Third Ward Cafe

Third Ward Cafe
225 E. St. Paul
Milwaukee, WI.

The Third Ward Cafe is located directly across the street from the MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MARKET which, by the way, the letter "L" in "PUBLIC" has been burned out on their big neon sign for almost a year, which has not gone unnoticed by me. I keep wondering if anyone over there is going to take notice of what a huge public relations blunder this is (Or maybe I should say PUBIC RELATIONS)?
The occasion for visiting the Third Ward Cafe was my wife's & my birthday. We decided to park the daughter with my sister in-law and head out for a fancy date. No reservation was necessary.
The food served here is Italian Bistro Style. There is a rather brightly lit dining room with an olive & beechwood theme reminiscent of a WILLIAMS SONOMA store. It is flanked by an Italian Deli & small Italian grocery which is all part of the same enterprise. A rather casual meal can be had to go from the deli, including pasta salads, panini and pizza or, an entire picnic could be planned, right down to the basket, from the grocery store.
From my perspective, I was treating this as a fancy night out and I expected the staff to reciprocate though, to my surprise the service (except for the hostess) was very brusque and short. I got no sense from the wait staff that they gave a durn that this was a fancy experience for us. It seemed that, for most 3rd Ward residents who appear to have the best of everything, this was just a casual place to blow 150 dollars on a meal.
This aside, the food was well prepared and straighforward. For starters we had two different salads. A Spinach, Peach, Strawberry Salad with Pralines and a Pear Gorgonzola Salad with Door County Cherrries. The ingredients were fresh and excellent. The salads lugged along a 10 - 12 dollar price tag. An appetizer of mussels and several soup selections also caught my eye.
For our entrees I had the Chicken Piccata. This consisted of two chicken breasts pan fried with a tangy lemon caper sauce. It was served with a simple side of steamed carrots, broccoli, and zucchini. My partner had Pasta Livorno in Tomato Cream Sauce with Salmon. The salmon was cooked medium well and served in chunks on top of the pasta & sauce which was infused with the flavor of dill. Both of these dishes carried hefty 22 & 19 dollar price tags, respectively.
Some other menu items which looked tempting were the Braised Beef Short Ribs (24 dollars) and the Seared Scallops with Cannellini Beans and Pancetta (25 Dollars). Several of the entrees could be made with either chicken or veal. There was also a pizza section and a create your own pasta dish section. I still couldn't get over the prices of the fare, which seemed to be marked up about 25 to 30 percent more than it should have been.
Dessert consisted of Lemon Gelato with Limoncello Liqueur served in a flute glass, and Mandarin Orange Gelato, which was served in a hollowed out mandarin orange hull. The desserts were quite tasty. They carried a price tag in the neighborhood of 10 dollars each.
Throw in one glass of Pinot Noir and a Peroni and the bill came out to one hundred dollars. I guess they gotta pay the exorbitant rent somehow.
Well, I must say the food was nicely prepared, but I will not be going back. My cooking skills are good enough that I could prepare these dishes just as well at home for a fraction of the cost. If you have the hankering for Italian home-style cooking, save your money. Just go to the library and get Lidia Bastianich's cookbook & prepare it yourself.