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Shirley Fong-Torres (The Milwaukee Art Museum, above, is a modernistic structure with magnificent "wings") We began the next morning with Milwaukee's own Alterra coffee and high-altitude culture. Wro insisted that instead of returning to the casino, we visit the Milwaukee Art Museum. He claims that art museums pay better odds than casinos. But my bear’s idea of a jackpot is different from mine. For whatever reason one goes to the museum, it's best to time a visit for 10, 12 or 5 o'clock, when the magnificent wings flap on the great building. To some, that spectacle equals anything Las Vegas has to offer. It also preps a visitor to enter the building, an experience similar to what one feels in the great cathedrals of Italy. Light and stone, air and water are praised here in a manner appropriate to the original Potawatomi, who named this spot and this city. Inside, Mama Bear (meaning me!) found some delicious looking visual treats, particularly in the surprising collection of Haitian art -- Seneque Obin's "Clugny Market," Laurent Casmir's "Crowded Market" and Castera Bazile's "Petwo Ceremony." And Old Masters - Peter Claesz' "Still Life with a Crab," Gaetano Cusati's "Still Life with Fish," Jozef Israels "Village Family with a Meal" and Vestie Davis' "Nathan's Coney Island."
(The place for sausage in Milwaukee -- Usinger's -- makes a variety of tasty treats) For some reason, the art made me hungry, so we walked down to Old World Third Street and Usinger's, an iconic sausage company whose reputation spans the globe. The Industry of Elves Usinger's occupies a turn-of-the-last-century shop and sausage plant across the street from Mader's. Not much has changed in the shop since 1880. The tile floors, marble counters and wood beams have been in place constantly since the 19th century. A mural depicting the elves making sausage was added in 1906, by German painter George Peters. The seductive aromas are constant, too. Usinger's is the world's second leading employer of elves, after Santa Claus. As in the Old Country, these elves work through the night to finish the work of the sausage makers. The Usinger Elves, led by Fritzie, use their magical powers to create sausage of unsurpassed quality.
(Wro meets a frisky elf at Usinger's) They are, however, quite mischievous -- Wro insists that at least one of them demands lap dances from honey bears. Of course, Wro has quite an imagination. At any rate, elves have rules for visitors: You must wear long pants, no open toed shoes and no jewelry on the plant tour. Usinger's story is Milwaukee lore. Debra Usinger explained. "In the late 1870's my great-grandfather, a young Bavarian named Fred Usinger, arrived in Milwaukee with $400 in cash and sausage recipes he had learned as an apprentice "wurstmacher," in Frankfurt. He went to work for the widow Julia Gaertner, who operated a small butcher shop on Third Street. Within a year or so, he bought Mrs. Gaertner out and married her niece Louise. The couple moved into living quarters above the store and worked eighteen hour days making and selling sausage. "Their best customers," she said, "were saloonkeepers who were in a very competitive business where success depended on the quality of their free lunches. As long as their customers relished Usinger's sausages, the saloons paid a premium price." Where the German Aristocracy Shopped At the turn of the last century, much of Milwaukee's German aristocracy did their shopping on Third Street, and the store soon became popular. Before long, the Usingers were shipping sausage as far away as New York. Business became so good that more help was needed. "My great-grandparents believed in keeping growth under control," she added, "so they could maintain the quality of the product. We have tried to maintain that philosophy ever since."
(A tasty snack at Usinger's) Fred Usinger died in 1930. Debra and "baby brother" Fritz are the fourth generation of the family to lead a company whose name is synonymous with superior sausages -- in all 50 states. Sausage 101 I was leery of Wro's plan to take a tour of the plant. Lord Bismarck warned that if people knew how laws and sausage were made, they would never want either. I read Frank Norris' "Octopus" in middle school and was afraid to eat meat for months afterwards. But our tour brought a personal epiphany. In an immaculate, cool environment, we watched 2,000-pound vats of meat being poured into a grinder before going to a mulcher. Old German hands tested the consistency, as did scientific measurements. Then the meat moved to the stuffers. Fritz told us that his natural casings cost 53 cents a pound extra, plus considerable extra labor to hand-pack each intestinal case onto the stuffing machine. The extra cost is exponential for the double "soda hog bung" casings used in their signature braunschweiger. These must be imported from Germany and include both a cow and hog casing, sewn together. Later we followed the sausages across town to the smoke house, which might be the world's largest barbecue. We could smell the bacon, ham, pastrami, et cetera smoking over hard wood from half a mile away. As Wro put it, "If Bismarck had toured Usinger's, we'd probably have a healthier legislative process today." Here I had been afraid to see sausage made, for fear I wouldn't want to eat it again. Instead everything I saw, even the first stages of the process, just made me hungry for sausage. Thank God, Debra and Fritz insisted that we try several dozen sausages and other meat products.
Let me count the ways we obliged, you should be taking notes now: Believe it or not, there were dozens of other sausage products that I didn't have time to mention, or to taste. I was then ready for another personal revelation. Previously I had been convinced that two things defile the holy conception of sausage making - chicken and cheese injections. Debra and Fritz were about to introduce me to post-modern sausage theology. Usinger's Chicken Sausage Usinger's makes chicken sausage, with cheese injections, in at least five styles - Chicken Cordon Bleu (with Canadian bacon and Swiss cheese), Italian (with mozzarella) and with apple, or with bacon and cheddar and with Romano. All use smoked chicken; the three that I have tasted were among my favorite sausages of any kind, ever. I realize my tasting circuits were operating in overload that day, so I have determined to repeat the experiments in more uncontrolled environments.
(Milwakee's Public Market even has cooking classes for children, like this pizza cooking class) Having consumed more pork than on any previous day in my life, I headed to the Public Market to walk it off. This is Milwaukee's conscious effort to emulate Les Halles in Paris and Pike Public Market in Seattle. It's a start, with some eclectic food shops selling cheeses, Hawaiian big plates, sushi, soup & stock, smoked fish on a stick, fresh fish, fresh meat, artisan breads and coffee, which was all I could handle post-Usinger's. There are also cooking demonstrations and a farmers' market adjacent, but only on Saturdays in good weather. We continued through the Third Ward, the town's old fruit and vegetable warehouse district. This six square block area now contains a concentration of art galleries, boutiques, specialty stores and antique shops. Wro called it "so Soho." The Lakefront Pampas Shopping makes me hungry so we slipped over to SABOR Brazilian Churrascaria. I know what you're thinking - a sane woman doesn't make dinner reservations at a churrascaria on the same day she takes a tasting tour of Usinger's. But that's all sausage blood under the bridge now. SABOR is an independent restaurant that provides the ultimate churrascaria experience. At least a dozen different cuts of meat are offered every day, flame-seared and sliced off their skewers tableside. To Wro's delight, the roasting and slicing was done by real gauchos, from the pampas of southern Brazil.
(Wro finds his "gaucho" at SABOR) I never imagined he'd find a cowboy in Milwaukee, but he's always surprising me. The house specialty is picanah. That is the sirloin cap, called "coulotte steak" in French cuisine, a cut that is hard to sell to the everyday fool, but treasured by great chefs and wise butchers. The system at SABOR works like this. Help yourself to the salad bar, which includes some seafood and tropical treats like hearts of palm, then operate your personal traffic signals. Green lights mean the gauchos will stop and carve. Red lights mean you need a break. A glass enclosed wine cellar visually dominates the restaurant and reminds you to pace yourself. Wro worked the "hottie" gauchos long enough that we both tried all 12 cuts, including leg and rack of lamb, pork loin, pork sausage, pork ribs, chicken and six cuts of beef.
(The meat is wonderful at SABOR, as evidenced by this example eyed by Shirley) All the meats had been rubbed with sea salt and roasted in the literal sense of the word -- over open flames. As soon as a gaucho had sliced off all the seared ends, where the flavor lives, he returned to his fire. There were also four cuts of meat of which we asked for seconds - the picanah, the fraljinha (bottom sirloin), alcatra (top sirloin), and cordeiro (lamb rib chops). Both of us set personal records that day for both pork and beef consumption..in Wisconsin. SABOR's distinctly Milwaukee touch is its dessert specialty - a papaya frozen custard. People in this town argue about whether Kopp's frozen custard is better than Gilles', or Culver's, Leon's and Bella's Fat Cat's. So how appropriate is it that SABOR beats them all with a Brazilian version that adds nature's greatest digestive aid to the rich cream custard? SABOR'S Policy: No to "No" SABOR owner Paul Berlin told us his policy: "'No' is never an acceptable answer, ever."
(Shirley poses with Barney Moore) So Wro asked if the hottest looking gaucho could teach him to slice meat off a skewer. And Mama Bear asked manager Barney Moore to answer to the name "Doctor Burke" (his real life double plays that role on the TV show "Grey's Anatomy," at least after a little Argentine wine). We had so much fun, and meat, that I could barely summon the will to visit the Casino for a black jack nightcap. Cheese 101 The next day, after a very light breakfast at Envoy, we were off to "Larry's Brown Deer." Wro thought it sounded like "a great place to find a macho hunter" and I had been told I could learn a thing or two about artisan cheeses. Steve Ehlers (Larry's son) runs Larry's Market now, but the place is such a long distance magnet that most people include the town's name when referring to it. Steve is happy to dispense cheese education with samples. Among the slices of wisdom: "Wisconsin's finest cheese is probably Pleasant Ridge Reserve, an artisan cheese made from milk of a single herd of free ranging cows…
(Larry's Market, where you can get cheese education with samples) Carr Valley's aged Gouda comes from the only place in America doing whole wheel Swiss style Ementheler, raw milk in copper kettles, imported from Ruchti…Their Mobay is a double cheese, half goat milk, half sheep milk, with grape vine ash in the center and outside…Carr Valley Benedictine blends sheep, goat and cow's milk, hand rubbed for 12 weeks and cellar aged…Their Cocoa Cardona is a goat milk cheese hand rubbed with cocoa and black pepper…Caved Aged Marisa is a natural rind sheep's milk…Carr Valley Grand Canaria is blended from three milks and aged in olive oil, no one else in America does it…Spring Creamery's from the Driftless Area (southwest Wisconsin) where the glaciers never quite reached. That is a bastion of alternative farming and artisan food makers. Driftless' Lavender Honey is special." We also found some interesting lax, sausages and pot pies (including pheasant) with Larry's own label. Plus cherry jams and Gale Ambrosius' chocolates from Madison, which are all dark and taste of pure cocoa. (Inter) National Avenue My bipolar bear was not as pleased as I was. Having assumed that he'd find lots of "brown deer hunters to flirt with," his disappointment was about to trigger a manic phase. It was time to drive back to Milwaukee and National Avenue, the international stir-fry wok that is a favorite haunt of chef Dan Smith and other foodies we interviewed. We started at Phan's Garden, which topped the tip list we gathered. We weren't disappointed at all, with some of the richest bone-broth pho I ever tasted. It came with both rare round roast beef AND well done brisket, plus the usual array of Vietnamese herbs and vegetables. We added a salt fish stirfry and some fried dumplings. After a little ethnic shopping we stopped at Senor Speedy's, though not by design. We were planning on eating at another restaurant, but we were greeted at the door by someone yelling that we couldn't use their bathrooms unless we bought dinner first. Wro is so proud of his grooming and clothes that he was insulted, so we left.
(Senor Speedy and his wife meet Wro) Senor Speedy's was next door and had such a cute logo that I bought a T-shirt along with some cactus paddle tacos. Friendly "Speedy" Rodriguez told us that he's a Yucatan chef, meaning habaneros instead of jalapenos. Wro prefers those peppers, which have a more intense bite, but one that "hits and runs" instead of lingering on the tongue. After a quick stop at the Casino, which was conveniently located just off of National, Wro insisted on more Mexican. Cielito Lindo had been touted to us by Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial page editor Ricardo Pimentel, so I figured journalistic etiquette demanded we eat there. Wro became upset because they employed waitresses instead of waiters, but that was the only thing that wasn't just fine. Bright Murals Covered Ceiling and Walls We loved the bright murals, which covered the ceilings and the walls, as well as our carnitas and real chiva birria (spit roasted goat meat). Since the Indian Casino just happened to offer an exit off the long bridge between National and the Ambassador Hotel, we made one final visit to the Great Spirit of Black Jack. Early the next morning, as we checked out to rush to the airport, Envoy's manager Ike caught us slipping out without breakfast. He hugged Wro and insisted we take a little snack pack of coffee and pastries along with us. Milwaukee might not be "Brew City" any more and "New City" might only half fill its beer glass. But with service like that of the Ambassador, and all the restaurants we visited, it's "Overdue City" for foodie travelers. Wok Wiz Touts Ambassador
Hotel Milwaukee Sabor
Brazilian Churrascaria Usinger's
Famous Sausage Milwaukee
Art Museum Milwaukee
Public Market/Historic Third Ward Phan's
Garden Larry's
Market Senor
Speedy Cielito
Lindo Recipe Barbecued Frankfurters Recipe from Elsie Donges Usinger (Daughter-in-law of founder Fred Usinger) 1-1/2
Ibs. Usinger's Frankfurters Brown onion in butter. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer for 30 minutes. Prick skins of frankfurters well. Arrange in shallow pan and pour prepared sauce over them. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes in a 350° oven. Serves 6. (Click
below for more travel).
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