With the warmer weather comes a desire to dine al fresco. This week, despite a few drops of rain, we stopped at Cafe Bavaria, 7700 Harwood Ave., in Tosa village to try the lunch menu with a view overlooking ... Lowlands Group's other restaurant at this spot, Cafe Hollander.
Unlike apparently everyone else, we weren't about to let a few widely scattered raindrops dampen our desire to dine al fresco, so we grabbed a table alongside the building, not far from the fountain and ordered.
Of course, there's an extensive beer menu at a restaurant named for perhaps the world's greatest beer region, including some interesting looking options like a trio of smoky rauchbiers. I enjoyed a draught Radeberger pilsner ($5 for 400ml) and my dining companions chose milk.
The menu has a range of salads and burgers, as well as chili and a number of appetizer and sandwich options, and you can get entrées like pho, trout, veal-stuffed meatloaf and rotisserie chicken, among others, too, at lunchtime.
We went the sandwich route, and I figured at a place called Cafe Bavaria you can't really skip the schnitzel, can you? I chose pork over chicken and my dining companions each ordered the bologna sandwich off the kids menu ($5.95), which comes with fries, petite salad or roasted vegetables with dip.
The pork schnitzel – served with thick-cut fries and a pickle – runs $10.95 and is served on a potato roll.
The sandwich – which to my tastes would benefit from a crispier breading – doesn't look like it would be especially challenging to the palate, until you get a bit of the sweet spicy relish and sweet hot mustard that hides beneath the bun, which adds a nice little kick.
The kids' sandwiches were warm – the bologna lightly browned in a pan – and served with muenster and mayonnaise. I was worried they might scoff at warm bologna, but, in fact, they both loved it.
Our server was friendly and attentive and helpful when the rain did come and we had to hightail it inside for our final bites.
My only, ahem, beef, was that the plates arrived looking a little sparse (the photos above were snapped upon the arrival of the dishes). Especially in the case of the $11 schnitzel sandwich, a few more fries would've been appreciated and surely wouldn't have broken the bank.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
