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By Root 910 0

meringue dolloped with freshly made custard. On the other hand, we never can resist the German pancake. It’s not really a dessert item, and many people have it as their main course, but somehow it makes a grand conclusion to a meal. This gorgeous edible event, a Jack Pandl’s specialty, is a big puffy cloud of batter similar in texture to Yorkshire pudding, but slightly sweeter. It arrives at the table piping hot and shaped like a big bowl, its circumference crisp and brown, risen high in the oven, its center moist and eggy. Dust it with a bit of powdered sugar and give it a spritz of lemon, creating a sophisticated syrup, then dig in immediately. It is a big plate of food, a pleasure to share with friends.

Jake’s

1634 W. North Ave.

414–562–1272

Milwaukee, WI

L | $

It took us a long time to realize that Milwaukee was a major corned beef city, but if we had any doubts, Jake’s erased them. Here is a vintage urban deli where the hand-sliced corned beef is steamy-moist, unbearably tender, and vividly flavored.

Proprietor Michael Kassof suggested that one reason for his beef’s deliciousness might be that a dozen or more briskets are boiled together, their pot becoming a slurry of spice and beef flavor that reinsinuates itself into the fibers of the meat. Just as the counterman prepares to slice a whole brisket for sandwiches, it is sprinkled with paprika, adding a little extra jolt to the taste. The beef is sliced medium-thick then piled into slick-crusted, Milwaukee-made Miller bakery seeded rye: not an outrageously huge sandwich like you might get in Chicago or New York, but in no way skimpy, either. We see the meat-to-bread ratio as perfect.

There are a few other items on Jake’s menu: pastrami, turkey pastrami, hard salami, hot dogs, and soups-like-mama-should-have-made, and you can have the corned beef as part of a Reuben with sauerkraut and cheese. But for us, and for generations of Milwaukeeans, Jake’s is synonymous with corned beef on rye.

With its pale yellow walls, its tables topped with worn linoleum, its ancient wood booths equipped with out-of-order buzzers once used to summon service, Jake’s exudes faded charm. It has been around since 1935, when the neighborhood was mostly Jewish. Original proprietor Reuben Cohen sold it to Jake, who sold it to Michael Kassof’s dad in 1967, and now Michael runs the place—the last Jewish business in a neighborhood that is mostly African American. Superlative corned beef is a cross-cultural infatuation.

Jo’s Café

3519 W. Silver Spring Dr.

414–461–0210

Milwaukee, WI

BL | $

Hoffel poffel (also known as hoppel poppel) isn’t widely known anywhere in the United States that we are aware of, although we have seen versions of it in Iowa. It is one gigantic breakfast plate of a few eggs scrambled with chunks of potato, some onions, and, at Jo’s, lots of nuggets of spicy salami and, optionally, some cheese on top. The only reason we would recommend not getting it for breakfast at Jo’s is that the other kind of potatoes—the thin-cut hash browns—are delicious. Cooked in a flat patty until brittle-crisp, they, too, are available under a mantle of melted cheese. Actually, either sort of potato dish will leave precious little room for Jo’s terrific pecan rolls and cinnamon rolls; nor should a first-time visitor miss out on one of the large omelets cooked on Jo’s griddle.

We generally think of Jo’s for breakfast, but lunch is not to be ignored. Blue-plate cuisine is the order of the day, including such daily specials as meat loaf, beef stew, pork chops, and country-fried steak with real (of course!) mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, and a yeasty fresh-baked dinner roll. Every day you can order good barbecued pork ribs or chicken.

Klinger’s East

920 E. Locust St.

414–263–2424

Milwaukee, WI

D | $$

When we went to Milwaukee on a mission to eat its best fish fries, our buddies Jessica Zierten and Brad Warsh, both lifelong Milwaukeeans, insisted that any significant expedition needed to include a visit to their favorite tavern in the Riverwest neighborhood, Klinger