Downtown Dining Week for 2011 is over, but the Capital Grille has its own luncheon deal that is focused on the value conscious.
The Summer Lunch Plates promotion allows a diner to choose a sandwich, a soup or salad and a side for $15. Customers in a time bind are guaranteed they will be in and out of the restaurant in 45 minutes, and the Capital Grille will even provide free valet parking, according to managing partner Paul Hawkins.
Sandwich choices are a traditional lobster roll on a brioche bun, two 2-ounce seared tenderloin filets with mushrooms and herbed cream cheese on toasted brioche buns, and annatto spiced mahi-mahi on corn tortillas. Roasted corn bisque with bacon, white clam chowder and a field green salad lightly dressed with champagne vinaigrette comprise the soup/salad offerings.
Creamed corn with bacon, fries drizzled with black truffle oil and grated Grana Padano cheese, and watermelon and tomato with feta cheese are the sides.
The Milwaukee Capital Grille was among the first in the country to offer the Lunch Plates program. Its menu choices change four times a year.
Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.
During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.
Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.
