Quick, downtown, grab-and-go dining has taken on a facelift with the addition of Laissez Faire, 724 N. Old World 3rd St.
The bistro-meets-deli offers what chef owners Tom Schultz and Adam Majewski call classic and contemporary sandwiches, fresh salads, pastas and soups.
Décor here is sparse and meant to mimic New York-style deli dining. Orders are placed at the counter and they offer a cooler of non-alcoholic beverages complemented by simple red and white wines available by the glass ($5-$6) or the bottle ($18-$22). Laissez Faire, too, reminds me of many of the deli-style restaurants adjacent to Sonoma and Napa Valley wineries and groceries in California.
Laissez Faire, by definition, allows for diners to do whatever they want. All items are available to go, to eat in, to carry out or in boxed lunch format available for delivery.
Two visits to Laissez Faire, one to dine in, and one for carry out, offered a good alternative to fast food options or a quick burger over lunch, but the real find here is in late-lunch specials (offered until 9 p.m.), which we found offered on a Wednesday evening. For $15, a classic cassoulet with duck leg was excellent, with a rich Tuscan-style white bean underlay and the duck fork tender and perfectly cooked.
Laissez Faire's house salad ($6.75) offered mixed spring greens interspersed with toasted pecans. The tender crisp greens were topped with grated parmesan cheese and layered lightly with a truffle vinaigrette.
For a house salad, this was very good, and their lunch salads offer greater variation with options including a cobb-style lunch salad with blue cheese and hard-boiled eggs ($6.75), and duck confit ($10) which mimics the house salad with the addition of apricots and a balsamic reduction.
Duck is obviously close to Schultz's and Majewski's hearts, because it also appeared in two other Wednesday night specials and in the daily-offered DLT, coupling duck with lettuce, tomato and bacon for a step up from the standard BLT. The Irishman and the Reuben sandwiches ($6.50) emphasize a corned beef which was slightly too salty for my personal taste.
But, both sandwiches were piled high with meat and come with a pickle and a side of bistro frites with Belgian mayonnaise ($1.25) or chips ($.95).
A special of squash tortellini ($8) didn't fare as well as the other dishes we sampled; the pasta was slightly tough in some places and the filling just simply wasn't very good, even with the accompaniment of toasted pecans and goat cheese.
Service at Laissez Faire is friendly and prompt, with informal table service for dining in, and to-go selections ready in 10 minutes or less. A rotating selection of good, homemade soups and chili make this a great stop during the winter months. Saturdays, Laissez Faire opens at 9 a.m. offering breakfast fare for the Downtown crowd.
Amy L. Schubert is a 15-year veteran of the hospitality industry and has worked in every aspect of bar and restaurant operations. A graduate of Marquette University (B.A.-Writing Intensive English, 1997) and UW-Milwaukee (M.A.-Rhetoric, Composition, and Professional Writing, 2001), Amy still occasionally moonlights as a guest bartender and she mixes a mean martini.
The restaurant business seems to be in Amy’s blood, and she prides herself in researching and experimenting with culinary combinations and cooking techniques in her own kitchen as well as in friends’ restaurants. Both she and her husband, Scott, are avid cooks and “wine heads,” and love to entertain friends, family and neighbors as frequently as possible.
Amy and Scott live with their boys, Alex and Nick, in Bay View, where they are all very active in the community. Amy finds great pleasure in sharing her knowledge and passions for food and writing in her contributions to OnMilwaukee.com.
