The Mango Lassie

Milwaukee is a city imbued with German and Eastern European immigrant history. These cultures are so central to its past that they color the city’s present to a degree that’s especially obvious to an outsider like myself. Both times Empanada Boy and I have visited the spectacular Calatrava-designed Milwaukee Art Museum, we’ve seen shows dedicated to German and Eastern European art and design. German food and beer is so prevalent that it seems to appear on most bar menus alongside burgers and fries. To me, this gives Milwaukee an added dimension and makes it a fascinating place to visit. German culture is certainly the most obvious influence, but when Corn-y Uncle invited Empanada Boy and me to come up and meet him for dinner at Three Brothers, a Schlitz-brewery-turned-Serbian restaurant (pictured here), I was excited to delve into another of the city’s longstanding ethnic traditions. Before heading over to the restaurant, we drove together to Von Trier, an old-fashioned German bar.

Von Trier is so heavily decorated with murals, vintage steins and last year’s (or five years ago’s) Christmas decorations that I can think of no better descriptor than the one Corn-y Uncle used when proposing we go there: Rococo. They literally still have the Christmas village figurines on the ledge above the bar, and we spotted wreaths with red bows still clinging to the facade. We sidled up to the long wooden bar and selected from the many beers— local, German, Belgian and more— on tap. The darkness and the ornate walls prompted imagined scenes of manly gatherings of years gone by.

We soon bid goodbye to the Von Trier and headed to Three Brothers. This is a sparsely-decorated, house-like dining room with linoleum floors and a bar that looks like no one has tried its offerings for the last decade or two. After a few samples, we settled on a Montenegrin red wine made with the Vranac grape. It had the smooth tannins of Merlot, although some think it’s related to Primitivo, the Italian relative of Zinfandel. Characteristically, Corn-y Uncle planned ahead by pre-ordering one of the restaurant’s famous bureks. These flaky phyllo dough pies are filled with spinach, cheese (meat if desired) and a lot of other delicious things that aren’t too good for you. They take 45 minutes to prepare, but ours was ready to go about ten minutes after we arrived. It was flavorful with an excellent crispy skin and just the right amount of tangy cheese to balance out the richness. EB and I both remarked on how un-greasy it seemed, especially compared to the spanikotpitas of Chicago’s Greektown. We could have finished the whole thing, but we had another course coming. Corn-y Uncle got a couple pieces to take back to his hotel for breakfast.

Conscious of the fact that Eastern European food and diets don’t really go hand-in-hand, Empanada Boy and I decided to share the moussaka. The large brick of deliciously layered eggplant and beef had a silky, eggy filling and a crackly top. It too, was remarkably free of excess grease. Corn-y Uncle tried the less-attractive, but equally delicious goulash, a chunky beef stew that came with dense little dumplings. The dumplings were a little heavy for me, but the dish itself exuded old-world charm.

For dessert, we shared a slice of walnut cake that was light and fluffy, probably thanks to egg whites. Everything we tried was simple, flavorful food that had obviously been prepared by hand. This combination of positive factors is altogether too rare in the culinary world these days. I so often visit restaurants where chefs try to glamorize “homestyle” food by making it ridiculously complex. Corn-y Uncle and I are not alone in thinking Three Brothers is unique; I did some research and found that Three Brothers’s owner Branko Radicevic received a James Beard Foundation Award in 2002 for small, regional, classic American restaurants. The fact that a restaurant serving fare from Serbia can still feel so comfortable and so definitively American is one of the great things about our country’s culinary tradition. I may never get to Serbia, but I certainly know where I’ll be dining the next time I’m in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Three Brothers Serbian Restaurant
2414 S. Saint Clair St.
Milwaukee, WI 53207
414.481.7530

Von Trier
2235 N. Farwell Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53202
414.272.1775