With Lent now in full swing, it seems every restaurant in town is hyping its fish fry or offering one especially for the season.
Among the latter is is Le Reve, 7610 Harwood Ave., in Tosa Village, which returns a traditional fish fry to its menu every Lent. This year it's back, offering beer-battered Atlantic cod with pommes frites, caraway rye bread, coleslaw and house-made tartar sauce.
We stopped in on the first Friday of Lent to try it out and despite arriving early, the patisserie and cafe was already doing a pretty brisk business, both upstairs and down, and there were a lot of fish fries arriving at tables all around us.
"The night was successful for us," Le Reve's Julie Gostisha told me later. "We sold out of the fish fry by about 8:30 and we are looking forward to next weekend."
It was easy to see why. The cod was delicious with a slightly peppery beer batter and the house-made slaw and tartar sauce were extremely distinctive and delicious. These are not areas in which most fish fries excel, frankly.
Add in Le Reve's incredible fries – just the right mix of crispy and soft, with a good dash of salt – and hearty portions and it's plain to see why the restaurant's devoted clientele eagerly awaits the return of Lent each year.
Gostisha stopped by to chat and we talked about our mutual love for potato pancakes and the hard work that goes into doing them right. But I got a sense that maybe Le Reve was going to give them a whirl. Later, when I talked to her again, I'm sad to say, the latkes were off the table, so to speak.
"All of us over here love potato pancakes," said Gostisha. "It's just not in our forecast."
Because the cole slaw was a highlight, we asked Gostisha to share the Le Reve recipe and after consulting with the kitchen staff, she let the secret out:
Le Reve fish fry cole slaw
- 1.5 cups mayonaisse
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
- 1 ounce lemon juice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons mustard powder
- 2 ounces whole milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1/2 head of each red cabbage, savoy cabbage, and napa cabbage
- 1/2 fennel bulb
- 1 large carrot
Combine first 8 ingredients at least two hours before serving. Remove core from cabbages and fennel. Cut the stem off the carrot and peel. Shred carrot on a cheese grater. Slice the rest of the vegetables as thinly as possible using a mandolin or a a meat slicer. Thoroughly mix all vegetables so that they are evenly distributed. Dress the vegetables as close to serving as possible to avoid sogging out the slaw.
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.
