TV Workshop Series 2020 | West Hawkins | The Local Food Travel

[Music] Milwaukee is known for its breweries art culture and famous sports teams like the maquis Bucks in the largest city in Wisconsin you can find local restaurants that feature dishes that can get nowhere else I'm Arthur sink and in this episode of local food travel will be visiting

three local restaurants each adding their own unique flavor to the city and range from having been around for just over a year all the way back to the 1920s [Music] let's dive into Milwaukee's Lower East Side home to UW Milwaukee college students and Historic Landmarks a hidden gem

restaurant is making their mark with its special barbecue recipes but first let's take a look at one of the most prominent historical buildings in the area the lower east side of milwaukee contains many fun sites and food joints close by is the old North Point water tower built

around the 1870s next to Lake Michigan this tower used to pump 16 million gallons of water supplying the City of Milwaukee after a stroll by the Great Lakes had a few blacks west to check out a collection of popular restaurants this is crossroads collective [Music] containing many restaurants

inside least wonderful food hall displaying interesting decorative and gold art there are many different kinds of food joints to choose from the one that stands out the most is heaven tables Barbra Jean this is the place that you come when you're like we like real proud of yourself

and you want to celebrate you know completed some kind of goal we just got out of it definitely exceeds expectations the work experience has been very good really rewarding with the customers and I enjoy it a lot we have to be around to meet we have the friendly

people smile they love the food they enjoy it they come for the rush they try to make sure they get the stuff before it's gone so it's nice most popular item on the menu would be our brisket – people love it and they come for all the time

all those great this is fresh and it tastes really good making this popular food item takes great preparation we apply mustard first sort of our face we use garlic peppers red pepper flakes and black pepper we smoked it we started at 7:00 at night and we take him

out of seven in the morning heaven's table smokes fish ribs and many more items although the collard greens are really good incredible [Music] and this is really good we really like the people it's a casual crowd they love the food when you find us it's worth it [Music]

and seeing that brisket would make a vegetarians mouth water so sitting Tate today with me his owner and founder of heavens table Jason Alston he's been running heavens table for over two years and he's also the chef Jason what's going on man how you doing how's it going

good good yeah nice to see you too so what tell us when you when did you start getting the passion for barbecue and and you know how did you you know come to a career how did you make it a career decision I think I was about 13

I used to go to my grandparents house a lot granddad had a when I was old oil barrels that people come Vernon and grills so he had one of those and he will find any reason to to barbecue because they were grillers they were smokers and so he'll

put anything from bear to whatever he could find on there and I was one of those kids who and I always tell people I never really liked to I played but I always liked being around a food so it was at a young age yeah so so you

know some of the barbecue skills you learn come from like the Texas pit masters talk about some of your mentors some of the other mentors one of my mentors well before I even started barbecue know my mentor it was odd he still is it's just in Carlisle for

our teen curfew well he owns Brad's Bay brew house they actually helped me develop my first rub and I don't even know if they remember that like the first barbecue rub I ever made they helped me make it and so from there I began to tweak it and

then okay let me put it on meat and so before I even hit the smoker I put it in the oven and I remember I used to put it at 200 degrees for about 12 hours just to kind of get that down pack you know he's it turned

out really good so one of my other mentors is Alex he owns Firewise barbecue he only works like six months out the year which I wish I could do that but yeah those guys really really inspirational so so I guess what's more important the rub or the smoke

I want to say both are equally important basically depending on what the meat is for brisket we only use four ingredients for pork shoulder you might want to get a little more creative because it's little harder to penetrate that flavor with that so unless you inject it yeah

so tell me about your your education where did you where'd you go to school and and how did those experiences in school translate to where you are at now so I went to MATC I graduated in 2013 I have my associates and in culinary and our hospitality and

so what basically got me started and got here was realizing that I didn't want to be a tow truck driver anymore and so I'm like when I was gonna cook so I decided to come here a great great program took about three years because I had no college

credits and came across a lot of great instructors that helped me along the way to learn what I know now if you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go and what would you eat Texas no I would go back to Texas and I would definitely

see what they're doing differently than we are instead of seeing on the internet it's actually see it myself yeah yeah and then tell us about the restaurant you guess but anything special going on right now or so we're starting Mardi Gras we're gonna be doing bourbon-glazed baby back

ribs starting tomorrow actually I want to say may not be tomorrow but it's probably tomorrow and also on Friday as we do smoked salmon Saturdays we do Texas cut beef ribs and yeah we pretty much try to bring different things to people yeah and what's that experience being

with with the crossroads collective how does it how's it to be with all the other vendors well that's awesome we all basically become friends and just like brothers you get into you know disagreements but it's in a good way you know it's awesome working and seeing these other

businesses prepare it gives you ideas on things to do you know with your next ventures and being in crossroads is a it's a it's a great place to test your brand and and if your brand is gonna work you'll be able to know do you ever come up

with any like collaborations like mix ups with some of the other vendors yes so it's a soup and sandwich place called Frieda that's in there and we actually collaborated I made a smoked chicken salad for them so I smoked the chicken and then I showed him how to

make the salad and we he sold out pretty much the same day so how many days of the week and they if they come to the crossroads collective the way be able to see you yeah yeah I am so I'm pretty much open I closed some days but

we open at 11:00 we're at 2:00 to 3:00 ignore fara well inside across Rose collective so I'm pretty much there every day that's great Jason hey really appreciate your time thank you so much thank you yeah take care of we'll come down and see you awesome all right

well brunch is a good training mixture of breakfast and lunch is a good way to have some interesting options depending on what you are in the mood for the restaurant Cafe will serve you a nice cozy Mexican style brunch for the outdoorsy type who's looking for a good

stroll through the winter wonderland head south to Bayview and check out Humboldt Park with activities for all seasons there's plenty of do with in there 72 acres after you build up an appetite just a little down south is Subrosa cafe and gallery combining more than just art and

food Subrosa takes a classic French breakfast and a traditional Mexican lunch to create a meal that you will never forget everybody Frankie and Reuben everything we do here you try to do the best our ability with a month the greatest amount of love everything we do is fresh

and organic and that's what we strive for it to make everything taste good and just be delicious so Brussels means delicious oh there it is honestly we get kind of an artsy crowd which is really nice because everybody is super understanding they're really polite and they just want

somewhere to go where they can sit down and look at cool life it will be atmosphere a lot of but this is the perfect planet of good food good music bathysphere but it's not too much it's not time to force something at you kind of lets you experience

fast BS BBs is like perfect breakfast sandwich the bacon sandwich is two pieces of toast with eggs are special bacon that we make in-house sauces are avocados Emma that we make in-house also started doing never make it amazing poached egg you could put that poached egg on bread

toast biscuit it's phenomenal and it's just very special I've had a lot of food yeah I'm working here for for over two years so I've I've picked my way through that menu and then I eat here probably every day and I haven't gotten sick of it so at

that is that is saying something I would just say we're a lot more than just a cafe you know you come in here and you can get some phenomenally well thought out dishes that you don't necessarily get everywhere you go with you all of our bakery freshen and

house and everybody's just really inviting all the staff is friendly we're all friends with each other and it's just been a really great opportunity getting to work here my friend has been here a couple times a million it's amazing because there's not a single thing on this menu

that isn't phenomenal what are you waiting for get in here the food is amazing we've got a great staff everybody's making sure that everybody comes in they feel welcome we'll take care of you having a really nice brunch on the weekend surrounded by art can make people feel

good on a relaxing day sitting here with me today is owner of and head chef of Subrosa cafe Francisco Sanchez Francisco thank you for coming really appreciate it to me yes I got to ask you are you more of a breakfast guy or a lunch guy kind of

depends I mean I think more breakfast lunch and dinner has always been part of my platform but brunch I mean breakfast is like a lost art form and I really wanted to dig my teeth into it creatively yeah so I think we've done a pretty good job so

far so yeah so tell me so how did you come up with the concept for a brunch brunch location with Mexican themed well my partner and I Reuben P Ryan in we actually he's a professional classical pianist and we're both artists and we just kind of stumbled upon

this project actually because we were gonna do my sauces that I've done over the years and just do retail because I thought it was age-appropriate but it really isn't it's it's pretty manic it's crazy it's a crazy business and we were renting from the Gouda girls the grilled

cheese truck shout-out to them they're awesome and they offered us the building and they give us a super great deal and they wanted us to succeed and the only way I was gonna do another restaurant was to do breakfast or lunch cuz I didn't want to do dinners

anymore to be perfectly honest I didn't want to live my life like that anymore so it's just something that my family okay so my family a long line of chefs and we always cooked we're let's you know you come to our house you eat something you know so

we just developed our own little take on everything every house has their different sauce on yeah is what we say and I took that and added liquor and it's now mine everything has liquor in her wine or something so whatwhat's you know if you're gonna have a breakfast

taco if you're gonna like invite me over and you're like I'm gonna make this guy some breakfast tacos what would what would you put on that taco well first of all my own troubies Oh which I do in-house good that way I can hit my exact flavor or

what I feel is appropriate and people love it so scrambled eggs and chorizo in a taco but I really wanted to exit from the Mexican corner of which I was in for forever and just just to enable me to explore whatever it is that I feel I do

a lot of French I do some German I do Asian I do Mexican and different Caribbean I do barbecue and I mix it up I'll make anything into a Benedict so I was just talking to the guys back there and I just did a grilled cheese benedict grilled

cheese grilled tomato slices egg hollandaise simple and it was just out the door bass ordering it so just little things like that it's interesting it's fun to find out what it is that works here yeah and actually I called it a panini something on the last menu and

it didn't sell so I pulled it then I called it a grilled cheese and then it's sold I'm like okay that's right so I mean the creativity is evident in the food but also in the space art is a big part of your cafe right absolutely so we

when we thought about building our our business plan we thought well what what is a good hook you know why would we exist in the first place because that's the first question you ask yourself when you're building that and because it is so competitive and I did start

out in Bayview back in 96 before baby was the hotbed we were the first restaurants who arrived in the Bijoux area we introduced Milwaukee to fish tacos and to to chipotle mayonnaise believe it or not well thank you I did not even say four things before that everyone

thinks that Lulu's or GTO was the first we were the first but we were renting though – now we own this building and I can't imagine it any other way we stand alone on our street and you can pull up in Park but anyway so the music we

have a baby grand piano in there yeah and we rotate the art do you play absolutely but the baby grand now chopsticks maybe that's about it and then the art changes so we have art openings about every other month and so we're breakfast and lunch concept so it's

7:30 to three and then we have our Sabrosa after dark series so that could be anything so we just did a dinner Valentine's dinner concert yeah fantastic well I really appreciate your time I'll see you tomorrow okay I'll be in in the morning please do all right appreciate

it thank you so much the value of tradition is important all parts of every culture it holds and maintains the origin of the history this one family restaurant has been passing on the tradition for many generations just outside of Milwaukee it's west allis once called Honey Creek the

town grew into a city after an industrial manufacturing plan opened in 1901 even before this growth the citizens prioritized education building a one-room schoolhouse for a grand total of seven children today that same building has been converted into the West Allis Historical Museum preserving the city's history for

the next generation for a different look at the city's traditions drive northeast to kegels in a restaurant and hotel that focuses on German culture passed down through four generations kegels has been family-owned since it opened in 1924 there's a lot of interesting people that come to kegels they

come for a nice experience of dinner of great homemade German food and this is a place to get it all the people that have been coming here way before any of us were born and it's just a connection you have with them they've been coming here 30 40

50 years and it's just a neat little place several times for what years maybe as early as 30 years ago the first owner John T Kegel was convinced by a longtime friend to open and operate a soft drink parlor this same parlor became a restaurant when passed down

to his family for four generations Peggy Olson is fortunate enough to have the history the great recipes and the great clientele that want to just come and enjoy [Music] everything in this kitchen is from scratch so it's a lot of work into it upholding the traditional cooking values

and ways that this family has brought their recipes over here duckies are it's a really good one here it's slow roasted we'd be bone it and we crisp it under a broiler with stuffing gravy from scratch you have a lot of regulars and they bring their family from

across the state and even outside of the state to come here to experience it because our walls are special and when you come in it's a completely different atmosphere come and experience it I mean you won't find another place like it I mean this is a dying breed

here I mean it's old and we're gonna keep it that way instead of all the modern stuff that felt there it's nice to come back to history you like sauerbraten you like pork shanks you like roast duck you like some of the old German red cabbage and things

like that you're not gonna find it anywhere any better because I know firsthand that it's all made from scratch a nice exciting place for family and friends to have some good traditions of German food here with me is fourth-generation owner of kegels in none other than Julian Kegel

Julian what's up how you doing fantastic welcome to the set yeah glad to be here yeah thank you I'm so talk to me about West Allis and German food there are any other German restaurants in must Alice actually I don't know if there is we kind of sit

in a silo of German heritage leftover from you know generations of Germans in Milwaukee and there was German restaurants everywhere right I mean we could name a hundred from from an old history book right and I'm sure John Goethe's got the latest right a place where we came

from but there's no there's only a couple left and you have to go six miles from the lake to come to West Allis and you'll find the best German food in the city what would you say is the signature dish on the restaurant for me it's the duck

I didn't try anything else for 20 years no joke I would come for Christmas and I'd look forward it forward to it for months before I actually got the the you know the homemade stuffing the scratch-made gravy homemade cranberry relish it was like Thanksgiving three months you know

a month later and ten times better so come to kegels in for the duck people are torn you know the beaner schnitzel is fabulous we use Strasse veal hand pounded on our you know massive ancient yeah they're fabulous but on this big antique butcher block and there's just

like this in this authenticity that you can't really find in a lot of restaurants it's gotta be pretty excited to be part of the new resurgence in West Allis right people didn't always think of West Allis and amazing food but now I think that's out there I think

people are starting to talk about it yeah I think the words out really and West Allis and Dan Devine the whole city staff is really on board with making West Allis the next place in Milwaukee that's that's gonna take investment and take development to the next level that's

great right so tell me like so I've seen some pictures you guys have an ice rink in the front of the restaurant tell me about this ice rink yeah well it was our beer garden in the summer so drink a beer have a brought and a fish fry

on a Friday night listen to embalm music now frozen tundra essentially I was a glacier guide in Alaska for a couple years and it's just it's just so good to bring bring that ice back right onto the road yeah it's free to the public so your 7:00 in

the morning you want to get up and come ice skating you can do that right now talk about your selection of beer because I know I've been in there I've tried some of the beers but you guys have an amazing selection of German beer yes about that you

know we try and pick one character the best of it right so if it's a pilsner or if it's a Kolsch or a dunkel weiss we've chosen ones and we stuck to them so you've got great consistency over generations that people come back and they say I had

this beer the last time my grandma turned 80 and she's been long dead you know so there's this memory that refluxes with all of the experiences that you come back to Eccles that just keeps it in the back of your mind you know no matter where you are

in the world on that on that topic I mean it's all really the recipes are they original recipes are sweet the recipes or what have you guys done we've really taken everything back to scratch so we've identified all the stuff that we wanted to to bring locally and

it's not possible for everything but if you think about an old German village all the food came from within that hinter sphere so bring that farm to the table feed the community I feel like West Allis is sort of ripe for that resurgence right and like we've been

there all along sort of maybe out shadowed by bigger German restaurants in the past but now without them we sort of shine through yeah I feel like places like yours they're about to hit this resurgence I mean I think they have been rated they have I mean I

walk into I walk in your restaurant it's full every night but I think there's a new generations that's starting to get a taste of that style yeah and they just they just can't get enough of it amen yeah well hey I really appreciate you coming out here like

this I'm gonna come out and skate on your ring I'm gonna get a beer and you know we're gonna have a good time I love it that's the whole point yeah thank you so much I appreciate it you do thank you to our viewers for watching this very

exciting first episode of local food travel I'm Arthur Cink signing out [Music] you