Crazy Water Shines

By Catherine McGarry Miller

Crazy Water
839 S. 2nd St. 414-645-2606
Dinner 7 days a week, 5-9 p.m.; Fri. and Sat. until ten

Culinary performance artist Peggy Magister plays nightly in the window of her popular Walker’s Point restaurant, Crazy Water. She’s on stage more and closer to her audience than most Broadway stars.

If I were in her clogs, I’m sure some choice expletives would escape now and then. “I do swear,” she admits. “You just can’t hear it over the fan!” Besides, she continues, “there’s really no one to swear at – the people I work with are too good. I like working in the open – I get to see what’s happening out front and get immediate feed back because I’m not removed from what’s happening.”

The Milwaukee native was inspired by her mother’s home cooking, and as a girl started baking cinnamon and sugar pastry cookies from her mother’s pie dough scraps. She enjoyed duplicating fancy desserts from magazine covers, like caramelized walnut tortes and pastry shell jewel baskets bursting with fruit. By high school, Magister was hosting elaborate dinner parties for family and friends. “I subscribed to Bon Appetit. I have all of them and pull them out all the time. That’s how I learned to cook – mostly  from magazines.”

Magister studied business at Boston University and then completed a degree in nursing at Marquette. After working for five years as a nurse in Seattle, her mother died and she moved back to Milwaukee to be near her father. It was then that the would-be chef began administering to customers through their taste buds instead of I.V.s. A job at La Boulangerie was a vocational turning point.

“I had no cooking skills whatsoever,” Magister says. “(Owners) Lynn and Dale Rhyan gave me my palate. Lynn, a classically trained chef, took me under her wing and taught me everything. She taught me how to taste something – that’s what I think is so important. There are tons of restaurants that are busy, but there not tons that have great food. Many chefs can do basics, but if you don’t have a palate, it’s like painting with technique but no sense of color.”

The experience whetted Magister’s appetite for culinary education. She got her degree from the California Culinary Academy in San Franciso and on-the-job experience at Wolfgang Puck’s Postrio. Though the famed gastronome was rarely in attendance, she got valuable training in all aspects of cookery from butchery to bakery.

Both homesick and wanting to make a mark in her field, Magister again returned to Milwaukee. Chip ‘N Py’s offered her the perfect opportunity. “I wanted a job with more responsibilities and didn’t want to start at the bottom. Chip ‘N Py’s was looking for a lead lunch cook to plan a menu, cost it out and implement it.”

There she met Tony Betzhold, who became her business partner. Together, they launched a catering business and, later, The Fork restaurant in Cedarburg. Since then, the couple has married and divorced, but Magister has nothing but praise for her ex. “Tony brings [to the business] everything I didn’t have. He can do everything anyone else can do in this restaurant from cooking to front of house better than anyone else.”

The Cedarburg location was not the success they had hoped for, so in 2002, when Zur Kroner, a long established beer hall on Milwaukee’s South Side, moved to Grafton, they jumped into the space.

“The Social broke the ice for people to come to this area,” Magister remembers. “Barossa and Don Quixote were coming in, so we were in good company; not to mention all the Mexican restaurants down here.”

Though Crazy Water is open for dinner only, Magister’s day starts early in the morning. “It takes time to prepare things from scratch. We do everything on a daily basis, so you’ve got be on your toes. The competition is so tough, you can’t put out anything mediocre – people can go other places.”

What’s her gastronomic spin? In a word, flavor. “I want to taste what I’m supposed to taste – I don’t want to guess what something is. I’m not afraid to use salt, butter, cream – sorry health conscious people! However, everything in moderation as in Europe, where people embrace their food.”

Among my personal favorites are Emeril’s BBQ Shrimp, the cold Country Platter with cheese fruit, savory spreads and pate, the Cumin Crusted Arctic Char (think lighter, flakier, milder salmon) and the Flat Iron Steak barely seared with crawfish hollandaise and green beans. Haven’t hit a dud yet. I don’t think she’s got one.  VS