The Days to Dine
Summer staples? Flip-flops, sunscreen and… Downtown Dining Week. The restaurant event of the summer is back next week – June 2-9. For eight days, more than 40 local restaurants will offer recession-proof, prix-fixe menus. Lunch $10; dinner $20 and $30 (not including beverages). From each menu, you’ll choose an appetizer, entrée and dessert. Restaurants range from casual to elegant – a great opportunity to try out an establishment you’ve never been to before. A sample of those restaurants: Carnevor, Club Charlies, Hinterland, Indulge, Karl Ratzsch’s, Milwaukee ChopHouse, Osteria del Mondo, Ryan Braun’s Graffito, Sabor, Water Buffalo and Zarletti. Make your reservations soon! This is gonna be a busy week for Downtown restaurants. Take a look at the menus for DDW here:
Manna in Summer
The sign of a good – maybe great – vegetarian restaurant is that it doesn’t make you miss having meat. Cafe Manna has that ability. Not only with vegetarian cuisine, but vegan. The Brookfield restaurant just turned over a new leaf. The summer menu is out. Among the new “Tasty Beginnings”: pizza Margherita, raw tamales (sweet corn filling with spiced Portobellos) and sweet potato fries with raspberry ketchup ($9-$11). Salads include cold pho with ginger-lime vinaigrette; roasted antipasto; and Summertime salad, with seedless watermelon, fresh mint, cucumber red onion and feta ($11-$14). More additions, including raw vegetable wrap, vegetarian “meatball” sub, Thai red curry orzo, jasmine rice and cashew cakes with wasabi-root vegetable slaw, and corn fritters on a bed of vegetable and bean succotash ($10-$17). For desserts, there’s now a brown betty and chocolate harmony torte ($9). Hours: Mon-Sat 11 a.m.-9 p.m. (3815 N. Brookfield Rd., 262-790-2340)
Crazy Nights
As if running a restaurant isn’t time-consuming enough, Peggy Magister is lending her hand to farming. Well, she’ll have help. With partner Tony Betzhold, the owner of Crazy Water has purchased some land in Elkhorn, Wis., with the intention of growing produce for the restaurant. It will require some work to make the land farm-able, but that’s the couple’s summer project. As for diners, your project is to eat your way through the recently tweaked menu. Most of the updates are in the appetizer section. Look for wildfish carpaccio with piquillo peppers; yuzu-marinated pork belly with wilted frisée and wasabi peas; grilled and chilled asparagus with burrata and prosciutto; smoked salmon pizza; and a sheep’s milk cheese flan with beet caramel and Manchego frico ($3-$12). Stop in when it’s warm enough to sit on the screened-in patio (839 S. Second St., 414-645-2606).
Last Chance!
This is it, boys and girls. You have until May 31 (Tuesday) to enter our 2011 Readers’ Choice Dining Awards. As previously drilled into your heads, if there are local restaurants you think are not getting the recognition they deserve, this is the way to pump them up. Cast your votes now. Can I dangle the chance to win a prize in front of your eyes? We’re offering gift cards to local boutiques, restaurants and Mayfair Mall. Click here to vote now!
What are you doing next week? Reading Dish on Dining, right? This twice-weekly column features new info and updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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If you spot a restaurant opening or closing, post it on the comments section of my column, or e-mail me directly: ann.christenson@milwaukeemagazine.com
