Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [178]
If you happen to be a fish-fry-frowner, McBob’s has another treasure. Every day of the week it is a source of terrific corned beef. Big chunks of steamy-hot meat from a super-tender spiced brisket are piled into a sandwich of plain rye or in toasted rye with sauerkraut, horseradish mustard, and Swiss cheese (a Reuben). The meat is extraordinarily lean and yet veritably dripping with flavor. The ideal condiment is horseradish mustard.
McBob’s is a very popular place after work, and the thank-God-it’s-Friday crowd with whom we bent elbows and ate fish and corned beef made our meal there a memorable party.
Mr. Perkins’ Family Restaurant
2001 W. Atkinson Ave.
414–447–6660
Milwaukee, WI
BLD | $
Mr. Perkins’ is a city lunchroom with a mostly African American clientele, but all visitors are made to feel welcome at this counter and in these booths. With a large menu (and a reliable rotation of daily specials, i.e., neckbones every Wednesday), this neighborhood café is a Milwaukee landmark.
While certain dishes may be an acquired taste—chitterlin’s, for example—many specialties are comfort food for anyone. Baked chicken with dressing is tender and vividly spiced; meat loaf is firm and satisfying; those pork neckbones on Wednesday are some trouble to eat (they’re little), but the meat virtually falls from the bone as you savor it. We must also mention the fried perch, which is a plate of about three large boneless fillets encased in a sandy cornmeal crust. The meat of the fish is amazingly juicy, with flavor as lusty as beefsteak.
One of the most delightful aspects of lunch and supper at Mr. Perkins’ (which also serves breakfast) is choosing side dishes. Macaroni and cheese has a perfect balance of tender noodle and crusty edges; fried okra is vegetable-sweet; fried green tomatoes are tangy and brittle-crisp; there are pot-likker-sopped turnip greens or turnip bottoms, made into an intriguing squash-like mash with butter and sugar. Cornbread is Tennessee-style, i.e., a griddle-cooked cake that is buttery, tender, golden-colored, and an ideal tool for mopping gravy and vegetable drippings from a plate. Desserts include pineapple coconut cake, individual-size fried peach pies, sweet potato pie, or a plate of sweet yams. And to drink, the beverages of choice are lemonade and iced tea, both served southern-style, i.e., supersweet!
Plaza Tavern
319 N. Henry St.
608–255–6592
Madison, WI
LD | $
We found out about the Plaza Tavern at Minneapolis’s Convention Grill, which boasts that its hamburger is modeled after the one served in Madison. We were intrigued by the one we had in Minnesota, so next time we were driving west of Lake Michigan, we stopped at the source to check it out.
Not merely intriguing, a Plazaburger is downright delicious, addictively so. What makes it different from a regular hamburger (which is also available) is the secret-sauce condiment that drenches the patty. It is thinner than ketchup and its texture reminded us of some eastern North Carolina barbecue sauces, although it doesn’t have the vinegar tang. It’s spicy but not even three-alarm hot, and in addition to infusing the meat with flavor, it gets deeply imprinted into the tawny bun on which the burger is served. Connoisseurs have it on their French fries, too. You can buy a cupful for sixty cents.
The Tavern menu is an otherwise unremarkable array of sandwiches, plus, of course, cheese curds. Beers are sold by the pint and pitcher. Ambience is pure Midwest saloon: long bar, tight booths, and wall murals depicting scenic Wisconsin.
Real Chili
419 E. Wells St.
414