For the fifth straight year, October is Dining Month on OnMilwaukee.com, presented by Concordia University. All month, we're stuffed with restaurant reviews, delectable features, chef profiles and unique articles on everything food, as well as the winners of our "Best of Dining 2011."
If you read my blog postings, you know I enjoy a good fish fry and I love "discovering" new ones; new to me, of course, as there aren't really any "undiscovered" fish fries in the Milwaukee area anymore, are there?
Last Friday, after a date with some bouncy houses in Franklin, the family moved east to Greendale for dinner at The Harmony Inn, a vocal group-themed restaurant at 5601 Broad St., in the heart of the village.
Although singers often stop in to perform, there were none on Friday. Maybe it's for the best. As we perused the menu in the lobby, a barbershop quartet recording was piped in, leading one of my kids to say, "THAT'S annonying."
Luckily, there was nothing else annoying about the rest of the experience. The dining room is simple and neat and while most other diners were considerably older than us, I reserve judgment because we were eating at "kid dinner time," which is a synonym for "older folks' dinner time." Anyway, we know people our age and younger who dine there.
We had friendly, attentive service and ate four meals – two were kid meals, which cost less than adult entress – and spent less than $40.
But, while my kids loved the bathroom mosaics best, I really dug the fish fry. The tender cod was lightly breaded, which meant it wasn't greasy. And the two potato pancakes were not only huge, but were delicious and had shredded carrots, which made me feel like I ate my veggies, too.
It wasn't all you can eat – they so rarely are anymore – but when the food was gone, I was satisfied. As anyone who knows me knows, that's saying something.
I wish The Harmony Inn was a little more on my beaten path, but we have friends in Greendale, so I suspect we'll be back. But I also want to check out Riccardo's next door.
Have you been there? If so, please report in using the Talkback feature below. That's where you can also argue with me if you think there are still "hidden" fish fries in Milwaukee.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
