The story is not new.
An ambitious fellow leaves home, moves to a different land, marries a local girl and settles down. He likes his adopted country but his taste buds crave the culinary delicacies of his youth.
He complains to his wife that he can't find – fill in the blank – and decides to take matters into his own hands. He goes into business selling his favorite food with ingredients imported from the fatherland.
That's Matt Skalnik's story. His hunger was for Italian beef sandwiches. His native land was the south side of Chicago. His solution was to found Frankie's Sammiches a year ago.
Frankie's began last spring as a food cart. Skalnik worked Downtown locations and the Milwaukee County Research Park at lunchtime, moving the cart to the Marquette campus after dark for the late night bar trade.
By the middle of June, Skalnik had opened a bricks and mortar operation in a storefront on the corner of 53rd and Bluemound. Chicago dogs were added to the menu. Not far from Miller Park, he watched his business grow as the Brewers marched toward a Central Division championship.
"We had people lined up out the door on playoff game days," the affable owner said during a recent chat. "We were getting rocked every game."
You can imagine he is eager for the new baseball season to begin, but Skalnik reports that his winter business exceeded expectations. "Our neighborhood is very supportive," he said.
Frankie's menu is purposely simple. The classic Italian beef sandwich, served on a French roll, is $5.99, and it includes a choice of mozzarella, sweet peppers or hot giardiniera over the meat. Customers can order their sammy "dry" (meat is removed from its simmering juice and placed on the bun), "wet" (juice is ladled over the top of the beef) or "dipped" (the entire sandwich is dunked in the juice).
Despite its name, the Italian beef sandwich does not come from Italy. Its roots are in Chicago, where many of its fans are purists.
Milwaukeeans aren't as familiar with the specialty, and Skalnik has seen diners add mustard or mayo to their Italian beef. "At first, I got the chills," he said. But whatever makes the customer happy makes him happy.
In addition to Chicago dogs ($2.99), Frankie's sells brats ($3.99), Italian sausage sandwiches, ($3.99), a third-pound cheeseburger ($4.99) and a 6-ounce steak sandwich for $8.99. A portabella sandwich ($4.99) is a vegetarian option.
Several other Chicago-centric items are offered. A pepper and egg sandwich, consisting of scrambled eggs and grilled sweet peppers on French bread, is $3.99. "It's big on Chicago's south side," Skalnik said.
The Maxwell Polish ($3.99) is a sandwich that originated in the Windy City's Maxwell Street area. A polish sausage is deep fried and stuffed into a steamed poppy seed bun with mustard, grilled onions and sport peppers.
Then there is the Godfather. For $16.99 a customer gets 18 inches of French bread filled with brats, Italian sausages, Polish sausages and Italian beef.
Skalnik put the Godfather on his menu as more of a gimmick, but he said he is selling five to 10 a week. "People are buying it as a family meal. It can easily be shared among four," he added.
Frankie's gets its Italian beef from a Chicago purveyor, and the French bread is from the Turano Baking Co. in the Windy City, but it also serves local Klement's sausages and Breadsmith products. Good Humor ice cream novelties are available. Bottled craft beers are coming soon.
The majority of orders are for carry out. The restaurant seats 12 and also has three stand-up tables.
Skalnik learned the Italian beef business as a teenager living on Chicago's south side. "I started in a joint similar to this when I was 14, and I worked there for six years," he said.
His restaurant career was on hold while he was a manager at Target stores in Chicago and Milwaukee. He also held management positions, including supervising food and beverage, for the Lake Express ferry on Lake Michigan. But Italian beef was in his blood.
A final question begs to be asked. Who is Frankie?
"That was my nickname when I was a kid," Skalnik explained. "It sounds a lot better than Matt's Sammiches."
Frankie's is open from 11 to 9 Monday through Saturday. Weekend hours will be extended to 3 a.m. in April.
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.
