Wisconsin Foodie

This week on Wisconsin Foodie

Hey! - Gary Witt! Where's your backstage pass? Music and food have been wed together as long as we've been even slightly a civilized society. We celebrate-- it's true!-- with music and food.

Gary

Music and food come together here

because of Kevin Sloan. - Kyle

Yeah.

Kevin

There's 20 people having dinner tonight. I write a menu out like this, and then we go and shop and some things might change a little. We're gonna go to Walker's Point to the new Cermak, still in Walker's Point we're gonna stop over at Mushroom Mike's facility in the Harbor District there and pick up our mushroom. And then we're gonna head over to the kitchen at the Riverside. Hi there, welcome to Milwaukee! - Thank you. Glad to have you guys. I'm happy that now I have your other cell phone number

Kevin laughs

Kevin

and I can just show up for dinner down here in the Green Room more often. Well, we do have security parked out front, Kyle, so...

blues guitar music

Kevin

Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank

the following underwriters for their support

Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board representing the dairy farm families of Wisconsin. Who foster a proud history with generations of family-owned dairy farms. Working to sustain the state's economy through job growth and providing acclaimed cheeses and other dairy products. Every product tells a story and every story starts with a seed. Your story, your product, your company all started with an idea. Illing Company ensures you have the right packaging to help you proudly take your harvest to market. Illing Company is dedicated to packaging your vision. American Kitchen Cookware is proud to support Wisconsin Foodie and helping food lovers everywhere embrace their own culinary adventure. With cookware manufactured right here in Wisconsin, we're working every day to make people's lives better in and out of the kitchen. Employee-owned New Glarus Growing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993. Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made. Milwaukee's landmark art deco hotel offers luxury accommodations, legendary hospitality, and world-class dining. Award-winning chef Jason Gorman's contemporary take on cuisine, paired with the hotel's "Roaring 20's" vibe, makes the Ambassador a must-experience destination. Society Insurance, small details, big difference. Edible Milwaukee magazine. Also, with support of the Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

fast upbeat music

car whooshing by

chickens clucking

beverage bubbling

crunching

sizzling

jazzy percussion and music

the following underwriters for their support

Just over my shoulder is the Riverside Theater, one of the more iconic theaters here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and one of three that Gary Witt brought back to life. He also brought in a terrific chef by the name of Kevin Sloan. When touring bands and artists come to Milwaukee, the meal that they get before they play might be their only representation of a city. And the artists that come through Milwaukee, they've found a home on the road unlike anywhere else in America. We're here to meet with Gary and see what terrific food Chef Sloan and his cohorts are cooking behind the scenes before the lights come up.

banging on door

the following underwriters for their support

It's the backstage knock. - Hey! Gary Witt! - Where's your backstage pass? Aw, dude, you're not gonna do that to me. I know the chef! Alright, you can come back. - Thank you. Good to see you. - Come on in.

Kyle laughs

the following underwriters for their support

Here's the theater. Oh-ho-ho! Gary, this is so gorgeous. And they don't make 'em like this anymore. So this is incredibly majestic, I don't have to tell you. This is the Riverside, aptly named, on the river. It is. But we could practically throw a softball to the other one that you own, the Pabst.

Gary

Yeah. The Pabst Theater, which is just a national historic landmark, an iconic theater that has stood in the city of Milwaukee since 1895.

Kyle

And then near to my heart, Turner Hall.

Gary

Right, which is a beautiful, burnt-out German dance hall. I do love Turner Hall, but I think this might be my favorite. This one's got this, like, palpable electricity in the air, and this place has got it so deep in every nook and cranny and gold-leaf pore. But you do something so cool, which is why the show's here. Music and food have been wed together as long as we've been even slightly a civilized society. We celebrate--

Gary chuckles

Gary

it's true-- with music and food. Music and food come together here

because of Kevin Sloan. - Kyle

Yeah.

Gary

Yeah, I tell ya, we're so very fortunate. I think Kevin's tremendous relationships in the restaurant industry in the city of Milwaukee are a part of what helped to drive us forward. I mean, the people that he's able to bring in to work with him make the day happen for us. You've gotta understand, for a good amount of days that we do the shows that we do, they come in at 6 or 7 in the morning and quite often don't leave until 1 or 2 at night.

Kyle whistles

Gary

Those are, like-- Those are restaurant hours.

Kyle

Those are restaurant hours. Those are hardcore restaurant hours.

Gary

They're hardcore restaurant hours, but there's also immediate gratification, because it's not every day that you get to see Elvis Costello hang out backstage, play vinyl and drink a lot of coffee and talk about the food that he had all day long there.

Kyle

Kevin looks out at the dining room, and he looks at an artist who is transformed by having this amazing meal. He gets that response. There's 20 people having dinner tonight. Ten of those people, maybe up to 12 or 14, are in the bands. So I do a little research on the bands, where they're from, listen to their music a little bit and try to just get a feel and a sense of what they might like to eat. Like I said, I write a menu out like this, and then we go and shop and some things might change a little. We are heading to the northwest side of Milwaukee, just off of Mill Road and 76th street, a market called Phongsavan. In the backseat here, my co-pilot is Cole Ersel. He's gonna be, he's been cooking with me in the kitchens for the last couple months. He's gonna be with us today, shopping out like we normally do. You can see the two buildings here. This is the original building. I think it used to be an automotive shop where they rebuilt transmissions or something like that. And then, this beautiful new building that just went up a few months ago. I think today what we're gonna do is focus in the older building where they still have a lot of their dry goods, they have a little produce section, a really kick-ass cafe where we can get some stuffed wings. Alright, let's do it.

big band horn music

Kyle

Um, yeah. Let's grab ourselves some... We need some bowls. Grab, uh... yeah, grab like six of those. Yes, great. We're running low on our stash at the theater, so tonight we're doing a sukiyaki dish with a nice, like, mushroom maple sesame broth. So we're gonna set these out and hopefully people use them.

contemporary jazzy music

Kyle

I kinda feel like I'm traveling when I roll into a spot like this. And I like that feeling. Well, it's not that I dislike shopping at Whole Foods, but here it just smells better, and I just like the vibe here. I need the fish sauce and I need cilantro. I'm looking for some vegetables, maybe in the cabbage arena, for the sukiyaki dish. And... what else am I looking for? The rib belly, yep. And a small order of rice. Is that a sausage, or--?

Kevin

It's just like a Thai-style sausage. They sell 'em around. I've boughten a few packs and cooked 'em up. The stuffed chicken wings, here, hopefully they're ready already, but they're super amazing. Yep, that's the stuff right there. That is the stuff. I got an order of the pork rib belly. I got three stuffed chicken wings. And some sticky rice.

Cole

Appreciate it. I'm pullin' out some sticky rice. This is like a pork... I'm not exactly sure, but I think it's part pork belly and part ribs. It's just super tasty. I think they, like, they probably, like, brine it, smoke it and then finish it in the fryer. It's, like, super crispy. This guy's got a little heat to it, so beware. And then these guys here are some stuffed chicken wings. This is legit, dude. Thank you.

Kevin

Seriously.

Cole

Skin on, too?

Kevin

The skin is no joke. Well, we're gonna hop back in the Jeep and head downtown. We're gonna go to Walker's Point to the new Cermak And after Cermak, still in Walker's Point, we're gonna stop over at Mushroom Mike's facility in the Harbor District there, and pick up our mushroom order, and then we're gonna head over to the kitchen at the Riverside.

bouncy music

Kevin

We've got some menu action? Alright. We've got some produce to get. I'm thinking some greens. This guy should do the trick. They've got nice, like, Asian produce here. The cabbages and long beans. I gotta remember rice. I definitely need rice. Rice and dried mushrooms, which I wonder if they're gonna have those here. Yeah, we'll just rock these guys. We need crme frache, right? You know, we gotta keep moving forward. But we'll get it done. We always do. So we are Mushroom Mike bound. You know, I ordered mushrooms, greens, for the sukiyaki dish, some trumpets and some chanterelles, yup, maybe some garnishing flowers. I think that might be it. This totally looks like a mushroom-growing operation from the outside, doesn't it? What's up, chief?

Cole

How ya doin'? Doin' good. - How ya doin', dude? Doing a little shopping today, I hear. Yeah, we're scootin' all over town. What do you got for us?

Mike

Cream of the crop. Chanterelle buttons from this weekend that we picked, our Lion's Manes, some day-lily buds, our blue mix of Borage and cornflower blue babies--

Kevin

Those are gorgeous, man. And some first-of-the-year lobsters from out west. We have just a couple minutes cause we're flyin', but do you wanna just give Cole a peek at your coolers? These are all ready to go into the rooms. We kinda have been doing a three-tier stage. After we grow 'em, we let 'em rest outside of the incubation room for a couple days. This is all mushrooms that are ready to start fruiting. And we bring everything in here. How wild is that?

Someone laughs

Mike

Yeah, that's our first strain of, we got a really super-strong strain from India in pink oyster, so... the mycelium's that red--

Kevin

Did you say like 30 days?

Mike

Yep, 30 days off. Are these just cryo-seal bags that are made for this? They breathe, but they're sealed. Yep, we tell them where we want them to come out of the bag.

Kevin

How many cuts do you get out of that? This is our seventh fruiting of our Lion's Mane mushrooms off of these, but these ones are just about done. Do you have any dried mushrooms here? - Yep. Do you think I could just get like a small baggie? Awesome. Sweet.

men laugh

Cole

How much is this guy?

Mike

That's a pounder. Isn't that crazy? That's a pounder.

Seven pounds. - Cole

Seven pounds. For morels especially, cause they're so light. Chanterelles, black trumpets, and then conica morels.

Kevin

And I'm gonna use these for the base of the sukiyaki broth tonight. Throw it on my tab. Thank you. Appreciate it, again. I've said this to Kevin in the past when we were talking, I said, you know, somebody who is world-famous for their art may come to Milwaukee for the first time and the meal that they eat may be their only representation of our city. That's a lot of pressure. It is a lot of pressure. But you know what, I think that life is about exceeding expectations, you know? We have no desire to be mediocre. But that's the beauty of being able to have a hospitality team that's gotta have kind of re imagined what hospitality is like in an American concert venue. Yeah, exactly. So I wanna see this kitchen because this is one of the kitchens that the rest of the world doesn't get to see, but takes care of so many people that come to Milwaukee. Well, it's a great experience. You get to go up the elevator eight floors. Yes! - Let's take a trip to see it. Oh, I love this old... I gotta say, this is so great. This is a legit old-guard theater elevator.

guitar riff

Kevin

And eight floors later, here we are.

Kyle

Oh, right on! I like your style because your dining room and kitchen are on the penthouse level. This is what a well-heeled rock 'n' roll dining room should look like. Yeah, vinyl, video games, great posters.

Gary

Yeah, the reality is places like this when you invite artists to come and play here, especially when you see big names like Tony Bennett, Ryan Adams, Willie Nelson, these types of artists come and perform here. They add the tens of millions of dollars worth of branding that's used in their names to be able to help to brand the city. To make it a cool place to come. People wanna come to downtown Milwaukee now. It's incredibly rewarding because of what it is that we do, and we also understand that we're not just booking concerts or entertainment, we're not just hosting bands we're not just feeding bands backstage. We feel like we're an integral part of changing the city, and making the city a better place. Yeah, this is a cool room! Like I would wanna hang out here for a long time. Hello, kitchen. Hello, chefs!

Chefs

Hi!

Kyle

So what are you all workin' on? Here we've got some Lake Superior whitefish, we're doin' a schnitzel for that. Kind of old school German prep with some potato pancakes, some rotkohl, applesauce, crme frache-- Oh, that sounds great, yeah. Yeah, we always like to give somebody a little slice of local flavor here, and at least for Cole and I, this is right up our alley. This is starting the rotkohl. It's just like a braised sweet and sour red cabbage. So I started out with onions, red or yellow, doesn't matter and add lots of pork fat. This is bacon fat. Then'll come in all the cabbage that Julie shredded up. And I'll kinda coat all the cabbage in duck fat. Then after that I'll sprinkle in some sugar and then deglaze with a pretty heavy amount of red wine vinegar. So you get like a really nice sweet and sour kind of pungent cabbage with a nice crisp. It's like a really deep, beautiful purple.

Kevin

Is this guy done, Cole?

Cole

It's done, it's just hot. Kevin lets me always make the rotkohl, which I think is a good sign. I'm very German. My grandma makes cabbage. Like this Christmas she got hurt making Christmas dinner, and so I had to captain the dinner shift, and then we brought it down to her at the hospital and she ended up telling me that it's not like hers but she actually thought it was pretty good. So I'll take that. I'll take that. You look like you're ready for service, my friend. You know, I wish that were the case. So I'm doing a Provenal-style fish stew. This was on the menu when I was cooking at Sanford's, and there was so many things that I loved on the menu there. But this was my favorite thing. Caramelize tomatoes and some fennel that I'll chop up here. I've got a really nice fish stock that I made, a saffron-infused fish stock. So that'll go in there as well. After that simmers for a while, I'm gonna run that through a food mill, and that'll give it, kinda squeeze all the flavor out of those vegetables, and then I add this over here to this guy. There's gonna be some white wine in there, some Pernod. And then we'll finish it. I've got some mahi, then I'm gonna cut up some grouper, some mussels and some clams.

piano music

Cole

Back here, we still have the broth for the collard green sukiyaki.

Kyle

Collard green sukiyaki?

Kevin

Yes, we've got noodles, we've got collard greens, we've got all sorts of mushrooms--

Kyle

Right on.

Kevin

Daikon, a few other vegetables that we got at the Asian market today, and then we're just gonna add some maple syrup that I just brought back from my friends up north, Sue and Phil Miles. So I'm gonna dump that in, in, I don't know, about a half an hour. We're still working on the plating for that. And we're in the Riverside Theater right now on the 8th floor, but the bands, two of them, are playing at the Pabst like two blocks away. Yeah, we have to think about plating a little bit differently, I write menus a little bit differently for shows that we have to pack up and send over there. So, you know, it's part of the gig. Hi there,

welcome to Milwaukee. - Lake Street Dive member

Thank you.

Kevin

Glad to have you guys. Alright, so we're gonna run you through the line real quick. This is, if you're gonna start on one side I'd say start down here. We made a Provenal. It's a Southern French-style soup. Here is just like a butter lettuce salad with, we made an avocado green goddess dressing. Over here we've got two dishes in the same chafing dish. This is a chicken larb that we ground in-house. This is a roasted lamb with coriander chutney. Here's the collard green sukiyaki with collard greens going all the way around. But we've got some nice local mushrooms from our forager Mike, there's some brown rice noodles in the middle, and then a sesame maple broth in here. And then this one here is kind of, I always like to do like a Milwaukee or Wisconsin dish. Whitefish schnitzel with some potato pancakes, underneath is a pickled red cabbage called rotkohl, and then we've got some potato pancakes back there with a little bit of sour cream, and there's some homemade apple sauce right there.

Lake Street Dive member

That's beautiful. Unbelievable.

Kevin

Thank you. Chef Sloan, if I knew you any less, I would feel self-conscious eating all of this fantastic food in front of you. I'm gonna start with the lettuce wrap, cause I like to go with something light. That is the chicken. I sauted that really hard with some chili flakes, some garlic, a lot of lime. That's fantastic. And the fish here is a really nice whitefish, wild-caught on Lake Superior. This potato pancake, like, that's gotta be a grandmother's recipe on a little three-by-five. - Yeah, right. You know, my cohort Cole made the potato pancakes as he normally does. He made a batch and I was in love with this recipe, so we just brought that back again for today. But like I said earlier, I always like to have one dish on the line that kinda represents Milwaukee. I love that. Food is identity. True. And I think the bands like it too. We also apparently do a fancy fish French bouillabaisse. We do. Fennel and tomato--

Kyle

I'm sorry.

mumbles into soup

Kyle

That's the proper way to eat soup right there. That is the best.

Kevin

Do you wanna try a bite of the lamb chop? I mean, do I? Sure, yeah. Get in there, Kyle. Big time. You know I do! So then I think the last thing we got here is the sukiyaki. That broth in there, that is, we made a mushroom stock with some whole dried mushrooms that we got from Mushroom Mike. Those little beauties. We also got, there's some chanterelles, some trumpets in there, but just sticking on the broth. That broth is amazing. It's amazing, it's electric! - Thank you. I'm happy that I work for a company that it's important for me to do things like this. I'm happy that now I have your other cell phone number and I can just show up for dinner down here in the Green Room more often. Well, we do have security parked out front, Kyle. This is delicious. - Well, good. Here, I'll cheers with this-- - Cheers, buddy.

banjo music

audience cheers and applauds

cheers and applause

Lake Street Dive begins to play

jazz percussion and bass

audience cheers

audience cheers

Rachael Price

Well, we wanna give a big thank you to this beautiful theater and everybody that works here. They've been so kind to us and so hospitable. The Pabst Theater Group, also they fed us an incredible meal before the show. This is such a great food town. We always eat so well, and we wanna thank Chef Kevin and Cole for taking care of us and the hospitality tonight has just been unreal. So, thanks again, Milwaukee. We always love being here.

Lake Street Dive begins to play

Rachael Price

Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank

the following underwriters for their support

Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board representing the dairy farm families of Wisconsin, who foster a proud history with generations of family-owned dairy farms working to sustain the state's economy through job growth and providing acclaimed cheeses and other dairy products. Every product tells a story and every story starts with a seed. Your story, your product, your company all started with an idea. Illing Company ensures you have the right packaging to help you proudly take your harvest to market. Illing Company is dedicated to packaging your vision. American Kitchen Cookware is proud to support Wisconsin Foodie and helping food lovers everywhere embrace their own culinary adventure. With cookware manufactured right here in Wisconsin, we're working every day to make people's lives better in and out of the kitchen. Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993. Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made. Milwaukee's landmark art deco hotel offers luxury accommodations, legendary hospitality, and world-class dining. Award-winning chef Jason Gorman's contemporary take on cuisine, paired with the hotel's "Roaring 20's" vibe, makes the Ambassador a must-experience destination. Society Insurance, small details, big difference. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The Central Wisconsin Craft Collective. Something Special from Wisconsin Rushing Waters Fisheries. FAB Wisconsin. Edible Milwaukee magazine. Also, with support of the Friends of Wisconsin Public Television. For more information about upcoming Wisconsin Foodie special events, dinners, and tours, please go to wisconsinfoodie dot com. There you can sign up for our mailing list to be the first to know about our events and offerings. Also, get connected with us through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.