2006-01 Vital Source Mag – January 2006
Is this a dream?
By Nathan Norfolk Restaurateurs know there is money to be made at the bar, especially when it comes to wine. If you�ve ever noticed that the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon you buy for fifteen dollars at the store goes for forty five dollars on a restaurant�s wine list, this is already clear to you. Do you get angry and storm off, left to curb your hunger by your own devices? No, you just don�t buy wine there. Maybe you think to yourself that everything about this dining experience is an elaborately designed scam. In truth, the majority of restaurants mark up wine about three times cost. But there is hope for wine lovers who want to imbibe while dining out. For the last few years, a trend has been growing on the coasts for restaurants to restructure their wine programs towards retail pricing, meaning that a bottle of wine in a restaurant costs roughly what you would pay for it in the store. But you don�t have to fly to L.A. to catch this wave. Dream Dance restaurant at Potawatomi Bingo Casino quietly began employing this retail pricing method to their wine list of over 300 selections more than a year ago. From the modest Joel Gott Sauvignon Blanc at $12 to the hedonistic 1999 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon for $115, the wine list is filled with great buys. General Manager Christian Damiano notes their pricing policy has been �highly successful.� He was also happy to say that even bottles in the $1,000 range are subject to the same markup. At Dream Dance, Krug Grand Cuvee non-vintage Champagne costs $125 a bottle. That doesn�t sound like much of a deal, but the same champagne costs $220 at another restaurant in the city. What inspired the change? Damiano says, �People are just so much more wine savvy than they ever have been. Guests are going out to California, they�re visiting vineyards. They know what they are paying for when they buy directly from the vineyard. They know what they are paying when they buy from retailers.� He also points out that restaurants in Manhattan have been doing this for years with notable success. If it works in New York, shouldn�t it work in Milwaukee? Incrementally, the best savings come from some of the lower and mid-priced wines. Keegan Russian River Valley Pinot Noir sells for $30 at Dream Dance, which is slightly above the retail price of $25 but nowhere near the $54 which another restaurant was charging. Bartender Seth Bauer says guests of the restaurant �are excited before they even order a bottle, as opposed to just settling for something because the price in restaurants is normally too high. Now they can get into a bottle that they have always wanted to try and it�s at a price that they are more than happy paying.� Dream Dance delivers when it comes to unique wine. This is where they really deserve credit. Of course they have the Californian staples and some […]
Jan 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
The Letting Go lesson
Dear Readers, I’ve been living on my own for more than two decades now, and over time I’ve moved slowly, inevitably, towards a more structured existence. Sometimes I get a little misty thinking about the good old days of scoring sofas from the curbs of better neighborhoods and organizing my social life around whose car had gas or what clubs were on the bus line. Other days, I revel in my ability to make a cake without running to the store for eggs and usually having a pen and paper handy when I need to make a list. But one thing about my life has never changed. I don’t send holiday cards or annual family letters. I just don’t like the idea of buying boxes of someone else’s pictures and words, agonizing over personal notes to all the people to whom I wish I’d been a better friend or relative over the past year and clogging the U.S. mail and landfills around the country with another five pounds of paper waste. And family letters are a trap. Too optimistic comes off as false; too pessimistic is a real downer. Needless to say, I no longer receive many holiday missives, and the stack gets shorter every year. At this rate, I estimate I’ll be completely free from them by 2008, except for a few holdouts who never trim their list to exclude non-participants. Wish me luck. That having been said, and never having been one to deny my own hypocrisy, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the past year at Vital. One year ago, things were looking pretty bleak. Within two weeks, I lost my managing editor and ended an often-rocky relationship with my art director. The same month, my much-loved administrator/sales assistant/ad designer decided she needed to leave to focus on her last year of grad school. Already stretched paper-thin, I picked up the slack as best I could, which wasn’t very well. Subsequently, ad revenues fell off as I spent more time doing other things (I also used to be the sales staff) and we fell behind with some bills. By February, the wolves were at the door. At our birthday party that month, I wandered around in a state of self-indulgent melancholy, drinking a little too much and silently thinking “goodbye” to everyone who came out to celebrate with us. Afterwards, I hid in my home office for three days, wrapped in my bathrobe, not even able to get it up to take a shower or answer my phone. Mehrdad and I had a few incredibly depressing conversations about the nature and implications of failure. In the meantime, though, we felt we had to keep putting out Vital until we had a plan. So we did, and I’m here to tell you that the experience was one of the most valuable of my life. It totally sucked to operate through the emotional filter that our beloved publication was in hospice; so much so, in fact, that we […]
Jan 1st, 2006 by Jon Anne Willow
These hands were made to heal
Imagine the first blizzard of the year, a city choked in snow, a night filled with cars spinning lazy 540’s through crowded intersections. Now imagine choosing to spend such a treacherous evening driving to Potawatomi Casino to check out Drew Carey and the Improv All-Stars at the lovely Northern Lights Theater. What follows, dear readers, is the absolutely true account of just such an evening. Accompanying me on this recent laugh-o-licious night out was the editor of this fine monthly, Jon Anne Willow. It’s a story filled with raunchy comedy, unembarrassed laughter, and poor driving conditions. And, unsurprisingly, it’s also a story that involves me touching a strange man’s thighs. After braving the elements and arriving in one piece, Jon Anne and I are ushered to our sweet-as-hell front booth seats complete with panoramic view of the stage and proximity that allows us to count the pores on Drew Carey’s face. The strains of an electric piano and drum machine signal that either we’ve time-warped to a 1987 L.A. comedy club or that the show is about to begin. The cast includes Drew Carey, Kathy Kinney and Greg Proops, whose thighs I will soon be softly caressing. The show is done in the style of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and proves to be unabashedly funny: a 90-minute, completely improvised high-wire act that’s both hilarious and a wee bit nerve-wracking. Among the highlights: a mock Jeopardy episode (a crowd member suggests the answer “Strawberries,” to which comedian Jeff Davis replies, “What’s between a scarecrow’s legs?”), a ridiculous soul ballad improvised around the life of a rather repulsed-looking audience member (in fairness, if I was a 25-year-old mother of four married to a guy with a job at the phone company, I might lose my sense of humor, too), a few completely non-sequitur lines (“These hands were made for healing!”), and plenty of gags involving George W. Bush and Dick Cheney spooning. Jon Anne and I are laughing like idiots and eating up every second. At one point we turn to each other and shake hands. This is good. Then Mr. Proops (the joy I feel every time I type “Proops” is indescribable) asks for the help of an audience member who’s both had a few and not afraid to look like an idiot on stage. I, of course, volunteer. The gods of casino-based entertainment smile upon me and before I know it I’m climbing on stage and shaking Drew Carey’s hand. Here’s where the absurdity level really starts to rise; I mean, what the hell am I doing at Potawatomi on a Saturday night in front of hundreds of people, being told the rules of a game? Shouldn’t I be at home, preparing for my band’s show at the Cactus Club later that night? Or at the very least, drinking alone in a dark corner of my closet? What exactly is going on here, and why am I suddenly feeling strangely attracted to Greg Proops? My ears are ringing, my […]
Jan 1st, 2006 by Matt Wild
Needles and Pins
By Evan Solochek The ballroom of Turner Hall is filled to capacity. Patrons can barely squeeze past one another to reach the next vendor’s table. The temperature outside is in the low teens, lower with wind-chill, a shockingly cold day even for mid-November 2005. It is the sort of bone-shattering weather that keeps people bundled up at home, unwilling to bear the elements for any reason. And yet, the ballroom of Turner Hall is filled to capacity – a testament to the resolve of people or, more specifically, to the people’s love of crafts. Art vs. Craft is one of Milwaukee’s premiere craft fairs, featuring over 100 artists from Milwaukee and beyond. Inspired by such fairs as I Heart Rummage in Seattle, Bazaar Bizarre in Boston and Chicago’s D.I.Y. Trunk Show, Milwaukee is riding the national independent design wave. All across America, as price-slashing megastores choke off the locally owned and operated businesses, an underground collective of artisans is taking a stand. With knitting needles and fabric swatches clenched in their fists, these crafters are refusing to succumb to the sterility of Big Retail and are, instead, embracing a world of consumer goods where each individual item is made with personal affection. “I think that the popularity of handmade hip goods has created an alternative to mass marketed goods and that has encouraged many creative types to get involved locally and nationally,” says Faythe Levine, founder and co-coordinator of Art vs. Craft, co-owner of Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery in Bay View and sole proprietor of Flying Fish Designs. “Art vs. Craft provides Milwaukee with a chance to view many different kinds of work. It also creates an exciting space for networking and sales, which in turn stimulates the arts community in a positive, fun way.” One-of-a-kind fun Fun is a key component of the scene. The personal touch of the designer makes each item unique, and that is precisely what drives most craft shoppers. Silk-screened and stenciled clothing, embroidered bags, reconstituted vintage wares and kitschy knickknacks when you buy from an independent designer you are not getting a mass-produced product. Having an item no one else owns fosters a truer, more individualized sense of ownership that also appeals to many. “Younger people are really concerned that their individuality will be swallowed up by mass consumerism,” says Amy Schoenecker, who sells reconstructed vintage clothing through her label Softly, Fiercely. “As a designer, I emphasize with that fear, and make pieces that are one-of-a-kind in order to revolt against the notion of a herd of sheep or mere followers.” The idea that these creations are functional works of art also allows the consumer to take pride in what he or she chooses to buy and wear, a rare thing today. There is something to be said for buying a one-of-a-kind piece you know was labored over with love, as opposed to pulling your size off the rack. At that point, what one buys becomes much more than just an […]
Jan 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
This moment
By Lucky Tomaszek When our babies are small, and so incredibly needy, it’s easy to say, “When she’s bigger, it’ll be easier.” And as our children get older, more independent and likely much mouthier, it’s easy to say, “I wish you were still small enough to fit into the crook of my arm. It was easier then.” The truth is that for some things, it’s easier to have a tiny baby who can’t get into any trouble. For other things, it’s easier to have an older child who can help you remember your grocery list and play outside in the afternoon. There are wonderful moments with children of all ages. The key is to find those moments and live in them. Not looking forwardThis past autumn, my son Jeffrey suffered an eye injury. The kids were playing school in the bedroom and using the fold-up music stand as a desk. It fell and poked him right in the eye. I heard him scream from my bedroom and went running. The girls were already surrounding him, trying to get a peek at the damage. “He hurt his eye, Mama.”When I bent down to look, I expected a bump, a bruise, maybe some swelling. What I saw was blood tears running down his sweet five-year-old face. I had a moment of panic as I realized that the injury was worse than I had envisioned. He couldn’t open the injured eye and was in a lot of pain. Immediately, I flashed on the image of him permanently blind and perhaps patched for the rest of his life. I could hear the stories from future Thanksgiving dinners, “Yeah, Uncle Jeff had perfect vision until he was five…” Pushing these thoughts out of my head, I picked him up and headed out to the ER. A thorough exam showed that he had sustained two injuries, one inside his eyelid and the other across his cornea, costing him about 95�f his vision in that eye. The doctors said it would get better. Eyes heal very quickly and they were pretty confident that his vision would restore itself as the wound closed. We dosed him up with ibuprophen and brought him home.As he lay across my lap on the sofa, finally sleeping after his ordeal, I was grateful for the peace around us. His breathing slowed to match mine and his sweet, sweaty little body was pushed in close to me. Relieved by the news from the doctor, I remembered my earlier worry that he would be permanently blind after the accident. If it had happened, we would have all adjusted. Jeffrey is a good-natured kid, and he would have come through it just fine. But our lives would have changed in a very real way. Remembering my promiseIn that moment, I renewed the vow I made to myself years ago. I was going to try harder to recognize the importance of every day I spend with my kids. This is so important to me, as a […]
Jan 1st, 2006 by Lucky Tomaszek
Of guns, gays and gas.
By Lefty McTighe In case you haven’t been paying attention, fellow Wisconsinites, your GOP-controlled State Legislature has been hard at work for you this past December, tackling the pivotal issues that truly matter most. In a political trifecta that pushes all sorts of emotional buttons, the Republican leadership in both the Senate and the Assembly will have closed out the 2005 calendar year with votes to allow citizens to carry concealed handguns, place a constitutional ban of gay marriage on the November 2006 ballot and end the automatic increase of the state gasoline tax. If you thought health care, education and job creation were important, well, you are clearly out of step with your lawmakers. You simply don’t share the values and priorities of those you have sent to Madison. Each of these GOP-sponsored initiatives tug at the heartstrings of the conservative base, mixing Republican catchphrases like ‘tax cuts,’ ‘gun rights,’ and ‘family values’ into one delectable brew served up to the narrow interests of the rabidly right wing. For the rest of us hoping to find a better job, a better school for our kids, or maybe even expanded health care coverage for our family, we will have to wait our turn until the important business of the state gets done first. But that’s not even the most troubling part of the story. For those of us rightfully outraged by the backward priorities of the Republican legislature, there is another group of folks who should be even more irate: those conservatives who genuinely care about concealed handguns, gay marriage and the gas tax. Because in truth, these bills fail to adequately solve the problems they claim to fix. These proposals have been shepherded through the Legislature by political flim-flam artists in the Republican leadership who have put their personal electoral success above sound public policy. Not only are they abdicating their responsibility to address real issues that matter to most voters – like health care, education and jobs – they have gleefully played on the worst fears of their conservative base, playing them for suckers and hoping to whip them into a panicked frenzy and send them flocking to the polls. Who benefits from this ploy? The GOP members of the Legislature and the Republican Party of Wisconsin in this November’s elections. GUNSThe new legislature-approved bill would allow those 21-years and older to carry a concealed gun once they pass a state sanctioned training program. For those who worried that there were not enough guns on the street, hand-wring no more – now it’s legal to walk around the neighborhood strapped. Of course, there are limits. Lots of them. According to the December 7 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, these are the places where concealed guns would be prohibited: child care centers, domestic violence shelters, churches, hospitals and clinics, schools, college campuse, police stations, prisons, jails, courthouses, most sporting events, airports, taverns and restaurants where alcohol accounts for more than half of sales. Additionally, public facilities and private […]
Jan 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
Casablanca
By Catherine McGarry Miller + photos by Kevin C. Groen Christmas carols aside, Jerusalem is not currently known for its harmony. But for Jesse Musa, chef and owner of Casablanca, it was a place that lived up to its Hebraic name: �yerusha shalem,� or heritage of peace. Musa recalls his hometown as a pleasant, beautiful city where he and his family enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle. �My family was Muslim. We went to public school with Christians and Muslims together. There was no difficulty,� he recalls, �because everyone grew up together in the same neighborhood. We didn�t see any difference between Muslims and Christians. We all believed in God. I didn�t see the differences until I came here [to the United States].� Musa avoids the conflict by viewing the news like a dieter looks at dessert: a monthly indulgence at best. Musa�s father and grandfather owned a restaurant and pastry shop. From the age of 10, Musa helped his father after school. �It [cooking] was something secure that I could make a living on and I love it. I�m happy with my job � it�s lots of hours but I enjoy it.� In 1971, at the age of 20, Musa came to the United States with his father and worked for several years at the Syrian Bakery in Chicago before moving to Milwaukee where several of his older brothers had already settled. Musa ran a couple of neighborhood groceries before opening the Sahara Inn on Mitchell Street in 1987, which he later renamed Casablanca. Musa built his menu on the rich tradition of Middle Eastern recipes perfected by his father and grandfather. Lunchtimes, Musa served a large vegetarian buffet with lentil soup, falafel, a dozen salads, five or six hot entrees and baklava for dessert. I generally don�t recommend buffets, which too often rely on mass quantities of mediocre food, but Musa�s cornucopia of fresh and flavorful delights has always been an exception for me. Throughout his years in business, Musa maintained consistently high quality food at reasonable prices. His lamb and chicken dishes are excellent. Once a friend of mine and I each enjoyed his Lamb Kifta Kabob so much, we ordered a third one to share. �I am very patient with food,� Musa muses. �I give it the time it needs to be cooked, I don�t rush my food. Maybe it takes more time, but it has to be right.� And it is. In 1993, Musa moved to Oakland Avenue in Shorewood, but by 1996, he was back in his original location on Mitchell Street. His customers happily followed his peripatetic business. Three years ago, Musa retired and closed his much-loved restaurant. That might have been the happy ending to a success story if it were not for his children. Musa�s son Alla said, �I tried Middle Eastern [food] everywhere while father was closed but found nothing like my father�s cooking. Maybe I�m prejudiced, but � we grew up in the restaurant business. Dad had a great reputation and […]
Jan 1st, 2006 by Cate Miller
