Hinterland Erie Street Gastro Pub - Milwaukee, WI

This place opened in the Third Ward in 2007. Chef Van Rite got a James Beard nod this year, and opinions of Milwaukee acquaintances about the food were uniformly positive, so a friend and I gave it a try on Saturday night, despite not being very interested in Hinterland's beer.

We partook in the Chef’s Table menu, which is supposed to get you a table in the kitchen. However, we got a very apologetic call from the restaurant a few days before our visit, telling us that they had accidentally double-booked the chef’s table (there’s only one seating per night) and needed to bump us to the main dining room. They offered us an additional course with wine pairing. Turned out the change was for the best; the dining room was very handsome and comfortable (the photo on the restaurant’s website is misleading; it’s warmer and more refined than that), perfect for conversation with a friend I don’t get to see often. I liked the food but didn’t love it, so I don’t feel I lost out by not being in the kitchen. Also, the chef’s menu didn’t include any items not offered on the regular dinner menu.

Our meal commenced with a charcuterie plate that included a pork country pâté, duck liver terrine and foie gras torchon. The country pâté felt too gelatinous, but the terrine and foie gras were very delicate, smooth and creamy.







Next were bhelpuri scallops with cilantro peanut and tamarind chutney. I really liked the flavor combinations here. The bhelpuri and chutneys were very tangy and excellent with the scallops. Fans of traditional bhelpuri may not like Hinterland’s version, which is pretty wet, the texture of the puffed rice lost, but this aspect didn’t bother me. This dish was even better with our first beverage of the evening, crisp New Mexico Gruet Blanc de Noirs.



Apple cider-braised pork cheek with squash and apple slaw followed. Compared to the previous course, ithis dish was boring and one-dimensional, too sweet.



The next course was my friend's favorite: wood-grilled elk tenderloin over spelt, hedgehog mushrooms, swiss chard, sunchokes and port-rosemary syrup. The elk was cooked to a beautiful medium-rare, but I found the meat tough and the dish overall too chaotic to fully enjoy.



Braised short rib over beluga lentils were next. I liked the textural juxtaposition of the tender meat against the lentils, which was pretty similar to previous course (except for the tender part), but I thought the short rib was also too sweet.



Dessert was the Velvet Elvis: banana cake with peanut butter mousse and candied bacon ice cream. I was too full by this point and tasted only the ice cream, which had specks of candied bacon but otherwise didn't taste like anything.



Service at Hinterland was attentive without hovering. We were extremely indecisive about drinks during the course of the meal, but our server seemed understanding and brought our pairings very promptly once we made decisions. My hang-up with Hinterland as well as other places I visited in Milwaukee this weekend, namely Roots and Crazy Water, was that all of these restaurants seemed to lack focus and coherence and, as a result, much of the food seemed overdone, trying too hard. The menus all felt somewhat scattered, but maybe this is just the nature of gastropub fare? I'd return to Hinterland but for fewer courses and see if that makes a difference.

Hinterland Erie Street Gastro Pub
222 East Erie Street
Milwaukee, WI 53202
414-727-9300
http://www.hinterlandbeer.com/restaurantmilwaukee.shtml

My wife and I ate at Hinterland the other night. We really enjoyed our meal, it seems, a bit more than Happy S. We surely found none of the dishes too sweet, so I wonder if that was a house error now corrected.

We made a meal from three of the dishes listed on the starter sections and one of the mains. There is a vast price discrepancy between the two categories. The starters range from a house made hot dog for $4 to kampachi tartare for $16. The mains all tended to be over $30. Being cheap, we veered to the starter section. But also, that section tended to contain the more interesting sounding dishes. I can tell you also, after the fact, that the starter plates, except for that tartare, presented decent portions of food. I mean if you were seriously cheap, you could probably just make a meal there.

Our dishes were the tartare, a smoked turkey leg with mashed potatoes, grilled veal heart, with low temp egg, and a main of waygu skirt steak with rocket salad and fries. Although the plating is very different the food in style and execution reminded me a lot of Craftsteak. We liked it all, felt very full after those plates, a lot of aioli's and hollandaises across the plates, plus the generous portion of fries, contributed to the filling up.

For the record, the other place that Hinterland reminded me of, a lot of votive candles and smooth stone tables helped too, was the old Mado. So much so, that I'm 90% sure I saw one of Mado's surest customers, Chef Jimmy Banos, leaving Hinterland shortly before us. Banos, candles, and also veal brains, a bunch of other charcuterie, house made sauerkraut, there was a lot of Mado here in bigger setting plus cocktails and good beers.

Given a nice winning session at the poker tables, I'm anxious to return to Milwaukee.

Dined here with the in-laws over Thanksgiving weekend, and I was very pleased with my meal. This was probably our 4th or 5th visit over the last few years, and each time has been excellent.

Our party shared a number of appetizers. The foie gras mousse was excellent, rich, and creamy and served in a tiny jar, alongside a jar of jam, and we also added the pork rillettes (also served in a tiny jar). Our group polished off the jars pretty quickly, as well as the pickled vegetable salad.

I thought the duck confit was excellent. A generously large duck leg served over a cold rice noodle salad, sesame-soy vinaigrette, giving it a bit of a French-Chinese flavor. Tender dark meat, with the noodles gave it a bit of zing. I actually could have eaten this for the rest of the night.

We also enjoyed the wood-fire grilled strauss veal heart, served with fluffy buttermilk biscuits, a gooey poached egg, and lots of veal hollandaise. The veal heart was cooked to about medium, and sliced, like steak. If not one of the world's best renditions of eggs benedict, certainly one of the top five, as all the components really went together well.

For my main, I had the wood-fire grilled whole rushing waters trout served with a warm couscous salad, walnuts, golden raisins, celery root purée. The whole trout was cooked perfectly, with a nicely crispy skin, and the head was left attached so that diners could enjoy the tender cheek meat. I also really liked the couscous salad with golden raisins and walnuts. A good combination of textures and flavors -- sweet, nutty, savory. These much have been the biggest couscous grains I had ever seen. Very flavorful and with a nice texture.

I also tried my husband's wood-fire grilled new zealand elk NY strip, with brussels sprout leaves, maitake mushrooms, and herb gnocchi, which was good, and cooked perfectly to medium-rare, but definitely on the heavy side.

We finished with one order of the warm baked apple and spruce tip turnover served with crème fraîche ice cream for the table. The turnover was served more like a small pie in a ramekin, with a crust topping. Delicious and with only a hint of spruce in the finish (our server suggested that the taste was similar to rosemary and this seemed about right). Excellent, creamy creme fraiche ice cream, too.