Fox Point, Wisconsin

Opening new store in late April, requesting dining options(high brow/low brow). Given the proximity to Milwaukee, I do not drive.

If the new store is Fresh Market, there are a couple of choices right in that complex.
Benji's is well known as a deli, Cosi for fast food, Toppers Pizza (yuk), avoid the Calderone Club,
there is a Pho place, Maxfield's pancake house, North Shore Bistro for a more upscale dining experience. If you are opening the HH Gregs, there is El Polo Loco for some decent food, Larry's Brown Deer Market, the usual Culvers, Karl's Deli.

I would suggest asking this on the Great Lakes board on Chowhound - there is a very active Milwaukee community there.

Just saw that you were from Indy, so that means HH Gregs.
Right by the store there is a Culvers, Wendys, McDs, applebees. A little further away El Pollo Loco (owned by my former next door neighbor) who does decent food, River Lane Inn which is a decent bar/grub place, Karl's Deli, Larrys Brown Deer Market that has some great sandwiches, Habamero's (meh...). A little up Green Bay rd is Taylor & Dunns who IMHO has teh best wings in the area as well as decent food. Further up Green Bay you will find in the Piggly Wiggly complex a wrap place, a hot dog place, and a decent asian buffet that is a favorite of my son. I haven't eaten at the Sheraton in years, but it was OK at best.

If you go further into Glendale, you will find many more options at Bayshore. For Hot Dogs/great burgers, go to Dr. Dogs. There is also a new pita wrap place going into the same complex as Dr. Dawgs. The asian buffet in there is OK, Samuri has some of the better sushi for the area.

Send me a private email and I can try and be more explicit for the immediate area.

Try Pandl'sin Whitefish Bay, I really like their Friday fish fry and I think they do a good job of representing the Wisconsin supper club style of food, plus the manhattan's are pretty good. I second Dr. Dawg's as a good place for a Chicago style dog.

Pandl's Restaurant
1359 East Henry Clay Street
Whitefish Bay, WI 53217
(414) 964-3800

Dr. Dawg's
The Glendale Market
6969 N. Port Washington Rd.
Glendale, WI 53217

Thanx for the replies, again, to iterate, I do not drive. exvaxman, you guessed incorrectly! Try Door Number 1; The Fresh Market, my lucky thirteenth opening(in 3+ years) for the company. From your posts it sounds like the TFM complex offers somewhat more interesting options. Working for TFM I've now logged more time in the Northern suburbs of Chicago(and, also, soon in Milwaukee), than I did as a decade-long denizen of Wicker Park, etc....I think I went north of Evanston *maybe* four times in ten years. As always, and as a longstanding contributor nee sometime enfant terrible of LTH, I am specifically-seeking that which is unique/exemplary to the given area, haute cuisine to car hood(well, someone has to drive) canapes.

North shore bistro is the best within walking distance to your location. Downstairs from the CVS at the corner of your location.
Otherwise, the list above in my first post is pretty close to what is within walking distance. There is also a small sendiks grocery store across the street. The Speakeasy is downstairs from Los Paisa Mexican Restaurant which is across the road going to the north from your location. Just across Brown Deer rd a little to the west. The speakeasy is rather infamous for all of the pilots who got hammered there and picked up on the way to the airport. Oh - never been there, but there is a small Chinese place right by you and I don't think that I mentioned a Noodles in the same complex. Starbucks is across the street. One of my elderly neighbors swears by Benji's deli. I find them with good quality but expensive.

If you have someone willing to drive just a little ways, the Range Line inn is always good:
http://www.therangelineinn.com/Welcome.php

Also requiring driving a couple of miles or so north, the following are available:
Ferrantes http://www.ferrantes.com/, (mixed reviews, I always have had good food/service)
Leonardos Pizza (about the best for the area) , http://leonardospizzamequon.com/index.htm,
Midori in the same area has some OK sushi, but is VERY expensive for what they serve,
Highland house has some decent drinks: http://highlandhouse.ws/site/

again, driving you can hit Libby Montana's (owned by one of the actors from Animal House) for a sports bar
http://libby-montana.com/
But if you are going that way, Taylor and Dunns is my favorite. http://tayloranddunns.com/ you will find my kid and I there every tuesday for $5 wings (Panther style) playing Uno in the bar. (usually the brat winning)
If you see reviews for Remington's, it has closed.

As for the can't miss - on the low end Solly's grill has been named in several of the top 10 burger places lists in the US. South of you in Glendale. Only worth going to if you want to knock it off of your list IMHO. Kopps Custard is in Glendale as well - Kopps in another location was the basis for Happy Days. Some say Leons, but the writers who did the pilot grew up in Shorewood and said that it was the Kopps by them that was the inspiration. Those are the landmarks For reference, the writers of Airplane!, Top Secret, etc are from Shorewood. The 'Nazi March' from Top Secret is in the credits as the 'Shorewood High School Theme Song'.
Whitefish Bay is also nearby - check out this clip for a laugh:
http://onmilwaukee.com/myOMC/authors/je ... oring.html

I think that I have covered everything walking - where are you going to be staying? I can probably do a better job if you can tell me what hotel or address.

So what caused the delay in the opening? The press release I read ages ago when Borders closed (the space you are taking over) said that you would be opening in march (Ok, Ok, just a slight delay).

And - MOST IMPORTANT! Are you going to be stocking Moxie like the Brookfield store?

Send me an email if you need a ride somewhere for a dinner - I can fit 3 in the car. having lived on the road for a while, I know what it is like being stuck in a hotel.

exvaxman, thank you for the considered reply

lots of info to assimilate

Four Points(?) is a possible hotel.

I will train the deli there for a week(unless circumstances prove otherwise); I'm not specifically opening the store this time, but training what's referred to as phase 2(the Saturday following the Grand Opening).

This could be a strong opening as there doesn't, in my tacit research, appear to be all that much(grocery) competition around...there seems to be a plethora of deli-esque lunch options, however.

thank you for the offer of hospitality, and again for the intel

At store openings I work a (personal) base 12 hours to(once, in Latham, NY) 36 hours straight(that was insane)...so my availability is always/already circumstantial

prost,

This could be a strong opening as there doesn't, in my tacit research, appear to be all that much(grocery) competition around

Um, this I disagree with for several levels but agree with for a couple. I base this on your Brookfield store.
I would prefer not to discuss in public - please email to exvaxman@yahoo.com. The main reason I am looking forward to your place is Moxie being available. If you come up early I will make arrangements to show you what I mean in the immediate area.

Four Points is in the same complex as my second post where I thought your Indy location meant HH Greg as the store opening.
Don't eat at the hotel. El Pollo Loco is within walking distance from there. Larry's Brown Deer Market is within walking distance from there and is rather famous. Primetime is a decent old style bar/food place. I often meet with local Farkers (www.fark.com) there. Kurt Schultz is across from there, but sandwiches from Larry are better IMHO. See my second post for the chain crap in the immediate area from there. Taylor & Dunns is just up the road on Green Bay from there if some one has a car.

Oh - Brew City BBQ is just up the road from the hotel. AVOID.

Oh - if you are coming up with a partner, Sybaris is just a couple of blocks from four points
http://www.sybaris.com/loc_mq.php

And , send an email so you can call when taking a break and need food. Not an issue. I automated factories for the corps and slept next to my machines during the first gulf war knowing that if they went down, lives might have been lost. Currently doing software consulting that is on my own schedule. Who knows? we might close Wolski's http://www.wolskis.com/

If nothing else, I can drop off local food to keep your group going (Heck - I will support anyone who stocks Moxie!)

Now if your bread suppliers carried New England (Lobster) Rolls, rather than me baking my own, I would gladly pay the extra for your food. That and my wife found out that Brookfield was the only local outlet for honeybell oranges in the area when she missed the mail order date.

It just hit me -
if you are worried about costs for hotels, further up Port Washington road there are a couple of places that are cheaper than the Sheraton and closer to decent eating places. Use google maps to check out county line road and port washington rd.

Oh - there was very good chinese place that of you do a google search on places to eat - Port China - it is no longer.

Hearts Benji's Deli; Benji's Restaurant & Deli • 8683 N Port Washington Rd • Fox Point, Wisconsin 53217. Best food I had on this trip, a trip that otherwise included the world's slowest McDonald's(which we visited on, apparently, the weekly visit of a local challenged-people facility), Applebee's(nuff said), my first taste of Qdoba(where the waitstaff were a tad exasperated with me when I wasn't familiar with the ordering procedures or the condiments...no, I don't know which salsas are which in those tubs behind the assembly route, sorry), and Taco Bell almost every night after shift 'cuz it was the only thing open except for a mediocre pizza delivery place, Toppers(full disclosure: I like Taco Bell, and rarely get to eat it, just not every night). There was also a Chinese-American, King's Wok, across from the Radisson, doing brisk business, I skipped the free breakfast paid for by the company at Zambonie's(if one ordered off the menu and avoided the steamtable buffet, the food was good, obviously-fresh-made breakfast fare with a modicum of attention to detail)...I skipped the breakfast and traipsed over to King's Wok a couple mornings just as they opened at 11 for their lunch specials(I don't do Chinese buffets). Friendly waitstaff, on point renditions of classic Kung Pao, Hot and Sour Soup, pork fried rice, wonton soup(everything seemingly housemade from the wontons, to the pork, to the sauces...a heady wok hai...good stuff).

But, it's Benji's I fell in love with. This, the second location lodged in the armpit of the stripmall where whirlwinds gathered debris on the mostly stormy days. Not much to say about the interior except it seemed stuck in a timewarp ca. 1983. The four times I ate there(always at the counter) I became more addicted with each bite. Always in the evening, about an hour before they closed, after all my people had gotten their lunches taken care of, that's when I'd clock out, have a smoke, and walk the few yards down to Benji's.

Lunch 1:

mushroom barley soup

1/2 sandwich of cold roast beef on white with swiss and brown mustard

how many times do I have to tell myself, "don't order a roast beef sandwich in a Jewish deli? Don't, Don't, Don't, do not do it, Chris", and I always find myself doing it and thinking, "well, this is the height of mediocrity." Inevitably it's on the Well side of Rare and cut thick and I suck it up and receive a lesson un-learned. It's not that it's ever bad no matter what Jewish delicatessen in whatever city it's just it's not the bleedingly-fine, razorthin, muscle tissue reddening white bread like a bandage that I'm after...like my Opa used to say, "walk it past the stove, give it a good look, I want it while it moos."

Dr. Brown's Black Cherry

Lunch 2:

chicken soup with noodles

1/2 sandwich of pastrami on toasted rye with swiss and brown mustard

Sprecher's rootbeer in the bottle

Lunch 3:

chicken soup with kreplach

1/2 sandwich of corned beef on rye with swiss and brown mustard plus horseradish

(different waitress gave me additional marble rye and butter to nosh on and make mini-sandwiches when my bread ran out before my corned beef did)

Sprecher's rootbeer in the bottle

Lunch 4:

chili

1/2 sandwich of corned beef on rye with swiss and brown mustard plus horseradish

Sprecher's rootbeer in the bottle

each plate came with a decent pickle and a shitload of potato chips

soups were excellent: mushroom barley heaped with toothsome barley, sine qua non chicken soup and a great Jewish wonton, surprisingly, the chili(tho' tomato-based and mild as fuck) hit the right flavor notes of a traditional bowl of red...kudos to Benji's for doing it right and not kowtowing to the Midwestern penchant for "chili soup" or Greek-diner affectations.

Thing is without the opportunity or access to what I'm sure are some great little spots in Fox Point, etc, I was relegated to mainly fast food and finding Benji's was a godsend, after long hours all I wanted was something someone had their hands on, like Benji's succulent, meltingly-tender, corned beef. My body starved for real food. Soulfood. And Benji's hit the spot. They make the corned beef in-house the rest is sourced elsewhere.

It might not be quite in the league of Indianapolis's Shapiro's, but Benji's of Fox Point soothed what ailed me, sent me back to work renewed to close the department night upon night.

You should have mentioned you were at the Radison - I would have walked over and bought you a couple.....

You missed Dr. Dr Dawgs across from the Radisson - great place. Benji's is expensive, but I agree with you.
Toppers is below dominoe's IMHO. But for a laugh, when getting my wife a meal at the McD's in question one time, I called Toppers to deliver a pizza to me in line. The pizza arrived before the McD's line cleared enough for me to order. The manager on duty WAS NOT PLEASED, King's Wok does a great Orange Chicken - I get a take out from there every other week. When I am not feeling well my wife knows to get their Hot & Sour soup for me.

Oh - if you liked the Sprechers, you could have visited the brewery which is just down the road.