Can These Six Meals Change the Way You Think About Wisconsin?

Name: Can These Six Meals Change the Way You Think About Wisconsin? | Meals Not to Miss
Uploaded: 2025-07-31T16:35:29+00:00
Duration: 8 min 10 s
Channel: AFAR

AFAR

2 months ago

Wisconsin’s food scene goes way deeper than beer and cheese. In this installation of our Meals Not to Miss series, we spend a weekend eating at six restaurants (and one winery) from Milwaukee to Green Bay to Door County, meeting the people behind the meals and uncovering the state’s surprising global influences. With Indigenous Oneida ingredients, a Viking-style fish boil, Spanish-Portuguese small plates, Italian feasts, and American classics, this is a crash course in how cultures from around the world have left a lasting flavor on Wisconsin.

CHAPTERS
0:00 - Intro
0:28 - Bacchus – Milwaukee
1:15 - The Diplomat – Milwaukee
1:56 - Pepperpot – Milwaukee
3:16 - Amilinda – Milwaukee
4:49 - Cedar & Sage at the Oneida Casino – Green Bay
5:50 - The Old Post Office – Ephraim
6:46 - von Stiehl Winery – Algoma

Get our full guide to Wisconsin: https://www.afar.com/travel-guides/united-states/wisconsin/guide?utm_source=dailymotion&utm_medium=click

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CREDITS
Tiana Attride - Host; Afar Senior Editor, Social and Video
Stephanie Cherng - Video Editor
Elizabeth See - Associate Art Director
Billie Cohen - Editorial Director
Michelle Heimerman - Photo Director

MUSIC
A Summer Coffee feat. Just Derrick – LoFi Sunday
Came Up (LoFi Version) – Skateshop
Still Home – Slo Loris
Yuzu – Ezzy

FOOTAGE / PHOTOGRAPHY
Tiana Attride, Shutterstock, Travel Wisconsin

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Travel

Transcript

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00:00For the uninitiated, it may be easy to believe that Wisconsin is all beer tastes as great as

00:06its name, cheese and bratwurst as big as your arm. But America's Dairyland is quietly a culinary

00:12powerhouse. I had to see it for myself, so I flew to Wisconsin to try six meals from six different

00:17cultures all in one weekend to see what I've been missing out on. I'm Tiana Atride, and welcome to

00:22Meals Not to Miss. The first myth to bust is the idea that the Midwest doesn't do fine dining. And

00:27to do that, I started with the man who put it on the map in Wisconsin, two-time James Beard award-winning

00:32chef Paul Bartolotta. Born and raised right here in Milwaukee, he and his late brother Joe built a

00:37local empire and redefined what dining out in Wisconsin could look like. When Joe and I started

00:42this, we started as two kids trying to make a living for our families. Over time, the purpose

00:48became evident. Our purpose is to elevate the social fabric of the communities that we're a part of.

00:53There are 17 Bartolotta restaurants in and around Milwaukee. On this particular trip,

00:58I stopped in at Bacchus for some Italian food. And naturally, we had to have one of everything

01:02on the menu. Like thick cuts of charred Spanish octopus topped with chili oil that brings just

01:07the right pop of heat, citrusy yellowfin tuna crudo, tender sea scallops laid on a bed of fried

01:12black rice and coconut curry broth, and every single dessert. You might say that the Bartolotta's fine

01:18dining empire walked so that this man could run. This is Dane Baldwin, who was once named

01:22the best chef in the Midwest by the James Beard Foundation. He's the founder of The Diplomat,

01:27where American classics like burgers, steak, biscuits, deviled eggs, and even creamy peanut

01:31butter pie are elevated in an environment that looks like it walked straight out of my eclectic

01:35mid-century design loving reviews. I'm born and raised in Milwaukee. Yeah, I've had the opportunity

01:41to see Milwaukee's food scene change quite a bit. You know, of course, the beer is great,

01:45cheese is great, brats are great. Okay, you have that. We also have a great connection

01:49to our farmers, and that really puts us in a position to rely on seasonality and creative

01:54movements within the culinary world because of that. Not only is the fine dining in Milwaukee

01:58underrated, but the sheer diversity, both of its food and the people who make it, shouldn't

02:02be underestimated. Take Jamaican restaurant Pepper Pot, for example, which sits on the city's

02:06Martin Luther King Drive. Originally from St. Catherine, Jamaica, owner Dwight Jackson grew up

02:11cooking food for his grandmother, but started his restaurant journey in an unusual way.

02:15I kind of was topped out, and I was like, yo, I need some extra income because the factory

02:22job will pay something, but it's not taking everything. I just decided to start cook and

02:28sell food to barbershops before I go to work. From 7 to 11, or 7 to 2, it would give me more

02:36money than what I would make for a week. And you'll see why they're still thriving 15 years

02:42later. Order their famous crispy egg rolls, these deep bowls of curry that'll set you up for a long

02:47afternoon nap, and their jerk cheese curds, which one local told me he's heard called the best in the

02:51city. There's perhaps no higher honor in this part of the world.

02:55Jackson isn't the only restaurateur in the city who feels like it takes a village. Take Chef Gregory Leone, founder of local favorite Amelinda.

03:02The name comes from a combination of Leone's parents' names, Amelicar and Linda, and means to my beautiful in Spanish. Through and through, this is a restaurant in the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city.

03:17Jackson isn't the only restaurateur in the city who feels like it takes a village. Take Chef Gregory Leone, founder of local favorite Amelinda. The name comes from a combination of Leone's parents' names, Amelicar and Linda, and means to my beautiful in Spanish. Through and through, this is a restaurant built on and sustained by love and family, both blood and chosen.

03:35Well, when I came in 2012, I feel like there was just a renaissance within the Milwaukee cuisine. So all these great little independent restaurants were getting ready to open. It's just a really incredible concentration of very talented chefs for the size of the city. There's lots of different types of cuisine, and there's a real sense of community amongst most of the chefs and restaurants. My favorite stories to tell about Amelinda is during the pandemic, when the stimulus checks started to go out, send us their check. And I always cry when I tell the story. And they all

04:05had no time to be saying, to the effect, this is my favorite spot. And I want to make sure that it's still here when life gets back to normal. So please take this money and use it to keep the restaurant warm. And that, to me, was just like, it was, I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around it. I think that this little joint means that much to other people.

04:26The menu at Amelinda changes almost daily based on local ingredients, but a little sampling from when I visited, peri-peri shrimp, sea scallops topped with smoked roe, bocarones doused in

04:35lemon, lemon, and juicy skirt steak, naturally paired with a glass of sangria or a cocktail.

04:40Inspired by the Averian Peninsula, so there's a lot of proteins that we use that I didn't think were going to be very well received, but they've surprised me, man. They'll try anything there.

04:49At this point, it was time for me to head out of the city and enjoy summer on the Great Lakes. My first stop, Green Bay, and more specifically, the neighboring Oneida Reservation.

04:57After decades of colonial pressure and shrinking land, they began relocating to Wisconsin in the 1820s and 30s, purchasing land near present-day Green Bay, the place they still call home today.

05:15I headed to Cedar and Sage, located inside the Oneida Casino Hotel, to try some modern recipes infused with traditional Oneida ingredients.

05:22Chef Fabian Martinez, who's been head chef here since 2021, phoned in to walk me through a menu that reflects both his Mexican heritage and local indigenous flavors.

05:30Getting all that time going back, so the three sisters saw the corn, the squash, and the beans. I kind of was like, you know, let's just stick to that Southern style of flavor, that Southern style kind of let's incorporate this beautiful white corn.

05:44And yeah, that kind of was one of the basis for how we started developing the menu for Cedar and Sage.

05:49Soon, it was time to head north, literally and figuratively, to a place one might call the Scandinavia of the Great Lakes.

05:56Immigrants from countries like Norway and Sweden began settling on the shores of the Great Lakes in the late 1800s, drawn by logging, fishing, and a landscape that felt like home.

06:05Today, you can see their influence everywhere, in architecture, in flags that hang around small towns, and yes, in food traditions.

06:11Door County is known for its fish boils, and when you see one, you'll understand how this tradition has been bringing the heat for so many centuries.

06:17To witness the spectacle firsthand, I hit the old post office in Ephraim, where boil master Jeremy Torchklauboff gathers guests for a spectacular display that's as fiery as it is flavorful.

06:28Although fish boils are all about the drama, the food itself couldn't be simpler.

06:32Onions, potatoes, freshwater whitefish, salt, and a whole lot of butter turned this humble meal into a heartwarming Scandinavian feast.

06:39Chowing down on the lakeside at sunset, all wrapped in a sweater, did make me feel like a Norse woman.

06:43Of course, until it came time to tap to pay.

06:46Now, my last stop isn't technically a meal, but I would be remiss if I wrapped up a visit to Door County without hitting a mainstay that may dazzle you just as much as the theatrics of the fish boil.

06:56Wisconsin's Cherry Wine.

06:57In the town of Algoma, Von Steele was the first licensed winery in the entire state of Wisconsin, established in 1967 by Dr. Charles Dock Steele,

07:05who built his business inside this historic building that stood for more than 150 years.

07:10In fact, they still make wines from his original recipes with sweet and dry wine made from cherries straight out of Door County's orchards.

07:17On a tour, you might notice these tiny trolls around.

07:19They're said to watch over the winery in a tribute to the family's moods.

07:23It's the perfect place to cap off a trip, a warm breeze, sparkling lakefront views, and a glass of sweet cherry wine only made in Wisconsin.

07:31We want to cook with honesty.

07:32We want to cook with soul.

07:33And we want to cook for the people.

07:35We all look out for each other.

07:37We are all each other's cheerleaders.

07:39We all want the best for everybody because, you know, when the tide rises, all boats rise at the same time.

07:46From traditions dating back generations to next-gen chefs reshaping the image of Midwestern food,