Well-rounded meals dished up at Bowls
Like other busy folks, Nell Benton noticed her options for a quick bite while running errands around town typically were a cheeseburger or a foot-long sub.
As a chef, though, she was in more of a position to do something about it, and thus was born Bowls, the fast-casual restaurant in Walker’s Point that serves healthier fare.
The restaurant seizes on a couple of longterm trends — consumers' interest in quick, convenient dining and wholesome food — plus the popularity of one-bowl meals.
Benton, chef-owner of the National (about a mile from Bowls), opened the restaurant in a partnership with Andy Larson (owner of Float Milwaukee next door), but it’s chefmanager Kate Southcott who steers the ship on Freshwater Way.
A former Californian who’s cooked at finer-dining restaurants (including Buckley’s, Morel and Wolf Peach), Southcott found the idea of Bowls appealing. “It was moving toward how I eat,” she said.
The cheerful Bowls, decorated in vibrant purple, leaf green and white, is designed to be fairly quick: Customers order at the register, and diners seat themselves or take food to go; but Southcott is investing time in the food. She was butchering a salmon when I phoned her, and sauces like mildly spicy green curry are made from scratch.
That sauce infuses the Thai green curry bowl ($9) with flavor, marrying vegetables such as red bell pepper and spinach to brown rice.
Other world flavors pop up; the Korean chile sauce gochujang flavors the steak and rice bowl ($12). Toss those together with all of the other ingredients: kimchi, daikon, carrot, mushrooms and bean sprouts, crowned with an over-easy egg.
Dried apricot, golden raisins and pome-
granate molasses give the North African bowl ($9) pops of sweetness against the savory elements — quinoa, arugula, feta, pickled peppers, pistachios and red onion.
Quick-pickled cucumber slices give the Hawaiian-style poke bowl ($12) high impact alongside cubes of raw tuna, sushi rice and avocado, with jicama and wasabi peas for crunch. The bowl benefits from a squirt of the hot sauce standing at the counter.
I had mixed feelings about a mixedmushroom bowl ($9); ginger-miso dressing lightens it up, although it runs counter to the meaty earthiness of mushrooms.
But I'd have two bowls in particular again in a heartbeat. One bowl spices up sweet and fingerling potatoes with poblano pepper and sriracha, tosses in arugula, mushroom and spinach and then tops it with a couple of fried eggs ($9).
Another, the Green Goddess bowl ($9), builds on barley with broccolini, avocado, kale and thinly sliced brussels sprouts, tying it all together with savory cashew cream and adding nutty, crispy accents with sunflower seeds and fried shallot. The bonus: a boiled egg, halved to show off its creamy center.
Many of the items are vegan or vegetarian, but they don’t have to stay that way. Add that salmon that the chef has butchered, if you'd like. (The fish is wellprepared, moist at the center.) Or chicken, beef or fresh tuna; or, for the meataverse, an egg or tofu.
Lunchtime is busiest at Bowls, when workers from nearby offices such as the Global Water Center just down the block walk over. The restaurant opens at 9 a.m., though, and breakfasty items such as oatmeal and smoothie bowls are available then.
It’s good that the breakfast bowls are sold all day; it turns out that the chocolate-peanut butter smoothie bowl ($8), made with almond milk instead of dairy and topped with raspberries, banana, coconut and granola, makes a fine dessert, too.