My annual article, 52 Restaurants for your Bucket List, was originally created to provide readers with an easy way to explore the wealth of restaurants in the Milwaukee scene over the course of one year (52 weeks). Today, as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, it provides a fun and equally compelling guide for folks who’d like to bring variety to their weekly meals while providing vital support to some of our finest local restaurants.
Here's the featured restaurant of the day, plus five dishes to try!
Morel
430 S. 2nd St., (414) 897-0747
morelmke.com
How Morel manages to fly under the dining radar so adeptly has always been a mystery to me. It’s a place where you’ll find consistently well-executed dishes featuring not only local ingredients, but any number of housemade items from ricotta cheese to pasta, sausage and biscuits. Order with your cravings; I’ve yet to find dishes there that fall very far short of expectation. And that includes dessert. Reservations required. Carry-out is also available.
Five dishes to try:
- Ham biscuit: House-smoked ham, honey butter and honey on a flakey housemade biscuit ($8)
- Cauliflower soup with maitake and black trumpet mushrooms ($12)
- Herb spaetzle with hubbard squash, maitake mushrooms, egg, pea tendrils and mustard creme fraiche ($24)
- Beef short rib with bacon, celery root, carrots, radishes, turnips, horseradish and beef jus ($38)
- Seasonal cheesecake featuring pumpkin goat cheese, rosemary raspberry rose anglaise and whipped cream ($10)
As a passionate champion of the local dining scene, Lori has reimagined the restaurant critic's role into that of a trusted dining concierge, guiding food lovers to delightful culinary discoveries and memorable experiences.
Lori is an avid cook whose accrual of condiments and spices is rivaled only by her cookbook collection. Her passion for the culinary industry was birthed while balancing A&W root beer mugs as a teenage carhop, fed by insatiable curiosity and fueled by the people whose stories entwine with every dish. Lori is the author of two books: the "Wisconsin Field to Fork" cookbook and "Milwaukee Food". Her work has garnered journalism awards from entities including the Milwaukee Press Club. In 2024, Lori was honored with a "Top 20 Women in Hospitality to Watch" award by the Wisconsin Restaurant Association.
When she’s not eating, photographing food, writing or planning for TV and radio spots, you’ll find Lori seeking out adventures with her husband Paul, traveling, cooking, reading, learning, snuggling with her cats and looking for ways to make a difference.
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