Merriment Social, Pastiche Brown Deer adding lunches
Envoy gets a new chef
Next week brings a new lunch to Walker’s Point: Merriment Social’s first will be Tuesday.
That means the restaurant’s popular burgers will be available more hours; lunch will be served 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Also on the lunch menu: sandwiches, fried chicken, small plates, salads and boozy shakes.
Look for plates like garlic lamb meatballs in spicy tomato sauce with sourdough ($14); three styles of fried chicken with biscuits ($22 and $23); and a grilled cheese sandwich with three kinds of cheese, pickled peppers and bacon ($12).
Salads include kale chicken caesar ($14), and the five-burger lineup includes the Cream City Special ($16): cheddar “crispies,” beer cheese, caramelized onions and sweet mustard-mayonnaise.
And for something sweet, desserts include pistachio pot de creme with blackberry compote ($7); shakes include the Hazed and Confused ($14), made with bourbon, hazelnut liqueur, bourbon caramel, candied pecans and graham-ginger frosting.
Merriment Social is at 240 E. Pittsburgh Ave.; it’s online at merriment social.com.
Pastiche Brown Deer
Besides adding brunch in April, Pastiche Bistro in Brown Deer will add lunch service, too, starting Monday.
Hours for lunch will be 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday.
At lunch, the restaurant will have two soups ($6 and $8) and several appetizers ($7 to $14), such as hummus and meat and cheese plates.
Several entrée salads are on the menu, including Lyonnaise, with a poached egg ($8), and Nicoise, with preserved tuna ($12). Warm duck confit crepes ($11) are served with a mesclun salad.
In addition to entrées, such as ratatouille ($14), skate wing in brown butter ($15) and steak frites ($18), Pastiche will serve sandwiches.
Some of the options: portobello mushroom, topped with herbed cheese and red pepper salad ($10); Monte Cristos, the battered and sauteed hamand-turkey sandwiches ($12); 8-ounce burgers ($10); reubens ($10); and Croque Monsieur ($12).
Program note: Pastiche is making a change to the previously announced brunch menu — it will be a la carte instead of three courses for a fixed price. Most entrées will be $15 or less.
Brunch’s soft opening is April 2, and brunch service officially begins April 23. Hours will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
To contact: (414) 3541995. Pastiche is at 4313 W. River Lane in Brown Deer.
New chef at Envoy
The Art Deco-era Ambassador Hotel and its Envoy Restaurant & Lounge have a new chef: Jason Gorman, who ended his stint as Milwaukee Art Museum chef last week.
Gorman, who will have the title of culinary director at the Ambassador, might be best known as the former chef of Dream Dance and Dream Dance Steak at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino. The restaurant received four stars from the Journal Sentinel under his direction. Gorman joined the art museum in 2015. He previously was executive chef at the Iron Horse Hotel in Walker’s Point, the Art Institute of Chicago and Mangia in Kenosha.
The restaurant at the Ambassador, 2308 W. Wisconsin Ave., is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday and brunch on Sunday; the lounge, which serves a more casual food menu and mixes cocktails from the hotel’s original 1928 drink list, is open daily at 11 a.m.
The hotel also has a coffee shop that’s open to the public, Caffe Deco.