Rated "Excellent" - Zagat Survey
Top 30 Restaurants- Milwaukee Journal
3.5 Stars - Milwaukee Journal
Best
Stuff in the USA - Esquire Magazine
Best New Restaurant, Best Service, Best Wine List, Best
Southside Dining - Shepherd Express
Best Walker's Point Bar - OnMilwaukee
S'more space for The Social
by Dennis R. Getto, Journal
Sentinel Dining Critic
Normally, I wouldn't recommend that you go to a restaurant and order meat and potatoes followed by s'mores for dessert. Meat and potatoes are dinner you make at home. S'mores are usually made over a campfire.
But if your desire for food and fun takes you anywhere on the near south side in the coming months, you owe yourself a visit to The Social, 170 S. 1st St. And if you're not sure what to order, you won't go wrong with the Meat n' Potatoes (that's the name of the dish, $23.95) or the S'Mores ($7.95).
Far removed from Swiss steak or any other homemade round steak creation, the meat part of this dish is a seared tenderloin steak served with a red wine meat sauce. And the potatoes are mashed with some fresh horseradish to give them a bit of kick. And chances are that you haven't had green beans so perfectly done - tender though crunchy, lightly cooked and buttered - in many home kitchens.
And don't look for char marks on your S'Mores. While owners Kevin Sloan and Carrie Torres (who also own Sol Fire, 2014 N. Farwell Ave.) and head chef Christopher Hatleli may use the pedestrian name for their dessert, the finished product is about as much like the campfire version as aged Cognac is like bar brandy.
At the dessert's heart is a rich, dark chocolate truffle that rivals the best mousse made in France. Below it is a thick slab of homemade graham cracker that bears little resemblance to those brown squares you buy in a box. This is more like an elegant tea cookie, slightly dry and not overly sweet.
And on top there's a homemade marshmallow, baked in a sheet until its top has turned rusty brown, and then cut out in a large circle. That firm chewy layer of fresh fluff is so good that it's misleading to call it a marshmallow.
Neither the entree nor the restaurant is actually new to Milwaukee. The Social opened in 2001 in an old bar at 434 S. 2nd St. and often featured Meat n' Potatoes on its menu. But in those days, the mashed potatoes were seasoned with garlic, not horseradish. And The Social was a much smaller place.
The owners modeled that original restaurant after places they'd seen in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago - casual bars that served upscale food like foie gras or curried mussels. And they put a bit of whimsy in the menu as well: Then as now, the cheese in The Social's version of Mac n' Cheese ($13.95) is white goat rather than traditional yellow cheddar.
While the old Social built up a loyal following, it had several drawbacks. One was its capacity of just 36 seats (the new restaurant seats 90); another was a lack of modern facilities. At one dinner at the old Social, a friend and I were asked to move from our main-floor table to one on the mezzanine halfway through dinner because another dinner party had a handicapped member who couldn't negotiate the stairs.
All those problems have vanished at the new location, which formerly housed Kramer International, a small foundry. Like the old restaurant, the new Social combines elements of old and new in its décor, which was done by the firm of Cieslik Celek Interior Design. The bar and dining room are nestled within Cream City brick walls that form a backdrop for modern paintings. Fragments of the foundry's ancient conveyor still dangle from the ceiling.
But the emphasis is on food and drink with a distinctly French flavor. While wines from all over the world are offered to accompany The Social's food, I particularly enjoyed the listing of two Malbecs (a rich red varietal) from Argentina and rosé from Provence in the South of France.
In fact, many of the appetizers on The Social's menu seemed suited to folks who enjoy sampling wines. A platter of smoked trout ($9.95) with sliced apples, red cabbage and rye bread was generous enough to have been a whole meal for one person, while the larger version of a sausage-and-cheese platter ($10.95 small, $18.95 large) provided more than enough andouille sausage, head cheese, black pepper country pate, Stilton cheese and Gruyere cheese puffs to keep our party of five busy while we waited for entrees.
And what entrees they were. In addition to that exquisite plate of steak, mashed potatoes and green beans, two fish dishes were enough to make me recommend The Social to fish lovers anywhere. Tilapia ($17.95) had been pan-seared to the perfect point of moist flakiness and was topped with a fresh relish made of sweet corn and roasted red peppers.
The Social's crab and potato puffs (also available as an appetizer) rounded out the plate with their mild yet distinctive mix of baked potato and fresh shellfish flavors.
The second seafood entrée, grilled tuna steak ($18.95), matched the quality of fish served in Milwaukee's better sushi establishments. The fish had been simply seared on all sides and left rare in the center. That quick cooking gave the fish two flavors: One rich and buttery from its cooked outer layer and the other meaty and wild from its rare center.
Potatoes cooked in a fresh pesto sauce and more of those perfect green beans completed the entrée.
Two of the entrees we tried were variations of cassoulet, a dish of meats and white beans that's famous in the southwest of France. Duo of Lamb ($22.95) cassoulet delivered a perfectly grilled lamb chop alongside homemade lamb sausage. Both were served with stewed white beans that seemed to have soaked up the rich flavors of the meats. A classic ratatouille - a sauté of eggplant, green peppers, onions, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic and herbs - added yet another authentic French flavor to the plate.
A Thursday night special, Cassoulet ($11.95), was much more traditional, with pork sausage and duck confit (a duck leg and thigh slowly cooked in fat) playing the two main roles in the flavorful, hearty bean stew.
An even more satisfying poultry dish was duck breast ($21.95). The breast had been grilled to medium (the degree that we requested), sliced and laid out between side servings of vinegary red cabbage and peppercorn spaetzle, which glistened beneath a light brown meat sauce.
Grilled bratwurst flanked the duck breast and complemented the duck with its own faint flavors of ginger and nutmeg.
Only one entrée left us disappointed. When the menu listed the dish as pan-fried chicken ($13.95), it led us to believe we'd be eating something breaded and crunchy, but this wasn't the case.
The chicken was actually a fricassee, which meant it wasn't breaded and was served in pan gravy, with mustard greens and more horseradish mashed potatoes on the side.
The chicken and its gravy were both rich and flavorful, although the horseradish in the potatoes was a little too strong. Braised mustard greens offered the only flavor that seemed to have come from the American South.
From The Social's soup menu we selected baked onion and matzo ball ($5.95 each). The baked onion was rich and sweet, but the matzo ball was way too salty. And the ball itself bobbed cold in the bottom of the soup.
But those problems weren't enough to deter us from dessert. In addition to the S'Mores, we sampled an individual apple pie ($7.95), baked in a traditional French tart pan to ensure a crisp, flaky crust that contrasted with the sweet filling. And the chocolate addicts in our midst reveled in bites of boca negro ($5.95), a rich chocolate tart served with bourbon cream.
Service at both meals was great, once we were seated. The wait for a table for five (we had no reservation) would be about an hour, the hostess told us when we arrived on one visit. The wait was 90 minutes.
There was only one other problem at The Social. While smoking is allowed only in the bar, the dining room is not divided from the bar by a solid wall - only a partition. So some of the smoke from the bar can prove annoying to diners.
Nonetheless, if you plan to visit, it would be a good idea to make a reservation.
You don't want to miss Meat n' Potatoes, S'Mores or any of The Social's other French-inspired treats.
3.5 Stars!
Eating
Milwaukee
by Ted Allen, contributing
editor to Esquire
THE SMALL PLATE, OPEN LATE
Across the river, just south of the warehouse district that's being officially artsfied (the Third Ward), there is another warehouse district that is not. It's called Walker's Point, and there you will find a tavern called The Social that serves food - really good food -at great prices. It's owned by Kevin Sloan and a band of refugees from some of the city's best kitchens. It's a late-night kitchen with seasonal flare, the nightspot-with-food idea, writ urban Middle West.
On a miserable night when snow from your boots is fouling the floor, a borscht special ($3.95) is what you need to hear. There is seared Hudson Valley foie gras with grilled pear, mango salad, and balsamic reduction for $12.95 ($12.95!), or a perfectly cooked piece of duck breast, the fat completely rendered away, the remaining skin crispy as a Chee-to ($11.95). The Social is a part of a trend here, groovy places for young smarties, but not so off putting as to alienate the squares. Of course, you're more likely to find the latter if you show up at 8:00pm, as we did; in this place, Midwestern though it may be, that's the granny graze.
Zagat Survey
EXCELLENT
With more room and better parking, the new location of this Fifth Ward spot that recently moved into a remodeled factory is more ambitious than its old Walker's Point digs, but its New American menu is still very good -- including such unique offerings as its trademark to-die-for macaroni and goat cheese, which puts mom's to shame; you won't be as close tot he kitchen as before, not social-ites, but fun decor and more table choices make up for it
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