Taste of Third Ward

You should go to this next year. Many good bites and surprises. Properly sized tables to crowd ratio to enjoy almost everything. My rewards as follows–
Bad intro: to the Taste itself. With two possible lines for preorders and walkups, they could actually mention this to people in line, and not have the fast preorder side boxed in by the slow people.
Good intro: Milwaukee Ale House. Even after line waiting, walking in –10° left us cold, and the Booyah Soup, hot chicken gumboish, was the perfect first dish. Also a good surprise that they upgraded their food chops.
Bad planning: Kanpai let the crowd down. Skip a large variety, especially if you have an expensive item as sushi. People grab one of each and you run out very quickly. Luckily we liked it’s taste better than our Downtown Dinning experience, yet they goof up again.
Great planning: Easiest access and no issues by Cubanitas. Two easy to fill bowls of their famous plantain chips w/​guac. For some reason some people don’t get it when they visit there. Are they getting cheeseless sandwiches and watching their weight? Ha, more likely they didn’t know. Now more know.
Best in your face by Beard nominated chef: Braise. How can I surprise people with my beloved ingredient trout? I know, pair it with jam. Amazing parfait!
Best best: Amilinda. May your permits sail through as we await your new place. Piri piri chicken with grist. Always have hated grits, yet apparently with a twist chefs can make great grist instead. Please do this chefs.
Best surprise: Bavada. Much more than an excellent butcher shop, you should city tin Bavada.
Surprisest surprise. Indulge is more than a wine bar, great lobster Mac, although quite the heavy cheese for me to get through.
Worse surprise: Smokeshack brought globby seitan. If they pulled it off it would have proved how great they are at BBQ, but nope, evil fake meat attempt horribly assaults tongue!!!
Best redemption: Holey Moley. I am a much bigger fan of holes, which they brought. Wasn’t a fan of earlier donuts buy when opened, but will try them again now.
Best freebie: Oro di Olivia was giving out samples of their super favorable oils and vinegars. A pricey delicious buy normally.
To review, go to this in future years.

This was a fun event. It’s a fund raiser for the Skylight Music Theatre. Several Walkers Point and Third Ward restaurants provided food samples for the 150 guests.
150 people was the right amount. We were able to naviagte the rooms easily and everything was very comfortable.
There was a raffle, a wine bottle pull, and a gift certificate pull. I ended up pulling gift certificates from Braise and Skylight Music Theatre, so definitely looking forward to using those soon.
My favorite bites were the Piri Piri Chicken and grist from Amilinda, the Booyah Soup from Milwaukee Ale House, and the sausage from Bavette.
Kanpai ran out of their sushi before I could try it due to earlier visitors stock piling and making multiple visits, so it must have been good.
Great Lakes Distillery and a new distiller called Twisted Path, both provided a punch beverage and both were very good. I’m looking forward to a future visit to Twisted Path.
I would consider attending the event again in the future.

Tonight we ventured out to try Taste of the Third Ward at Skylight Music Theatre. We only paid for the general admission so 5:30 was our start time. You could pay extra to enter at 5:00. In hindsight I would go a bit earlier. There was a long line for entry despite already having tickets. My suggestion would be to have two lines.
We formed our plan of attack: start at the front, circle around and end with the ice cream. Huge tip for those interested: Go to your favorite restaurant or one you want to try first. Kanpai sushi ran out at 6:15pm for an even scheduled to 7:30pm. I was a bit disappointed in this. We did manage to get soem of the last bites but Kanpai wasn’t really prepared for the interest or turnout I guess. I was hoping they would win me over after a poor Downtown Dining experience.
For us it was nice to try some of our favorite places: Brasie, Amilinda (so excited to try their new place in June!), GreatLakes (Rehorst!), Purple Door. but what is even better is getting out to try new places.
I honestly did not know Ale House served food. As in good food, beyond bar food. They had a nice chicken chili, I would order this on a perfect cold day like today anytime. I will absolutely give this place a try. New menu per the chef, everything cooked fresh and made in house. I am pretty excited to go review there next.
And Bavette! Wow, that is some seriously good, spicy sausage. Once again, I thought they were just a butcher. I was wrong, they are also a restaurant! I just love being pleasantly surprised but that is what these events are all about. Getting out to see what is in your community!
And let me not forget Indulge, you know the wine bar, well they have more than wine, they have a sinful lobster mac n cheese! Perfect with a little vino:)
I also want to add it was nice to running into fellow Unilocalers:) Hope you also had a nice time Pam and Rick!