Photo by Marty Peters
The Ev-olution of Milwaukee’s EsterEv
Finally out on its own, the newly reimagined EsterEv from a ‘Top Chef’ star and his longtime restaurant partner is brimming with potential.
Last spring, Wisconsin became famous for a reason that should bring us all pride – our foodways. A fan favorite on “Top Chef: Wisconsin,” Milwaukee’s own Dan Jacobs became a cheerleader for our state and, as a man living with a debilitating neurological disease, a role model for people with physically disabling illnesses.
The reimagining of Jacobs’ EsterEv restaurant was perfectly timed with the airing of “Top Chef.” Jacobs and partner Dan Van Rite moved EsterEv out of the shadows of the Third Ward’s DanDan, inside of which it had served a high-end, fixed-price tasting menu on weekends since 2016. It’s now located in a highly desirable part of Bay View, near several other buzzy new restaurants, and is what everybody’s talking about.
Get tickets now for the 2024 Home + Design Awards Event!
The space (the former C-viche) has a quirky elegance, laid-back in a way that’s quintessentially the Dans, who say they serious about food but goofballs at heart. The chefs’ cookbooks line shelves in the wallpapered dining room.
Van Rite’s love of greenery is reflected in the potted plants. Jacobs’ fascination with fantasy and sci-fi shows up in the restrooms – with Lord of the Rings and Star Wars motifs. Like at their other restaurants (DanDan and the short-lived Fool’s Errand and Fauntleroy), Jacobs’ wife, artist Kate Riley, made the ceramic dinnerware.
The new EsterEv hasn’t changed from its tasting menu format – four courses ($80), with three to four choices within each course – but now, that same menu has an a la carte option. In my experience, most of the courses were good, but not great. The tasting menu lacks a cohesive theme – those necessary connections from one dish to the next – and, with a few exceptions, takes few risks.
The pre-menu amuse bouche – a slice of sourdough bread, pat of soft butter and a bowl of a deep, full-bodied and exceptionally delicious meat broth – suggests the primordial comfort of home. That leads to a first course of, for me, grilled hamachi and, for my friend, asparagus with wild ramps – the spring season in both vessels.
A sushi-grade fish normally served raw in Japanese restaurants, hamachi is firm and fatty, and cooks up dense but juicy. The salsa macha (an oily, chile-based sauce) served on it brings out more of its unctuousness, while also adding a bite. The delicate asparagus – tender shoots, along with bud-like ramps – just gets lost in its ricotta-brown butter sauce.
Pastas follow the second course – black cappelletti stuffed with ricotta, dressed with an herbed oil and brought spring-ward by charred green peas. The other, sorpresine (here, a kind of free-form noodle), comes with morels, ramps and soft, sweet apple. Both are delicious, but the cappelletti is the rich starch I crave after the fish.
Next comes a Wagyu bavette steak, medium-rare with a caramelized crust and a submissive marbling throughout the bias-cut slices, and a mild halibut filet with white asparagus. A study in contrasts, the steak is bold, assertive action (I love the tomato purée, crisp mustard greens and potato gnocchi) while the fish sleeps under a mound of foam. Like “Top Chef” host Kristen Kish who questions the purpose of foam (made from an aerated gelling agent and fat), it’s puzzling here.
The meal’s conclusion – a chocolate parfait with olive oil ice cream encased in the center, and a sunchoke pastry shell filled with a cream made of dulcey (caramelized white chocolate) – is the answer to the question I’ve had through this whole meal: When is this menu going to stop being so safe? The sour, bitter kalamata olives minced and sprinkled on the chocolate are the answer. The second dessert borders on savory and redefines what dessert can be.
In becoming a full-fledged restaurant with its own home, EsterEv signaled that it’s ready to spread its culinary wings, too. With its eight-year history of knocking it out of the park, it’s not unrealistic to expect to be blown away. Hopefully the next time I will be.
EsterEv
2165 S. KINNICKINNIC AVE. | 414-312-8606
Hours: Wed-Sat from 5-9 p.m.
Prices: Four-course tasting menu $80 (optional beverage
pairings $50).
Reservations: Recommended; bar seating available for walk-ins
Service: Friendly, accommodating, attentive