Linda Falkenstein
Chicago dog: overstuffed.
Sweet Home Wisconsin took over the former O.S.S. space on Regent Street in March. For those of you who usually just speed down Regent, it’s near the corner of Park Street, next door to the venerable Italian Workmen’s Club. It’s a pleasant, mildly steampunk-looking bar space with a nice patio out back. The bar staff and servers have been very welcoming and helpful on all of my visits. But in an area where even “drinks and snacks before the game” seems to function pretty well as a business plan, Sweet Home Wisconsin isn’t quite hitting the mark.
The concept of Sweet Home Wisconsin is to marry the best of Chicago pub grub and Wisconsin’s. So you’ll find Italian beef, Polish sausage and a Chicago dog, as well as bratwurst and battered and fried cheese curds. A raft of burgers with specialty toppings and a handful of other sandwiches and salads round out the menu.
These mainstays are usually hard to wreck. That’s why they are tavern standards. Although some folks are purists when it comes to their Chicago dogs, I am more forgiving if, for instance, there’s no celery salt or the pickle relish is natural, rather than Day-Glo green. The bun was the familiar puffy white poppy seed version that seems to fall within the accepted genre description for a Chicago dog. The all-beef frank was supersized, and yes, the bun was so overstuffed with the tomatoes and the pickle spear and sport peppers that it all fell apart. That’s fine with me.
But it’s pricey at $9 — even though it comes with pub chips, which are just french fries and need a crispier exterior. I need something more from a $9 Chicago dog and fries. We Cheeseheads tend to be penny-pinchers.
The Fancy Francheesie dog is a deep-fried Knoche’s beef frank augmented with bacon and cheese, but as to what justifies the $11 price tag on this one, I am perplexed.
The Italian beef sandwich, however, is simply not an Italian beef. The bun is all wrong, too much like ciabatta. Worse, the beef is shredded, not thin-sliced, and there’s no “gravy” — that is, the seasoned juice that the beef should be simmered in, as integral to an Italian beef as jelly is to a PB & J. Fail. And, at $12, double fail. If you want Italian beef, check out the FIBs cart on the first block of Martin Luther King weekdays at noon.
On the Wisconsin side, the bratwurst is okay. While it comes with whiskey-braised onions, the more familiar kraut is absent. The main problem: Trying to wrap my head around what makes this a $9 bratwurst.
Linda Falkenstein
Fish sandwich: overbreaded.
Also from the Wisconsin side of the menu: the fish sandwich. It’s not quite a fish fry, but it is the Friday special ($7, otherwise $9 the rest of the week). The cod filet suffers from too much breading, yet the fish itself has no taste without it. More thought needs to be given to the overall balance of the sandwich — it’s all bread, breading and salt. Lettuce would help, but it won’t save anything until the fish itself improves. The small container of slaw is pretty good; it’s of the large-chop, very sweet, mayo variety.
Any spot with an upper Midwest menu like this one will find itself being compared to The Old Fashioned. There, a far superior fish sandwich is well worth the extra dollar — for the actually tasty fish, balanced flavors and textures, crispy fries and the option of subbing at no extra cost a huge side of fresh greens. Here, a side salad instead of fries is a $5 upcharge and it’s a pallid saucerful of shredded romaine and cheese sprinkles with tomato — barely college-cafeteria-level acceptable.
Cheese curds are good — puffy batter outside, melty inside. The tap beer list covers the bases, with a few picks for the adventurous enthusiast, a judicious middle ground, and Spotted Cow and Miller Lite as security blankets. A wider range of beer is available in bottles, and there’s a long list of cocktails, too.
It’s a cute concept to plunk two Midwestern cuisines under one roof. But that, and the friendly space, isn’t going to save Sweet Home Wisconsin from its big city prices and lackluster versions of simple fare.
Sweet Home Wisconsin
910 Regent St., 608-819-6622
11 am-10 pm Mon.-Thurs., 11 am-1 am Fri.-Sat.; $5-$13