The Hideway Franklin, WI

The Hideaway is located west of I94 off HWY 100 (Ryan Road) on 76th Street. I've passed it many times on the way to Wegner's St. Martin's Inn in Franklin. Hideway's fried chicken and specialty pizza are king. For $8.95 one can feast on a four piece, country fried chicken dinner with a side of cole slaw and mashed potatoes. The chicken was the best I've had north of the Mason-Dixon line. The potatoes were mediocre, covered with a large helping of canned gravy. Request butter instead. The onion rings were huge and tasty, served with a side of ranch dressing. The steak-alfredo pizza was absolutely outstanding. Large chunks of grllled tenderloin and mushrooms compliment the delicious alfredo sauce. Two of my favorite drinks were available on tap: Blue Moon and Sprecher's root beer. For dessert, a short trip north on 76th led directly to Kopp's for their Saturday specials: spumoni and macadamia nut.




Pictures courtesy of Amy.

The Hideway
9643 S. 76th Street
Franklin, WI
414-525-1950
http://www.foodspot.com/thehideaway/

CSD and I were part of a larger group of Flatlanders and Cheeseheads from Roadfood.com who got together Saturday night after I finished doing a demo at a Sentry gorcery store in Delafield, Wisconsin. We met at The Hideaway at the urging of MilwFoodlovers, one of RF's most knowledgeable posters when it comes to Dairyland cuisine.

I will agree with almost everything CSD has said here except for the potatoes. They were made mediocre only because of the canned gravy. Had the kitchen deleted the gravy or substituted it with a simple dollop of butter they would have been brilliant! Dense and garlicky with plenty of texture from lumps and skin, these were clearly mashed potatoes that someone cared deeply about in their preparation.

The Cole slaw was also fresh made with a very tangy cream based dressing and good crisp cabbage.

The chicken was quite good; not quite in the same league as Stroud's in Kansas City, but about 500 miles closer. Served piping hot with a good crispy skin, this was a flavorful half a bird served up for about $7.95.

We started the meal with a couple of crisp thin crust specialty pizzas. The steak Alfredo version was made up of surprisingly tender steak (who would expect to find steak that good as a pizza topping?), sliced red onion and fresh mushrooms all on top of a layer of real Wisconsin cheese and a creamy, garlicky Alfredo sauce. Oh, if only Burt would make something like this my life would be complete, although I would probably be about 40 lbs. heavier.

As a companion to the steak pizza we tried a chicken pesto pizza that was almost as good. It would have been more praise worthy except that it was overshadowed by the steak pizza. Yeah, it was that good.

We finished the evening with a convoy up to the Kopp's on 76th. Mrs. Roadhouse had one of the flavors of the day, spumoni. I went with a s'mores sundae; vanilla custard topped with marshmallow cream, marshmallows, chocolate bits, graham cracker bits and a hard chocolate shell over the whole thing! Dang that was good.

One final comment on The Hideaway: it seems like they don't realize how good the food really is. They emphasize their standing as a hard to find (not really) bar down in the farmlands of south Milwaukee metro. Someone in the kitchen knows what they're doing though, and should be celebrated.

Buddy