Since I first wrote this post, Industri has unfortunately closed for business. I will miss it on my trips to Milwaukee. The chef-owner will hopefully pop up in a new place there soon, let me know if you hear any news about him:
john
I‘ve written more than once about how difficult it is to eat at restaurants when you’re on a restricted diet. Tell a waiter you need no salt and no fat in your dish, and you get bare plates with plain veggies and a small piece of meat, as I have.
So I didn’t have high hopes when trying a new place during a weekend visit to Milwaukee recently. But the INdustrie Café was a pleasant and wonderfully tasty surprise for me.
When I told the waiter of my restrictions, he spoke with the chef who recreated two of the place’s small plate specials without salt or butter. A lean steak came with a pepper crust instead of salt one, a major change that would have sent most chefs running out the back doors. Another dish came with a sauce made with an olive oil base rather than a butter base, amazing!!!!
The restaurant also has extensive gluten-free and vegetarian options. As our server explained to me, it’s goal is to serve people food they can eat without fear of reactions, allergies, or in my case heart attacks.
The café emphasizes local foods, in keeping with the local movement so popular today, and even local beers and liquors. Because I can only drink red wine, I choose a non-local Argentinian wine which also was wonderful.
Dinner for two, which included four small plate entrees we split plus four glasses of wine, ran us about $100 , which I’d say is average for a nice restaurant in Chicago these days, I’m not sure how it compares with other Milwaukee establishments.
I enthusiastically endorse the INdustri Café. It’s in a funky part of Milwaukee called Walker Point, a place very different from the industrial Milwaukee I remember from my school days there in the 1970s.
John