Last week I told you all about what we did in Milwaukee. Today is all about what we ate.
The first thing we did after checking into our hotel was get some lunch. It was Cliff’s pick and he chose Swingin’ Door Exchange Saloon & Eatery. Cliff had the prime dip sandwich with haystack onions and I had the grilled Russian-no coleslaw- with the spicy vermouth carrots. We both really enjoyed our sandwiches. Cliff’s was similar to a Chicago style Italian beef with grilled onions and tons of melted mozzarella. I went way out of my comfort zone with my sandwich. It was a mix of corned beef and the same beef from Cliff’s sandwich along with mozzarella and cheddar cheese on marbled rye. I really loved my sandwich but the star for me was the spicy vermouth carrots. I love cooked carrots and I order them anytime I see them on the menu. They were a little charred and a little spicy and I loved them!
We were too full from lunch to eat a big meal at dinner so we got a giant pretzel with bayerische obatzter from Old German Beer Hall. Bayerische obatzter is a Bavarian cheese spread with brie, cream cheese, butter, onion, and spices. The pretzel was bigger than my head and beyond delicious. I definitely need to recreate that cheese spread. I hadn’t eaten any dessert yet on the trip so I ordered the only dessert on the menu -apple strudel. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. Luckily for me it was one of the best desserts I have ever had. It wasn’t dry or too bready. It was full of apples and cinnamon. I told Kelly right away that we needed to find a really great apple strudel recipe. If you have any suggestions please let me know!
Breakfast/brunch the next day was my pick. I chose Cafe Benalux in the historic third ward. It was the cutest place. We were able to get a table on the rooftop deck and enjoy the beautiful weather. Cliff started with the traditional bloody mary. It came with a garnish of cheese, olive, brussel sprout, and a pickle. Cliff said it was a nice spicy bloody mary mix. He is pretty picky about his bloody marys and he really enjoyed this one. It also came with a shot of beer. For his entree Cliff ordered the biscuits and gravy, which was a cheddar and chive biscuit with black forest ham and chorizo gravy. He really enjoyed this but the portion was huge and he only finished half. I ordered the best thing on the menu, buttermilk fried chicken waffle. It was a huge waffle with fried chicken, candied walnuts and cinnamon apples. Seriously, so good. I would order it again in a heart beat.
We had planned on getting BBQ or a burger for dinner that night but we were both just really wanting Chinese or Thai food. So we made a game time decision to switch up our plans. We ended up at a Chinese place near the Milwaukee Public Market. It was pretty good and was definitely the right decision for the night but it wasn’t anything really spectacular. Plus, we forgot to take pics. Fail.
We still have a bunch of places we never made it to on this trip. We will definitely have to make a trip back for more food. And beer.
