Milwaukee, WI, restaurants

I thought I was going to have some new recipes to review by now, but it seems that I just haven’t been able to get into the kitchen as much as I would like. In part this is because the Hubby and I took a trip to Milwaukee, WI over Labor Day weekend and in part just because life got busy. It happens.

Downtown Milwaukee as seen from the waterfront. Looking at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

So in lieu of recipes, I thought I would re-cap some of the great places we ate on our trip:

Club 22, Shawano, WI

A rustic supper club with a German emphasis. The Hubby and I were easily the youngest patron’s in the place by a good 20 years (I’m not counting the bartender or the bus girls) and we did elicit a few stares from the regulars. Most of the week they have a German-American menu, but on Friday they had one of the most diversified fish fry’s I’ve ever seen: walleye, perch, lobster, and I forget the other two. The Hubby ordered a ribeye steak in with caramelized onions and blue cheese and I had the beer battered perch. Both were really good.

A Latin American restaurant of an Un-spellable Name, Milwaukee, WI
We found this place as while searching for an Italian restaurant. We did find the Italian place but decided we were not dressed nicely enough and moved on to more appropriate establishments. This place was a lot of fun and really, really good. Duane had (I’m not even going to try to recall the Spanish names) a seared porkchop slathered in an absolutely fantastic sauce. I went with something called the Seven Steps to Heaven (or close to that) where it was corn pancakes layered with wilted spinach, pureed squash, cheese all to make seven layers. This was covered in a cream sauce of some sort which really melded all the flavors. I think my favorite was actually one of the salsa’s we were served - it had undertones of chocolate and chile with ground up peanuts (I couldn’t taste ‘m!) and tomatoes. The handmade margarita’s were darn tasty too.

Mader’s German Restaurant, Milwaukee, WI
This restaurant has been touted as one of the best known German restaurants in the nation. It certainly was an interesting experience. The ambiance was old-world, with the dark wood work, heavy wooden tables and Germanic decor. I think we hit an "off" night as service was incredibly slow. It was my observation that they were very short handed in the waitstaff and cooking department - it took us 2 ½ hours to get our meal.

When the meal finally came, it was very good. Duane had the tenderloin rouladen with spatzle and red cabbage and I had a neopolitan portabella: portabella mushroom layered with wilted spinach, chevere with some kind of sauce all served over spatzle. The only complaint with mine was that it didn’t actually get served with Chevere as advertised, I think it was provolone. I would have prefered the Chevere but it was still really tasty.

Waterstreet Brewery, Milwaukee, WI
After a less than successful attempt at finding a brewery to tour (all three we tried were closed on Labor Day Monday) we settled for a microbrew pub for some grub. This one was perfect - great ambiance with the old stone from the previous building as walls, historic pictures of Milwaukee adorning the walls, and inside and outside seating (we chose inside) with big glass windows to people watch. We ordered a beer flight to share, working our way through eight samples that the microbrew makes. Duane ordered a mettwurst and kielbasa plate with deep fried spatzle while I had a warm bacon and chicken salad. Both dishes were fantastic. The chicken tenders on mine were juicy tender, the warm bacon dressing didn’t overwhelm the rest of the salad and the bits of egg complemented everything so well. I would eat here again in a heartbeat.

Miller Stadium, Brewers vs Pirates. Brewer's won 7-4.