When you walk into Bjonda, the new restaurant occupying the old Jolly's of Harwood space in Wauwatosa, you might feel a bit disoriented. It's not dizziness, just the feeling that you're not quite sure where you are. It may be because the modern, plush and placid atmosphere that envelopes you as you enter seems to transport you to another place.
"The whole atmosphere and menu and service is all very new to Milwaukee. It's a little bit big-city," says Milwaukee native and part owner Marija Madunic. "Judging by the people's responses, it's very welcome. So many people have said they've left the city and gone uptown."
Bjonda (7754 Harwood Ave., Wauwatosa), pronounced bee-OHN-da, means blond in Croatian. It's no coincidence that the two owners and sisters, Marija and Vesna Madunic are startling blondes themselves and no strangers to creating pampering spaces and delectable food. They've been the owners of Gracious Catering, located just down the road from Bjonda, since 1996. Madunic says she and her sister had been talking of opening a restaurant for several years.
"It was the perfect transition because the clientele we've built for Gracious was the exact clientele for the style of restaurant we wanted to open," says Madunic.
Clientele is not the only thing the Madunic sisters incorporated into their restaurant from their catering business. Bjonda's chef, Ryan Whitman, also from Gracious Catering, brought his passion for Asian and European influences to the menu. Some of Gracious' most popular items such as chicken and wild mushrooms, steer tenderloin, lobster risotto and tuna tartare can also be found on Bjonda's menu. And the Madunics asked two of their good clients, architect Wade Weissmann of Weissmann Ruvin Design Partnership and interior designer Jon Schlagenhaft, to help transform the old Jolly's into their new eatery.
What came of this vision is a restaurant that can accommodate a range of purposes, whether it's a formal, fine-dining affair, or martinis and hors d'oeuvres with friends in a warmly lit lounge. Two formal dining rooms with large windows overlooking downtown Wauwatosa occupy the front of the space. These rooms are true to the restaurant's name with cool, light tones. The ceilings are lined with a light-strawberry wood, and the walls are comprised of pale brick. The tables are seated with Louis XVI chairs covered in taupe leather. A nice touch in the formal dining areas are tuffets, resembling small stools, that female diners can use to set their purses on.
Velvet, sage curtains hung graciously around the restaurant's lobby, open up to a large bar and lounge area opposite the formal dining area. A sleek black bar serves as the room's centerpiece and is surrounded by tables lined with white tablecloths for customers interested in a more casual and swanky dining experience. Above of the bar is a gaping skylight edged in tiled mirrors that mysteriously reflect the candlelight from the room below.
For some serene privacy diners can idle in the smaller circular lounge room, jutting from the bar area and lined with gray velvet cushions that face a modern-looking fireplace. For a very special experience, diners can choose to sit at the chef's table, located in a small room also off the bar area. At the chef's table, customers are treated to a 14-course chef tasting menu. But expect to pay about $120 a head for this dining treat (and make reservations ahead of time as the room can only accommodate up to eight people).
And ladies, don't miss on the restroom, even if just to powder your nose. The small room is covered by ornate, china-red, oriental wallpaper. The sink with straw-colored shiny tiles, has a flat silver faucet that makes washing your hands a treat. And when you go to throw away your hand towel you'll find a "garbage can" that looks like a large leather handbag, complete with a buckled handle.
It seems that no aspect has gone over-looked in the design and atmosphere at Bjonda. But what really impressed is the same attention to detail paid to the restaurant's flavorful and beautifully presented cuisine.
When we visited Bjonda, dinner started out with a pleasant surprise. Our server delivered an amous bouche, a complimentary gift from the chef designed to awaken the taste buds and prepare you for what is to come in the rest of the meal. Ours consisted of a small tomato, sitting in a delicious pool of chive oil and chive crème fraiche and garnished with Parmesan cheese. The treat was presented on an Asian spoon, flatware resembling a small, white ladle balanced on a small plate. Our taste buds immediately reacted in Pavlovian response to the delicacy and our mouths began to water.
Next was our first course. We tried the beef carpaccio ($8), thinly sliced pieces of raw free-range beef tenderloin, topped with tomato basil quenelle, and what looked like fancy waffle potato chips but called potato gaufrettes. The dish delivered a fresh and cool treat with the just the perfect amount of crispness. We also tried the vegetable spring rolls ($5) which arrived three on a plate, drizzled with chili oil and teriyaki mustard aside some micro greens. The rolls had a nice kick of heat and mixed well with the tang of the teriyaki mustard.
Bjonda offers an array of creative salads including Crunch ($7) consisting of brunoise carrots, potato crisps, fried lentils and shallots, soy nuts, wasabi peas, butter lettuce and baby spinach with a chili buttermilk dressing.
{INSERT_RELATED}For the main course we tried the morels and scallops pasta ($21) and the steak and frites ($20). The pasta was served in a large, deep bowl filled with radiatore pasta, morels and wild mushrooms and golden seared sea scallops with mushroom stock reduction sauce, asiago cheese and basil crème. The scallops were perfectly seared to capture their moisture, and melted in the mouth. The blend of mushrooms, herbs and just a dot of crème provided an earthy and fragrant flavor to the dish.
The steak, a wonderfully grilled 14-oz New York Strip, was topped with Roquefort cheese and set along a pile of crunchy, double-fried french fries. What really made this steak "to die for," was its smoky demi-glace.
We finished our meal with the aptly named chocolate bombe ($6). This desert resembles a chocolate brownie in the shape of a small volcano and is served alongside fresh mint sauce and vanilla ice cream quenelle. The chocolate cake was warm with a slightly crisp exterior. When we cut into the dessert with a fork we found a rich, hot molten chocolate center. The sinful dessert was a delicious end to the meal.
We should warn that Bjonda is probably not the best place to dine if you're looking for a quick bite to eat before catching a flick. Including a glass of wine at the bar, we did spend a significant portion of our evening at Bjonda, and the period between courses was fairly long. This could be due, in part, to the fact that at the time of our visit Bjonda was only three weeks old and kitchen staff was still acclimating to its environment.
But more so, we found that this restaurant is a place to relax, to while away an evening with friends and family in an inviting and chic atmosphere and to savor the many flavors that have been painstakingly prepared together.
Major credit cards are accepted and the restaurant is handicapped accessible. For reservations or more information call (414) 431-1444.
