Newcomers help reshape Milwaukee's food scene

Nation's Restaurant News, August 30, 1993 by Carolyn Walkup

MILWAUKEE -- Culinary change is brewing in this Mid-western city long known for its conservative dining habits.

Taking different approaches, three experienced operators are helping to prove that Milwaukeeans' tastes extend well beyond the foods and beverages for which the city is bestknown: dairy products, bratwurst, fish fries, beer and other generally heavier middle European foods.

Joseph Bartolotta has brought authentic tastes of cucina rustica, or Italian peasant food, to Ristorante Bartolotta in suburban Wauwatosa, while veteran

chef John Marangelli has developed a more refined Italian and Mediterranean style for Marangelli's al Lago in downtown Milwaukee. New twists on American themes are the province of Wells Street Station, owned by real-estate developer Royal Taxman and managed by Dennis Regan.

Bartolotta grew up within walking distance of the distinctive turn-of-the-century building that now houses his restaurant, owned in partnership with Joseph DeRosa, owner of the Chancery restaurants and a family friend. Bartolotta reports feeding between 700 and 800 customers weekly at his 55-seat, dinner-only restaurant.

"We wanted to bring to Milwaukee something that didn't exist here," Bartolotta said. The food he serves is more authentically Italian than that typically served locally in Americanized Italian mom-and-pop and chain restaurants, he said.

Milwaukee restaurant purveyors were so unfamiliar with some of the ingredients on his menu that he had a difficult time finding local suppliers. He purchases many of his specialty ingredients, such as mascarpone and fresh mozzarella cheeses, fresh herbs, first-pressed extra virgin olive oil, truffle oil and bottled black olive puree from Chicago purveyors some 90 miles away.

Bartolotta has trained servers to explain the ingredients that he uses to customers, since he estimates that 80 percent of them may not have eaten them before.

To help plan the menu, Bartolotta called in his brother, Paul, executive chef at Chicago's Spiaggia, as a consultant. However, he modified his younger brother's suggestions to better fit his own customer base.

Selections include such classics as carpaccio with capers, shaved parmigiano cheese, olive oil and lemon, $5.95; penne with asparagus tips, tomato and parmigiano cheese, $13.95; Riviera-style seafood stew, $18.95; and sauteed veal chop with sage, roasted peppers, onions, mushrooms and potatoes, $19.95.

Bartolotta's average check runs $28.

Italian-born Marangelli offers his interpretations of authentic Italian fare in the more formal setting of a Milanese-inspired dining room housed in Milwaukee's tallest office building. Prices are somewhat higher than those at Bartolotta's, and dinner checks average between $45 and $50.

Marangelli's serves a primarily corporate clientele at lunch. He has a 20-year restaurant history in Milwaukee and helped to train many other chefs, including Bartolotta.

The restaurant's off-the-street location proved a disadvantage for the former fine-dining restaurant occupying the space, John Byron's -- which closed several years ago. But Marangelli is optimistic the restaurant will become a destination.

"Milwaukee is conservative. You have to become established first," Marangelli said. The restaurant opened softly for lunch only last May and for dinner in June, but the grand opening will not be announced until September.

Knowing that high prices tend to deter local dinners, Marangelli noted that more frugal customers can eat dinner for $25 or less.

Current dinner appetizers include oysters baked in their shells with herbs and a spinach cheese crust, $8.95; goat cheese nuggets wrapped in prosciutto with seasonal fruit, $7.95; and fillet of sole in sweet-sour bath with raisins, pinenuts and vegetables with walnut sauce, $8.95.

The restaurant's entrees include seared tenderloin medallions with brandied coffee wine glaze and fettuccine, $19.95; chargrilled veal loin with artichokes, mushrooms and asparagus, $23.95; and broiled whitefish fillet with herb-lemon crumbs and scalded greens, $16.95.

The atmosphere is considerably more informal at Wells Street Station, which bases its decorating motif on old Milwaukee streetcars. And although the menu contains such familiar American foods as burgers, chicken breast sandwiches, pizzas, pastas and salads, several elements of this newcomer are in the forefront of nationwide restaurant trends.

The display kitchen may be the first in town, but the wood-burning pizza oven and non-smoking policy are innovations here -- as well as at Bartolotta's. Deep fryers are absent, in spite of Milwaukee's tradition of Friday fish fries.

"Milwaukee has been waiting for this but not expecting it," claimed Regan, who moved here from Virginia and previous management positions with California Pizza Kitchen, Carnegie Deli and several hotels. Since opening at the end of May, the restaurant has become a downtown dinner destination, he said, which is less common than it was before the growth of suburban restaurants.