Dish on Dining

Market Mates
The Third Ward’s Milwaukee Public Market (400 N. Water St.) is rolling with its summer changes. Breadsmith, which replace Piacentine’s Artisan Bread, may be open this Monday (Aug. 18). Across from Piacentine’s old space is the new Green Kitchen, which offers juices, herbs and made-to-order salads. Near that vendor is the new Thief Wine Shop & Bar. It’s a retail operation and a place to hang out at the handsome wooden bar and have a taste, glass or carafe of wine. In September, Thief Wine will start serving a small-plate menu, and the market vendors will figure into that. And customers are welcome to bring prepared foods in from some of the vendors if they order a wine flight or glass at the bar. From their Web site – thiefwine.com – I printed out the wine bar list for August/September. I’m seeing everything from Italian, Argentinian and Portuguese whites to Australian, French and Chilean reds. Thief Wine focuses on smaller, artisanal producers, which suggests this may be a good spot to try something new (to you) and not terribly mainstream.

Spoon Fed
If you’ve been waiting to cool off with a frozen dessert in Washington Heights, you shouldn’t have too much longer to wait. The latest ETA on Cold Spoons (5924 W. Vliet St.) is that the gelato shop is roughly two weeks away from opening. When I spoke to co-owner Sandy Murphy (of nearby Highlands Cafe) back in June, she was talking two-dozen varieties of gelato. With the dog days of summer already here, Cold Spoons could not come too soon.

Farm to Restaurant
I just got off the phone with

David Swanson, the former Sanford chef de cuisine who, since 2006, has been running Braise Culinary School (www.braiseculinaryschool.com/). (Braise’s classes are generally held at Wisconsin farms.) Swanson’s business is one of the recipients of the state’s first “Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin” grant program, whose objective is to keep food spending in local communities. The $25,502 awarded to Braise will create a Milwaukee Area Restaurant CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), which ostensibly will make local, seasonal produce more available to Milwaukee restaurants. The three local restaurants on the receiving end of the program are Meritage, La Merenda and Cafe Manna in Brookfield. The eight area farms on the producing end include Pinehold Gardens in Oak Creek and Afterglow Farm in Port Washington.

Animal Planet
It’s that time again.... Milwaukee Sentinel à la Carte. “Feast with the Beasts,” some call it. This is your chance to visit the zoo’s resident bonobos and boa constrictors, and eat fried green tomatoes and grilled chicken brats, washed down with a “Summertime-tini.” More than 30 food and drink vendors will be on the grounds. If you’re looking for first-time recruits to à la Carte, there’s Maxie’s Southern Comfort, Bonefish Grill and Trinity Three Irish Pubs. If “the more, the better” is your mantra, you’ve got everything from Puerto Rican food at Cafe El Sol to shish kebabs at Sabor Brazilian Churrascaria to cheesecake-on-a-stick at Simma’s Ovens Bakery. The event runs Aug. 14-17. Check out the Web schedule for more: http://www.milwaukeezoo.org/events/alacarte/

Can’t get enough dining? I chat about restaurants every week with Jane Matenaer and Kidd O’Shea on “The Mix.” Listen between 8 and 9 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 21. That’s 99.1 WMYX-FM.