Cooking in the Classroom

Culinary arts at MATC

Visit enough kitchens in Milwaukee’s thriving dining scene and you’ll find a common thread: A great many of the chefs cooking in these kitchens received...

Healthy Changes

New beginnings for South Side restaurant

Restaurants, like people, often feel the need to reinvent themselves when they arrive at the doorstep of middle age. They tire of their old ways, and look to the future to create a new and improved sense of self. After 30 years as Robert’s, owners Robert Krause and Linda Kilcollins gave their South Side restaurant...

Polish Center of Wisconsin’s Authentic Fish Fry

Along with brewing delicious beers, crafting exquisite cheeses and growing most of America’s ginseng, there is yet another thing the great state of Wisconsin knows how to do right: the Friday fish fry...

Tosa Retirement Community Goes Gourmet

Hopefully the days of admitting our aging loved ones into an “old folks home” to live out their golden years eating pre-made frozen lasagna and powdered mashed potatoes are coming to a close. As the senior living industry becomes more competitive, retirement communities are realizing they can gain an advantage by offering high-quality dining to their residents. By adjusting this one facet...

The Future of Farming

Sweet Water Organics advances aquaponics in Milwaukee

With the heavy residue of industry still tattooed on its landscape, Milwaukee might not seem like a window into the future of American farming. But it is. Demand for food is growing with the swelling world population, while natural fish populations diminish and farmland disappears under the tread of development, making it necessary to adjust the way we grow our food. Milwaukee is the headquarters for several visionaries...

Von Trier: Continuing an East Side Tradition

Old bar gets some new love in Milwaukee

A historic East Side bar slowly loses its luster, and nearly its life, before the owners of a thriving bar across the street decide to invest a considerable amount of money, time and energy in resurrecting...

Making Milwaukee Sweeter, One Cupcake at a Time

The cupcake, that humble single-serving dessert of bake sales and birthday parties, has passed the tipping point of culinary trend, and gained momentum as a full blown culinary epidemic. Many date...

The Cholive Puts an End to Naked Cocktails

Milwaukee company brings chocolate to bars and restaurants

It’s one of those ideas you kick yourself for not thinking of. While a dry martini is rarely served without an olive, or a gin and tonic without a lime, coffee liqueur- and cream-based cocktails are often left naked, without a single garnish to boost their character. Graphic designer Joe Hausch observed this vacancy within the world’s garnish caddies and came up with a simple but brilliant concept: the Cholive, featuring whole cream...

Finding the Cure

Bolzano Artisan Meats resurrects a lost art

To our great fortune, we’re in the midst of a culinary renaissance motivated by our appreciation for Old World methods of food production and the fine-tuned flavors that result. All around us, artisans are joining up to hand-make mustards, spirits, pickles and chocolates the way others form artists’ collectives and bands...

The Glorious Reign of Mars’ Cheese Castle

Mars’ Cheese Castle is Wisconsin’s first line of defense against marauding barbarians with Illinois license plates. The state with which we share our southern border taketh our coin by demanding a toll to travel its road. But our way is cleverer. Protected by timber ramparts and turrets, Mars’ Cheese Castle sits between Milwaukee and Chicago...

Karl Ratzsch’s: Milwaukee’s Go-To German Restaurant

Old World cuisine in a modern age

Running a 105-year-old authentic German restaurant cannot be easy in this day and age, but the team behind Karl Ratzsch’s is making a stellar go of it. The restaurant opened in 1904 as Hermann’s Café, before being purchased by the owner’s stepdaughter and her husband, Karl Ratzsch...

Canfora Bakery’s Sweet Aroma

Baked, deli delights in Bay View

Walking over the threshold of a locally owned bakery satisfies the soul in a way that a trip to the bakery department of a big-box grocery store cannot. Whatever the reason—perhaps it’s the concentrated aroma of baked goods that only a tiny bake shop can generate, or maybe it’s nostalgia for an earlier time when shoppers...

Dining for Women, Helping the World

Food, conversation help charity empower the poor

Donating your time, money and energy to a good cause is a delicious endeavor if you’re a member of Dining for Women (DFW), a nonprofit group that inspires individuals to make a positive global impact through collective giving. Dining for Women is a monthly dinner party where participants bring a dish to pass, and, using the money they would have spent...

Potter’s Crackers and Wisconsin Cheese: The Perfect Pair

There is finally a worthy vehicle for the outstanding farmstead, craft and artisan cheeses Wisconsin cheese-makers have introduced to the market during the last decade. They craft more than 2.4 billion pounds a year in more than 600 varieties, types and styles, accounting for over 25% of all domestic cheese. At the 2009 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest...

‘It’s All About Food’ Raises Funds, Generates Ideas

Advocates gather at UWM’s Zelazo Center to help the hungry

Although it may feel like you really need the newest iPhone, or that the family really needs a new car, human beings only have four basic needs, and consumer electronics and motorized vehicles aren’t one of them. Shelter, clothing, water and food comprise the list, and many U.S. citizens are suffering without them. When a portion of our population is going hungry...

Wisconsin Original Cheese Festival

Specialty, artisan, farmstead cheeses take center stage in Madison

Nov. 6-7 marks Madison’s first Wisconsin Original Cheese Festival, the crowning event in a list of activities hosted by the Wisconsin Cheese Originals. The new member-based organization is designed to share information about specialty, artisan and farmstead cheeses through events like informative seminars, tours and cheese-maker receptions...

Kohler Food & Wine Experience Returns

Annual gathering features unique classes, celebrity chefs

Built on nothing more than a steady business of bathtubs and faucets, the village of Kohler has transcended its plumbing pedigree to become a point of interest on any epicurean destination guide. The village’s distinct restaurants warrant a visit anytime of year, but it’s the Kohler Food & Wine Experience that will have foodies making a pilgrimage...

Grass-Fed Beef Vs. Factory Farming

Dietary choices can benefit humans, cattle and the environment

When profit is a business’ bottom line, things can get weird and disturbing, especially within the food industry. Case in point: factory farming. Nearly all the meat, eggs and dairy products sold in U.S. supermarkets and restaurants come from animals raised in “confined animal feeding operations.” These immense, highly mechanized facilities are the reason grocery stores can carry a large stock of ground...

Sassy Cow Creamery’s Humane Practices

Tours offer insight into Wisconsin dairy farm

Where does an apple come from? A bag. What about milk? A plastic jug. Growing up in a culture that embraces fast and convenient food, many children are showing gaps in their basic knowledge of the world they’re living in. Some don’t have a clue about agriculture and the countryside, and that puts them at a distinct disadvantage when it comes...

Pleasant Prairie’s Jelly Belly Warehouse

Candy-maker’s tour provides a bellyful of beans

As All Hallows’ Eve draws near and the act of downing ungodly amounts of candy is considered socially acceptable, it’s time to find what lies at the center of the ubiquitous jelly bean. Just south of Milwaukee, in the village of...

Milwaukee’s Pita Brothers Finds Street-Level Success

Battery-electric vehicle offers meals on the go

When brothers Manoj and Vijay Swearingen considered opening their own restaurant, they found the price of the endeavor to be more than they were willing to invest. So they scaled down their food service concept and added some wheels. Now known as the Pita Brothers, their storefront...

The Hub Offers Bubble Tea, Healthy Fare in Cedarburg

New spot just off the Ozaukee Interurban Trail

The cultivation of today’s bicycle-commuter generation is showing an upward trend by all the restaurants and cafes setting up shop near bike trails. Like Cedarburg’s newest restaurant, The Hub, located just off the Ozaukee Interurban Trail (OIT), restaurants are positioning themselves...

Cultural Lessons from American-Indian Cuisine

Learn more at Milwaukee’s Indian Summer Festival

In a culture like ours, where, for many, the extent of planning a meal is opening a wallet to make sure there’s...

Kaña Mojito Lounge Takes the Time to Make It Right

Good things come to those who wait… even at a bar. At Kana (201 W. Mitchell St.), Milwaukee’s first mojito lounge, a little patience is rewarded with bartender Juan Solano’s expertly crafted Cuban cocktails that pack a mighty minty wallop. To not rush its preparation is the distinction between a good mojito and a great one.

Tim Dixon’s Business Sense

Developer bucks economic trend by opening Iron Horse Hotel, Stack’d Burger Bar

Developer Tim Dixon is gaining notoriety for his success in transforming stagnant parcels of land and antiquated buildings around the state into viable properties capable of supporting homes and businesses. Bucking an economic trend that finds more restaurants and bars closing than opening...