As the weather warms up (any day now), the culinary scene often turns up the temperature as well — and that’s definitely the case on this very stuffed episode. Taking things chronologically, we’re less than a week away from the start of Downtown Dining Week, which has been treating diners to deals at some of Milwaukee’s top restaurants for nearly two decades. This year’s event runs from May 29 to June 5 and offers discounts for lunch ($15 or $25 per person) and dinner ($35, $45 and $55). With 29...
May 23, 2025•23 min
Everyone’s got mom on the brain this week (rightfully so), which hopefully means you’ve already made plans to say thanks to that special person by treating her to some outstanding food. In case you haven’t, we start this episode with three suggestion for where to take mom — if they’re still taking reservations: Blackwolf Run in Kohler is offering a Mother's Day brunch from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. that includes salads, fruits, crudites, sausages, avocado toast, grilled citrus salmon, red wine braised c...
May 09, 2025•19 min
Our latest helping of Milwaukee food news starts with savory pasties from Mr. Dye's Pies , gets festive with the inaugural Miche Fest (as in Michelada) at Zocalo and explores the enticing menu of Sinta, a Filipino pop-up at Bavette. We also preview Semolina's hands-on Sunday Supper series, share the new tenant taking over Crossroads Collective and check out Southern-style eats at Bronzeville's soon-to-open sports bar, One-Seven Cafe & Lounge ....
Apr 25, 2025•21 min
Because we like to keep things fresh around here, let’s flip the usual approach and start with the roundup so we can close with the centerpiece of this episode: As our hosts are both dumpling aficionados, they were happy to talk about the places doing them right around the city . They also check in on Kinship Café, which got some well-deserved attention thanks to a recent visit from comedian (and volunteer) Jim Gaffigan . Over on the East Side, Crossroads Collective will close so “a local restau...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr 2 min
On this episode, Ann and Tarik interview Chef Alex Hanesakda of Sapsap about his upcoming event, " Rivers Run Deep ," happening at Cactus Club at 3 p.m. this Saturday, April 12. The event commemorates five decades since Oceanian refugees arrived in the United States after the Vietnam War, focusing on the often-overlooked history of the war in Laos and the genocide in Cambodia. Chef Alex discusses the symbolism of the Mekong River in his family's escape from Laos, and highlights how breakdancing ...
Apr 11, 2025•39 min
For almost exactly one year, Discourse Coffee Workshop has been a roommate of sorts, serving out of the southwest corner of Radio Milwaukee HQ. It’s been a pleasure watching them get comfortable in the space and expanding their presence in the city through other ventures like Agency, the hybrid cocktail bar they operate inside the Dubbel Dutch Hotel. Making it even more fun was the news that Discourse partners Ryan Castelaz and Sean Liu received earlier this week: that Agency is the lone Wiscons...
Apr 04, 2025•19 min
From baseball legends to fast-food tributes, we're serving up another helping from Milwaukee's vibrant food scene. On this episode, Ann and Tarik sample Kopp's new custard flavor inspired by the late legend Bob Uecker (called, what else, "Mr. Baseball"). The hosts also preview the Milwaukee Wine Weekend and get real about restaurant service, sharing tips on how diners can be better customers. Plus, Big Daddy's Barbecue gets a new name (Big Boss BBQ), and Crafty Cow celebrates April Fool's Day wi...
Mar 28, 2025•28 min
We always try to give you a meal, metaphorically speaking, on every episode of This Bites . But there are some weeks when we live up to our name and deliver more of a mouthful than a bellyful — a small-plate version of the podcast, if you will. So let's skip the longer run-up and jump straight into what you'll hear on this episode: Because you should respect your elders, we start with Ann’s review of the century-old but no less satisfying Kegel’s Inn . The dynamic Dan’s (Jacobs and Van Rite) are...
Mar 21, 2025•11 min
There are times when the calendar decides it wants to be your friend — like your birthday falling on a Saturday or St. Patrick’s Day coinciding with the first day of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament (that one really only applies to bar owners and Notre Dame fans). Today, the calendar has smiled on your humble This Bites hosts, because our regularly scheduled episode release day just so happens to be Pi Day. And we get a layup of a lead item. While acknowledging that math is important, we can...
Mar 14, 2025•21 min
This episode finds us hitting the home stretch of Black History Month, which means it's time to get moving and support Milwaukee's Black-owned restaurants (something we should do year-round). Ann gave us all a helping hand by putting together a sizable list for Milwaukee Magazine that includes everything from soul food to barbecue and Ethiopian to Jamaican. Toward the end of the podcast, we also highlight a pair of cookbooks from Black women that literally span more than a century: a new edition...
Feb 21, 2025•34 min
Sometimes, the universe just doesn’t want you to make a dish. You hand-pick all your ingredients, do your chopping and dicing and mixing, pull out your go-to cookware and … the stove won’t light. This food metaphor is meant to soften the blow of there not being a full podcast this week. Ann and Tarik were in the studio with their rundown of food news all set to go, and then our fancy audio equipment did the equivalent of the stove not lighting. So we did what any great chef does in this situatio...
Feb 14, 2025•19 min
We love “the new.” Especially when it comes to the restaurant scene, we get excited about the spot that just opened its doors or discovering a place the rest of the community hasn’t caught on to yet. While the rookies get everyone worked up, it’s the veterans who create the foundation of a city’s food identity. And we’ve got two of them leading the lineup for this episode of the podcast. First up is Bacchus, the venerable Bartolotta-owned restaurant that announced a couple different developments...
Feb 07, 2025•44 min
We’re a day away from February, which is not important. We’re also a day away from Phobruary, which is very important — so important, in fact, that we slapped it at the top of this episode. If you’ve somehow not partaken of Phobruary in its previous 11 years of existence, the gist is that it’s an annual celebration of the Vietnamese noodle soup at a handful of restaurants in Milwaukee’s Silver City neighborhood. The 12th installment includes the following three eateries and their respective spec...
Jan 31, 2025•26 min
The James Beard Awards are kind of like the NBA season: They crown the champs, and it seems like training camps start two days later. Making the cyclical process all the more tolerable is how well Milwaukee does — a trend that continued when the James Beard Foundation named its semifinalists earlier this week. Since we’re in the back-patting business, that’s where we start this episode of the podcast.The nominees fell into two camps, the first of which is the expected announcements. The “Best Ch...
Jan 24, 2025•19 min
For the first episode of 2025 — our 11th(!) year bringing This Bites to your ears — we started in a very familiar (and familial) place: the recently closed Ardent, which is welcoming the first of hopefully many more things to come from its former chef, Vanessa Rose. Rose will bring some playful flavors to the space when she hosts an extended pop-up called Mother’s that hosts its first diners today. You can expect small plates from an a la carte menu that gets a little out there. One example she ...
Jan 10, 2025•23 min
Just a few days before Christmas, Chef Ray and his business partner Cherry Phetleung gave our city a gift by welcoming their first guests to 1033 Omakase as part of its soft opening. The non-numerical part of the restaurant’s name means “I leave it up to you,” reflecting the control that diners turn over to the chef as part of their experience. For this initial phase, 1033 Omakase will offer just three seatings per night Wednesday through Saturday, with a maximum of six guests per seating. The e...
Dec 20, 2024•27 min
This episode has a seasonal feel, with Agency cooking up a menu inspired by holiday movies and an ode to a classic cold-weather beverage. But we lead things off with big news about James Beard-recognized chef Kyle Knall's plans for a new French bistro in Milwaukee's Third Ward, then dip into the sweet with desserts around the world and pie charts (not the boring kind).
Dec 13, 2024•27 min
Milwaukee food lovers and restaurant-goers got a big helping of tough news over Thanksgiving weekend, as Justin Carlisle announced that Ardent will close at the end of December. As our hosts are both lovers of food and goers of restaurants, they couldn’t really start this episode anywhere else. Ann connected with Carlisle for a Milwaukee Magazine article that sounded a few somewhat-hopeful notes. For one, Ardent’s chef/owner exceeded his own expectations for the business, saying that it was “nev...
Dec 06, 2024•29 min
Everyone loves dumplings. So everyone should also love the first news item in this episode: dumpling-making classes at The Wolf . These opportunities for delicious instruction are no joke. Chef Kristin Schwab set up a couple for December, and both of them sold out so fast that the restaurant decided to make them a monthly affair all throughout 2025. We break down this very cool experience, which you can register for right now (even the one next December if you’re the type who likes to plan ahead...
Nov 22, 2024•13 min
The coming days will bring us two dining events in conjunction with Native American Heritage Month: Nov. 14 at the Milwaukee Public Museum and Nov. 18 at the Ivy House . We talk about both at the top of this episode, but here’s a little more about the two dinners. First up is the meal at the museum — part of its full month of Native American Heritage Month programming. Ketapanen Kitchen, the first Indigenous pop-up kitchen and catering company in Chicago, will do the cooking for the event, which...
Nov 08, 2024•14 min
Tarik and Ann discuss a cool chef collaboration, Wine in Wisconsin and a new brunch spot. They also share some important news about Pete's Pops!
Oct 25, 2024•20 min
Milwaukee gets its first taste of Japanese omakase in a new brick and mortar run by Chef Ray. Wanna make pho the right way? Ann and Tarik have details on some pho-making classes. Also, the Pfister hosts the Vince Lombardi Cancer Foundation's Food & Wine event with celebrity chefs on the second day of this long-running two day event. Plus the Dubbel Dutch Hotel is opening a Victorian-style teahouse to be run by the folks at Discoure Coffee. Produced and edited by Marcus Doucette...
Oct 18, 2024•10 min
This week, Tarik & Anne talk about new Colombian food at Crossroads Collective, Uncle Wolfies goes Southeast Asian, pierogies and much more... Produced & edited by Guru Amrit Singh
Oct 11, 2024•20 min
This episode starts with the news that Kinship Cafe is bringing services way beyond food and drink to ThriveOn King, the community hub located on MLK Drive between Lloyd and Garfield. The big difference-maker for the soon-to-open spot is its association with Kinship Community Food Center . The cafe will be a gathering place that serves healthy meals like sandwiches, bowls and salads. But it’ll also operate in conjunction with the center’s workforce training program , which provides opportunities...
Oct 04, 2024•25 min
Phở 1 Phở is the topic and interestingly enough, a Phở battle. Find out about SapSap and Laotiian ciusine and how breakdancing factors in. Broth is also a topic as is the "new" Ardent and their prix fixe menu and lounge space.
Sep 20, 2024•30 min
Raining on our parade to start this episode is Hot Dish Pantry — or, more accurately, the folks who own the building that Hot Dish Pantry calls home. HDP owners Laura Maigatter and Nathan Heck explained on social media that a recent real-estate decision to open a new restaurant gave them a push toward something they had been thinking about for a little while now. “To be very clear, we are not being forced out,” they shared. “We had been weighing this decision for some time and the circumstances ...
Sep 13, 2024•25 min
By the end of this month, the Milwaukee area will have a promising new option when Serious Dumplings — a small chain that up until now was limited to five locations in Florida — opens on Mayfair Road in Wauwatosa. The new spot just north of the Milwaukee County Zoo will fill a glaring hole spotted by sharp folks like myself and Journal Sentinel dining critic Rachel Bernhard : a high-quality dim sum parlor. A quick look at Serious Dumplings’ menu reveals a solid dim sum section, plus the restaura...
Sep 06, 2024•18 min
It’s not often that we put aside our usual exhaustive efforts to cover as much of Milwaukee’s food scene as possible. However, it’s also not often that we get a chance to welcome someone deeply involved with an event as exciting as the one coming up in November. A couple weeks ago, we told you about Flavors of Africa & Diaspora: Best Chefs Wisconsin , a gala and competition the likes of which we haven’t seen around here too often. In addition to the more typical tastings and competitive elem...
Aug 23, 2024•51 min
Tarik and Anne talk lobster, new eats on Vliet Street and a sandwich challenge from Mobcraft Brewing. And then there's Miss Dolly's Taste of Africa which combats domestic violence. Taste a listen... -produced and edited by Marcus Doucette
Aug 16, 2024•21 min
Anyone who loves Allie Boy’s Bagelry & Luncheonette will be happy to know its second location is now open on Farwell Avenue — a space that will make it possible for the owners to invest in some bigger equipment. And bigger equipment means more bagels. Speaking of “more,” there’s a news item that deserves some serious attention due to the ambition on display. Flavors of Africa & Diaspora: Best Chefs Wisconsin is an event recently announced by Ubuntu MKE, Wisconsin's first cross-cultural i...
Aug 09, 2024•13 min
