost of buying the 70+ year old business was going to be prohibitive, the two looked to move back to Wisconsin to pursue their dream.   

Pictured right - David Lau and Guy Roeseler.  (Picture courtesy On Milwaukee) 

Moving to Milwaukee in 2008, the two found that there was no place east of the Mississippi that specialized in Hawaiian cuisine or offered products direct from Hawaii.  They opened Ono Kine Grindz (Hawaiian Pidgin language for "Delicious Specialty Foods") in September of 2010 offering casual Asian/Hawaiian food and items that you could find only in Hawaii up to that point.  The two were surprised at the number of former Hawaiian residents in the area and were also gratified when the former islanders continued to come back to the little restaurant/market on North Ave.  

Sourcing the products to sell in their little cafe/market was a chore.  Since no local food distributors carried any of the Hawaiian products they wanted to sell, they had to source items from Las Vegas, California and, of course, Hawaii.   The small and cozy little place carries everything from Hawaiian sodas, to Hawaiian sea salt, to Hawaiian spices.  They also sell, naturally, Hawaiian shirts, bags and a number of other items that we saw in our visit to Hawaii.  

Walking into the small shop (open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday thru Sunday), there is the deli counter upfront to the left.  That's where I found David Lau and Guy Roeseler working on sandwiches and scooping up authentic Hawaiian food.  David asked me if he could help me and I said, "I think I'm going to look for some coffee, but I just want to take a look around and see what you guys have to offer."   

 
I walked toward the back of the restaurant and up some stairs to an area were a couple guys seated at one of the tables eating some food.   The little cafe part of Ono Kine Grindz seats, maybe, 10 people.  The furniture is a mis-mash of regular tables and chairs and patio furniture, including an opened patio umbrella.  

 
On the well-stocked shelves were a number of items that had a distinct Hawaiian flavor.  Hawaiian-flavored juices, Hawaiian candies and other items that you'd find on the islands were available for sale.  They also had a number of specialty sugars from Hawaii and a small deli case had meat products including Portuguese sausage, a staple breakfast item for many Hawaiians.  (Come to think of it, I didn't see any Spam on the shelves.  I'm guessing that it's readily available at most regular grocery stores in the Milwaukee area.)  

I found the coffee up front near the front deli counter and told David Lau that I was looking for some good Kona coffee.  He said, "We have one pound bags of the coffee here."  

I looked at the price and I couldn't believe it - $9.99 a pound for Kona Reserve Coffee!  Holy crap!  I asked, "This is real Kona coffee?"  Lau confirmed that it was.  I asked again, "How can you guys get it so cheap?"  

He said, "We get 100 pound bags direct from Hawaii.  We know the coffee guys out there and we can keep the cost down."  

Man!  I'll say!  I ended up getting two pounds because, well, my wife is a Kona coffee snob.  She says the Kona coffee at Trader Joe's for $19.98 a pound is just *OK*.  She really likes the Kona Mountain Estate Coffee - at $32 bucks a pound plus shipping.  I thought getting her a couple pounds of this stuff from Ono Kine Grindz would give her enough of a taste to see if she likes it and if she didn't like it, well, she could give the other pound away.  (She ended up liking it - a lot.)

I was telling David Lau when he was ringing me up that I had their food earlier in the summer.  Guy Roeseler looked up from working at the counter and said, "Oh yeah?  What did you have?"  I told him I had the Kalua pork and he said, "So, what did you think?"

I said, "It was just like the Kalua pork that I had on the big island."  Kalua pork is a pork shoulder (a.k.a. pork butt) that is seasoned with sea salt and other island spices, then wrapped in banana leaves and usually cooked in an open pit dug into the ground.  I'm guessing Roeseler didn't have a pit out back, so he probably used a smoker.  The pork is then pulled apart before serving.  It's tender, juicy and flavorful.  

They happened to be smoking Kalua pork that day and they gave me a sample of it.  Oh man!  Was it great.  It turned out that they would freeze the excess Kalua pork and make it available for sale.  I ended up getting a couple pounds of it to take home.  (We had it with rice one evening - it was just killer.)

Also available at Ono Kine Grindz are other traditional Hawaiian foods such as huli-huli chicken - a smoked half-chicken with a mango glaze; and Asian-themed foods such as Korean-style barbecue beef ribs, and Char Siu chicken - grilled chicken breasts that are marinaded in a molasses/shoyu sauce.   Ono Kine Grindz also has a traditional Hawaiian sides of poke - a raw fish salad; and pork hash in a wonton wrap.  They also have serve all their meals with a homemade macaroni salad and a carrot/pineapple salad.  I don't remember eating much - if any - of the two salad sides when I had my kalua pork and rice.  There was just so much food and I know I didn't finish it.  

I contemplated getting something to go to eat later in my hotel room in Chicago, but I had a couple stops to make before I got to the hotel.  It was cool out, but not cold and I didn't know who well it would travel, even if I put it in my Trader Joe's insulated bag that I keep in my trunk.  

But I know that I'll have other opportunities to try other foods at Ono Kine Grindz in the future.  I know I'll have to stop back each time I go back to pick up more Hawaiian coffee for my wife and I'll look for macadamia nuts, as well.  Ono Kine Grindz is nothing fancy, but it's like walking into a little Hawaiian shop or cafe on the north shore of Oahu.  Only without the big waves coming in...   

Barbiere's Mama Mia's Ristorante - Milwaukee

I've found a number of pretty good pizza places in Milwaukee over the years.  One of the first that I tried nearly 10 years ago came upon the recommendation of a dealer I used to call on years ago at a place just across the street from his store with the decidedly Italian name of Mama Mia's.  It had been some time since I'd treated myself to a pizza on the road and I decided to give Mama Mia's a long-awaited revisit one evening on a recent trip to Milwaukee.  

Actually, the full name of the restaurant is Barbiere's Mama Mia's Ristorante.  And to confuse you, there are actually two factions of Mama Mia's that share the same DNA, but not the same ownership.  The Mama Mia's story starts in 1954 when Alvin Fernandez and Tony Barbiere opened the first Mama Mia's restaurant at the corner of 49th and North Ave. in Milwaukee's Uptown neighborhood, right near the present day location of McBob's Irish Pub.  Business flourished and Fernandez and Barbiere opened a location in the Kops Park/Cooper Park neighborhood in West Milwaukee.  The third location - the one on Silver Spring Dr. that houses the Mama Mia's I went to - opened in 1963.  Somewhere along the way, Tony Barbiere and Alvin Fernadez split up with Fernandez taking two of the Mama Mia's and Barbiere taking the Silver Springs location.  There is still a Mama Mia's restaurant owned by Alvin Fernandez's daughter in suburban Wales, WI, thus the "Barbiere's Mama Mia's" for the one on Silver Spring.    

Pictured right - Tony Barbiere on the right in the original Mama Mia's restaurant in 1954. 

There are also some Barbiere family-owned restaurants in the immediate Milwaukee area.  Up in the picturesque lakeside community of Port Washington, Tony's son, Jude Barbiere, owns the Mama Mia's Italian Restaurant, while Tony's brother, Sal, started the Barbiere's Italian Inn on West Bluemound Road in 1963.  Sal's son, Steve, took over the ownership of that restaurant when Sal retired in 1973.  And in 1997, Steve retired and sold the restaurant to longtime employee Mark Dempsey.  A second Barbiere's Italian Inn opened in South Milwaukee about three years ago.  

There was also a Barbiere's Mama Mia's in suburban Shorewood, north of Milwaukee, but that has since closed up.  Tony Barbiere is still listed as the owner of the Mama Mia's in North Milwaukee.   

It had been a long day of travel that started out in Madison with stops in Appleton, Green Bay, Manitowoc and north suburban Milwaukee.  It was around 8:30 when I pulled into Mama Mia's located at the border between Milwaukee and suburban Glendale.  (see map)  As you walk into the restaurant, there's a large dining room off to the right and a bar off to the left.  I decided to eat at the bar and watch some sports on TV.  Directly beside the bar is another dining room that looks like its used for a lunch buffet or overflow dining.  I was the only person in the bar and I got a menu from the bartender/server.  Even though they have a number of Italian entrees on the menu, I knew exactly what I wanted.  I ordered a 12" Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza with the Mama Mia's original thin crust pizza.  My server asked me, "You want some butter garlic bread with that?"

I had heard that Mama Mia's butter garlic bread is to die for, but I knew I probably wouldn't be able to eat the whole pizza, let alone a pizza and butter garlic bread.  I declined her offer.

Another couple had come in to pick up a pizza to go.  It wasn't ready yet, so they sat at the bar near me and had a drink.  I heard them talking to the bartender about a trip to Hawaii they just came back from.  I politely interrupted their conversation and asked where they went to in Hawaii.  The lady said, "Maui!"  

I told her that we had spent a week on Maui about two and a half years ago.  "I'd swim back to Maui, if I could," I told the couple.  They agreed with me that Maui was the bomb.     

Works of art take time, so it was 20 minutes and into my third beer when the pizza showed up in front of me. The misshapen corn meal crust showed that it was made from scratch.  There were ample amounts of fresh mushrooms, pepperoni slices and chunks of Italian sausage on top of the pizza.  I waited awhile to let the pizza cool down for fear of burning the top of my mouth.  The first bite was a crunchy, flavor-filled explosion in my mouth.  I'm not big on corn meal crust pizza, but this wasn't bad.  I did think the crust was a little too stiff and crisp for me, but it wasn't a deal breaker. Another minor quibble is that I thought the pizza sauce was a little too sweet for my taste.  Some parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes helped take some of the sweetness out of the taste.  But the toppings, including the mozzarella cheese, were fresh.  It was as good of a pizza as I remembered from my first visit years ago.

I was able to finish just over half the pizza and had the young lady box up the final three pieces for me.  I had a refrigerator and a microwave in my room and I had the remaining pieces for breakfast the next morning.  The crust had soaked up the grease and sauce, and was not as crunchy and stiff as the night before.  I remember liking it better with a softer crust.

I may want to try the other Mama Mia's restaurants to see if their pizza is similar to Barbiere's Mama Mia's in North Milwaukee.  I don't think it's the best pizza I've had in Milwaukee, but it is still very good.  It's different from many others in the area, a sort of pizza signature, if you will.  Some people probably prefer the corn meal crust and the sweet tomato sauce over the others, but not me.  Still, past that, I certainly can't say anything bad about the pizza at Barbiere's Mama Mia's.   

(Update - After 60 years in business, Mama Mia's closed their doors in the fall of 2014. Their location in Mequon is still open.)

Stack'd Burger Bar - Milwaukee

A place I've been wanting to check out over the past couple of years has been a new-ish burger place in Milwaukee by the named of Stack'd Burger Bar.  Opened in July of 2009 and located just south of downtown Milwaukee in the Walker's Point neighborhood (see map), Stack'd features grass-fed burgers along with locally sourced meats, produce, baked goods and libations.  I had driven up from a meeting with my dealer in Kenosha earlier in the day and pulled in front of Stack'd around 1:30 p.m.

The man behind Stack'd is Tim Dixon, a local entrepreneur who is also behind the The Iron Horse Hotel, an upscale boutique hotel that caters to Harley-Davidson fans who are in town to visit the nearby Harley-Davidson Museum, couples looking to get away from the kids for the weekend, or people in town on business.  The Iron Horse features the upscale restaurant Smyth and Branded, a classic style bar.  Word is that Dixon is on the verge of opening a wood-fired pizza restaurant on N. Hubbard Street where the old Roots restaurant once was.  

Stack'd is located in what was the former Kramer Foundry building.  Prior to Stack'd opening in 2009 the building housed Social, a trendy restaurant that featured unique foods and drinks.  Dixon bought the building after Social closed up and turned it into a boutique burger joint. 

I was lucky to find a place to park just outside the front door of the building on S. 1st St.  I went in and was greeted by a hostess who guided me to a table in the center of the restaurant.   The restaurant featured wood and steel beams going from the floor up to the exposed wood rafter ceiling.  Black leather banquette seating was along the south wall, the east side of the restaurant featured an open kitchen, while the north side had a bar that went nearly the width of the restaurant with a huge thick glass window that allowed a lot of light into the dining area.

I was given a menu by the hostess and she also pointed out the beer and drink menu on the table.  Stack'd featured a number of local and Wisconsin-brewed beers on their beer menu.  When my server, Nora, showed up, I ordered a Capital Supper Club in the bottle.  She brought it back to me moments later and it was ice-cold.  Mmmm....

Nora asked me if I'd been to Stack'd before and I said I hadn't.  She said, "Well, the drill as most people do it is to build your own burger."  She pointed to a page in the menu that featured five separate steps.  "First you choose the type of meat you'd like," she said as she pointed out that I had my choice between grass-fed beef, bison, turkey, chicken - and for vegetarians - a black-bean veggie burger and a portabella mushroom burger.  Then she said I had my choice of 8 different types of cheese.  After that, I had my choice of toppings including lettuce, tomato, raw onions, jalapenos, pickles, mayo, fried onions, sauteed mushrooms, thick-sliced Nueske's bacon and more.  

Nora said, "Then you pick out the type of bun you want.  They're all locally baked for us."  They had a classic style bun, a pretzel bun, a gluten-free bun, or you could have your burger bun-free laid upon a bed of lettuce greens.  After that, you had your choice of sides including cole slaw, fries, mac and cheese, baked beans, and for an upcharge, you could get buttermilk-battered onion rings, or chili or a salad.  There were a lot of decisions to make before you could even order.

She also pointed out Stack'd feature burgers that included the "Hangover Stack" - a grass-fed burger topped with a fried egg, bacon, aged cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and fried onions.  The "Don't Mess with Texas" burger featured a bison patty topped with pepper jack cheese, jalapenos, an onion ring and loaded with homemade barbecue sauce.   One of the featured burgers that got my attention was the "Kick in the Pants" - it featured a grass-fed beef patty, Extreme Heat jack cheese from Beechwood Cheese Factory, avocado mayo, and peppered bacon on a pretzel roll.  Nora gave me a few minutes to figure out what I wanted.    

I decided to build my own burger - a grass-fed patty - medium - with Swiss cheese, bacon and sauteed mushrooms on a pretzel bun.  I was having trouble figuring out what I wanted for my sides and I asked Nora if the onion rings were good.  "My favorite thing on the menu," she quickly replied.  She said it so quickly and with such conviction that I had to believe her.  

Nora told me that it takes a little time for the burgers to be cooked at Stack'd.  "We cook them at a lower temperature than most other places," she explained.  "Can I bring you another beer in a little bit?"  I couldn't say no.

After what seemed to be about 15 minutes after I ordered - maybe longer, come to think of it - my burger came out to the table.  Thick Nueske's bacon (the New York Times once called Nueske's bacon as the "caviar of bacon"), Swiss cheese and sauteed fresh mushrooms were swimming between the burger patty and the top of the pretzel bun.  Interestingly, the top of the bun was adorned with fried pickle slices held in place by a knife through the top of the burger.  After eating the fried pickles, I wish I would have gotten them as an appetizer.  They were wonderful.  Four buttermilk onion rings were on the side.

After cutting the burger in half - it was the only way to eat the huge thing- my first bite showed that the burger was actually more medium-well than medium as there was little to no pink showing in the middle.  It was still flavorful, but the combination of the thick-cut bacon, sauteed mushrooms and the thick slide of Swiss cheese sort of overpowered the overall taste of the burger.  And that's not to say that it was bad - there were a lot of taste sensations going on with each bite.  The overall taste of the burger was very, very good.  

Nora oversold the buttermilk onion rings, however.  They were just OK in my book.  Actually, I kind of thought they may have been frozen o-rings from a food distributor.  But I would think that a place like Stack'd would probably do their own onion rings.   

Stack'd wasn't cheap.  My burger alone was $15 bucks with all the upcharges for the mushrooms, bacon and onion rings.  But it was very good and it should have been for the money.  I think the burger  at Stack'd would hold up against other gourmet burgers I've had at other places like Blanc in Kansas City, Burger Bar in St. Louis or Atwood Cafe in Chicago.  While I'm glad I experienced the place, there are a number of very good burger places in the Milwaukee area that I think I'd rather go to before I'd go back to Stack'd.  But if you're looking for a true gourmet burger in Milwaukee, Stack'd Burger Bar is the place to go.

Johnny V's Classic Cafe - West Allis, WI

Back when I began my blog in 2005 (Wow! Coming up on 7 years of Road Tips!), I didn't have much of a vision or voice as to what I wanted for my entries.  One of the very first entries I had was on Johnny V's Classic Cafe in West Allis, WI, a suburb of Milwaukee.  Johnny V's has to be one of my all-time favorite diners.  This is a place where I've gotten breakfast at 8 a.m., at 7 p.m., and at 2 a.m.  It also features a number of comfort food entrees and excellent gyros.  While in the Milwaukee area a couple months ago, I made a point to go have breakfast at Johnny V's and give more of an in-depth view of the place.

Johnny V's opened in May of 1992.  John Vassallo, Sr. had worked in a restaurant for a good portion of his early life before he went to work for a food distributor.  Looking to run his own place, he and his wife opened their diner in May of 1992.  That's John Vassallo, Sr. in the picture above. A year and a half later, their son - John, Jr., a local bar owner/restauranteur - became involved in the business.   John, Jr., known as Johnny V, had been somewhat of an entrepreneur over the years from running a flower shop to owning a jewelry store to running a Subway sandwich shop to owning a couple bars   Johnny V took over the business from his parents and ran it until 1996.  Some other business ventures - including a second Johnny V's in West Bend - began to sour for Johnny V in 1996, so his parents and his brother, James (Jamie) came back in and took over the original Johnny V's in West Allis.  Jamie Vassallo continues to run the restaurant these days.  

Johnny V's is located on the southwest corner of a strip mall on the east side of S. 84th Street, between Greenfield and National, south of the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds (see map).  I'd had a meeting in downtown Milwaukee early in the morning and on the way out of town I stopped by Johnny V's for breakfast.  The place was about a third full around 9:45 in the morning.  

The restaurant's interior mainly pays homage to a combination of vintage Coca Cola paraphernalia and American patriotism.  Either that, or they were lazy in taking down decorations for the 4th of July from a couple months before.  I was greeted by a young lady who led me to a booth along the west wall of the restaurant.  She dropped off a menu and said she'd be back to get my order in a bit.  

The breakfast offerings at Johnny V's are not unlike many other diners of its kind.  Pancakes, waffles, omelets, skillet dishes and cereals.  They have a number of breakfast specials they run daily from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m., but they do serve breakfast around the clock.  As I said, there has been more than once that I've had breakfast well after midnight after a full day at Summerfest.  

One of my favorite items on Johnny V's breakfast menu is the eggs with gyro meat.  It's a large platter of eggs, cooked to order, and a hefty side of sliced gyro meat along with a good sized bunch of hash browns.  It had been a long time since I had that at Johnny V's, so when the waitress came back to take my order I didn't hesitate one bit when ordering it up with eggs over easy and whole wheat toast.  

Johnny V's service is pretty prompt and the breakfast showed up at my booth in less than 15 minutes.  The gyro meat at Johnny V's is different from a number of Greek restaurants I've been to.  The gyro meat is almost like slices of tender minute steaks.  They have a great texture and are easy to cut with a fork.  A couple small tubs of homemade tzatziki sauce came with the gyro meat.  The eggs were good sized and the hash browns - although I only had a couple bites of them - were also very good.  But the gyro meat was the star of this breakfast.  The taste sensations that I remembered from years gone by came back with the first bite.  It was as good this particular day as it was nearly 15 years ago when I first had breakfast at Johnny V's.  

I can't remember ever having a bad meal at Johnny V's.  I've had their homemade meat loaf (which is very good), their pot roast entree (also wonderful), and their blueberry Belgian waffles - all of which have been very good.  It's far from fine dining at Johnny V's, but it's a spot-hitter if you're looking for comfort food.  The service is good, the price value is above average and the food is also above average.  Johnny V's has never disappointed me in the past and they certainly didn't on my most recent visit.

La Perla - Milwaukee

When my cousin was living in Milwaukee a number of years ago, he turned us on to a number of very good restaurants in the area - the places where the locals went to eat.  Not being very big on national chains, it was always fun to go try out some of the places he recommended.  In 1995, a Mexican restaurant by the name of La Perla had opened and he had tried it a few times.  On a visit to Milwaukee in 1996, we tried La Perla for the first time and fell in love with the place.  In doing some cleaning up of the blog earlier this summer, I was amazed to find that I had never posted an entry on La Perla.  On a recent visit to Milwaukee I decided to have dinner at La Perla. 

La Perla has been owned and operated for the past 17 years by Nick and JoAnne Anton.  The Anton's have either fully owned or were partners in a handful of other restaurants over the years including Crabby Al's and Vucciria Pizzeria, but La Perla has been their main claim to fame.  JoAnne Anton is also known in political circles around Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin as being Senator Herb Kohl's state director running his office in Milwaukee. Restaurants are in her family's blood as the highly acclaimed Ouzo Greek Cafe in downtown Milwaukee is run by her sister, Nickey Pappas.  

La Perla is located at the corner of S. 5th and W. National (see map) in a highly visible building in the Walker's Point neighborhood.  The Walker's Point area has been home to a number of bars and restaurants over the years, but it is probably most famous for having a number of very good Mexican restaurants in the area.  In the mid-2000's, a number of businesses in the area around 6th and National got together to promote the neighborhood as Milwaukee's Latin Quarter.  A number of businesses spruced up their facades and money was used to paint buildings and generally clean up the area.  Even as the notion of the neighborhood being named the Milwaukee's Latin Quarter was being discussed, the Anton's went ahead and put up a large heart-shaped sign on the corner of La Perla that said, "The Heart of Milwaukee's Latin Quarter."    

JoAnne Anton pictured at right in front of La Perla and the sign she put up to tout the Latin Quarter.  Picture courtesy Milwaukee Business Journal. 

JoAnne Anton was also responsible for helping to set up the long-time chef at La Perla, Jaime Hernandez, in his own business down the street - Botanas.  (Click here to see my entry on Botanas.)  I'd heard and read over the years from people around Milwaukee that the food at La Perla suffered after Hernandez left.  I will say that Botana's is probably my favorite Mexican restaurant in Milwaukee.  

It had been a LONG time since I was last in La Perla.  I figured it was probably six years since my last meal on what I remember being a very cold winter evening.  La Perla has long been known for their festive and colorful outdoor patio.  For years, a large red pepper hovered above the tables on the patio.  It was difficult not to miss it as you were driving along on National.  The big pepper is long gone, but the festive nature of the back patio is still there.  When I went to La Perla that evening, it was turning into a beautiful late summer night.  The man who greeted me as I came in gave me the option of sitting in the dining room or outside.  Hardly anyone was inside eating, I would have had peace and quiet to eat.  But it was too nice an evening.  I couldn't say no when he said, "Come on, it's beautiful out.  Sit outside."  He took me to a small table just outside the door to the patio and dropped off a menu for me to look over.

Another waiter brought me a basket of homemade chips and a bowl of La Perla's excellent salsa.  The chips, however, were sort of stale and lifeless.  Even the great salsa that they have at La Perla couldn't save the  somewhat soggy taste of the chips.  That was highly disappointing.

The original waiter who seated me came back to take my order.  I wasn't ready to order food yet, but I did order a margarita which I pounded in probably five minutes.  As I was looking over the menu, he came back and saw that the margarita consisted of a bunch of ice and a lime wedge at the bottom of the glass.  He said, "That didn't take long, amigo!"  No, it did not.  When he asked if I wanted another one, I instead opted for a Dos Equis Amber.  

The menu at La Perla is extensive and almost reads like a book of nearly every Mexican food item that you can think of.  The menu features about a half dozen appetizer plates, a dozen combination plates, enchiladas, nearly a dozen different types of tacos, a number of seafood specialties, and over 20 house specialties including chimichangas, pork chops in a green chile sauce, beef or chicken tamales, and La Perla's signature dish, the Chicken Ole Poblano - a sauteed chicken breast covered in La Perla's homemade poblano mole sauce.  

I wasn't all that hungry so I didn't want to order something big like the chimichanga (which I remember the pork chimichanga as being superb) or fajitas.  The shrimp tacos jumped out at me, screaming, "Pick me!  Pick me!"  Oooo... I do like shrimp tacos.  When the waiter came back to take my order, that's exactly what I told him to bring me.  And then something inside me said, "Hey, get a chunky beef taco, ala carte."  The next thing I knew I was asking him to bring me one of those, as well.

The shrimp tacos at La Perla are a little different than what you'll find at other Mexican restaurants.  The shrimp are grilled, but then they also put in Spanish rice and a warm tomato/onion/cilantro sauce.  Sour cream, guacamole, and chopped lettuce and tomatoes come on the side.  The shrimp had that wonderful grilled taste to them and the sauce was a nice compliment to the taste.  With the Spanish rice, they were filling.

The chunky beef taco was good, but it almost had too much shredded cheese on top.  The chunky beef had been slow cooked in a sauce and was tender.  It wasn't as good as the shrimp tacos, but it was good enough. Quite actually, the three shrimp tacos were almost more than enough for what I wanted to eat.  I was kicking myself for ordering the fourth taco as they are not small at La Perla.  

After paying the waiter, I got up to take a look around at the inside of La Perla.  The bar area and the main dining room haven't changed all that much over the years.  I believe the bar area was initially also the dining area at La Perla, but I honestly can't remember if that's correct.  I want to say they added the dining room on after they had opened.  But I may be wrong on that.  Either way, both areas were colorful with the dining room sort of having a somewhat Mexican art-deco look to it.  When the back patio isn't open, La Perla can fill up quickly.

One of the more fun things they have in the bar area at La Perla is the "bucking pepper" ride.  They took an old mechanical horse that you used to see outside grocery stores for little kids to ride on and fashioned a large red pepper with a saddle on it.  Little kids, like the ones pictured at the right, can ride it, but the bulk of the riders are usually gassed up women who have had a couple too many margaritas.  The ride costs 25 cents and the money goes to charity.  It's highly popular and they even have their own "Pepper Cam" link on the Internet showing the pepper live. 

(As a somewhat strange aside regarding the picture to the right - I had stopped to take the picture of the two little boys playing on the pepper and evidently the kids' mother was seated at the table next to the pepper.  She shrieked at me, "Hey, what in the hell are you doing taking a picture of my boys!?"  

This caused her husband to turn around and look at me, then he turned back around at his wife and said, "What's going on?"

As I walked into the main dining room, I heard her say, "That man just took a picture of the boys!"

I heard her husband say, "Yeah! So?"  That's kind of what I thought.  That is, unless she thought I was a pedophile and was taking pictures of little boys.  But, hey, I probably wouldn't have won either way if a 20-something young lady was propped up on the saddle and I'd taken her picture.  I would have probably been called a pervert.  I just wanted a picture of the pepper.)  

One thing that I did notice was that La Perla had added on to their north side with their tequila bar.  They basically bought the building to the north of their building and put in a couple garage doors that would open on warm nights.  The only thing was that it looked closed that particular evening.  I didn't see any activity going on as I looked in the doors when I walked by to go into La Perla when I first arrived. 

My first visit back to La Perla in quite sometime was all right, really nothing special.  10 years ago, I would have told anyone who was looking for great Mexican in Milwaukee to head to La Perla.  I don't think I can say that any longer.  While it's still very good, there are other places in the immediate area that I think are better than La Perla.  It's still a fun place to go and the food is still better than most Mexican restaurants you'll find.  But La Perla has always been one of those places that has a spot in my heart since it was one of the first truly authentic Mexican restaurants we'd ever eaten at.  It's still worthy of a visit from time to time.

Major Goolsby's - Milwaukee, WI

I have recently been going through the bulk of my past posts, cleaning them up a bit, fixing font problems from when I used Internet Explorer as my primary Internet portal, and posting a number of blog entries on Urbanspoon. I was very surprised when I found that even though I had Major Goolsby's in Milwaukee as an honorable mention on my Best Burger List, I had never really done an in-depth look at the place. During a recent visit to Milwaukee, I decided to stop in for a burger at Major Goolsby's.

Major Goolsby's is one of the original sports bars in America. It opened in 1970 under the ownership of Jerry Cohen.  Cohen also owned a local watering hole called Someplace Else.  He hired Tom Shepard to first manage Someplace Else, then took Shepard over to Goolsby's to be the first manager there.  Shepard went on to own a number of restaurants including his namesake Tom Shepard's Saloon, Dos Banditos, Jordy's Fox Point Inn, the Brown Bottle and Brew City Barbecue.  

When Major Goolsby's opened, it really had no name.  I understand that the first year they were opened, the local phone book had them listed as "The Bar With No Name."  After trying to figure out a number of names (including "East of Mecca" - U.S. Cellular Arena just across the street to the west of Major Goolsby's used to be known as the MECCA - Milwaukee Exposition Convention Center and Arena), he settled on Major Goolsby's Pub and Grill.  

Another key person in the history of Major Goolsby's was an old college buddy of Cohen's, Leo Damge.  Although he didn't have a stake in the business, Cohen thought of Leo Damge as a partner as Damge kept the books for Cohen's businesses.  There's a comic poster of "Leo the Cop" on the door that enters the basement at Major Goolsby's and the character is based on Leo Damage.  Leo passed away in 2003 but his spirit still lives with "Leo the Cop".

As a sports fan, I dig the memorabilia that Major Goolsby's has collected over the years.  They have pictures, jerseys, even bunting from World Series games on display.  There's old programs from games and news articles that you can take a glimpse of.  More than once, I've grabbed a beer at Goolsby's and just wandered around looking at all the stuff they have on display.

Our first introduction to Major Goolsby's happened years ago during a visit to Summerfest in Milwaukee. Summerfest started 45 years ago and Major Goolsby's has been one of the vendors for all the festivals held at the Henry Maier Festival Park for about 40 of those years. My cousin lived in Milwaukee for a time a few years ago and would have us come up for Summerfest.  It became a ritual for us to have a late night Major Goolsby's charbroiled burger before we left to go back to his place for the evening. The burger patties weren't all that thick, so getting a double cheese burger to sop up all the beer in my stomach was the usual order I had at Major Goolsby's. 

(Picture right - patrons lining up at the Major Goolsby's window at Summerfest. Photo courtesy of OnMilwaukee.com)

Major Goolsby's is located at the corner of West 4th and Kilbourn in the heart of the Old World 3rd Street area of downtown Milwaukee (see map).  As I said earlier, it is right across the street from U.S. Cellular Arena and across and down the street from the Bradley Center. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee basketball teams play at U.S. Cellular Arena, while the Milwaukee Bucks of the N.B.A., the Milwaukee Admirals minor league hockey team, and the Marquette Golden Eagles play at the Bradley Center. Because it can seat nearly 500 people, Major Goolsby's is the epicenter for fans before, during and after hockey and basketball games in Milwaukee.

In 2005, Sports Illustrated listed their top 25 sports bars in the nation and Major Goolsby's was listed at 4. Now, I don't know if Sports Illustrated listed them in order or in just in fashion of a random 25, but Major Goolsby's makes a big deal about being ranked as the 4th best sports bar in the nation per S.I. With a number of televisions and three areas to sit and view games, it is pretty impressive for a sports bar. And earlier this year, Fox News named Major Goolsby's as one of the top sports bars in America.

It was just before noon when I got into Major Goolsby's. The downtown lunch crowd was beginning to filter in and I took a seat at one of the high tables in Goolsby's main bar area. The menus are located on the table held between a bottle of ketchup and the salt and pepper shakers. My waitress came over to greet me and asked me what I wanted to drink. I thought it was a little too early for a beer, so I just went with water.

The menu at Major Goolsby's isn't all that extensive. Besides their burgers, they have a number of bar-type appetizers, a couple variations of a grilled chicken sandwich, brats, hot dogs, and a barbecue pork rib sandwich. On Friday's Major Goolsby's features a fish fry dinner for $11.25.

But I was there for a burger. The Major cheeseburger and the Major bacon cheeseburger are the big draws at Goolsby's. Both feature double patties of beef, topped with cheese. The bacon they have on the Major bacon cheeseburger is smoky and crisp. I didn't feel like having a double that particular day so I ordered up a single bacon cheeseburger. Fries are extra ($2.45) and I passed on them or any other side.

It's hard to categorize the burger at Major Goolsby's. Honestly, there's not much to it. It's a large, yet thin and somewhat overcooked patty placed on a toasted bun that's average at best. The bacon is sort of crumbled on top and it's so crispy it's sort of tough to chew. While it's not the best burger I've ever had, and it's far from the worst. 

That charbroiled taste of a Major Goolsby's burger is the key.  I don't know what it is about the taste of their burgers, but I really like it.  It's so hard to figure out because if you take a look at the burger, it's really nothing special. And the cooking technique is just throwing it on a flame grill.  I don't know if the grill is seasoned with years and years of cooking thousands and thousands of burgers on it.  I'm guessing it almost has to be.  But the charbroiling of the burgers gives them that signature taste that I crave from time to time.

 

The food at Major Goolsby's should almost be secondary to the draw of dozens of televisions on which to watch any sporting event.  The minimal menu pretty much tells you that is the case.  If you want to take a look at years of Milwaukee and Wisconsin sports memorabilia, Major Goolsby's is the place to go.  The burgers may not be for everyone and maybe it's because of my fondness for Summerfest, but Major Goolsby's bacon cheeseburgers bring back a lot of great memories of fun times we had years ago.  But you don't have to wait for any of the number of festivals they have in Milwaukee to get a Goolsby's burger.  Just go to the corner of West 4th and Kilbourn and get a burger.  But don't pass up the chance to look at an extensive collection of sports memorabilia.

Joey's Seafood and Grill - Brookfield, WI

I've got a dealer in Milwaukee who is a nice guy and I offered to take him out for lunch on my last visit to that city.  He suggested a couple places that were national chains.  I told him that I'd rather eat at a place that is either local or, at least, a local chain like The Chancery or The Charcoal Grill.  He asked me if I liked seafood and I said I did.  He suggested a place up in Brookfield that was a little bit of a drive from his shop - Joey's Seafood and Grill.  I asked it was a place that did fish or seafood other than deep fried and he said, "Oh, no.  They cook it all different ways."  

Joey's Seafood and Grill started as a Canadian chain in 1985.  Seeing a need for a smaller seafood restaurant than Red Lobster, but a leap above fast seafood places like Captain D's and Long John Silver's, Joe Klassen opened his first restaurant in Calgary.  (Click here for the Canadian web site.) It became an immediate hit and he soon opened more restaurants in Western Canada.  By 1992, he began to franchise the Joey's Seafood and Grill and Joey's Only restaurants.   Today there are nearly 70 locations from British Columbia to Ontario, each of them offering fresh seafood that can be cooked many different ways - poached, grilled, lightly battered and fried, or blackened with Cajun spices.  

In 1995, Joey's began to franchise into the United States using an American company that sold franchise rights for the Canadian company.  At one point, there were 19 locations in 13 states, but the economic downturn forced the closure of a number of the restaurants and in 2008 the U.S. franchising arm closed down and sold the U.S. franchise rights back to the Canadian company.  A handful of Joey's Seafood and Grill locations stayed open, notably one in Madison, WI (click here for their web site) and the one in suburban Brookfield, both of which are locally owned.   Jim Knop bought the franchise rights to the Brookfield location and continues to run the business today as a single entity.  

It was just before 1 p.m. when we pulled into the parking lot at Joey's, located in a small strip mall at the southwest corner of Capitol Drive and N. 124th St. (see map). The place was about half-full with a lunchtime crowd enjoying their food.  The restaurant features a bar area with a pine log awning over the top.  There are a series of sturdy tables and comfortable booths throughout the place.  A quick calculation on my part showed that you comfortably seat 90 to 100 people in the place at any one time. 

My dealer is sort of a regular at Joey's and our waitress came over to greet us.  She looked at him and said, "Well, hello, stranger.  I haven't seen you in here for awhile."

He said, "Yeah, I know.  I've been busy and haven't been up this way for awhile.  This is one of my reps and I suggested this place to him and he said, 'Let's go for it!'  So you're under a lot of pressure to make sure the food is extra good today."

She laughed and said, "Isn't our food extra good EVERY day?"

He looked at me and said, "The food IS very good here."  

We looked through the lunch menu and seafood is definitely the star at Joey's.  (The dinner menu is a little more extensive than the lunch menu and they feature grilled mahi-mahi fish tacos - I've got to get back and try those at some point.)  However, they also feature soups and seafood salads, sandwiches such as a lobster and seafood-blended hoagie with house spices and mayo, a blue crab melt that is basically like a tuna melt, only with blue crab meat with lettuce, tomato and melted cheddar cheese (that sounded REAL good), and a Jamaican jerk chicken sandwich.  They also had a burger topped with melted garlic butter.  

They also had some Cajun specialties on the menu such as jambalaya, blackened tilapia with red beans and rice with andouille sausage, and blackened shrimp.  In fact, you could get shrimp cooked any of 10 different ways - Battered, Asian Sesame, Cajun, Garlic, Lemon, Charbroiled, Lime, Blackened, Poached, and for 50 cents more, Malibu Coconut.  I was just about to get the jambalaya when I noticed the "Shrimp Your Way" heading.  I asked the waitress if I could split two of the ways to cook the shrimp and she said, "Sure!"  So, I ordered half garlic and half Cajun.  I got the red beans and rice for my side dish.

My dealer, according to him, has had about everything on the menu.  One thing he hadn't tried was the special that day - a grilled chicken breast with grilled shrimp combination.  A vegetable medley and a salad came with the meal.  He ordered that up.

After my dealer finished his salad, we had a good talk about products, the direction of the industry and the problems he faced as a small business owner.  The conversation was so good that I didn't realize that nearly 25 minutes had passed from the time he got his salad.  He finally said in mid-conversation, "This has never taken this long to get our food here."  He flagged down our waitress and asked her where our lunch was.  She went to check on it and she came out with his chicken and shrimp, but not my shrimp and red beans and rice.  About three minutes later, another waitress came out with my shrimp.  It was my guess that either our waitress or the kitchen dropped the ball on our lunch.  

My shrimp platter was teeming with a mound of boiled shrimp, half slathered in garlic, the other half powdered up with Cajun seasonings.  Inexplicably, a side of rice came with the red beans and rice.  I certainly didn't need that.  The shrimp were - in a word - excellent.  The Cajun seasoning wasn't overpoweringly hot, and the garlic wasn't obtrusive where I was going to smell bad all afternoon.  Actually, I would have liked it if they WOULD have made it more hot and more garlicky.  The highlight of the meal, however, was the red beans and rice.  They were excellent.  That's not to say the shrimp were bad - far from it.  They were just a notch down from the red beans and rice.  I was happily impressed with what I had at Joey's.

My dealer thought his chicken was a little overcooked (above right).  He said that this was the first time he'd gotten a grilled chicken breast at Joey's Seafood and Grill where it was cut in half.  "Maybe they do that because of it being a lunch special," he said.  

I finished my shrimp and my red beans and rice.  I left my corn muffin on the plate and he said, "Aren't you going to eat your muffin?  Man, that's the best part of the meal!"

I said, "You know, growing up in Iowa, you'd think I'd like cornbread, corn muffins or corn dogs.  I just don't like the taste of corn meal all that much.  It's too dry for me."  I offered him my corn muffin and he immediately grabbed it off my plate.  It was like I was offering him free gold.

Other than the service being a little slow and dicey, I was overly impressed with my meal at Joey's Seafood and Grill.  The shrimp I had reminded me of the night Cindy and I had our "seafood overload" meal at Hudson's on the Dock on Hilton Head.  The shrimp was almost as good as it was that particular evening.  And the red beans and rice rivaled anything I'd ever had at any authentic Cajun restaurant.  The whole meal was just tough to beat and while I was a little apprehensive going to a seafood place for lunch (thinking that it was going to be a lot of deep fried fish and such), I'm already looking forward to the next time I can make it back to Milwaukee and try the fish tacos at Joey's.  If they're even half as good as the shrimp, I'll still be happy.     

Calderone Club - Milwaukee

I had to be in Milwaukee late last fall for a morning meeting with one of our Focal Pro loudspeaker dealers. I spent the evening before at the Hampton Inn in downtown Milwaukee, convenient to a number of good restaurants in the area. I was in the mood for pizza that evening and the girl at the front desk told me of a place that was a short three block walk from the hotel - the Calderone Club. It turned out that I'd been by the place a number of times in the past, but had never been there before.

Located at the corner of N. Old World Third Street and Kilbourn in downtown Milwaukee (see map), the Calderone Club is run by the brother team of Ilario (Larry) and Gino Fazarri. The brothers were born in Italy (both speak fluent Italian) and came over to the United States with their parents Antonio and Maria (Mama Rose to those around her) in the 1960's. In 1971, the Fazarri's bought the Caradaro Club which is said to be the first place where pizza was made available in Milwaukee. Two men, John Caravella and Joe Todaro, opened the Caradaro Club (the name came from their last names - CARAvella and ToDARO) in 1945 and used a recipe for thin-crust pizza that Todaro and his wife, Agatha, came up with. Their pizzas were served on rectangular sheets and they would hand out pieces of pizza to people walking on the streets of downtown Milwaukee to help publicize their business.

After owning the Caradaro Club for a couple years, the Fazarri family sold the place and in 1977 opened the first Calderone Club. At one time, there were three Calderone Clubs in the Milwaukee area. However, they closed the Mequon location a couple years ago, but still have a location up in Fox Point (see map).

The five minute walk from the Hampton Inn to the Calderone Club was a block north, a block west and another block north. It was a brisk evening and the streets of downtown Milwaukee were deserted, save for the "honest" beggar who hit me up for $4.45 he needed for bus fare. This is a new ploy that I've been hit up on over the past couple of years with panhandlers in Chicago and St. Louis who instead of asking for spare change come up with an odd amount that they say they need for bus fare home or to buy diapers for their kids or to help fix a tire on their car. His self-proclaimed honesty still didn't pry any money away from me.

The interior of the Calderone Club is a mix of old world Italian elegance with somewhat of an art deco feeling. The dining room featured sturdy wooden tables covered with white table cloths with heavy wooden high-backed chairs. The lighting was reduced, but not enough where one couldn't read the menu as I've run into in the past. The dining room was cozy, but not so small that you didn't feel that you were on top of the neighboring tables. The bar area is to the right as you come in and features a long L-shaped bar with high chairs. A couple three high tables with high chairs were also in the bar area. A large 32" tube television - a relic from a by-gone age - hung from the ceiling where patrons seated at the bar had to literally turn around to watch. An NFL game was on the television that night and it was somewhat difficult to watch because it was an analog television versus a high-definition flat panel. It's times like that where you appreciate the advances in television technology over the past 5 years.

I took a seat at the bar and was greeted by Larry Fazarri, an amiable, bear of a guy who liked to talk to the customers at the bar. I took a look at what he had on tap and he suggested a Peroni, but I saw that they had Pilsner Urquell. Larry was doing the hard sell on the Peroni - "You sure you don't want a Peroni? The pilsner is a little forward and bitey."

I said, "Oh, yeah. I know. I've had Pilsner Urquell many times. I'll take one of those." He served it in a tall and elegant Pilsner Urquell glass. It was good. The Peroni is good beer, but overrated, in my book.

Larry Fazarri gave me a menu and mentioned a couple specials they had that evening. They did have a number of interesting and delicious sounding Italian specialties such as a fettuccine dish that featured prosciutto, peas, sliced tomatoes and fresh basil, and cappelini in a garlic olive oil. But I had pizza on my mind when he asked me what I wanted to get. I ordered up my usual sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza. I asked Larry what the difference in size was since the next size up was served in a rectangular fashion 16 by 20 inches. He said, "Are you going to take some back to your hotel?" I told him that I probably wouldn't. He said, "Get a small."

Being that it was a thin crust pizza, it made it out to me in well under 20 minutes. The toppings on the round pizza cover the top with a thicker dough edge around the perimeter of the pizza. The sausage didn't have the zip that I normally look for in a pizza like this, but it was still good, nonetheless. The sliced mushrooms were fresh, but not overpowering. And the pepperoni - while there could have been more on my pizza - had a small spicy bite to them along with a hint of salty taste. The cheese, what there was of it, was caramelized perfectly on the top and the sauce had a sweet, yet tangy taste to it. The crust under the toppings was crisp, but not cracker thin. Overall, it was a very good pizza. It was one of those pizzas that taste great with a cold beer. I had a second Pilsner Urquell halfway through my pizza.

After I finished the whole pizza - it wasn't all that difficult as the crust was so thin - Larry Fazarri asked me what I thought of it. "Killer," I said, giving him a "thumbs up".

He said, "This is what made this place, our pizza. You need to come back sometime and try one of our pasta dishes. Best in Milwaukee."

While I'm sure that Larry says that to everyone, after having their pizza I'm guessing that their pasta dishes aren't too far off from his hubristic boast. I love finding little Italian restaurants like this and the Calderone Club was a great recommendation by the staff at the hotel. I like staying at the Hampton Inn in downtown Milwaukee and while there's a number of good restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, I'd go back to the Calderone Club to get a pizza or to try their pasta. Or maybe both!

 

McBob's Pub and Grill - Milwaukee

One of my dealers in Milwaukee, Ultra Fidelis, moved out to Wauwatosa on North Avenue a little over a year ago. North Avenue is sort of a mish-mash of funky stores, little restaurants and blue-collar bars. One of the guys at Ultra Fidelis was telling me that there was this great little neighborhood bar on North Avenue a couple miles away from their store - McBob's Pub and Grill - that had one of the best corned beef sandwiches in Milwaukee. "Maybe even the world," he exclaimed. "It's a great sandwich." One evening with nothing to do in Milwaukee, I decided to seek out McBob's and give their sandwich a try.

McBob's is one of those old time neighborhood taps that permeate the Beer City. It has more of an Irish theme to the place, one a number of Irish pubs in Milwaukee. (For a city that is heavy in German heritage, they have an awful lot of Irish-style pubs in Milwaukee.) Of course, St. Patrick's Day is huge at McBob's with corned beef and cabbage, Guinness and bag pipes all mixed in.

McBob's is the nickname for the McRoberts family who started McBob's a number of years ago. However, for the 20 or so years, the place was run by Bob Rubner (pictured right, courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), and his wife, Christine McRoberts (the daughter of the previous owner). In 1995, Brian Hunter came to work for Rubner and McRoberts and later became a partner in the place.

This is where the back story about McBob's turns a little strange.

In 1988, Bob Rubner was living in Vienna, Austria and he happened to come back to a family gathering at McBob's. There, he "re-met" his first cousin, Christine McRoberts, who was seven years younger than Rubner. According to McRoberts, it was love at first sight and two years later they were married in California - a state where it is legal for first cousins to marry. They came back to work at McBob's, eventually taking it over.

Rubner was instrumental in turning the place into a nearly authentic Irish/Scottish pub. He began to cook and came up with their famous corned beef sandwich. He also came up with a number of soups and the McBob's Chili which, I understand, is some of the best in the city of Milwaukee. Rubner also started making Irish breakfasts at McBob's. His "McRobert's Plaid" entree is pretty unique for breakfast - it's 3 eggs topped with peppers and onions, then topped with Swiss and American cheese in sort of a plaid pattern.

Rubner had a great sense of humor and told many stories about a mischievous fictional character "Seamus". Nearly every day, Rubner would come up with a new story regarding the exploits of Seamus. And he was a treasure trove of jokes that he would share with his customers.

Unfortunately, Bob Rubner was also an alcoholic which led to many physical issues. In March of this year, just before his beloved St. Patrick's Day, Rubner couldn't take it any longer and committed suicide. He was 58 years old. McRoberts and Hunter continue to run McBob's, but it's apparent that Bob Rubner is missed by all.

I found a parking space just across the street on busy North Ave. (see map) Like the neighborhood surrounding McBob's, the clientele is a diversified group of ethnic and socio-culture individuals. Young families, older families, young guys and girls with piercings and tattoos, yuppie couples enjoying a beer - McBob's was a literal melting pot of people from all walks of life. I immediately liked the place.

Like most Irish-style pubs I've been to, McBob's has a plethora of signage - both lighted and unlighted - and other paraphernalia on the walls. The lighting is subdued, but still good enough to allow me to read a copy of the Journal-Sentinel in the dining area. The bar took up the east wall of McBob's and it was evident that a number of the regulars were holding those places that evening.

Taking a table along the back wall of the place, a waiter came over to drop off a menu and to take my drink order. I ordered up a Smithwick's and looked over the menu. McBob's is also somewhat famous for their homemade tacos - made with beef or chicken in a 10" soft flour shell, then topped with cheese, onion, sour cream, lettuce, tomato and your choice of three different temperatures of salsa. It sounded tempting, as did the hot roast beef sandwich - comfort food on a chilly and rainy Milwaukee evening.

But I decided to get what I went there for - the corned beef sandwich. Actually, McBob's reuben sandwich isn't much different as they add Swiss cheese and sauerkraut to the corned beef. I had my choice of either marble rye or light rye bread. I took the marble rye. And since it was a Wednesday night, I could get a "deluxe" corned beef sandwich. That meant that I could get a side of french fries with a pickle spear, and a cup of soup. (They have their "deluxe" sandwiches on Monday, Wednesday and Friday's at McBob's.) The featured soup that evening, in addition to their chili, was a creamy chicken and rice - one of the soups that Bob Rubner came up with years ago. While I decided against getting fries, I did order up a cup of the soup.

The soup came out first and it was very good. It had large chunks of chicken and the creamy broth was very tasty. It was a nice start up to the meal.

Not long after I finished my soup, my waiter came out with my sandwich and fries. A generous amount of horseradish mustard was on top of the corned beef which was slow roasted, overly moist and literally falling apart on my sandwich.

The marble rye bread was a little dried out and it didn't take long for the juices from the corned beef to get sopped up in the bread. Because of that, the sandwich suddenly became a mess of soggy bread that was falling apart, large chunks of corned beef that dropped into the basket on top of the chips, and horseradish mustard oozing onto my fingers. I looked for my waiter to get a fork, but he sort of forgot about me. I did my best to not look like a medieval barbarian as I picked up chunk after chunk of corned beef by my fingers and put it in my mouth. By the time I was finished, the waiter finally came around. He asked if I needed anything else and I said, "Yeah! Napkins!"

But the corned beef was simply out of this world. I like a good corned beef sandwich from time to time and this was one of the best I had, exploding bread notwithstanding. The beef was succulent and flavorful. What ever they do to their corned beef at McBob's, I wish I could do with corned beef at home.

With a couple beers, tax and tip, my meal came to just over $22 bucks at McBob's that evening. The corned beef was as good as advertised, the soup was delicious, and while the service (I thought) was a little sub par, it was fully understandable as the waiter was a busy guy with a lot of people coming into McBob's to get food. As a place to hang out and have a beer with friends, McBob's would be a great place to do so. But the food is what makes the place unique. And even though he is no longer with us, the spirit of Bob Rubner lives on at McBob's.

AJ Bombers - Milwaukee

In my "Best Burger List - 2011", I have two Milwaukee area burger joints - Sobleman's and Solly's - on my Top Ten list. In the spring of 2009, upstate New York native Joe Sorge opened a new burger joint - AJ Bombers - along the restaurant row of Water Street in downtown Milwaukee. Word quickly got out that this upstart burger joint rivaled - and possibly surpassed - the venerable Solly's and the established Sobleman's for the title of "Best Burger in Milwaukee."

I had not heard of AJ Bombers until I saw the Travel Channel program - Food Wars - that pitted AJ Bombers against Sobleman's for a "taste-off" for the best burger in Milwaukee. I was immediately intrigued and knew that I had to try AJ Bombers the next time I went to Milwaukee. I had my chance earlier this Spring when I was able to get up there and had time to stop at AJ Bombers for lunch.

Joe Sorge's family had been in the restaurant industry for a number of years before he went to Cornell to study hospitality management, specifically majoring in restaurant management. Upon his graduation, Sorge went to South Carolina and worked for a couple private hospitality companies and eventually for a House of Blues location. Sorge and his wife, Angie, moved to Milwaukee in 2000 and have opened up a handful of restaurants including Water Buffalo, Smoke Shack and Swig. Sensing a need for an eclectic and interesting burger joint, the Sorge's opened AJ Bombers at the corner of Water and E. Knapp (see map) in a building that housed the long standing bar, The Corner, but most recently housed a short-lived restaurant/bar, Water's End.

Earlier this year, the Sorge's partnered with Marcus Investments to help drive the concept of multiple locations for AJ Bombers and possibly their other restaurants. Marcus Investments also owns Zaffiro's Pizza, a place that I wrote about on Road Tips a couple three years ago (you can see my post on Zaffiro's here).

The Sorge's are also proponents of social networking and were one of the charter members of the foursquare network of bars and restaurants. foursquare is a mobile application that allows networked friends to easily find each other as they update their location. Joe Sorge has also co-authored a book - Twitter Works - that shows restaurants, bars and other small businesses the advantages of social networking.

It was just before 2 p.m. on a rainy afternoon in Milwaukee when I pulled up across the street from AJ Bombers. The main lunch crowd had dwindled down to a few late lunch stragglers such as myself and I took a seat at the bar. They do have an outdoor seating area around the back of AJ Bombers, but since it was raining, that was out of the question that day.

The interior of the place is what I'd have to call urban guerrilla chic. Loads of graffiti were on the wooden walls around the the booths. Exposed brick walls along with some interesting artwork - mainly bombs and bomber memorabilia - were throughout the place. Peanut shells littered the floor, courtesy of a large peanut dispenser located behind the bar. How they get peanuts to the table is another subject I'll examine in a bit.

The bartender came over and said, "Have you ever been to AJ Bombers before?" I said I hadn't and he said, "OK, let me show you how it works."

He pulled out a sheet menu that allowed the customer to check off the type of burger, what types of toppings, condiments and extras you would want on your burger. He pointed out the A.J. Burger - their basic 1/4 pound cheeseburger that you could order has a double, a triple or even a quadruple for those inclined to gorge on a burger. The bartender said, "For example, after you've picked out what burger you want, then you go down and circle what you want on it." The choices included jalapenos, a fried egg, avocado, peanut butter, fried onions - all of which were an up-charge anywhere from 50 cents to a buck and a half (for bacon). Curiously, there was a 50 cent up-charge for pickles. They must be pretty damn good pickles!

And because you can make your own combinations, they only have three different types of Angus beef burgers. They also had a "Stuffed 'shroom" burger where you had your choice of either a deep fried or baked portabello mushroom stuffed with cheddar cheese and placed on top of a burger. And they also had "The Milwaukee Burger" - a 1/4 pound burger with double cheese, double bacon and beer braised onions. More on that burger later on.

They also featured a couple of veggie-type burgers, turkey burgers, a chicken sandwich, a grilled cheese, and a hot dog on the menu. There were a lot of appetizers and sides such as their onion straws and their "gi-normous" fries. The bartender asked me if I wanted something to drink while I decided and I got a Miller High Life. AJ Bombers has a pretty good beer list, but I thought, "Well, when in Milwaukee, you've got to have a High Life."

I ended up ordering the fried "Stuffed 'shroom" burger with bacon and cheddar cheese. It sounded intriguing to me. The bartender said, "You want any fries with that? They're hand cut and they're damn good." I broke down and took the fries.

After I ordered, he brought over a small bowl of peanuts in the shell - sort of a signature thing for AJ Bombers. In fact, they have a pretty neat way to deliver the peanuts to people who are sitting at the booths next to the bar or to the front area for a waitress to pick up and deliver to a table.

Above the bar, they have three tracks with little "bombs" attached. The bartenders reach up and fill the top of the bomb with peanuts - or "p-nuts" in the vernacular of AJ Bombers - then they push the bombs down the track where they then hit a target with the nose of the bomb which triggers a drop door on the bottom of the bomb to let loose of the peanuts into a hopper that is attached to chute where the peanuts fall into a bowl at the bottom. And it's pretty loud when the bombs hit the target. The bartender did it for an unsuspecting couple sitting in a booth directly behind me and it startled the living crap out of the lady. She obviously wasn't expecting a loud "bang" over her head and then peanuts falling into a metal bowl next to her. The bartender had to apologize profusely to the shaken woman.

Here's a You Tube video of the peanut bomb delivery system at AJ Bombers in action -

After all that fun, my burger finally showed up to the table. It was adorned with this huge, deep fried, cheese stuffed portabello mushroom on top. Bacon and a couple slices of cheddar cheese were on top of the patty with a couple fresh tomato slices and lettuce lying underneath.

The burger had a lot going on in terms of taste. It had a great smoky, char-grilled taste to it, but it was far from overpowering. It was definitely a multi-napkin burger that oozed with cheese and pure beef juiciness. The bun was light and moist, but didn't disintegrate with all the cheese and bacon grease flowing with each bite. The bun actually helped with the overall taste of the burger. I've always said the key to a great burger is the bun.

Actually, the fried/stuffed portabello was a little overwhelming for the overall taste of the burger. I wished about half-way through the burger that I would have gotten the "Milwaukee Burger" - the burger that AJ Bombers came up with for their "Food Wars" battle against Sobleman's.

When "Food Wars" came to Milwaukee to see who would be judged to have a better burger between Sobleman's and AJ Bombers, to keep the playing field level both Joe Sorge and Dave Sobleman agreed to make their burgers topped with real Wisconsin cheddar slices (times two) and a double helping of bacon. In AJ Bombers and Sobleman's case, they selected Neuske's bacon - called by the New York Times as the "beluga caviar of bacon". Neuske's isn't available in stores, but you can mail order it or visit their company store in the small north central Wisconsin town of Wittenburg.

Both Sorge and Sobleman did up their burgers and a three-person panel consisting of the show's host Camille Ford, local food critic Kyle Cherek, and noted hamburger expert and author Josh Ozersky judged the burgers. Here is the final judging segment of the contest between Sobleman's and AJ Bombers -

 While I'm not overly certain that I agree with their assessment, all I have to say is that it would be difficult to go wrong with either Sobleman's or AJ Bombers.  Both are excellent burgers and until I have a chance to get back in to AJ Bombers and try the Milwaukee Burger, I'll reserve my own judgment.  While the "Stuffed 'shroom" burger at AJ Bombers was very good, it masked the taste and overall quality of the burger.  Cheese and bacon will help enhance the taste of a good burger, but the fried portabello mushroom was a little over the top in this instance.  Still, I was overly impressed with AJ Bombers on my first visit there and can't wait to make it back again at some point.  

John's Sandwich Shop - Wauwatosa, WI

On a recent visit to Milwaukee, I stopped at one of my favorite "beer hunting" sites - Ray's Wine in Wauwatosa - to see if there was anything that I absolutely couldn't live without. Just across from Ray's is a place called John's Sandwich Shop. One of the owners of Ultra Fidelis told me one time, "John's may have the best breakfast in Milwaukee. You ought to try it out sometime." Since it was just past 9 a.m. that particular day, and I hadn't had breakfast, I decided to go across the street to John's for a quick meal.

John's Sandwich Shop is located in a 50+ year old strip mall on North Avenue (see map). The original business in the space was a Heinemann's family restaurant, chain of restaurants that had been in business since 1923. In the early 60's, Heinemann's relocated to a larger space on 76th Ave. and John Cantor opened John's Sandwich Shop in the building. In 1989, Peter Hyndiuk, a banquet manager who had worked at a number of upscale hotels in the greater Milwaukee area; and his wife, Kris, a psychologist working in a local hospital, bought the greasy spoon restaurant from Cantor.

There are a lot of places that specialized in breakfast in the greater Milwaukee area - one of the reasons Heinemann's went out of business a couple years ago. George Webb's is the king of greasy spoons in the Milwaukee area with over 30 locations in the SE Wisconsin region. The first thing the Hyndiuk's wanted to do is distance themselves from those other restaurants that specialized in breakfast served anytime. Their breakfast menu consists of more eclectic and healthful items such as asparagus and pine nut omelets, turkey sausage wraps, and a banana walnut waffle that is made with wheat and barley from scratch.

Oh, you can get sandwiches at John's, just as their name implies. It's just that some of their sandwiches are rather unique including the toasted Granny Smith apple/melted gruyere cheese sandwich, the zucchini and yellow squash veggie burger, and the cranberry/turkey sandwich on toasted honey oat bran bread. Some of the in-season sides include figs and cooked turnips. On Friday's, they serve fish and fish tacos.

The Hyndiuk's also own their very own coffee farm in Costa Rica. Once a year, the Hyndiuk's take a working vacation to Central America to harvest beans to bring back with them to use in their restaurant. Small bags of the coffee beans are available at John's Sandwich Shop.

John's Sandwich Shop is not very big. The interior is reminiscent of a 1950's coffee shop with the grill behind a tall serving counter. There's a sit down counter (where I sat) and a number of tables and small booths throughout the place. There's also sidewalk dining along North Ave. But being that it's such a busy street - it's the main drag through Wauwatosa - I would think it would be pretty loud sitting out there.

A pleasant young gal gave me a menu and asked if I wanted anything to drink at that point. I just opted for water for the time being as I perused the somewhat eclectic and interesting menu. I was thinking of just getting a sausage, mushroom and cheese omelet, but that wasn't one of the choices. And it didn't appear that they had a "make your own" option for omelets on the menu. They had a spinach/crab meat omelet (one of those went by me as I was waiting on my food and it smelled sort of "fishy"); a vegetarian omelet and an avocado, bacon, cheddar cheese and chopped tomato omelet topped with salsa and sour cream. None of those sounded very good to me.

I thought about the French Toast, but they use a whole grain bread for their version. I'm not big on that for French Toast. They had a handful of what they called "scramblers" including the "Meat Lovers" scrambler - chopped ham, sausage, and bacon with scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese mixed in with American fries. I ordered that with a side of whole wheat toast.

I was pleasantly surprised with the portions served at John's Sandwich Shop. I immediately knew there was going to be no way I could finish the whole plate of food the waitress presented to me. I made a significant dent in the Meat Lover's scrambler, though. It had a very good taste to the meal. The cheese wasn't overpowering as it can be on some similar breakfast dishes. I would have rather had ground sausage chunks than chopped up sausage links, but it wasn't a deal buster by any means. I made sure to eat the meat portion of the meal while I left an amount of the fried potatoes when I finally finished.

Although the Hyndiuk's say one of the reasons they don't take credit cards is to keep the price of their meals in check, I would say the value of the meal was a little low. With a glass of milk and the tip, my breakfast came to just over $14 bucks. I thought that to be a little high priced for a breakfast. But it was very good and John's Sandwich Shop has that sort of retro ambiance that makes it comfortable and inviting. The service was very good and it's no wonder why my dealer friend told me why he thinks its one of the best places for breakfast in Milwaukee. It's the kind of place that I know my wife would really like and I'll have to take her there on our next trip to Milwaukee.

Karl Ratzsch's - Milwaukee

Staying in downtown Milwaukee one evening, I decided to walk over to the venerable Karl Ratzsch's for dinner.  Karl Ratzsch's has been around since just after the turn of the 20th century and you'll get a lot of debate as to which German restaurant is better in Milwaukee - Kegel's Inn, Mader's or Karl Ratzsch's.  Well, I was going to find out on my own.

The restaurant opened in 1904 as Hermann's Cafe, run by German chef Otto Hermann.  After a few years, Hermann's step-daughter, Helen, moved to Milwaukee to help in the cafe.  In the mid-1910's, a young German man by the name of Karl Ratzsch was touring the U.S. when World War I broke out in Europe.  Deciding not to go back to Germany to fight in the war, Ratzsch settled in Milwaukee and began to work in the restaurant.  Helen and the young Karl Ratzsch soon became an item, but it took them 10 years of courtship to tie the knot.  

After they married, Karl and Helen bought the cafe from Otto Hermann, changed the name and moved it to it's present day location (see map).  "Mama" and "Papa" Ratzsch continued to work in the restaurant until they sold it to their son, Karl, Jr. in 1962.  Karl, Jr. ran the restaurant until the mid-90's when he sold it to his son, Josef.  Josef, in turn, sold the restaurant in 2003 to longtime employees, Tom Andera, John Poulos and Judy Hazard, who, collectively, have nearly 90 years of working experience at Karl Ratzsch's.  The ownership team continues to provide the same food and service that people have come to trust for over 100 years. 

 
It was a 10 minute walk from my hotel to Karl Ratzsch's on a brisk winter evening in Milwaukee with the wind cutting through my winter jacket.  By the time I got to the restaurant, I was ready to warm up.  There were a handful of people in the ornate dining area, but I decided to pull up a seat at the bar.  The bar area is decorated with a number of antique beer steins that Helen Ratzsch collected over the years.  Some of them, including the big ones in the window of the bar area (above right), are pretty darn cool. 

One of the waitresses gave me a menu and the bartender asked me I'd like to get something to drink.  Karl Ratzsch's has about a dozen beers on tap and I decided on a Spaten. 

As I was going over the menu, another waitress came, Dawn, over and told me that she'd be taking care of me for the evening.  She told me of a couple specials they had that evening - one of which was a combination of weiner schnitzel and Hungarian goulash, served with red cabbage.  Oh, man!  I about stopped right there and ordered that, but I knew I had to look through the full menu before I made up my mind. 

In addition to Old World German foods on the menu - such as sauerbraten, rouladen, roast duck and pork shanks - Karl Ratzsch's also offers a number of European specialities such as Chicken a al Poulos, named for chef John Poulos and it features a grilled chicken breast with both a white cream and marinara sauce, then stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach and feta cheese.   That certainly caught my attention.

Karl Ratzsch's also features seafood and steaks, and on Saturday nights they serve a 12 oz. or 18 oz. beef prime rib. 

But some other things on the menu also made my stomach do jumping jacks -

Koningsberger Klopse - veal, beef and pork meatballs in a lemon caper sauce.

Black Forest Veal - a breaded veal cutlet layered with smoked pork, Swiss cheese, spinach, and mushroom sauce, served over spätzle.

Wiener Schnitzel a la Holstein - a breaded veal cutlet topped with fried egg, anchovies and capers served with steamed vegetables and potato dumpling. 

It all sounded so good and I was having a lot of problems.  After the second time Dawn came back to take my order, I decided to go with the wiener schnitzel and Hungarian goulash combination.  I also got a cup of their liver dumpling soup and a basket of rolls and toasted bread chips was served with the meal. 

The cup of liver dumpling soup came out first.  The liver meatball was different in taste from other liver dumplings I've had in the past.  I didn't know if I cared for the taste or texture at first, but decided that different is good - it allowed me to try something new.  The liver dumpling fell apart easily in the broth, it was very moist and tender.  I will have to say that it was above average overall. 

 
Not long after finishing my liver dumpling soup and getting another Spaten, my waitress brought out the main entree.  It was a lot of food!  The wiener schnitzel was a pretty good sized cutlet and the portion of the Hungarian goulash was heaping and heavy ladled over the spatzle.  The wiener schnitzel was, well, it was OK.  It wasn't the best I've ever had and it was a little dry in taste.  A sauce would have helped it, but on its own it was just OK. 

However, the Hungarian goulash was excellent.  There were large chunks of beef and vegetables in a rich sauce that had a slight tinge of paprika.  I've always like the Hungarian goulash over at Mader's.  I'll have to say the Hungarian goulash at Karl Ratzsch's was even better.   But, oh!  Was it so filling!

And I do have to say that the red cabbage at Karl Ratzsch's was also very good.  It was some of the best I've ever had.  Even with the average wiener schnitzel, the overall meal was very, very good. 

I can see why people have trouble when they debate the merits of the big three German restaurants in Milwaukee.  I think the wiener schnitzel at Mader's is better than Karl Ratzch's.  But the Hungarian goulash at Karl Ratzsch's is better than Mader's.  However, overall I feel that Kegel's Inn is the best value of all three.  I guess the bottom line is that you can't go wrong with any one of the three.  But the menu at Karl Ratzsch's intrigues me enough to want to go back and try some of the interesting food at some point in time. 

Kegel's Inn - West Allis, WI

My cousin used to live in Milwaukee on the grounds of the Veteran's Administration Medical Center when he was the canteen manager there for over 15 years.  Not far from where he lived was a German restaurant that he turned us on to - Kegel's Inn on National Ave. in near suburban West Allis. (see map)  From the first time I went there a number of years ago, I thought Kegel's Inn had some of the best German food I'd ever had anywhere.  Since I'd gone to Mader's in downtown Milwaukee earlier this summer, I decided to try Kegel's Inn for lunch on a recent visit to Milwaukee. 

Kegel's Inn has been around since December of 1924 when Austrian immigrants John and Anna Kegel opened what was termed back then as a "soft-drink parlor" which in reality was a Prohibition-era speakeasy serving customers home-brewed beer and whiskey.  A free meal of German sausages and other specialties was served to the people who ordered drinks. 

After Prohibition was repealed, the Kegel's constructed a new restaurant at the present day site.  John and Anna Kegel's son, John, Jr. ran the establishment from 1947 to 1955.  His brother, George, and George's wife, operated the restaurant from 1955 to 1966.  John Kegel, Jr. and his wife, Ruth, came back to run the place from 1966 until they retired in 1991.  Today, Rob and Jim Kegel are the third generation of Kegel's to run the establishment.  In fact, it was Jim Kegel who greeted me and sat me in the dining room when I stopped in earlier this summer.  

 
The decor of the restaurant has a decidedly old world feel to the place. The bar area as you walk in features a long walnut bar with ornamental steins placed on a shelf over a couple of mirrored walls on the back side of the bar.  Wooden-beamed ceilings hovered over antique lights with walls covered in old time paintings.  Kegel's Inn has always had a cozy and inviting feel to the place.

As Jim Kegel seated me at a smaller table in the dining room, he asked if he could get me something to drink.  I had finished all my calls for the day and decided that a cold beer would be good at that point.  I asked for a Warsteiner, but I was informed that Kegel's Inn didn't carry Warsteiner.  Jim Kegel said, "We have Spaten lager on tap."  I said I'd have that.  He dropped off a lunch menu for me to look at for the time being. 

A waitress came back with the Spaten and said, "OK, so we have a bet.  What part of Chicago are you from?"

I looked at her quizzingly and said, "I'm from the Quad Cities of Iowa.  Davenport, to be exact." 

She turned back to Jim Kegel and said, "He's not from Chicago!" 

He came back over to the table and said, "Darn.  I just lost 25 cents."  He explained that Warsteiner was a very popular beer in Chicago and it really isn't in Milwaukee.  "I can usually tell if someone is from Chicago either by the way they talk or if they order Warsteiner," he told me.  "For some reason, Warsteiner doesn't really sell very well in Milwaukee." 

I don't know.  I don't think I've ever had a Warsteiner in Chicago.  I think the first time I had it was in the Quad Cities a number of years ago. 

The lunch menu at Kegel's Inn is smaller and not quite the same as their dinner menu.   But the lunch menu still has a number of the staples that make Kegel's Inn so popular with the locals in the greater Milwaukee area - Roast Pork Shank, Stuffed Beef Tenderloin, Sauerbraten, Beef Rouladen.  It's always difficult to figure out what to get when I venture into Kegel's Inn. 

I ended up ordering the Sauerbraten with a side of Kegel's Inn famous red cabbage and a dumpling.  For starters, I got a cup of their Chicken Dumpling soup.   The lunch portions are much smaller (and subsequently cheaper) than the dinner portions, so I knew the lunch wouldn't sit heavy in my stomach. 

Not long after I ordered, the waitress brought out the cup of Chicken Dumpling soup which was very good.  And almost as soon as I finished my cup of soup she brought out the Sauerbraten, covered in Kegel's Inn homemade red wine and ginger gravy sauce.  The portions of the Sauerbraten, dumpling and red cabbage were more than enough for a lunch time meal.  Anything more and I would have wanted to take a long nap.

And the Sauerbraten was just as good as I remembered it to be.  It had been quite some time since I'd been into Kegel's Inn and I silently wondered why as I eagerly ate my lunch.  The Sauerbraten is marinated for 10 days, then oven roasted to give it extreme tenderness.  The red wine and ginger gravy is an outstanding compliment to the meat.  It was an outstanding meal. 

 

Kegel's Inn may not be as famous as Mader's or Karl Ratzsch's, the two landmark German restaurants in Milwaukee.  But I have to say that the food at Kegel's Inn rivals or even surpasses what I've had at Mader's in the past.  I still need to try Karl Ratzsch's at some point - maybe during an upcoming trip to Milwaukee this fall.  But pound for pound and dollar for dollar, it's tough to beat Kegel's Inn for great German food. 

Mader's - Milwaukee

On a recent trip up through Wisconsin, I was having a particularly hard time with restaurants of choice.  One evening in LaCrosse, I had hoped to eat at a Cajun restaurant in the downtown area.  But when I walked in, it was dark and empty.  A guy came up from the back and I said, "Are you open?"

He said, "The power's out.  We lost our power about an hour ago and there's no telling when it will come back on.  Power's out all over downtown."  Well, that pretty much put a kibosh on my second and third option for eating in downtown LaCrosse that evening, so I ended up at a Buffalo Wild Wings near my hotel.  As you probably know, my number one rule while traveling is to never eat at a chain - especially a chain that I can eat at while I'm home.  But of all the chains, I do like BW3 pretty well. 

A couple days later on a trip between Green Bay and Milwaukee, I stopped into Port Washington, WI anticipating a great dinner at Smith Brothers Fish Shanty.  As I pulled up in front of the restaurant I looked inside and saw an empty shell.  It turns out Smith Brothers Fish Shanty had gone out of business about three years ago.  Could it be that long since I'd last been there?  I guess it had.

I then pulled out my list of places that were given to me by Bob and Casey Kelly as to recommendations of Milwaukee eateries they gave their wedding guests last year.  I found a place on the near north side of Milwaukee called Pizza Man, a great little pizza place that was highly recommended by Milwaukee native Casey.  As I pulled up in front of where my GPS directed me to Pizza Man, I encountered an empty lot.  No Pizza Man.  No building.  Nothing.  I found out the next day that Pizza Man had suffered a horrible fire in January of this year.  They had to tear the building down and at last report were still looking to re-open at another location. 

So, with that sort of luck that week I thought I'd just go to my hotel in downtown Milwaukee, check in and head over to the always good and always reliable Mader's German restaurant for dinner that evening on historic N. Old World 3rd St. a block from the Bradley Center (see map).    

Mader's is probably the best known German restaurant in a city that has some world class German restaurants.  In fact, at one point Mader's was voted the most famous German restaurant in the United States.  Since 1902, Mader's has been serving up some of the best German cuisine anywhere.  It wasn't until Prohibition hit in 1919 that founder Charles Mader put more of an emphasis on food.  When Prohibition ended in 1933, Mader's was the first place to serve beer in Beer City USA.  

Charles Mader's sons, Gustave and George, took over the restaurant after the death of their father in 1938.  When World War II came around, the Mader brothers de-emphasized the German concept to the restaurant, but that didn't hurt their overall business.  

In the late 50's, George Mader passed away and Gus took over the full operation of Mader's.  In 1961, Gus' son, Victor, enrolled in the restaurant management program at Michigan State University.  After graduation, Victor traveled Europe and learned first hand about the German cuisine his grandfather's homeland offered.  In 1964, Victor came back to work in the family business.  Victor continues to run the business today.

In the mid-70's, Victor Mader, along with his wife, Wendy, began to accumulate a number of artifacts and artwork dating back to the late medieval period of history.  Over the past 30 plus years, the Mader's have collected everything from suits of armor, weapons, statues and artwork to display at the restaurant.  Today, Mader's has over $3 million dollars worth of antiques and art on display throughout the restaurant. 

Also, Mader's has the distinction of being one of the world's largest dealers for Hummel figurines and authentic German-made decorative collectible beer steins.  Their second floor is home to their gift shop that houses these large collections.  However, Mader's will also set up a small shop to sell steins and figurines at Summerfest each year.   

It was about 8:30 when I got into Mader's.  While there's a number of places to park in a parking garage near the restaurant, Mader's also has a large valet parking lot with a covered area that allows customers to stay dry as they get out of their vehicles.  

The dining room was about half full when I checked in with the hostess.  I noticed that nary a person was in the bar area - the Knights Bar.  I asked if I could sit in there and the hostess led me to the bar and dropped off a menu for me to look through.  The female bartender, dressed in a German style dress with black tights - same as the waitress' attire - asked me if I wanted something to drink.  I took a quick look to see what they had to offer on tap and saw Spaten Oktoberfest.  Spaten now makes their Oktoberfest available year round.  And I do like their Oktoberfest.

When she brought me my stein of beer, she also brought me a basket of Mader's famous onion rolls.  These light, fluffy and soft rolls are just addicting.  I devoured both rolls almost right away, they were so good.  The taste sensation of the rolls brought back memories of my previous visits to Mader's. 

It had been quite sometime since I'd last been in Mader's.  I'm trying to think the exact last time, but I think it was on my first trip to Milwaukee with my present company nearly 8 years ago.  My first trip to Mader's was a memorable one - I rode up from Chicago after the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in 1988 (back when there used to be a Summer C.E.S. in Chicago) with my then boss and a dealer of his and his wife.  The dealer was based in St. Louis but had grown up in Milwaukee and had always been raving about how great the food was at Mader's.  I believe I had the sauerbrauten that time and I remember it being just excellent.  

I believe I had the weiner schnitzel on my last visit, so I was looking at something else to get that evening.  I had talked to my cousin who used to live in Milwaukee earlier in the evening to inform him of Smith Brothers Fish Shanty closing down and I told him that I was just going to cut my losses in trying to find a new place that night and just go over to Mader's.  He said, "I do like their Hungarian goulash a lot." 

Mader's Hungarian Beef Goulash starts with braised sirloin tips cooked in a sauce with Hungarian paprika (Mader's gets their spices from The Spice House, whose original location is just a couple three doors down from the restaurant), and caramelized onions in a rich brown sauce.  It's served over homemade spaetzel and served with a side of spinach.  

I had also looked at getting Mader's Sauerbraten again - they marinate the beef for 10 days and oven roasted.  It's then topped with a Bavarian ginger sauce.   Oh, man.  That just sounds great! 

I was so torn between a number of items including Mader's Bavarian Sausage Platter - they have a simmered knackwurst and a grilled bratwurst with a slice of Mader's Kassler Rippchen (smoked pork chop) and a side of sauerkraut and a potato dumpling.  (Mader's is also located literally across the street from Usinger's - my favorite sausage maker on this planet.  Usinger's provides Mader's with their sausages.)  Plus, the Beef and Mushroom Strudel - marinated beef sauerbraten with grilled onions, sauteed mushrooms and smoked ham added into a rolled up pastry and baked with cheese, then topped Mader's Bavarian brown ginger sauce. 

Oh, man - I've got to quit writing this blog on an empty stomach.  My gut is literally doing jumping-jacks right now.

I took the cue from my cousin - I ended up getting the Hungarian beef goulash.  And I'm glad I did.  It was just superb.  The braised sirloin tips were very, very tender.  The paprika and onion sauce was just absolutely fabulous, as well.  I didn't get much of a hint of paprika - I would have used more in the sauce - but that was fine with me.  The spaetzel was very good, as well.  The little bit of spinach on top of the beef sauce was sort of limp and lifeless, both in presentation and taste.  But there was no doubt about the Hungarian goulash.  It was just fabulous.

Of course, I had another onion roll with dinner and I had to have a couple more beers before I left.  With a nice tip for the waitress/bartender, it came to around $50 bucks for dinner at Mader's - not a cheap place to eat by any means.  But when you're heralded as being the best German restaurant in not only Milwaukee, but in the U.S., I suppose you can get a premium price for your meals.  

I still think Kegel's Inn in West Milwaukee (a place I've visited many times in the past, but for some reason I don't have an entry on Kegel's on Road Tips) is a better value than Mader's.  And there are some locals who feel Karl Ratzsch's has better German/Bavarian food than Mader's.  I'll have to try that place some day.  I'll be in Milwaukee a lot over the next few months and I'll have to give those places a try and report back.  But they'll have to really bring their "A" game if they're going to beat Mader's.

Maxie's Southern Comfort - Milwaukee

I have a good Cambridge Audio dealer in Milwaukee and I wanted to reward them one evening a few weeks ago with a nice meal at a restaurant of their choice.  They've turned me on to a number of great restaurants - and equally great dive bars - in the Milwaukee area over the years.  They proposed going to a west side Cajun restaurant that's been open for about three years called Maxie's Southern Comfort.  I was not familiar with Maxie's - Crawdaddy's was probably the best known Cajun restaurant in the great Milwaukee area - but I'm always up for finding a new Cajun restaurant to try. 

Maxie's Southern Comfort is located just off Interstate 94 at the 68th St. exit, just west of Miller Park (see map).  This is actually the second location for Maxie's - the other location is actually in far off Ithaca, NY.  (Click here to see the Ithaca Maxie's web site.)  

Maxie's is the brain child of Chick and Dewi Evans, an earthy couple who opened their Ithaca location in 1999.  Chick and a good friend, Dan Sidner, a Milwaukee-native, graduated from Cornell University in the 1980's.  Both went on to work in restaurants after school - Chick worked for the Lettuce Entertain You restaurant corporation as well as for restaurants in New Mexico and Colorado, while Dan's restaurant journeys took him to North Carolina, Texas and Washington State running high-end restaurants. 

From 1997 to 2003, Dan ran a high-end Italian restaurant in the Vail area before moving back to Wisconsin.  Joining forces with the Evans, Sidner and his wife, Allison, decided to bring Maxie's Southern Comfort to Milwaukee and bought what was an old neighborhood meat market in Wauwautosa.  They hired Joe Muench - a veteran chef in the Milwaukee area - as the executive chef, and Sally (Sal) Anschuetz as their restaurant manager and they opened the doors in 2007.    

Maxie's Southern Comfort is more than just a Cajun restaurant.  They also specialize in Carolina "low country" cuisine as well as Southern-style barbecue offerings.  Their menu is a diverse sampling of those cuisines along with a few contemporary offerings and some vegetarian items, as well.  Maxie's also has an ever-changing wine and libation list that includes seasonal beers served on tap.  One of the beers they had on tap was Bell's Oberon wheat ale.  I'm not big on wheat beer, but I do like the Bell's Oberon in the summertime.

It was around 7:30 p.m. when we got into Maxie's.  A large parking lot is situated across the street from the restaurant and the neighborhood looks like it was once a thriving little area.  Just to the east of Maxie's are a couple of neighborhood dive bars the guys pointed out to me. "I've spent many a night in both of those places," one of my guests told me.

They had reservations for four in advance of our dinner - one of the guys ended up that he couldn't make the dinner.  I'm glad they did make reservations because the place was packed.  We were seated at a table right next to the bar and up against the west wall of the restaurant.  With a wood-beamed ceiling and hard floors, the place was very loud.  While it was difficult to carry on a conversation, it wasn't impossible.

Our waitress showed up with a "shadow" waitress - a newbie hire who was learning the ropes of working at Maxie's.  She got our drink order - I had to have a Bell's Oberon, one of the other guys got the same, while the other just got an ice-tea for the moment.  While Maxie's Southern Comfort did have a nice wine list, I've never been big on drinking wine with Southern or Cajun cuisine. 

While we looked at the menu, our waitress told us they had a couple specials that evening - one was blackened catfish special and the other was a slow-cooked beef brisket served with Maxie's homemade barbecue sauce.  I was intrigued by the brisket, but I was also looking at some of the Cajun items they had on the menu.

One of my guests asked, "Do you like oysters?"  I told him I did.  He said, "They have a great selection of oysters here."  And, indeed, they did.  They had oysters from the Pacific Northwest, New England and Canadian Maritime regions.  We decided to get a couple dozen oysters on the half-shells - one dozen Rhode Island oysters and one dozen Maine oysters.  Actually, the Rhode Island oysters were smaller and a little salty -but still good.  The Maine oysters were big, meaty and had a great taste to them.  And the oysters were served with a cup of dark vinegar - something I've never tried with oysters before.  It was an interesting taste compared to the usual horseradish/Tabasco sauce I use on my oysters.

When it came down to ordering dinner, I was really torn between the brisket special, the blackened-seared ahi tuna, and the jambalaya.  I told our waitress, "I'm having trouble here.  I really want to try the brisket, but the jambalaya is just yelling at me.  Is there a way that I can get a sample of the brisket?"  She said she would have to check.  She came back in a little bit and she said, "Yeah, we can get you a sample, but there would be an upcharge."  I told her that was fine.  And for good measure, I got a cup of the gumbo to try, as well.

One of the guys got Maxie's grits and shrimp, a half-order for $13.95.  He got a dinner salad to tide him over as he only had a couple three of the oysters.  "Not much of an oyster guy," he said.  My other guest ended up getting the blackened catfish special. 

A few moments later, the waitress brought out the gumbo, salad and the brisket sampler.  Well, the brisket sampler was more than a sampler - it was a heaping plate of pulled beef brisket swimming in their homemade sauce.  It was way more than I wanted, so I shared it with the other guys.  It was OK, not exactly the best I've ever had, but it was good.  The sauce was thick and smoky in flavor and the meat was a little tough.  We all agreed we were glad we didn't get the brisket dinner.  Then again, as one of the guys pointed out, as large as the amount of brisket that we got on the sampler plate was, we may have gotten the dinner.  I never did check to see what they charged us for the "sample."

My gumbo was much better.  Large chunks of chicken and andoullie sausage were prevalent in the gumbo and while they advertised that it had crawfish in the gumbo, I don't know if I actually came across any crawfish meat.  But it was thick and tasty and with a little bit of Tabasco added it had a nice kick to the taste. 

A while later, our main entrees showed up.  I had a heaping plate of jambalaya - much more than I knew I could finish.  But it had a lot shrimp, andoullie and chicken mixed in with the rice and the creole sauce.  On its own, it had a lot of zip to the taste.  But with more Tabasco to kick it up a notch, I really liked the jambalaya.

The guy who got the grits and shrimp was lucky that he got the half-order.  It was almost too much for him to eat.  He said, "My wife and I can hardly eat a whole order of grits and shrimp, so I knew that I wouldn't have any chance at eating a whole plate."  

And my guest who ordered the blackened catfish said it was great, as always.  "I live about four blocks from here and my girlfriend and I walk up here all the time," he said. "I've had this catfish before and it's consistently very good." 

After a very good and satisfying dinner for all three of us, the two waitresses tried to tempt us with some dessert offerings.  I was too stuffed - as I initially predicted I couldn't finish my whole jambalaya dinner - but I did propose looking over the list of Scotch for a night cap.  We all decided to each get a snifter of The Balvenie 12 year single malt to finish off the evening.  It was a great end to a very good meal.

While I thought the brisket was average, I was still happy I got a taste.  But I will say the gumbo and the jambalaya at Maxie's Southern Comfort were well above average compared to other places I've tried.  I think the overall experience at Maxie's was also well above average - I guess you could call it as high-end Southern cooking.  The service was very good, especially with two waitresses helping us out.  While the dining room was sort of loud, it was still manageable.  And the food was very good.  That's what I like about these guys in Milwaukee - they turned me on to another great restaurant in the city.

Botanas - Milwaukee

As I continue to go down the list of restaurants that were suggested by Bob and Kasey Kelly when they were married in Milwaukee last May, I decided to try Botanas - another Mexican restaurant that is in the city's "Little Latin" area around National and 5th (see map).   Botanas is just south of La Perla, and a little over a block south of, and across the street from, La Fuente.  To keep up with either one of those two, Botanas would have to be excellent. 

Jaime Hernandez grew up in Mexico, the oldest of 11 children.  He was asked to help out in the kitchen as a growing child, then worked in a small taco stand with his father.  That stand eventually turned into a restaurant.  In 1989, Hernandez came to Milwaukee to help out at a Mexican restaurant.  He never went back.  He worked all types of jobs at a number of restaurants in the area - bus boy, cook, waiter, bartender - before he eventually became a chef at La Fuente.  Hernandez eventually moved down and across the street to be the head chef at La Perla.  

In 2005, Azteca, a former restaurant on 5th St. south of National, moved across the street to a larger building.  Jaime Hernandez was given the opportunity to buy the old restaurant with the help of La Perla co-owner JoAnne Anton.  When Hernandez, along with his wife, Martha, opened the restaurant, it seated 38 people.  Less than five years later, they have expanded the restaurant to over 400 seats, including a huge dining hall where people can have pre-selected buffet dinners for parties.  It has quickly become a popular stop for Mexican food lovers in the Walker's Point area of Milwaukee.

It was after 8 p.m. on a weeknight when I got into Botanas (a Mexican slang word for "snacks").  I was able to park on the street, but Botanas does have valet parking in a nice sized lot next door.  While the place is decorated in bright colors and with murals, Botanas was dimly lit.  They have a good sized bar that you walk into as you come in to the restaurant.  A pretty good sized crowd was having dinner in the place.  Two birthday parties were going on in the dining hall off the main dining area, so it was loud and raucous.  

I sat down and was given a menu along with a basket of chips and Botanas homemade salsa.  The chips were nothing special, but the salsa was good with not much of a kick to it.   One plus is that they did have Sol beer, but I also wanted to try a margarita.  I ordered up a regular house margarita to start out. 

Like most good Mexican restaurants - especially in Milwaukee - Botanas had almost too much to choose from.  They had beef, chicken, pork and seafood specialties.  My head was just spinning from the choices - tamales, burritos, pork in green tomatillo sauce.  The amount of great sounding Mexican food on the menu was almost too much. 

I ended up ordering a super burrito filled with chunky beef.  The beef was slow-cooked in a tomato sauce to make it tender.  I also ordered a Pork tamale on the side.  The house margarita was good, but I ended up ordering a Sol when I ordered my dinner. 

Like most Mexican food, it didn't take long for the food to make it to my table.  The super burrito was very large, but manageable to eat.  And the beef was very tender - you could easily cut it with a fork - and the seasoned tomato sauce they slow cook the beef in was a great taste compliment.   The super burrito came on a large plate with rice, refried beans, pico de gallo, lettuce and guacamole. 

Let me tell you a bit about the guacamole.  I don't know what Botanas does to their guacamole, but it may have been the freshest, best tasting guacamole I've ever had.  I'm not kidding you one bit.  It was absolutely wonderful.  I'd never had guacamole that good before and I thought I'd had some pretty good guacamole over the years.  I was literally licking the remnants off my plate, it was that good.  

And the pork tamale was just outstanding, as well.  It was served in an authentic corn husk and the pork was tender and flavorful.  All in all, my meal at Botanas was just outstanding.  

Seated at a table just across from me was a Hispanic couple.  I noticed people coming out of the kitchen and talking to them.  It turned out that it was the owners, Jaime and Martha (right).  A few patrons would walk by and they'd talk with them for a bit.  They seemed to be very nice people that had a very loyal clientele.  

And I can see why.  The food at Botanas was just outstanding.  Some of the best - if not THE best - Mexican food I've ever had in Milwaukee.  And with La Perla and La Fuente just up the street, that's saying a lot.  My meal with a margarita and couple of beers came to about $33 bucks with tip.  The service was efficient and the atmosphere was wonderful.  The next time I go into Botanas, I'm going to get a side order of guacamole.  Maybe two sides of guacamole.  It was just that outstanding.  And with all the other great sounding things on the menu that I want to try, I can't wait to go back later this year.  

Consumer Beverage Center - Hales Corner, WI

Milwaukee may have the title of "Brew City, USA", but it may also have the title of having some of the best places to buy beer in the U.S., as well.  The only other city that I think may come close in regard to the number of liquor stores that have a great selection of beer to choose from would be Minneapolis/St. Paul.  But for the Milwaukee area, Consumer Beverage Center in the southwestern suburb of Hales Corner (see map) is one of the top "beer hunting" places I've found in the area.

Consumer Beverage Center was established in 1963 and is currently run by Mike and Libby Praedel and their family.  While it's not a huge place compared to some of the liquor stores in the Milwaukee area, the Praedel's do a good job of stocking it with popular wines, liquors and beers.  Not only do they have a wonderful selection of Wisconsin and Midwestern craft beers, but they also have a large selection of imported beers to choose from, as well. 

The Praedel's also do a good job of marketing their place as they hold special events from time to time.  There are wine tastings, "meet and greets" with brewers, and special prices on liquor, beer and wine on a regular basis.  Just trying to differentiate themselves versus the ever growing threat of the local and national chains in the liquor business is a full time job. 

Consumer Beverage is sort of on the way out of Milwaukee for me on my way back home.  If I don't have time to stop at some of the other places in Milwaukee, I'll usually stop at Consumer Beverage.  That's not to say that it's a last option for me.  It's just to say that I'm lucky it's there on my way out of town. 

The last time I was in was earlier this summer when a friend of mine asked me to pick up some of the new Schlitz beer that has come back onto the market.   Actually, Schlitz never really went away, but it definitely wasn't the same since the 70's.   At one point in the early to mid 70's, Schlitz was the No. 2 brewer in the U.S. behind Anheuser-Busch.  In an attempt to bolster their business, Schlitz changed the formula of the original Schlitz.  This proved to be disastrous to the company who immediately lost market share.  In the early 80's, a crippling strike forced the company to be sold to the Stroh Brewing Company.

Through a series of buy-outs, the original Schlitz formula was lost.  Now owned by the Pabst Brewing Company, the 60's-style flavor was resurrected by a team of brew masters, taste-testers and historians.  Through documents found in old files, the team was nearly able to replicate the original taste of Schlitz. 

The original Schlitz is once again available in the distinctive brown bottles that I remember from 30 to 40 years ago.  But they aren't available in the Quad Cities as of yet.  I was talking with a friend who was asking me about the "new" Schlitz and I told him that I'd seen it up in Milwaukee.  He asked me to pick some up for him the next time I was up in Milwaukee.

Consumer Beverage had a big display of Schlitz on their floor.  I grabbed a 12 pack to take back home with me.  When I dropped them off at my friend's place, he said, "You didn't put these on ice?  I thought we'd try them out!"  I still haven't one of the "new" Schlitz beers.  He told me later on, "These taste just like the ones we used to steal out of my dad's refrigerator when we were 16."  

So, if it's Schlitz or an eclectic craft beer from Wisconsin that you're looking for, there's a good chance Consumer Beverage Center will have it.  They always seem to stock the most popular items, and feature some interesting seasonal beers, as well.  It's a great place to do some beer hunting. 

The Charcoal Grill - New Berlin, WI

The Charcoal Grill and Rotisserie is a nine location chain restaurant that specializes in cooking food in ovens and on grills over charcoal.  They also have a presence at the annual Summerfest music festival, as well as at the Wisconsin State Fair.  The restaurant specializes in burgers, ribs, rotisserie chicken, steaks, some seafood and a number of sandwiches.  Surprisingly, they also do a pretty good pizza at The Charcoal Grill.  I was in Milwaukee a few weeks ago and decided to give The Charcoal Grill in suburban New Berlin a try (see map).

The origins of The Charcoal Grill go back to the early 90's in Racine.  Dr. Constantine George, a local orthopedic surgeon, owned a restaurant in Racine that wasn't doing well.  He brought in a friend of his son, Jeff Marsh, to try and turn things around.  Marsh, who had a degree in hotel and restaurant management, took over the restaurant but was sort of floundering until one day he came up with a concept to change the restaurant into one that featured food that was cooked over charcoal.  "It seemed like everyone in Racine had a Weber Grill," Marsh explained.  To him, it seemed like a natural fit to transform the restaurant into a new concept.

Marsh turned the restaurant into the Charcoal Grill restaurant in 1993.  The concept immediately took off and a year later a second Charcoal Grill restaurant was opened in Kenosha.  In 1995, Marsh's longtime friend, and the son of Dr. George, Paul George, came into the company.  Paul George was developing a chain of vision clinics across the state of Wisconsin and took over the George family's stake in the company with the death of Dr. George in 1996.  In addition to running Wisconsin Vision, Paul George is the CEO of Char Grill, Inc., with Jeff Marsh serving as President.   

The New Berlin location has been a Charcoal Grill since 2003.  In 2000, Char Grill, Inc. purchased what was the old Zarder's restaurant at that location and turned it into a new fine dining concept, Timber Creek Grille.  The menu was categorized as "creative American cuisine" and featured wild game such as elk, buffalo, game birds and fish.   The restaurant never caught on and it was subsequently transformed into a Charcoal Grill after three years.  The New Berlin location also features a large banquet and catering facility. 

Actually, when I went to Charcoal Grill that evening, I wasn't looking to get a pizza.  I'd had their burgers before at Summerfest and they were "OK".  I sort of like Major Goolsby's chargrilled burgers at Summerfest better.  At the Charcoal Grill restaurant, they have a "fixin's bar" for the 14 burgers they feature on their menu where you can customize your toppings on your burger.  It was tempting, but I decided to look through the full menu before making up my mind. 

The ribs looked interesting, and I thought a nice rib-eye steak cooked over charcoal would be good, but my mind kept wandering back to the pizzasthey had on the menu.  While they called their pizza "woodstone" pizza, I'm guessing they were cooked over charcoal in a stone oven. 

I was seated at the bar in what was a large bar area that had a number of televisions on the walls and behind the bar.  I asked the very busy bartender (he and a waitress were the only ones working in the somewhat crowded bar and outdoor patio area) about the pizza.  He said, "You know, I only work here a couple nights a week through the week.  I've had the pizza a couple times here and it's good.  Actually, surprisingly good.  I like the Spicy Thai Chicken pizza."

Well, I wasn't going to get the Spicy Thai Chicken pizza, that's for sure.  Although they did have a number of eclectic pizzas, I decided to go with my reference Italian Sausage, Pepperoni and Mushroom in their 8" small size.  I also got a small house salad to tide me over until the pizza came out.  

I had just finished my salad when the bartender brought the pizza to the table.  From my first bite, I was surprised - pleasantly surprised.  The toppings were plentiful, they had the big chunks of sausage on the pizza just as I like.  And the crust was light, thin and crispy, but not burnt.   The sauce was tangy, but not too sweet like you can get sometimes on some pizzas.  The bartender came back a little later and said, "So, what do you think?"

I said, "Like you say.  Surprisingly, it's very good!"

He said, "Isn't it?  I wouldn't think that a place like this would have good pizza."  He told me that he was partial to their burgers, as well.  I told him I'd have to come back and try one at some point.  

While the name The Charcoal Grill doesn't conjure up a pizza place in one's mind, I have to say the restaurant acquitted itself very well with their pizza.  I can't really comment on the other things on their menu - especially since I've only had one or two of their burgers at Summerfest in the past.  But the rest of the food must be pretty good or they wouldn't have nine locations and been in business for over 16 years.  I'm going to try the burger the next time I'm in. 

(Update - I have gone back to various Charcoal Grill locations in SE Wisconsin to try a burger.  Read about one of those visits here.)  

(Update II - This Charcoal Grill location is now closed, but the others remain open.)

Oakland Gyros - Milwaukee

A shout out to Bob and Kasey Kelly who gave me a number of suggestions of places to eat in Milwaukee.  Kasey, who is a Milwaukee native, and Bob came up with a suggestion sheet of places to eat when a number of out-of-towners came to the city for their wedding last May.  Even though I consider myself sort of well-versed with places to eat in Milwaukee, Bob and Kasey's list had a number of places that I'd never heard of before.  One of those places was Oakland Gyros at the corner of Locust and Oakland, near the campus of the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee (see map).

Oakland Gyros is a favorite late night dining spot for young people who have been out partying earlier in the evening.  Lines form outside after 1 a.m. with people waiting to get in and have a gyro.  The portions that are served are big and the price is very cheap.  The menu features not only gyros, but burgers, beef and chicken shishkabobs, and moussaka - a Greek-style pot pie with lamb and egg plant.   

It wasn't much before noon when I got into Oakland Gyros.  There was a small line at the order counter and it was moving rather quickly.  I ordered up a gyro and a bottle of water.  It wasn't more than a minute later that I had my gyro and water on a platter.  But I didn't have any tzaziki sauce on the platter with the gyros.  I looked over at a counter top and saw a number of squeeze bottles of the stuff.  I was incredulous.  I've never - EVER - been in a Greek restaurant where they didn't charge you for extra tzaziki sauce on top of the little tub of sauce they give you for your gyro.  These guys give you your own 12 oz. squeeze bottle of the stuff!  And I LOVE tzaziki sauce. 

The lunch time crowd was coming in and I was able to find a small booth to sit and have my gyro.  And it was good - the pita bread was light and flavorful, the shaved gyro meat was also tasty.  But the tzaziki sauce was the key to the whole thing.  Before nearly every bite, I would squeeze a little more onto the gyro and chomp into it.

I had eaten about a third of the gyro and I had it sitting in the basket open faced.  I reached for the tzazaki sauce and accidentally knocked over my bottle of water.  Splash!  Right into the basket with the open gyro.  Oh man!  I just sort of folded the gyro up and let the water drip out of it onto the wax paper in the bottom of the basket.  I then took the basket over to the trash can and threw the water-filled paper out.  I then put the now soaked gyro back in the basket.  I considered getting another gyro, but then I thought it would be OK.  The pita bread was now sort of soggy, but the meat, onions and tomatoes were still good.  I just put more tzaziki sauce on it.   

 I can see why Oakland Gyros is one of Kasey Kelly's favorite spots to eat in Milwaukee.  As I said, the portions are huge - one gyro was a full meal in itself; and it was cheap - with a bottle of water, the total cost of the meal was under $6 bucks.  While the place isn't fancy, and the menu is pretty limited to basic Greek food, I thought Oakland Gyros to be a great value with good food.  I'm going to have to go back sometime in the future to get a gyro that I don't soak with water. 

Sobleman's Pub and Grill - Milwaukee

My friend, Bob Kelly, married a local Milwaukee girl, Kasey Lussier, on Memorial Day weekend in South Milwaukee.  Most of the out of town wedding guests spent the long weekend in downtown Milwaukee.  We only stayed one night as we flew out to go on vacation to Savannah the day after their wedding.  Upon arrival into our room, there was a care package of goodies along with a note from Bob and Kasey thanking us for attending their wedding.  And one of the other things that was in the care package was a list of their favorite restaurants in the Milwaukee area.  One that they listed for having a great burger was Sobleman's Pub and Grill.  (Picture courtesy Emily Johnson Photography.)

When I was in Milwaukee earlier this summer, I had time to have lunch at Sobleman's.  Although it's close to Marquette University, I found it was rather tough to find (see map).  But it's worth the trip once you get there.  Not only for the burgers, but for the history of the building in which Sobleman's is housed.

Back in the late 1800's, local breweries would build their own bars in which to dispense their freshly brewed beers to the masses.  One such place was the building in which Sobleman's is housed today.  The building has been used on and off over the years as a bar/restaurant and has housed Sobleman's since 1999.  It was originally known as The Cream City Tap and I was told some of the older locals still refer to it as "The Cream City" or "The City Tap". 

Dave Sobleman was working at a restaurant in 1993 when he met his future wife, Melanie, who was a waitress.  It was love at first sight for Dave and Melanie.  They were quickly married and started a family that consists of two daughters.  The owner of the restaurant where Dave and Melanie worked wanted to start slowing down, so he offered to sell the Sobleman's a bar/restaurant in the industrial Menominee River Valley west of downtown Milwaukee.  Dave and Melanie, who had no culinary experience other than working in the restaurant, jumped at the chance to run their own place.  

Dave decided to focus on one thing and one thing only - good burgers.  He used fresh - never frozen - Black Angus meat exclusively, grilling the burgers to give them a distinctive taste.  Soft, fresh baked butter buns are used to hold the burgers.  And then they top them with a variety of items from grilled onions to jalapenos. 

The menu at Sobleman's is pretty basic.  They offer 12 different types of burgers to choose from.  They also offer some chicken breast sandwiches and grilled ham and cheese for the people who don't do burgers.  There are some other sandwiches, but that's it.  Dave Sobleman once said that he tried to expand the menu to include other sandwiches, like reubens.  But he found that he couldn't do it right, so he shit-canned the expanded menu after two weeks.  He stuck to what he knew - making great burgers for the lunch time crowd.  Today, he serves up over 100 burgers to patrons who come in for lunch.  His "to-go" business is also flourishing so much that he recently installed a second grill to keep up with those carryout orders.  

In 2007, Dave Sobleman finally got the recognition he was after.  An on line poll by readers of On Milwaukee, an internet magazine, named Sobleman's featured burger - the Sobleman Burger - as the best burger in Milwaukee.   That's quite an accomplishment in a city where there are some pretty damn good burgers, including Solly's - one of my all-time favorite burgers. 

I got to Sobleman's just after 1 p.m. on a weekday.  There's a small parking lot on the east side of the building that was full, and parking up and down St. Paul Ave. was jammed.  I parked about a block away and walked down to the place.  It was understandably packed.  The small bar was full, all the tables inside were full.  There were places to sit outside, but the weather was rather cool for a mid-summer day and it was spitting rain, as well.  I waited for about five minutes before a table opened up next to the bar. 

A waitress came over and asked me what I'd like to drink as I looked through the menu.  I ordered up a Miller High Life (Hey, I'm in Milwaukee!) and decided to get their signature Sobleman Burger.  The Sobleman Burger is an 6 oz. Black Angus patty topped with cheddar, Swiss and American cheeses, hickory smoked bacon, then finished off with a mixture of freshly grilled onions and jalapenos.   A side of fries came with the burger. 

It was easy to figure out who Dave Sobleman was.  He was the middle-aged guy whirling feverishly around the bar area, helping clear tables, asking people if they needed anything, orchestrating the busy lunch time business.  He stopped at my table after I finished my beer and asked me if I wanted another one.  Sure, you bet.  I was having a good time watching the Milwaukee Brewers play an afternoon game on television.  And right next to one of the TV's was a closed-circuit monitor showing a couple dozen burgers being grilled in the kitchen.  I'm not certain I've ever been in a restaurant where you can actually watch them grill the food on a television.

My Sobleman Burger showed up soon thereafter and from the first bite I knew I'd found a great burger.  The burger had a great taste to it and was very juicy.  The three cheese toppings, along with the bacon, onions and jalapenos were a perfect complement to the meat.  They didn't overpower the taste of the burger, nor did they detract from the taste.  And I'm also a big proponent of the school of thought that what makes a good burger is a good bun.  The Sobleman Burger bun was light and flaky, not too dry, but not so light that it became soppy and literally fell apart from the juiciness coming from the burger. 

Fries came with the burger and while I'm not eating many potatoes these days, I did give them a try.  They were light and fluffy, yet crisp.  They had a great potato taste to them, something that usually gets cooked out of the fries during the frying process. 

It's my understanding that Dave and Melanie Sobleman are opening a new restaurant that will feature burgers that are made from Tallgrass Beef - range free beef from a ranch that news reporter/documentary host Bill Kurtis owns down in Kansas.  The new restaurant is not designed to be another Sobleman's Bar and Grill.  It will be a new concept, all together.  I've had a Tallgrass steak before at Harry Caray's in Chicago.  Some people rave about Tall Grass beef.  I think it's good, not great.  But it would be interesting to see what a burger made from Tallgrass Beef tastes like.

The Sobleman Burger was delicious.  It was very good.  It definitely gave Solly's a run for their money as one of the best burgers I'd had in the greater Milwaukee area.   And the atmosphere is fun.  A little too crowded for my taste, but still one that is vibrant and zesty - sort of like a Sobleman Burger!  I'll definitely have to thank Bob and Kasey for the tip on Sobleman's. 

Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam - Summerfest 2009

 "Davy Knowles, the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter, is talented like very few bluesmen these days. He shreds like a young Robert Cray and wails like the love of his life was just hit by a truck." - Nick Alderman, Village Voice.

"If this were a more just world, the band's startlingly talented guitarist, singer and songwriter Davy Knowles would already be a star." - Shane Harrison, Atlanta Journal Constitution.

"I heard the spirit of Jimi Hendrix." - Patrick MacDonald, Seattle Times.

“Davy is very young but he already has got a recognizable style. He’s definitely the gunslinger guitarist of the 21st century. He’s a phenomenal talent." - Peter Frampton

"Holy shit!  I have seen the future and his name is Davy Knowles!" - Me

I recently took in the Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam show at Summerfest in Milwaukee.  I was up there on business and decided to head out on a cool and rain-threatening evening to catch his show. 

I first heard Back Door Slam a couple years ago when WXRT in Chicago was playing a track from their first album, Roll Away.  The group consisted of three friends from the Isle of Man in Great Britain - Davy Knowles on guitar and vocals, Adam Jones on bass and Ross Doyle on drums.  I immediately went out and bought the CD and have been loving it ever since.   The band got their name from a song on Robert Cray's 2003 album, Time Will Tell.  

It was apparent from a standpoint of musicianship and talent that Knowles was the prodigy in the group.  Only 20 years of age when Roll Away was released, he garnered the attention of a number of guitarists including Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Warren Haynes and Peter Frampton.  And it was easy to read between the lines of an announcement on Back Door Slam's web site (which now re-directs to Davy Knowles.com) earlier this year that announced that Jones and Doyle had left the group to "embark on new projects of their own in the UK and Europe."  I don't think anyone has heard from those two since.  

Now known as Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam, Knowles' follow up album - Coming Up for Air - was produced by Frampton (the first album that Frampton has produced for someone other than his own albums) and mixed by the great studio engineer Bob Clearmountain.  Frampton enlisted the help of longtime Jackson Browne bandmates Fritz Lewak (drums) and Kevin McCormick (bass) to back up Knowles in the studio.  Frampton also hired Tom Petty's keyboard player, Benmont Tench, to play on a number of songs on the album.  And Frampton and Knowles share guitar licks on a remake of George Harrison's "Hear Me Lord" from his "All Things Must Pass" album.  It turns out that Frampton played on the original cut on the album, as well.  It's one helluva CD if you're into that blues/rock type of music like I am.  

Davy Knowles was playing at the revamped and remodeled Harley-Davidson Roadhouse stage that evening, opening for Buddy Guy.  While it was a cool evening (low 60's) and there was a threat of rain (it began after Davy Knowles played), I was decked out in shorts and a t-shirt.  It was either wear that or put on my slacks and a button-down shirt.  I may have been only one of - maybe - two or three people wearing shorts.  There were guys in pullover jackets, women in turtlenecks, kids with coats on.  Yeah, it was cool, but I was fine. 

Moments before the 8 p.m. start time, I found a seat smack dab in the middle of the stands in front of stage at the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse.  I was incredulous.  Here was this great young guitarist getting ready to play and there were - maybe - 300 people sitting there.  I thought, "Well, there's a lot of people who are here at Summerfest who are going to be missing out on a great show."

And from the opening number, it was a great show.  Knowles was backed by a bald bass player only known as "PK" and on drums by Steve Barci.  I could tell right away these two were much more talented musicians than Knowles original Back Door Slam bandmates.  Knowles has also been joined on tour this summer by keyboard player Ty Bailie, a tour that has included opening up for the new rock supergroup Chickenfoot that consists of Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar (formerly from Van Halen) and Chad Smith, the drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  But it was just PK and Barci with Knowles that evening. 

By the time Knowles had played his fourth song of his set - a combination of songs from his new CD and from "Roll Away" - the seats around me began to fill in.   Then Knowles did an unbelievable and mesmerizing redux of David Crosby's classic "Almost Cut My Hair."  I was just blown away by the passion and emotion he exuded during the song.  I just sat there thinking, "My God, this kid can PLAY!!"

Knowles also did a great rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Commotion" with Knowles commenting beforehand, "We're gonna slow it down a bit."  But he played it with even more punch and ferocity as the original CCR rendition.  

I felt a couple of sprinkles about an hour into the performance, so I got up and stood over under the awning of the Miller Lite beer station for the rest of the show. The rain was coming down pretty well by the time I made it back to my hotel and I was happy it held off as long as it did for Davy Knowles' performance.  It was an amazing performance and a completely flawless show.  

Knowles recently played at the Prairie Dog Blues Festival in Prairie du Chien, WI.  I had some friends go up for the fest and I was talking to one, Tom Laake, the next day after the show.  I asked him how Davy Knowles was, and in a slow, measured voice, Tom said, "Davy...Knowles...was...exceptional." 

Tom was spot on - Davy Knowles is exceptional.  I get the chance to work the River Roots Live event here in Davenport again this year, and we're having Joe Bonamassa coming back for an encore performance of his great show last year.  While I'm a huge Bonamassa fan, I stand by my original quote - "I have seen the future, and it is Davy Knowles."

To catch a song from Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam, click on the You Tube link below and see him play "Tear Down the Walls" from a live performance he gave in Atlanta about three weeks before I saw him in Milwaukee.  It's tasty stuff, Maynard.

Ray's Wine and Spirits - Wauwatosa, WI

On a recommendation from Jon Spelt, one of the owners of Ultra Fidelis in Milwaukee, I sought out and found Ray's Wine and Spirits on North Ave. in suburban Wauwautosa (see map).  Jon said, "If you like to go beer hunting, Ray's is the place in Milwaukee.  They've got a ton of beers to choose from."

There is no Ray, although there used to be.  Ray's was founded in 1965, but has been owned by Rick Laev and Bill Siegel since 2002.  Laev and Siegel grew up across the street from one another and Laev used to call on the store as a liquor wholesale rep for over 20 years.  Ray was wanting to retire after 35 years of running the place, so Laev and Siegel bought the business.

Actually, their beer selection isn't what Ray's is known for.  They stock over 4500 different types of wine making it one of the largest wine stores in the Midwest.  Laev and Siegel personally taste each wine to get an idea of what they're selling.  Some days, they'll taste 20 to 25 different wines to get an impression of what they're like.  And they do that 4 times a week.  Hey, that's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Ray's Wine and Spirits also has a great selection of Scotch whiskey and tequila.  I was pretty amazed at the large selection of Scotch they had to offer.  Jon Spelt at Ultra Fidelis is a Scotch connoisseur and has over 60 different types of Scotch at his house.  "All but a few of them came from Ray's," he told me one time.

Ray's is basically a no-frills shop.  Every amount of available space is being used to showcase their wine, liquor or beer.  Although I think other places in Milwaukee may have more selection of beers to choose from than Ray's, you can't overlook the different brands of beer they have to offer.

I ended up getting a couple six packs of some different Wisconsin micro-breweries to try - a Central Waters Brewery Happy Heron Pale Ale, which wasn't too bad - and a Lake Louie Brewing Company Arena Premium, that was very hoppy and flavorful.  I also picked up a four-pack of the Samuel Adams Imperial Pilsner, a very, very intensely hopped up beer.

I gave Jon a call after I left Ray's and thanked him for the tip on the place.  Knowing that he really liked hoppy beers, as I do, I told him that he needed to go to Ray's that night and pick up a four-pack of the Imperial Pilsner.  He said he would do just that.  (He told me later on, "Man, I wish you hadn't turned me on to that stuff.  Not only is it expensive, it's great!")

Jon then said, "Hey, have you had breakfast yet?"

I told him I had.  He said, "Shoot.  Well, next time you're out that way, you need to try John's Sandwich Shop which is right across the street from Ray's.  They have great breakfasts, probably the best in Milwaukee."

Well, I'm sure I'll be back at Ray's sometime when I get to traveling to Milwaukee again.  And I'll make it a point to have breakfast at John's Sandwich Shop, so I can let you all know how good it is.

 

 

 

 

La Fuente - Milwaukee

For a number of years, I'd felt that La Perla in Milwaukee was one of the best Mexican restaurants in the Midwest.  The last couple times I've stopped in, I thought the food just wasn't as good as I remember it being.  It was still good compared to a lot of other places I've eaten at, but it didn't have that La Perla "pizazz".  During a recent trip to Milwaukee, I was in the mood for Mexican food.  Instead of La Perla, I went down the block to a place we've eaten at a couple three times before - La Fuente (see map). 

La Fuente (The Fountain) is part of Jose Zarate's small family of restaurants which includes Hemingway's Habana Vieja (Hemingway's Old Havana), a Cuban restaurant which opened in late 2005 and is located just across the street from La Fuente.  La Fuente has been a staple in the Old South Side neighborhood around National and 5th since 1991, becoming one of the first Mexican restaurants in an area with a growing Hispanic population. 

The decor of La Fuente is festive with a Mexican slant.  Bright pastel colors adorn the walls along with authentic Mexican items and artwork.  There is a nice-sized bar with a long dining area inside the restaurant.  In the summer months, there is a large outdoor seating area (right) with, of course, a large water fountain that runs non-stop.  Actually, there's a couple fountains in the La Fuente courtyard.  I'm a sucker for nice ornate fountains.  La Fuente is a common destination for a number of the areas younger people who go in for drink specials and appetizers at the bar.

I got into La Fuente around 7:30 and was shown to a table toward the back, near the door that empties out into the outdoor courtyard.  I was given a menu and ordered up a Cuervo 1800 golden margarita.  

The menu is expansive with over 40 different combination dishes to choose from.  That's what makes it so difficult to go into La Fuente - I never know what to get because there's so many great things on the menu.  In addition to the regular menu, La Fuente also incorporates vegetarian dishes, as well as well as a handful of shrimp or seafood items.  

Sipping on my margarita, I was really torn as what to get that evening.  The Enchiladas al Tomatillo is one of my favorites - you choice of chicken, ground beef, chunky beef, or pork topped mixed with goat cheese and onions in a green tomatillo sauce.  Oh, man!  The ones with pork are out of this world.  

The Chimichanga is always a good choice at La Fuente - your choice of one or two large Chimichangas filled with your choice of meat, deep fried and topped with goat cheese and guacamole.  And the Fajitas are excellent, as well.  I also love the La Fuente Chef Special - double soft corn tortillas filled with steak chunks.  Yum!  It's tough to make a bad choice at La Fuente.  

This night, however, I looked over at the Ala Carte menu which features a number of items where you can mix and match your own combination choices.  I ordered up a small Chimichanga with chunky beef, a steak Enchilada with green tomatillo sauce and a pork taco.  I had finished up my margarita by this time and ended up ordering a Sol beer to go with my dinner.  

It wasn't long after I ordered - less than 10 minutes - when my food arrived at the table, piping hot and smelling great.  I chomped into the pork taco right away and it was as good as I remember them from before.  The pork is seasoned and grilled and chopped into pieces.  Oh, it was heavenly.  

The Steak Enchilada was also wonderful.  The steak was flavorful and juicy.  I enjoy the green tomatillo sauce tremendously.  It's a great taste sensation.  And the small Chimichanga was just outstanding, as well.  I really like to order ala carte at La Fuente - or really any Mexican restaurant.  While the combinations they offer are very good, I like to do my own mixing and matching of foods.  

With a couple beers, the margarita and food, my bill before tax and tip came to around $26 bucks.  I had OK service at La Fuente - similar to many other Mexican restaurants I've been to, quick and efficient.  Even though they were somewhat busy that even (as they always seem to be), I didn't feel rushed to finish my meal and give up my table.  

In a town where there's a lot of good Mexican restaurants, La Fuente is one of the best.  They're consistently voted by critics and everyday people as having some of the best Mexican food in Milwaukee.  They have a great atmosphere, good service, wonderful food and a lot of different tequila's to choose from.  The summertime is the best time to visit La Fuente with their large outdoor patio and wonderful fountains.  It's a tough place to beat for good Mexican food.    

Coquette Cafe - Milwaukee

I just added a new dealer in Milwaukee - Ultra Fidelis - to the fast growing line-up of Cambridge Audio dealers in my territory.  I did training for them one evening recently and afterward, we ended up at a nice little place in Milwaukee's historic Historic Third Ward - Coquette Cafe.

Coquette Cafe is the second restaurant opened by renown Milwaukee chef Sanford (Sandy) D'Amato.  D'Amato, a Milwaukee-area native who is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, worked at a number of New York restaurants before moving back to Milwaukee in 1980 to join the staff at John Byron's Restaurant, an upscale restaurant in downtown Milwaukee. 

Sandy D'Amato (right)

In 1989, D'Amato and his wife, Angie, opened Sanford in a building that used to house his grandfather's, then his father's grocery store on N. Jackson St. on the north side of downtown Milwaukee (see map).  Sanford quickly garnered a reputation for great food, a long list of wines to choose from and superb service.  Three years later, Sandy D'Amato was one of 12 chefs chosen to personally cook for Julia Child as part of her 80th birthday celebration.

After 10 years of receiving awards and accolades for their Sanford restaurant, the D'Amato's opened the Coquette Cafe in the old Landmark Building in the historic Third Ward area of Milwaukee (see map).  Coquette Cafe is a somewhat informal and unpretentious French-style bistro with top quality food, but a very unassuming menu.  In other words, regular folks - like me - would enjoy the place. 

We got into the restaurant around 8 p.m. on a Thursday evening and even though we did have reservations (made earlier in the day), we really didn't need them.  There were three of us, as one of the guys at Ultra Fidelis had to beg off for the rest of the evening.  We sat at a table next to the wall, giving us a great view of the surrounding restaurant.

A lot of the main entrees on the menu are reminiscent of a French auberge- a restaurant usually found in the French countryside that uses only locally grown produce and meat for their foods.  While I was told that the menu at Sanford was fluid and ever-changing, the menu at Coquette Cafe didn't change all that much.  Some of the main entrees were quite interesting - bacon-wrapped veal meatloaf, mustard glazed ribs with sausage, and caramelized goat onion cheese ravioli, to name a few.  Yes, this was going to be an interesting dining experience. 

Coquette Cafe has an extensive wine list, so when I offered to get a bottle of wine, the two guests jumped at the chance.  I ended up getting a bottle of the Jordan 2003 Cabernet - a safe and always pleasant choice.  

Homemade baguette bread was brought to our table.  It was hot and fresh, just out of the oven.  It was a great little appetizer while we perused the menu.

Speaking of appetizers, one of the guys suggested we get an appetizer consisting of a smoked-salmon carpaccio - thin sliced house-smoked salmon served with a lemon dressing.  We ended up getting two of those to share for the three of us.  It was simply outstanding.  

With all the interesting choices on the menu, I was torn between a number of items.  The had a grilled hanger steak that looked good.  I was really interested in the grilled pork loin with a wild mushroom stuffing.  But the meatloaf kept calling to me.  I ended up ordering the veal meatloaf.  With it, I took a side of their garlic mashed potatoes.  

One of the guys did end up getting the grilled pork loin, while the other one went with the grilled salmon and leeks in a citrus sauce.  Each of us got salads - two of us had the Caesar's Salad, while the other just had the house salad with the Dijon vinaigrette dressing. 

After we finished our salads, our main entrees showed up.  My veal meatloaf was, well, interesting.  I can't say that I didn't like it, but it didn't really knock my socks off like I'd hoped.  Actually, the grilled pork loin with the wild mushroom dressing looked great - and according to my guest it was great.  And my other guest was thoroughly happy with the grilled salmon.  The veal meatloaf had a nice texture to it, sort of a large meatball, if you will.  I guess I'm just used to the taste of my own meatloaf.

After dinner, we passed on the dessert, but we each ended up getting a glass of single malt scotch that opened up a whole new discussion at the table centered on good Scotch, great wine and good beer.  Although I've known the guys at Ultra Fidelis for quite sometime, this was really the first time we got into personal discussions.  It was a really fun night.

The bill came to over $300 bucks with a tip.  It was a very good dinner at a very good restaurant in Milwaukee.  Coquette Cafe is one of those places that serves excellent food, but isn't "snooty" at all.  Parking can be a little tough at night around the restaurant, but even if you have to walk a couple blocks, it's definitely worth the experience. 

Harley-Davidson Museum - Milwaukee Part III

In my two previous entries this week, I took you on a visit to the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.  My pictures don't come close to capturing the true feel of the museum and I highly recommend visiting the place - even if you aren't a motorcycle enthusiast.  The third part of my entry on the museum focuses on the outdoor area, restaurants and gift shop.

After going through the main part of the museum, there are a couple more places that you'll need to see to conclude your visit.  The grounds surrounding the museum include a terrace area and riverwalk along the Milwaukee River, two Rivet Plazas - an area where memorial "rivets" are displayed, and a bronze statue called "The Hillclimber", which was donated by the grandson of William Davidson, Willie G. Davidson - currently a senior vice-president and the defacto "face" of Harley-Davidson.  Davidson said the family "chose the hill climber as a subject because it portrays the thrill and adventure of the sport and because of the important role motorcycle competition played in developing enthusiast culture.”  The statue is one and a half size normal scale and was designed by Jeff Decker, a Harley-Davidson licensed artist. 

Between the main restaurant building and the restaurant/gift shop building is a plaza laid in bricks.  I'm guessing the Harley-Davidson Museum people encourage "burn-outs" on the bricks, given the number of tire marks left on the pavement.  Even for a cold day in early October, there were a number of bikes parked near the museum.  But I didn't see any of them lay down any rubber while I was there.

I actually went backwards on my tour of the museum.  I went into the restaurant and gift shop areas first before heading over to the main museum. 

The restaurant at the museum - Motor - is a full service restaurant that serves lunch and dinner.  The decor is sort of a contemporary industrial design in a big open space.  With brick floors, floor-to-ceiling glass on three sides and a very high ceiling, my guess is that the place gets very loud when there's a lot of people in the place.  It was just around 5 p.m. and there was just one couple having dinner and a couple guys at the bar.

I took a seat at the bar and ordered up a Leinenkugel Oktoberfest and watched part of a ballgame that was on the television behind the bar.  The bar seats were heavy duty, welded bases, probably made at the Harley-Davidson factory.  I can't say they were very comfortable.  The full bar featured mixed drinks, wine and beer.  There were a number of teardrop shaped Harley-Davidson gas tanks on display behind the bar, as well. 

I asked the waitress for a menu, just to see what they had to offer.  Although it didn't seem to be anything that I would call outstanding, there were some interesting items such as Chicken Schnitzel, a one-pound pork chop, barbecued ribs, and "Ma's Meatloaf", the ultimate comfort food served with mashed potatoes and gravy.  Motor also featured a couple of burgers, chicken sandwiches, and a beer-battered, deep-fried walleye sandwich.  I thought about coming back there for dinner, but I had another place in mind for a meal that evening. 

I got to looking a little more closely at the contraption they had to separate the bar area from the dining room.  It turned out that it was a series of rods, gears, engine parts and pulley wheels most likely fabricated by Harley-Davidson workers and welded together.  The intricate placement of the bars and gears was sort of interesting to look at.  It was definitely unique and pretty cool. 

The Harley-Davidson Museum touts itself as a family destination and for those families who don't want to have a meal in the Motor restaurant, they have a sort of snack bar area - Cafe Racer - that serves a variety of fast foods for breakfast, lunch and light dinner.  The limited menu features soups, salads, wraps, some sandwiches and breakfast burritos.  There's counter service only and it doesn't have the ambiance you'll find at Motor.  But, if you have a lot of little kids, Cafe Racer is probably better suited for their tastes. 

Cafe Racer sits in between Motor and the Harley-Davidson gift shop - known as "The Shop".  The large room keeps the "contemporary industrial" decor that is thematic throughout the museum grounds.  The gift shop has the usual items - shirts, jackets, biker clothing and leathers, signs, posters, memorabilia, stuffed-toys and knick-knacks. Here's a word of warning - Although many items were very interesting to look at, nothing was cheap.  If you have kids, don't take them into this place or you're going to be buying overpriced trinkets.

This is a wall display of old Harley-Davidson pictures and memorabilia.  There were a number of coffee-table books, as well.  But they were certainly proud of the things they were selling.  Some of the books were over $30 bucks, while some of the pictures and posters went from around $50 to well over $200 dollars.  You either have to be a deep enthusiast or have deep pockets to buy some of these items.

One full wall of the gift shop was nothing but t-shirts.  $25 dollar t-shirts.  Ouch.  And none of the t-shirts were what I would call anything special.  They had both men's and women's t-shirts for sale.  Oh, there were a couple of nice designs, but nothing that I really needed to have - especially at $25 bucks a pop.  Actually, there wasn't much of anything in the gift shop that I really couldn't live without.  Especially at the prices they were charging.  My God! 

All in all, the Harley-Davidson Museum was a wonderful experience.  I promised my late mother years and years ago that I'd never get a motorcycle.  Although I've wanted to get one, I've held on to the promise I made.  That doesn't mean that I don't have an affection for the Harley-Davidson motorcycles.  But as I said before, even if you're not much of a motorcycle enthusiast, the Harley-Davidson Museum holds a lot of history.  It's truly a celebration of American design, engineering, and ingenuity.  If you go, bank on spending at least three hours in the museum.  It's really worth the trip. 

Harley-Davidson Museum - Milwaukee - Part II

During my recent visit to the Harley-Davidson Museum in downtown Milwaukee, I took a ton of pictures, so many that I've had to break up the blog entry into three parts.  Here's the second part of my visit to the Harley-Davidson Museum.

The second floor of the Harley-Davidson Museum is a historical capsule of the company from its inception in 1903 up to 1950.  But if you take a sky-bridge across from the second floor to the archive building, you can take a peek at the archived historical items and the restoration of some of the old motorcycles they've either kept or rescued over the years.

Since it was after 5 p.m., the archive section was closed.  Actually, I'm not even certain if the archive section is open to the general public.  But there were a couple of windows that allowed you to look in to see some of the items they had in the area.  These are a number of the old time posters and signs Harley-Davidson was restoring to eventually put on display.  I can almost imagine the number of neat old things they have in the archives section.

Going up an elevator takes you to the third floor of the archive building and this is the motorcycle restoration area.  This is where they house the overflow of the museum (remember, they have a model from every year Harley-Davidson has been in existence) and where they restore bikes that were either donated or rescued.  This picture doesn't really show the size of the room and the amount of bikes they have in the area.  These racks are three shelves tall and there had to be over 400 motorcycles in the room, either fully restored or getting ready to get restored. 

The restoration area is fully temperature and humidity controlled.  You can look into the room through windows to watch the workers restore old motorcycles to their original state.  Each motorcycle that is restored is taken fully apart, meticulously cleaned and then put back together.  If a part is missing, they locate a similar part in their restoration "bank".  Sheet metal parts are never re-painted or stripped.  Much of the original finish is retained by cleaning and only slight touch-ups of paint is used to help restore the original look.  I don't know how many people work in the restoration area, but it was a pretty good sized work room. 

Going back down the elevator to the second floor, then back across the sky-bridge to the museum, there's a hallway that has a display of a number of different types of the "teardrop" gas tanks Harley-Davidson has made over the years.  Some are in custom colors with unique designs, while others are basic colors with the Harley-Davidson logo.  As you can see, it's a pretty and colorful display of gas tanks.

Here's a picture of the gas tanks up close.  This gives you an idea of the different types of colors and designs the company has used on their gas tanks over the years.  At first I was thinking, "Oh, these are just gas tanks."  But looking at them more closely, you find there's a lot of painstaking work that went into the artistic design of some of these tanks.  It was actually kind of neat to see. 

That was pretty much it for the second floor exhibits.  It was down the industrial-type stairs to the first floor which housed the collection of motorcycles from 1950 to the present - the "Glory Days" of Harley Davidson.

The first floor of the museum was a modernistic, multi-media potpourri celebrating the golden years of Harley-Davidson.  There were monitors showing movie clips of famous motorcycle movies such as Easy Rider, and The Wild One.  Actually, a lot of these movies hurt Harley-Davidson's image because of the outlaw and gang element that Hollywood was trying to portray and glorify. 

After World War II, highways were being built, gas was cheap and America was becoming a mobile society.  Harley-Davidson had embarked on aggressive marketing campaign to show America the fun that motorcycles can bring.  These are two models from 1951 along with a lot of ads and memorabilia from that time.  The bikes became colorful and smaller, allowing for people even with the slightest build - including women - to have their own motorcycle. 

Along with the rise in popularity of motorcycles as recreational entities, a number of people began to customize their bikes, giving their bikes their own personal signature.  One such bike on display is the "King Kong", a motorcycle with two merged chassis' and a lot of accessorizing.  This motorcycle, which was fabricated by a man from, I believe, Ohio, took four years to finish.  It is garish, over-the-top and a remarkable engineering feat.  The detail that went into the design and the accessorizing of the motorcycle is just dizzying.

The first floor also has a number of bikes on display from 1951 through today.  Included were a number of sportster-type bikes Harley-Davidson began to build in the 60's to help stem the tide of the proliferation of Japanese-made motorcycles that began to gain significant market share in the 60's.  Harley-Davidson sales plummeted and the company was eventually bought out by AMF.  AMF immediately streamlined the operation, slashed the H-D work force, and began to make very inferior motorcycles.  In the 12 years AMF owned Harley-Davidson, their motorcycles were no match in price and performance vs. their Japanese counterparts.

Some of the other things AMF tried to do with Harley-Davidson was to diversify their offerings.  Also on display were a number of Harley-Davidson/AMF made products such as boats, golf cars and mini-bikes.  With the company facing bankruptcy, AMF sold Harley-Davidson to a group of investors that included former executives of the original Harley-Davidson.  Times were tough, initially.  But Harley-Davidson was able to persevere and become one of the more remarkable success stories in the history of American manufacturing. 

Rather than trying to emulate the smaller motorcycles from Japan, Harley-Davidson executives decided the road back to success pointed toward re-tooling their large bikes. This part of the museum showed a number of proto-type bikes they came up with over the years (as well as some possible designs we may see in the future).  The formula must have worked as Harley-Davidson continues to show tremendous annual sales growth.  

Back to some of the more interesting displays they had in the museum - the famous bikes they have on hand.   The motorcycle shown on the left is a 100% fully brushed stainless steel motorcycle.  The was quite a striking looking bike.  This is a 2002 model that was made by Harley-Davidson as a 100 year anniversary model just to show that a fully stainless steel bike can be done.  It was pretty cool and had to be pretty expensive.  

This bike (with the picture courtesy of Popular Mechanics - the picture I took didn't come out well) was billed as the most decorated Harley-Davidson of all time.  Yep, those are rhinestones adorning the bike - thousands of rhinestones.  If I remember right, a husband and wife began to decorate the motorcycle with rhinestones and, well, it looks like it got a little out of hand.   It was donated to the museum.  I wouldn't want to get caught riding that bike in public.  Would you? 

This 1956 KH model was the first Harley-Davidson owned by Elvis Presley.  The original invoice is also on display at the museum.  Presley bought this bike from a Memphis area dealer just before the release of his first hit single "Heartbreak Hotel."  Presley owned a number of larger Harley-Davidson motorcycles during his lifetime. 

These two bikes are replicas of the ones used by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in the movie "Easy Rider".  There were actually two motorcycles exact models of both bikes used in the movie.  Two of the models were destroyed in the movie's climactic final scene, while the other two "mysteriously" vanished, no doubt taken by a crew member or members looking for a pricey souvenir of their work on the film. 

This motorcycle I found to be somewhat interesting - mainly because it has an Iowa connection.  This is a 1990 double-engined dragster that is believed to be the first Harley-Davidson to go under 8 seconds in a quarter-mile.  The Iowa connection is that a Spencer, IA man - Gary Gilmore - made the bike in his welding and fabrication shop and raced the bike himself.  This bike had two V-twin motors.  I can't even imagine how loud that thing was when it was fully rapped out. 

From some of the famous bikes on display on the first floor, there was a multi-media area that had a number of pictures, videos and other displays.  There was a great video loop in this area that talked about the dark days of Harley-Davidson, the problems they were going through in the 60's, the subsequent sale to AMF, the buying back of the company by investors, and the problems they had in getting financing to keep the company going in the 80's.  The picture at the right shows a back-lit picture wall that also had a number of small video screens interspersed that showed owners of their Harley-Davidson's over the years. 

This motorcycle and sidecar is a 2003 commemorative bike that has the signature of every Harley-Davidson employee on it for the 100 year anniversary of the company.  At first, I thought it was just a weird design on the bike and sidecar, but then I saw that the decorations were actually signatures in a gold color.  Then I read the sign which told me the story behind the bike and sidecar.  I thought it was pretty cool.   

The last stop one the first floor is an interactive display that allows people to get on different types of motorcycles and get the feel of driving while looking up at a big screen.  I thought it was kind of hokey, but it's probably pretty big with the kids.

That was it for the main part of the museum.  In the third part of my visit to the Harley-Davidson museum, I'll take you over to the gift shop, snack shop and restaurant/bar they have on the premises. 

Harley-Davidson Museum - Milwaukee - Part 1

The brand new Harley-Davidson Museum just opened up in mid-summer 2008 in downtown Milwaukee (see map).  The 130,000 square foot, $75 million dollar museum opened their doors in July, right after the conclusion of the annual Summerfest celebration in Milwaukee.  It houses tons of history from the Harley-Davidson collection and archives. 

I had just finished my day calling on accounts in Milwaukee one Wednesday in early October and had some time to kill.  I thought I'd go down to see if the museum was open.  It turns out the museum is open until 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, May thru October.  (Normal closing time is 6 p.m. - 5 p.m. November thru April.)  There's a spacious parking lot next to the facility and not a lot of cars were parked there.  Good, it wasn't packed so I knew I could get some great pics.

And there is so much to see at the Harley-Davidson Museum.  Even if you're not a motorcycle rider, there is a ton of history and interesting items to see throughout the museum.  You really need to give yourself a minimum of two hours just to see it all.  And that may be estimating too low. 

The main entry way where you buy your tickets to the museum is a combination of modernistic and industrial themes.  It costs $16 bucks per adult to get in, $10 for kids.  College students with an ID can get in for $12, as well as senior citizens.  You can by-pass the long lines on weekends and order your tickets on-line and print them out to present to the Harley-Davidson people who man the entry to the museum on the second floor of the building. 

One of the first things that you see when you get into the museum is a line of motorcycles lined up behind one another.  The museum houses the largest collection of every model of motorcycle Harley-Davidson has made since 1903.  The company began in 1915 to actively go out and re-purchase motorcycles from every year prior.  They've since kept at least one production model from every year they've made motorcycles.  This display shows nearly 50 years of motorcycles from the early 1900's to the late 1940's. 

This is believed to be the first production model Harley-Davidson made in 1903.  There's documentation on the model and it has serial number 001 on a lot of parts of the bike.  It looks like a combination motorcycle/bicycle.  To have the very production model says volume about the vision William Harley and Arthur Davidson had when they began their company.

In a number of rooms off to the side of the main hall on the second floor were displays of signage, ads and other memorabilia from the beginning through the middle part of the 20th century.  Many of the signs in this picture were from early Harley-Davidson dealerships in Wisconsin.  There's also some early press clippings and pictures of Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

This is a 1918 model with a sidecar like those that were used in World War I and by police departments during that time.  If you notice, most of the models built during that time were one color - sort of a drab olive green.  There are a number of former Harley-Davidson workers or college kids who have been schooled on the history of the motorcycles who hang around to answer questions.  I talked to an older guy and he said most of the motorcycles built during that time were more for professional use and not for pleasure like the majority of them today.

Here is a display showing some 1933 models.  I believe this was the first year Harley-Davidson began to sell their motorcycles in five different colors.  In addition to a lot of visual displays, there was a lot of reading material talking about the significance of each display.  Given that I was up against a time limit, I only gave cursory glances at a lot of the information placards. 

This is a picture of how some Harley-Davidson motorcycles were used for World War II armed forces.  The one on the right is an old Shore Patrol cycle, and the one in the foreground was used by the Army.  Harley-Davidson motorcycles were also used to ferry crates of ammunition to the front lines.  Check out the gun holsters and guns on the front of the army motorcycle. 

This is a vintage 1945 motorcycle made by Harley-Davidson for the U.S. Army.  Surrounding this display was a number of pictures of a similar motorcycle in action in the battlefield.  These motorcycle were mainly used to carry orders or information to the battlefront.  Once again, the motorcycles featured gun holsters on the front of the bikes for easy access should the rider be attacked. 

After the war was over, Harley-Davidson made a number of motorcycles for police departments around the nation for parking control.  Shown in this photo are two 1947 models, one of them which has been modified into a tri-cycle mounted with a trunk.  You can also see the marking stick police used to chalk the tires of cars to signify they'd been there during a previous drive-by.  

Although they didn't show models from every year on the museum floor, they showed a very good cross section of bikes from nearly every year from the company's inception thru to 1950.  The evolution of not only the design of the bikes, but the engine design changes they experienced was quite dramatic.  To go from a simple motor mounted on what was nothing more than a heavy bicycle frame to the revolutionary V-Twin motor Harley-Davidson first used on bikes in 1911 and beyond is nothing short of extraordinary for its day. 

Speaking of V-Twin motors, in one of the rooms on the second floor just off the main hallway was an area that featured nothing but motors.  This was a display that showed different variations of motors Harley-Davidson had made over the years.  You could see the differences in engines such as the Shovelhead, Knucklehead, Flathead, Evolution and others.  There are also individual interactive video kiosks that give information on the design and performance of the engines from the early 1900's on.  You could also press a button that allowed you to hear how specific engines sounded via a digital audio soundtrack. 

The engine room display also showed the evolution of the V-Twin engine in the modern era.  First was the Shovelhead, which was manufactured from 1966 thru 1984 for use on the big Harley-Davidson models.  The Shovelhead evolved into the Evolution model that was used from 1984 thru 1999.  The Evolution was then replaced by the Twin-Cam 88 (shown at left) in 1999.  While the basic engine design used by Harley-Davidson motorcycles mirrors the basic engineering ideas of the first V-Twin nearly 100 years ago, research and development over the past number of years have made the engines lighter and more efficient. 

From the engine room exhibits, I went into the next room that featured Harley-Davidson competitive bikes that were built for speed beginning in the 1920's.  America had a fascination with speed and distance in the 1920's and 30's with many locations featuring races that would pit motorcyclists in track races that would run for 200 or more miles.  Here is a Harley-Davidson bike from the 20's that was one of the first competitive racing models they made. 

As the need for speed continued into the 30's and 40's, Harley-Davidson sought to come up with specially designed aerodynamic motorcycles to challenge for world land speed records for motorcycles.   The motorcycle at the left is a 1936 Factory Streamliner that was used to try to break the world's land speed record on the sands of Daytona Beach.  Although it did break the American record at the time, it did not break the world record.  But Harley-Davidson did not shy away from making faster and more powerful bikes to try and garner the world land speed record for motorcycles.  They finally achieved that goal in 1970.  In fact, Harley-Davidson holds the world land speed record for factory built motorcycles that was set in 1988 at 322 miles an hour!  Wow!

Also becoming big in the 30's was the sport of motorcycle hillclimbing.  Many Harley-Davidson bikes were modified and out-fitted with chains to help gain traction up the steep hills the cyclists tried to climb in competition with one another.  Motorcycle hillclimbs were a big event in the pre-war and post-war years.  I can remember attending motorcycle hillclimbs not far from my home outside of Kellogg, IA. 

One of the more interesting parts of the competitive motorcycle exhibit were a number of posters advertising the races, as well as articles and pictures of many of the top racers back in the day.  Also shown were a number of posters touting the "gypsy tours" motorcyclists used to participate in during the pre-World War II years.  These events - which still happen today - usually consist of a group of riders meeting at a pre-determined spot, then riding aimlessly around the countryside, ending up at another pre-determined spot to bed down for the evening miles and miles away from the original destination.  I have a friend in upstate New York who participates in gypsy tours on his Harley.  He said modern gypsy tours can put 200 miles plus on a bike in a day.  You can ride alone or with others in a group.  The basic premise is to wander the countryside on your bike.  Now, that sounds like fun. 

By the way, Eureka Springs, Arkansas - which we visited over two years ago and I profiled in a post here - is a very prominent gypsy tour spot for motorcycle enthusiasts. 

The Harley-Davidson Museum is a big place with a lot of great picture opportunities.  In the second part of my visit, I'll talk about the archive and restoration sections of the museum, as well as some historic and unique bikes they have on display on the ground floor of the museum.

Tomaso's Pizzeria - Mequon, WI

Earlier this year, I was talking with one of my dealers in Milwaukee about the great pizza I had at Zaffiro's.  One of the guys said, "Zaffiro's is very good, but I think the best pizza in Milwaukee is Tomaso's up in Mequon."  He said that it was quite a drive from the center part of Milwaukee, but he thought it was very worth it.

I was in Milwaukee recently and decided to make the trek up to Mequon and eat at Tomaso's (see map).  It was getting late and I was hoping they would still be open when I walked in at a quarter to nine in the evening.  There were a couple people sitting in a booth in the spacious dining area and one guy sitting at the bar waiting on a pizza.  I took a stool at the bar and order a beer along with a menu. 

Tomaso's original location is in Cedarburg, just north of Mequon (see map).  Nancy Horrigan was the kitchen manager for the location in Cedarburg and wanted to own her own restaurant.  She ended up opening a second Tomaso's location as an owner in 2002.  The Mequon location is located in the River Centre shopping center.

As a Brewers game was playing on the TV, I ordered up my standard reference pizza - sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  The bartender said it would take about 20 minutes and I settled in waiting for the pizza.

As I said earlier, the dining area is spacious featuring tables and booths.  It was a slow evening and I didn't notice a waitress other than the bartender.  I thought it was sort of odd there wasn't that many people in the place, but it was a Monday evening - usually the slowest night for bars and restaurants.  I hoped the reason for the lack of people didn't have to do with the food.

But once my pizza showed up, my fears subsided.  It had a nice thin, flaky crust and the toppings were generous.  The sausage was in big chunks, the pepperoni was plentiful and the mushrooms were garden fresh.  The sauce had a nice combination of tangy and sweet.  My dealer was right - it was a damn good pizza. 

The only thing that was better than Zaffiro's was that Tomaso's uses fresh mushrooms and not the canned mushrooms I got on the Zaffiro's pizza.  But Zaffiro's, as a restaurant, had more character and ambiance than Tomaso's.  Tomaso's in Mequon is a huge space in a strip mall in the suburbs. 

I'm glad I went to Tomaso's.  The Milwaukee area has a surprising amount of good pizza places.  I'd have to rate Tomaso's up there in taste and quality.  It's one of the better places to get a pizza in the Midwest.

Slim McGinn's West - Brookfield, WI

Working for a day with one of our national distributors during a recent visit to Milwaukee, I invited the branch manager out to lunch.  He said, "Where do you want to go?"  I told him some place local, no national chain and who had a good sandwich.  He said, "Come with me," and he promptly drove me to Slim McGinn's West (see map).

Slim McGinn's West is the third location for the original Slim McGinn's that was established in the Walker's Point area of Milwaukee, south of downtown (see map).  But most of the locals call the place just plain ol' "Slim's".  The second Slim McGinn's, known as "McGinn's" is located on West Bluemound near the Miller Park area (see map).

And, yes, there really is a Slim McGinn.  R.J. "Slim" McGinn (right) worked at a number of restaurants and bars in the Milwaukee before opening up his own bar/restaurant in 1995.  The original "Slim's" is housed in a building that has been a bar of one type or another for over 100 years.

Earlier this year, Slim McGinn's opened up the Slim's West location in what was the old Meadow Inn in Brookfield.  It carries on the tradition of the Slim McGinn's in the area with good food, great beer and lots of televisions to watch sports.

We got into Slim McGinn's West around 2 p.m. and there was just a handful of people in the place.  We sat at a table near the bar and carried on a conversation about the audio business.  Our waitress showed up with a couple menus and we were so engrossed in conversation that we didn't get around to ordering for another 20 minutes or so.  I could kind of tell that she was getting a little annoyed when she came back on her fourth time and we hadn't even looked at the menus yet.  I finally said that we needed to order something or we may get tossed out of the place. 

Slim's menu is something a little more broad than most Irish bar fare.  In addition to sandwiches and burgers, they also offer steaks, meatloaf, Shepherd's Pie and ribs.  They also have some eclectic add-ons to their burgers and chicken sandwiches such as an Irish whiskey peppercorn sauce and a spinach and artichoke Florentine topping.

The waitress came back and we said we were ready to order.  My guest asked if they had the Reuben salad that day.  The waitress said, "Yes, we do!"

He asked me, "Do you like Reubens?"

I replied, "I was probably going to get the Reuben."

He said, "You'll love the Reuben salad they make here.  It's unbelievably delicious!

So, I ordered the Reuben and I got one choice for a side and I took the Reuben salad.  I was intrigued by what a Reuben salad could be. 

My guest ordered the Irish beef sandwich - shredded beef along with carrots, potatoes and onion, then topped with a Guinness gravy over an open faced Kaiser roll.  And he got the Reuben salad as his side, as well.

The Reuben salad they make is cole slaw with bits of corned beef and swiss cheese mixed in with a side of Slim's homemade Thousand Island dressing.  When it came to the table with the sandwiches, I sort of looked at it, then gave it a try.  It was great.  Like my guest said, it was unbelievably delicious.

And my sandwich was very good, as well.  It featured large pieces of corned beef that were very tender and juicy.  It was a good sized sandwich, so the Reuben salad was a perfect compliment to the meal.

My guest's sandwich looked absolutely fabulous.  It had large chunks of shredded beef with pieces of potatoes, carrots and onions in a great looking gravy topping.  I think I should have gotten that.  And now that I know they have something like that I'll get it on my next visit.

I've probably driven by the original Slim's dozens of times during my visits to Milwaukee, but I'm going to make a point to go there sometime in the future.  But the one out in Brookfield was very good and had a lot of character to the place, even though it had only been open for about four months.   I'm glad I was turned on to Slim's and it won't be my last visit.

Miller Park - Milwaukee

While up in Milwaukee recently, I took in a Milwaukee Brewers game at Miller Park with one of the guys from a distributor I was working with.  I've written about Miller Park before, but it was more of a general post on the place (you can read it here).  This time I took my camera to get shots of the park.

One of the most time-honored traditions they have in Milwaukee is tail-gating before the game.  Just like many football fans do before a game, Brewer fans will tail-gate in the parking lot for up to three hours before a game.  This includes barbecuing brats, drinking a lot of beer and tossing around a baseball.  I'm still rather amazed the Brewers allow this to go on as it undoubtedly cuts into the concession revenues at the stadium. 

Our first stop once we got into the stadium was at one of the Leinenkugel "Leinie Lodge" beer stands they have along the main concourse at Miller Park.  We got got a Leinenkugel Red and walked around for a while before going to our seats before the start of the game.

Miller Park is great in that you can walk all the way around the park to get a good perspective of how big the ball park really is.  It's sort of fun to just go up to a railing and hang out for a while watching the game.  The concourse on the main level is wide and even with a big crowd, you don't feel all that crowded walking along. 

Here's a shot of the Klements Sausage Haus on the east side of the parking lot at Miller Park.  We were going to go over there before the game, but we found out that it wasn't open that evening.  It was kind of a bummer because all the times that I've gone to a Brewers game at Miller Park I've always wanted to hit the Sausage Haus before the game.  This time, we made it down there in plenty of time to go there before the game and it was closed.  Crap!  Oh well...

We settled into our seats just below the press box area at Miller Park.  They were actually pretty good seats.  The Los Angeles Dodgers were in town that evening and there was a good crowd on hand.  We were both sort of confused as to why the roof was closed on such a beautiful night.  We asked a beer vendor if he knew what the deal was and he said there was supposedly a chance of rain for later in the game.  They didn't want to have the roof open and then have to close it up again.  Well, I thought that was the deal with the roof being able to open and close.  He told us they haven't had the roof open all year long, the weather has been that bad in Milwaukee.  And this was in the middle of May!

Once again, satisfying my scoreboard fetish.  While it's a nice scoreboard, I still think the one at Jacobs Field in Cleveland is about the best one I've seen in a major league park. 

Here's the scoreboard from Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field).  Some people may think it's a little busy, but I like the colors and the big "Indians" logo over the board.

This is the left-field perch for the Brewers' mascot, Bernie Brewer, or as my cousin John calls him, "That faggot Bernie Brewer."  Bernie has a long slide that he goes down when the Brewers take the field at the start of the game and when they hit home runs.  That's all that Bernie does.  He doesn't go into the crowd to kibbutz with people.  In fact, when the Brewers are on the field, he's no where in sight!  Bernie is pretty lame as a team mascot. 

We decided to get up and go get something to eat.  A trip to Miller Park can't be complete without having a grilled Klements bratwurst slathered in Secret Stadium Sauce and topped with sauerkraut.  It is the best ball park food in the major leagues. 

Now, I am usually dead set against having any tomato-based condiment put on a bratwurst, but there's something about the Secret Stadium Sauce in conjunction with the sauerkraut and the brat that just makes it so delectable.  Good God, look at this picture.  My stomach is doing jumping jacks just writing about the brats at Miller Park.  They are just heavenly. 

We decided to walk around for a bit during the game and we went down the right field line to the bleacher area in right field.  Actually, I don't know if there's a bad place to sit in Miller Park except for the very upper reaches of the upper deck.   Actually, we decided we should have saved $20 bucks a piece and got tickets for the right field bleachers, then just got up and walked around during the game.  I kind of like to do that rather than just sit in one place during the game.

Here's a picture of the rambunctious crowd in the right field bleachers, also known as the Miller Lite Beer Pen.  It's mostly young adults out there, but you'll find some older people who like to hang out in the bleachers, too.  I believe this area is only open to people 21 and over.  I don't remember seeing any small kids out there. 

Just below the Beer Pen at the field level is the Mercedes-Benz Field Haus. The area accommodates up to 75 people and depending up on the game or if it's weekend, you can pay $59 to $89 per person and have a pre-game buffet and all the pop you can drink.  That's right - beer and mixed drinks are extra. I'm not certain I'd like to watch a game in right field at the field level.

Of course, any Brewers game wouldn't be complete without the running of the Sausage Race.  I was a little upset at myself for not getting in better position to take a picture at the finish of the race.  We thought it went off at the bottom of the sixth inning, but it turned out it was the middle of the sixth when they raced.  There are now five sausages running in the race with the Chorizo sausage being added to the mix within the last couple of seasons. 

Coming around the corner and finishing first this evening was Number 4 - the Hot Dog, also known as "Frank Furter".  The Chorizo (#5) and the Polish Sausage are right behind him with the Bratwurst and the Italian Sausage bringing up the rear.  It doesn't matter how many times I've seen the Sausage Race, I just get a large kick out of it. 

If you haven't seen the Sausage Race, here's a YouTube clip from about three years ago.  The Chorizo isn't in this clip, but you'll get a good idea why the whole stadium goes nuts when the sausages run.

 

And you can't go to a game in Milwaukee without sticking around for the Seventh Inning Stretch and joining in with several thousand people with the singing of "Roll Out the Barrel". Thankfully, the Brewers have been playing good baseball so the crowds have been coming out the past couple of seasons. 

My guest had a little bit of a drive ahead of him to the far south side of Milwaukee, so we decided to leave after the 8th inning and beat some of the traffic.  Sure enough, it was raining when we walked out to the parking lot.  I guess having the roof closed was a good thing. 

Miller Park is one of my most favorite places to see a game.  The food is great, the beer is cold, the Brewers are fun to watch.  It just has a party atmosphere to the place.  I need to take Cindy up there sometime for a couple games.  We've always had a good time each time we've been there.  If you like baseball and can get to Milwaukee, you've got to go to Miller Park.       

Zaffiro's - Milwaukee

Zaffiro's Pizza in Milwaukee is a local institution and arguably the finest thin crust pizza in town.  Upon a tip from one of my dealers, I stopped into Zaffiro's one evening for a pizza.  I'll tell you upfront, I certainly wasn't disappointed.

I pulled into the side parking lot, accessible via an alley behind Zaffiro's around 7:30 one evening (see map).  It was a cool night and with all the snow they'd had in Milwaukee, it was best to be in the parking lot than on the street with all the snow piled up on the curbs. 

I walked into Zaffiro's and it was like walking into a 50's pizza joint.  In fact, Zaffiro's has been around for over 50 years.  In the early 50's, "Bobby" Zaffiro opened a bar/restaurant in the historic and mainly Italian Third Ward of Milwaukee.  The "Rock-a-Bye Tap" served pizza from its inception. 

Faced with mounting competition from other pizza places starting up around the area, Zaffiro moved to the present day location in 1956 and simply called it "Zaffiro's Pizza".  For 14 years, Bobby and his wife, Rose, ran the business in a small location.  In 1970, Bobby bought the barber shop next door and expanded the restaurant, putting in a full bar and nearly tripling the amount of tables they had in the place.

Bobby and Rose's sons, Mike and Joe, eventually were brought into the business.  When Bobby died in 1989, Rose and her sons continued to run the business.  Mike Zaffiro was working there the night I was there.

Now, there's something about a place that has an old juke box that plays Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Jerry Vale and Dean Martin.  And that's what was playing when I walked in.  I wanted to eat at the bar, but I was told by the waitress/hostess that I could only order pizza at the bar.  No problem there.

There was only one seat left at the bar.  It wasn't a big bar - it only seated 10 people.  To the right of me were two older couples waiting for a pizza.  To the left of me were three older guys working on a pizza, with two more older guys sitting there waiting to order.

I ordered a beer and got a menu from the bartender.  Mike Zaffiro was the one who eventually took my pizza order and I ordered a small (10") sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  I sat and waited for my pizza. 

Now, Zaffiro's is an old neighborhood joint.  This is the type of place where not only do they have great old music playing on the jukebox, but the one TV was tuned to American Idol.  With the sound down.  And people were watching it.  It was just priceless and timeless at once.  Thank God I had a Chicago Tribune to read.

After about 20 minutes, Mike Zaffiro brought out my pizza.  Oh, boy!  Thin crust, nice and flaky, great texture and taste.  The sausage were the big chunks like sausage on a pizza is meant to be.  The pepperoni was fresh and flavorful.  The only downer was that the mushrooms were the canned variety and not fresh.  But it didn't detract from the overall taste of the pizza which was outstanding. 

And it was cheap, too!  A small three topping with cheese was just under $10 bucks!  My bar tab was higher than my food bill, but that's hardly surprising. 

I was able to eat the whole thing in one sitting - and I was STILL hungry!  It was a great pizza.  It didn't fill me up and I still wanted more. 

Zaffiro's is also famous for their lunch specials, but their pizza is what makes the place.  It has a great homey, old time feel to the place and I just fell in love with it that night.  Oh, yes - I'll be back to Zaffiro's.    

Kopp's - Revisted

Last December, I wrote about going to a Kopp's burger and custard place in Milwaukee one time last fall (see post here).  While I was told I would just love the Kopp's cheeseburger by people who had had them before, I found the melted cheddar cheese they put on the top of the burger to be somewhat overpowering.  I said that I'd check out Kopp's again when I got back up to Milwaukee.

Well, it had been awhile since I was in Milwaukee.  But it turned out that just down the street from the hotel I like to stay at in Milwaukee, the Hilton Milwaukee River, there's a Kopp's.  I had to see a dealer in nearby Glendale, and after I got out of there it was around 11:15.  Not quite ready for lunch, but since I didn't have breakfast, I suppose I was ready to eat.

The Kopp's on Port Washington Road (see map) is similar to the other Kopp's I was at in suburban Greenfield.  It has a very modernistic design to the place.  There's a few stand-up tables to eat at, but most everyone gets their food to go. 

This time, I just wanted to try a good ol' burger without cheese.  I ordered the double hamburger for $4.75 and a small drink.  Like everything at Kopp's, the order is made from scratch and never pre-made and sitting in a bin.  That's a plus, but it also translates into a 10 to 15 minute wait.  I noticed that a lot of people were coming in just before noon to pick up orders that had been called in.  That's the way to do it, I thought.

After a bit, my order came up and I went out to the car to eat my burger.  Without the cheese, well, the burger was just OK.  It wasn't great, it wasn't bad.  It was a very average burger.  Solly's, right down the street, would blow this burger out of the water. 

OK, so I tried a Kopp's burger without cheese and I came away less than impressed.  It would be fine in a pinch, but I think I'd probably end up liking their custard more than their burgers.

Hilton Milwaukee City Center - Milwaukee

On a trip to Milwaukee earlier this summer, I stayed at the stately Hilton Milwaukee City Center hotel for an evening. Located toward the west side of the downtown area (see map), the Hilton Milwaukee City Center is just across the street from the Midwest Airlines Center, which hosts a number of trade shows and conventions each year. 

It's also walking distance to the Bradley Center - home of the Milwaukee Bucks; and to the U.S. Cellular Arena, where the Marquette Golden Eagles play their basketball games.   And it's also a short walk to the Shops of Grand Avenue, and located close to the great restaurants and bars in the Old World - 3rd Street area.  (For a full map of the downtown Milwaukee area, click here.)

The hotel was built in the late 1920's by Walter Schroeder, a hotelier and insurance executive who sought to make his namesake hotel the most exquisite of its kind in not only Milwaukee, but in the Midwest.  At the time, it was the tallest building in Milwaukee rising up 265 feet and offer 811 rooms. 

The hotel was bought and renovated in the early 70's by the Marcus Hotels and Resorts corporation, which also owns the elegant Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee, as well as resort hotels in the Lake Geneva area.  The Marcus Amphitheater on the Summerfest grounds was built with a hefty donation from the Marcus corporation. 

Each room was enlarged, bringing the hotel up to date with then-modern conveniences.  The enlarging of the rooms brought the room count down to 500 rooms.  It became a Hilton property in the mid-90's and the Marcus' added 250 new rooms when the convention facility was built across the street.  Conventioneers can walk across the connecting skywalk to the Midwest Airlines Center without having to brave the elements in the cold Milwaukee winter.

The other big draw with the Hilton Milwaukee City Center is the Paradise Landing indoor water park - the first urban water park of its kind in the U.S.  This 20,000 square foot facility was built just a few years ago and is one of the hottest weekend family destinations in the Midwest.  It's based on a Jamaican-theme with four pretty good sized water slides. 

I parked my car in the adjacent parking ramp just to the south of the hotel.  Parking is a little steep for my taste - $20 bucks a night.  But because the Hilton Milwaukee City Center is so centrally located, you may find that you won't have to drive your car once you're there.

The hotel lobby is very classy, and refurbished in a 20's style with a lot of dark colors and stately furnishings.  It's almost like walking into the past when you come into the lobby. 

I got a pretty good deal for the night - $116 for a king bed room in the older part of the hotel.  And with it came a great view of downtown Milwaukee and the lake.  The room was somewhat large and roomy, but the funny thing was that it had no closet in which to hang clothes.  It thought that was sort of weird. 

I would have to classify the room as "tired elegance."  The bathroom was extremely small and the toilet was the old style without the tank on the back.  There was no sufficient counter space in the bathroom on which to place toiletries, but since it was just me, that was OK.  Now, if I was with my wife, that may be a big problem.

The Milwaukee Transit System bus line to Summerfest picks you up right on Wisconsin Ave. to the north side of the hotel.  For $2.00, it's a round trip to and from your hotel to the Summerfest grounds.  It's a great way to go for Summerfest. 

If I can continue to get the $116 a night rooms at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center, I'll keep staying there on my trips to Milwaukee.  And if you're looking for a good place to stay in downtown Milwaukee for a weekend trip for yourself or with the whole family, try the Hilton Milwaukee City Center.  I'd go back. 

The Food at Summerfest

Other than the music that draws crowds to Summerfest in Milwaukee each year, a lot of people go for the food.  And, boy, do they have the food.  Nearly anything you want, they have it at Summerfest.  I like to go for the music, but the food is definitely high on the list to try.

Unlike most fairs, a lot of the food at Summerfest borders on the eclectic.  You'll find such items as grilled chicken on foccacia bread, deep fried eggplant strips, and spinach cheese pies.  Oh, they have hot dogs and hamburgers, but the food at Summerfest is much more than that. 

Each year we'd go to Summerfest, our traditional first stop was to Crawdaddy's to have a "Gator on a Stick".  Basically, it's a sausage link made out of spicy pork and alligator meat with a kabob stick in the middle, then slathered with a tangy barbecue sauce.  We like to put some hot sauce on top of it and make it even more spicy. 

Keeping up with tradition, I did the same thing this year.  Here's a picture of what it looks like.  Paired with a cold beer, it's actually pretty damn good. 

After our initial foray into the food fare at Summerfest, it's whatever we feel like after that.  Like I say, take your pick.  There's traditional German food, Greek food, or Italian food.  If you want Thai or Chinese, they've got it at Summerfest.  Healthy food?  They have salads and chicken wraps available. 

One of my favorite stops is the Ethnic Village area on the north side of the grounds.  There, you'll find Mader's - the venerable old world German restaurant from downtown Milwaukee.  I always have to have a brat with sauerkraut from Mader's booth.  They use Usinger's brats (Usinger's is located just across the street from Mader's in downtown Milwaukee) and they boil 'em up and then grill 'em to give them that distinctive taste.  Served on a nice, chewy bun that isn't too big, you add a little German mustard on top.  Grab a beer to wash it down, and it's heaven. 

La Perla is one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in Milwaukee and they have a booth at Summerfest, as well.  I went there to get a steak taco - very basic, steak in a tortilla.  The steak was overcooked and the tortilla was pretty limp.  I sort of remember the same thing happening the last time I tried one of their steak tortillas the last time we went up.  Note to self - skip La Perla's steak tacos next time. 

Cindy always liked the food at the Water Street Brewery at Summerfest.  It's more health food with chicken sandwiches and salads on the menu.  They used to have a fabulous muffaletta sandwich a number of years ago which they'd serve on the west side of the building.  It was very tasty.  But they discontinued selling it and it hasn't been back on the menu since.  Considering I had a muffaletta at Central Grocery, the original home of the sandwich in New Orleans, it was nearly on par with that.   

On the east side of the Water Street Brewery building at Summerfest, Louise's Trattoria - a local Italian bistro in Milwaukee - serves great sandwiches like a smoked turkey with gouda cheese on foccacia, and offers their signature cheese raviolis.  I've always wanted to go to Louise's restaurant downtown and I understand they now also have one out in the far west suburbs. 

Since Cindy wasn't with me during Summerfest this year, I stayed away from the healthy stuff.  Instead, I had a Greek Village gyro for lunch.  Actually, I was sort of upset at first - where the original Greek Village was near the Harley Davidson Roadhouse stage, there was now a place called Angelo's.  I thought, "Wow!  No more gyros at Summerfest!"

But when I went for my Sky Glider ride when I first got there after the grounds opened for the day, I looked down and saw the Greek Village tucked back in a sort of an out of the way area.  I got off the Sky Glider and went right there to get a gyro.  I asked the girl at the counter if they were the same people over by the Harley stage and she said they were.  She said this space had become available and they wanted to have a little more room, so they moved over to this location. 

And the gyro wasn't bad - it wasn't great.  I will tell you that we've had better gyros from the Greek Village in the past.  It was sort of like I had a gyro that was made the night before and then served at 12:30 in the afternoon the next day. 

But the traditional late night, last food of the day - usually when we were either leaving the Summerfest grounds, or getting ready to leave the place - is a fresh, hot burger from Major Goolsby's.  I like Major Goolsby's burgers at their downtown Milwaukee location, but for some reason the charcoal grilled burgers at Summerfest always taste a little better.  And the smell of the cooking burgers just permeates the south side of the Summerfest grounds.  It's all one can do to walk by the place without having a Goolsby cheeseburger.

And as I was leaving that afternoon, I decided to uphold tradition and have a Goolsby burger.  It was raining lightly, so I got a cheeseburger and stood under the awning at the Major Goolsby beer stand right next to the building.  I ordered an ice cold Miller Genuine Draft and devoured that cheeseburger.  It was so damn tasty.  It's especially great at 11:45 in the evening after drinking beer all night.  But at 3:15 in the afternoon, it was still excellent.

As I said in my previous post regarding Summerfest, a lot of changes have taken place in regard to the music acts over the past few years.  But the food at Summerfest is still one of the strong attractions that keeps bringing hundreds of thousands of people back to the lake front each year.  A lot of the bands may be lame, but the food is still pretty damn good for an event of this caliber.