My dining companion thinks I’m looking at him, but I’m really looking past him, at the washboard, the upright bass, banjo and steel guitar. Yes, and the fella playing harmonica. Along with white marble floors, red-leather half-circle booths and symmetrical deco touches inside Grafton’s Paramount Restaurant,this traditional blues band fits in perfectly.
The evening is winding down. Other diners – their chairs turned so they’ve got a view of the band – are nibbling on cheesecake and sipping coffee. It’s that time of night, after a good meal, when nobody notices the crumbs and spilled salad dressing on the tablecloth. The edge is off. Things are winding down.
Maybe it’s the spirits of certain late greats. From the 1920s to early ’30s, Grafton was a music mecca. National blues artists like Skip James would roll into town to record on the Paramount label. And as the days slipped into nights, they’d need a place to stay. Some of them went to 1304 12th Ave., where back in the ’20s, this mid-19th century building was known as Bienlein’s Central Hotel. Now it’s serving Angus rib-eyes and Chilean sea bass and worth the drive from pretty much any locale, northern suburb or not.
It’s fair to say the owners (Joe and Tami Krupski and Mike Stodghill) opened the Paramount in homage to that melodious time in Grafton’s past. Live acts – Milwaukee names such as Jim Liban and Steve Cohen – perform here every weekend.
Some nice things, too, happened with the menu. It’s American with a slight Southern twang. One of the sides is andouille-sweet potato hash. If you want, your steak can come with a Southern Comfort barbecue sauce. New Orleans barbecued shrimp is one of the appetizers. Where the South isn’t audible, the menu is just fine American food. Amongst the hand-cut meats are an 8-ounce Angus filet mignon ($31), 12-ounce Angus N.Y. strip ($26), pork chops ($22) and lamb loin ($28), which come with one of five sauces and a side dish. If you order any of the entrées, your future will include a salad (a good mesclun mix) or soup (du jour, which can be OK or great).
But you should still start with an appetizer. Paramount has marvelous jumbo lump crab cakes that are all shellfish. They’re so good there’s need for only a dab of tangy rémoulade ($11). The quintet of barbecued black tiger shrimp on grilled French bread is good, but there’s nothing dramatic or disarming about the “spicy” beer-butter dipping sauce with it ($9). I love the meatiness of portobello mushrooms, but most of the firmness is hidden under the heavy filling of creamed spinach and melted Jack cheese ($9). But flavor? It has plenty of that.
Entrées have an impressive consistency. The creamy, milky-white Chilean sea bass (actually, this one comes from Hawaiian waters) is pan-seared and topped with a spread-like sun-dried tomato and avocado vinaigrette ($29). And the ahi tuna has a light glaze of jalapeno vinaigrette, but not so much that it interferes with the smoky andouille-sweet potato hash served with it ($24). Paired compatibly with mint-cilantro au jus, the lamb loin is fanned across the plate in uniformly lean, moist slices ($28). The lean balances the lush. A twice-baked potato stuffed with a mashed mix of potato, bacon and smoky Rofumo cheese is a delectable contrasting side dish.
How to disguise a chicken? Paramount’s stuffed, breaded breast has a lot going on – a mozzarella and andouille sausage filling, bacon and corn salsa, and cheddar mashed potatoes. But those flavors meld together like a smooth jazz band ($19). And an entrée called 333 is the verse, chorus and bridge of a pop song. The combination of three ounces each of tenderloin filet and stuffed quail, plus three grilled black tiger shrimp with Chambord (black raspberry) reduction, is melodic ($33).
It’s hard to believe, but there is something more distracting than a washboard and a steel guitar – the nut and berries martini ($7). The edible toffee cookie martini “glass” is filled with Frangelico-chocolate mousse and fresh berries. Dreamy.
Dreams, spirits, melodies. There – three good reasons to go to Grafton.
Paramount Restaurant, 1304 12th Ave., Grafton, 262-375-0555. Hours: Mon-Thurs 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fri-Sat 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Prices: apps $6-$11; soups/salads $4-$8; entrées $13-$33; desserts $4-$7. Dress: casual or your Sunday best. Service: attentive; young but poised. Credit cards: M V A DS. Nonsmoking. Reservations: recommended.
