...hmmm...Am I getting my point across?

Dear Betty

Thanks for your e-mail. Your blog is charming … if I’d known I certainly would have interviewed you for this piece!

How old are your kids and where do they go to school? Also, I’m wondering if you might like to leave a comment, similar to the one you sent me that’s on your blog, on our JS education blog. It’s kids…and cultural enrichment … so I think this qualifies as a K-12 “education” topic. (And food. Every blog should have a food reference occasionally).

Anyway, I could copy it and paste it there myself, but now that we have a comments function on that site I’d love to see you put it there under your own name. We are trying to get more parents to comment on there (especially snarky ones like you).

If you go to www.jsonline.com, look on the right hand side for blogs and click on “School Zone.” Feel free to fire away … about this or any other topic that relates to kids and education.

Great to hear from you.

Erin

Erin Richards
Reporter
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
1741 Dolphin Drive Suite B
Waukesha, WI 53186
phone: 262-650-3190

Bar Louis Sans Bar

Disclaimer: As much as I enjoy lounging on a patio, taking in the sounds of and smells of summer (Harleys and construction dust) while nursing a Weiss beer, I am not in the habit of propping The Daughter on a bar stool. I think that was a late 70's early 80's family outing if you lived in the North Woods.

This mini-critique is more of a response to the recent backlash the downtown grill Bar Louis has received, rather than an extensive reflection of the food. That said, here goes:

The Daughter & I were out on the town one Saturday morning, walking Water Street, doing the museums, craft fairs, etc. when I decided to see what the deal was with Bar Louis. I had been reading the bad press it had received due to the loss of liquor licence, in addition to the huffing and puffing by other local bar owners. Evidently, some higher up in Corporate had failed to renew not one but three licences and, whoops, forgotten to pay the sales tax. According to several sources, 5 Alderman were called in for a special meeting (forced to leave their vacations!? oh the horror) to address the issue so that the chain tavern and grill could re-open. At this point, it seems they exist only to serve food, and can not serve alcohol until next month when the Common Council can reconvene to deal with the sales tax issue.

So, what's the essential problem? Local (and smaller) bar owners are taking issue with the "special treatment" given to Mr. Corporate Restaurant Owner. What's my problem? Has anyone considered the 90+ employees that will suffer if the Bar Louis is closed for a month? I spoke to one employee who told me they were only forced to close for a week and the management was assisting in giving the staff extra working to make up for lost hours. The waitress, who is also a student, said she didn't know what she would've done had they closed for the month of August. Perhaps there is a time and place for special treatment, even if it appears to benefit the Big Man. It may also favor the less obvious in the long run (i.e. Sir Dish Washer, Miss Bar Back). Besides, doesn't Milwaukee ache for more businesses to take up shop in our downtown? This may actually seems like a warm fuzzy blanket to those who fear diving into a downtown that tends to verge on Ghost Town rather than Hopping Metropolis. Or are we a city that is controlled by political motivation rather than the good of our economy?

Having no answers, except for the obvious: open restaurant good, closed bar bad, I would like to dwell a moment on what hit me straight on about Bar Louis. On a comfortable early Saturday afternoon, the place was almost vacant (circumstances perchance?), they have a roomy and appealing outdoor dining room that has shade and a jumbo view of Water Street. In the past, we've walked on by due to the number of smokers and the size of the childless crowd, but on a quieter day, this place seemed quite welcoming. The waitress was quick to offer a menu for The Small One, brought the "Kid Cup" and was extremely helpful in getting our meal in a timely way.

Bar Louis does have a kids menu, the typical Mac n Cheese, corn dogs, hamburgers. They also offer the small plate menu for kids that has, gasp! veggies on it (ok, they're fried) nachos, dips, calamari and a number of other fun fried options. This is bar food, BIG bar food.

This wee review is also due to our non-adventurous meal. I had a cheeseburger with everything and Kid had the slider plate. This was decidely more burger than Kid could swallow and gave her a meal to take home. Typically I have no problem with doggy bags but it could have been fore mentioned. I was given the option of having my burger done medium, but it was really not even close. Not a pink tinge in sight the burger appeared to have been pre-made in such a way that they were overhandled and dry, but the garnish was ample and the tomatos fresh and ripe. Both plates came with seasoned salty fries that we both loved very much. Salty is highly regarded in our family.

So that's that: Above average food, really nice service on a quiet day, great outdoor seating and food to take home to The Husband.

BAR LOUIS 1114 NORTH WATER

KID RATING: 4

PARENT RATING: 3

BETTY BON VIVANT RATING SYSTEM: 1-5

1 = ABSOLUTELY NOT WORTH THE EFFORT, SAVE YOUR $ FOR GIN
5 = WOW, I WOULD STRIP NAKED AND ROLL IN THIS CHOW IF I WAS A DOG

Pizza Pizza

It's 1983, my family is living on the East Side of Milwaukee and we almost never go out to restaurants. (This is probably not all that unique, as eating out is definitely more of a modern habit.) So, we're looking for pizza, what are the options? Cardboard cut-out Lisa's Pizza and Little Cesar's? Why bother.

Fast forward to 2007, you can get pizza in a million ways, shapes & cultural options. Yes, I'm sure someone makes an Ethiopian pizza out there. but I'm not eating it.

Riverfront Pizza is a new spot, situated on the banks of the Milwaukee River where it meets the mouth of Lake Michigan. The view is superb. Rusted and abandoned train bridges, long defunct cement factories, foundries. Although I've never actually gotten to sit on the riverside patio, it's modern aesthetic is perfectly parallel with the aging sites of the 3rd Ward. You can find the history of Milwaukee etched into the boards of the river walk that extends east towards the end of the block, just in case you hadn't gotten enough text-book history with your cereal that morning.

This is our second visit and we've yet to wait for a table as the restaurant is expansive and in the early evening, mostly frequented by families or barflies that haven't had their fill of festival fun (Riverfront is at the south edge of the Summerfest grounds). The tables are large, the corners have family/party size tables that can accommodate 8-10 easily. I imagine that this place heats up post 8 o'clock, so getting here early is wise. What first hit me was the air, clean and smoke free. What crept up a little more slowly is that it's loud in here. This helped to waterdown the noise from a melt-down but also makes little ones edgy.

The Water Guy greeted us with fun plastic cups that just scream "we cater to the kid crowd" and we settled in to order. Starting with wine. Always start with wine, you'll probably enjoy the experience a lot more, your kid will too. We chose a bottle of the daily suggestion: an Italian Chianti, Castello Di Querceto 2005. It drinks easily without food, but later is a great accompaniment to the tomato sauces and cheese dishes. This red is dry and balanced, earthy and only slightly tannic. A varietal of Sangiovese & Cannaiolo.

The waitress, while friendly and quick to arrive, didn't offer to put any of the kid's orders in quickly or bring anything unexpected to entertain the youth. The birthday party gathering in the corner entertained far better than a box of crayons. We all waited patiently for the guest of honor to arrive, it was a surprise party. He must do alright, his crowd was filled with lusty chicks in low-cut tops. I heard he cried upon arrival. That was all I needed to get me in the mood for food.

My Husband ordered an appetiser, the Combo of Fried Stuff*. Eggplant, cheese, mushrooms. Even with his dislike of eggplant it disappeared quickly aided by the help of the Daughter, who loves all things fried and too hot to eat. *name withheld to protect it's identity

Next we move on to the pizza. There are many traditional offerings as well as weirder selections, and since I'm not in a pizza mood, I leave that option up to the Men. They chose a Mediterranean Pizza, with feta, black and green olives, Roma tomatoes and sausage. I go veg with roasted vegetable ravioli, which I'm certain will have too much sauce and a dinner companion opted for pasta and marinara sauce with sausage AND meatballs.

Extraordinary, who would've thought.

I tried the meatballs, sausage and pasta first, before my palate was tainted by the vegetables. She is obviously a seasoned customer, knowing exactly what to order. The meatballs are fresh and moist, the sausage salty and fabulous. My ravioli, oddly, has almost no sauce but the pesto is enough, not too deep, but decent none the less. I wonder for a minute if my question to the server about the quantity of the alfredo sauce may have changed the looks of my plate, as I've heard from others that it's usually a heavy dish. The pasta is light and yet filling, not amazing in any way, but good. The pizza, however, is definitely what this crowd comes here for. The crust is not too thin but it's still crispy and well-flavored, the sauce is a little sweet and the toppings are a balance of salty and not.

There is a kids menu, with all the typical things most kids like. Someday I'd like to find a restaurant that offers grilled goat cheese sandwiches and mahi mahi sticks, but for now we order chicken fingers (boneless and not resembling fingers in the slightest) with wedge cut fries with 2 sauces (oohh yeah, sauce!), suits our kids just fine.

In a prior visit, we ate during lunch to experience the sandwiches and salads. I can't say much about he salads except they lack everything. It was the same salad I would make on a quick night at home. Although I don't do croutons. The grilled Cuban panini was wonderful, pickles, ham, cheese.

We continued to finish most of our wine, making sure to leave pre-inebriation. With the new "open liquor" law, one can now leave an establishment with an unfinished bottle of liquor and drive home without much worry, except for those who are swilling while driving. That might be an issue.

We did skip sweets, I'm not seasoned enough at this "critical eating" thing to pace myself and leave room. I'm sure it was typical, as most restaurants in the way of pizza usually don't have extraordinary desserts, but maybe I'll prove that wrong and go back just for pie. That's not unheard of.

BETTY BON VIVANT RATING SYSTEM: 1-5

1 = ABSOLUTELY NOT WORTH THE EFFORT, SAVE YOUR $ FOR GIN

5 = WOW, I WOULD STRIP NAKED AND ROLL IN THIS CHOW IF I WAS A DOG

RIVERFRONT PIZZA BAR & GRILL 509 EAST ERIE STREET

KID RATING: 4

PARENT RATING: 3

WELCOME!

There are some days I just want to have a fabulous plate of mussels and a cocktail. My 25 year old self screams "get me a gin 'n tonic, chop chop" and my 37 year old self answers back "ummm, the toddler dangling off your leg might conflict with your need to fulfill wanton desires". Life is short, eat copiously, play well, drink a little. Have fun.