Before Sanford and The Bartolotta Restaurants, fine dining in Milwaukee meant John Byron’s, Claus on Juneau, Grenadier’s. It was a time when chefs – drawn to fresh ingredients and lighter cooking techniques – were breaking free from the heaviness of classic French cuisine. But no one embraced the modern and creative quite like Mike & Anna’s (1981–1997).
Its off-the-beaten-path location (Eighth and Rogers) eschewed pretension, with its small, modern menu written on a chalkboard. The eight-table joint was a magnet for local movers and shakers, who came for veal liver Dijonnaise and glove-boned duck (a technique that removed the bones but kept the skin succulently intact).
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“It was farm-to-table before that was cool,” says Michael Wolf, who got the job of head chef at 22, fresh out of culinary school. “We were selling sweetbreads by the truckload. Nobody made them like we did.”
Restaurateur Tony Harvey – described as a “trendy restaurant king,” building a short-lived but memorable empire, in a 1988 Milwaukee Magazine story – named the business after his parents. Mark Timber succeeded Wolf in the kitchen, staying a little over a year.
Now proprietor of West Allis BBQ joint Double B’s, Timber says Mike & Anna’s was part of a pronounced shift in dining. “As small as it was, it was a force to be reckoned with. Chefs looked at it like, we don’t have to keep doing this supper club thing with the relish tray and the beef Wellington anymore. There are other avenues to be explored.”
Until Mike & Anna’s pulled the plug in 1997, there really wasn’t anything else like it. “It was a very different time,” Wolf says. “It was lightning in a bottle.”
IN THE EARLY 2000s, Jan Kelly’s cooking was heating up the city. She was the chef putting the creative and approachable into dishes at a popular Walker’s Point local/organic foods restaurant called Barossa.
When she left to open her own restaurant in 2007, her fans followed. Her Meritage (2007–2016) became a hidden gem in Washington Heights, known for affordable, fun, delicious food. Almost a decade later, to universal dismay, she closed Meritage and left Milwaukee.
She was a trailblazer, striking out on her own when not many woman chefs were doing that here. She cared about where her ingredients came from and that her prices didn’t turn diners off.
“I just was constantly thinking, what can I do to give people that incentive to come in?” says Kelly, who has lived in her hometown of Orange, California, since closing Meritage in 2016.
She now works at a business that provides meals for older adults and those with disabilities. “What I miss [about owning a restaurant] is the creative part – coming up with new ideas, new dishes.” And Kelly’s love for Milwaukee is still very much present.
“It never felt like you were vying for other people’s customers. That’s what was to me so wonderful about Milwaukee, the way other restaurants and chefs supported each other [and] wanted everyone to succeed.”
This story is part of Milwaukee Magazine’s March issue.
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