Dining Out

Since most of the $13 million renovation of this 1920s hotel was completed last year, there’s been a push to attract people to the western edge of Downtown, whose past decades of crime and architectural decay concealed the rich history of the area. With that kind of investment, hotel owner Rick Wiegand is obviously pushing hard. Besides the full-service restaurant, open breakfast through dinner, the Ambassador has a new cafe and bar/lounge, open for drinks, dining and live jazz. The sidewalk patio on Wisconsin Avenue is another seating option – full lunch and dinner menus are served out there. Post-cosmetic surgery, the building has recaptured its heartbeat. A valet keeps his post at the west side entrance. Couples drift in and out of the lounge. A guest, breathless after a late-afternoon run, pads along the marble floor to the brass elevator doors.

It’s a shame the dining room is walled in, with not a window to speak of. But it’s still charming. Deco-inspired crystal chandeliers hang from above. Tables dressed in simple, classic white pepper the 75-seat room. The noise and smoke are reserved for the lounge, which has plenty of natural light. As for the food, my visits of late have been good (as opposed to middling early meals). The waitstaff is friendly and well-intentioned but awfully young and green. (For instance, answering questions about wine was an issue. Our server solved it one evening by calling over the hostess for help.) Applying polish to the service staff may take more time than it did to buff the floors.

If there’s a template for hotel food, it’s eclectic, burgers-to-steaks fare. Understandably. You’ve got the guy in the Bermuda shorts and the woman wearing St. John knits. The menu here isn’t cookie cutter, though it has a cheeseburger. You get the feeling that executive chef Dan Smith, a 44-year-old who thought art was his passion until he found cooking, doesn’t think about menus in terms of rules, unless it’s that food needs to taste good. His menu will change four times a year, he says. In early June, its first courses were Portobello mushroom fritters, Thai fish cakes and foie gras, to name a few. Entrées, in no particular order: Thai curried rack of lamb, a grilled pork chop with blue cheese mashed potatoes, ­paella, pappardelle pasta with house-smoked salmon.

In the end, the entrées didn’t make my nights – the appetizers and desserts did. I’m a Thai food junkie. I could eat it every day. And while Envoy’s rendition of tod mun pla (fried fish cakes, $9) was more Thai-American, it was delicious. Crisp edges framed the four silver-dollar-size cakes of halibut and tuna (the variety changes, I’m told). Tod mun pla can be a greasy, spongy pancake. This was light, meaty and relatively grease free. The cucumber salad and chile “syrup” offered crunch and a sweet-sour finish. From another universe of cuisine came the misnamed Margherita pizza, built on a thicker, spongier crust than the classic Neapolitan-style pie ($8), but the tomato, basil, mozzarella and olive oil topping was nicely assertive.

One salad – field greens with spiced walnuts and feta, decent but unremarkable – is a day-to-day standard ($7). Another – the

Two entrées were reasonable ­successes: Swiss chard dolmas and carnitas (both $16). Similar to stuffed grape leaves, the vegetarian “dolmas” featured two thick bundles stuffed with rice, garlic, chevre (goat cheese) and minced Portobello mushroom. Served with a sweet, chunky tomato sauce, the dish was the embodiment of comfort food. (I brushed off the strange garnish of fried, hard-to-chew rice noodles.) I was eager to try carnitas – Mexican twice-cooked pork – after having it months ago and pronouncing it dry and overdone. Presented on a mound of chipotle mashed potatoes, black bean sauce pooled around it like a moat, the pork this time was tender and rich (the second step of this dish is to cook the meat in its own fat). The pork made scrumptious soft ­tacos, with all of the little pieces included – guacamole, salsa and warm flour tortillas.

Another handful of dishes fell flat. The seared halibut, a moist, mild filet, was paired with harmonizing components – grated green papaya, vermicelli-thin rice noodles, coconut milk and red curry ($20). But the curry-coconut flavor was diluted by the watery pool at the bottom of the bowl. Except for the saffron rice, the paella ($21) wasn’t very much like paella, a Spanish dish that’s supposed to have a variety of meat and seafood. I found a half-slice of chorizo, one shrimp and two mussels. The chicken thigh resting on top made me think that arroz con pollo (chicken in rice) was a more appropriate title. The beef tenderloin filet, porcini mushrooms arranged in headdress fashion, was a tender steak, but despite the mushroom “glace” (meat glaze), it just didn’t have enough flavor ($28).

There’s a difference between something that’s final and a “finale.” A bowl of ice cream is final. A piece of pie – that’s final. Finale material? A three-inch-round cheesecake wearing caramelized banana on its head and propped up on a slice of grilled pineapple, a ramekin of mint-infused tapioca pudding on the side ($7). Bread pudding, a square as thick as a bricklayer’s wrist, was a warm, dense cake dotted with every color of berry, a scoop of vanilla ice cream sending white tears down the side ($7). Again, a finale – a great one.

Another way to say “envoy” is “diplomat.” In honest (not necessarily diplomatic) terms, the Ambassador restaurant is a reasonably good spokesman for a resuscitated hotel. Appetizers and desserts are eloquent. Entrées need to work on elocution. But I’ll give time to anything that’s a work in progress.

Envoy Restaurant | Ambassador Hotel
2308 W. Wisconsin Avenue
414-345-5015

Hours: Daily B 6:30-11 a.m. L 11 a.m.-5 p.m. D 5-10 p.m. Sun brunch 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Prices: appetizers $6-$12; entrées $10-$28; desserts $6-$12
Service: friendly but needs more experience
Dress: quite the range, given that this is a hotel
Nonsmoking
Handicap access: yes, and handicap spots in the adjacent parking lot
Credit cards: M V A
Reservations: recommended