New Allie Boy’s goes far beyond bagels
Isn’t opening a restaurant during a pandemic enough of a trial by fire? Allie Boy’s Bagelry & Luncheonette, new to Milwaukee’s Harbor District, barely opened before it had to briefly close because of a trial by water: May’s torrential rains flooded its basement.
All’s well now. From the consumer’s standpoint, anyway — when I ordered carryout from the restaurant, everything was seamless and Sunday lunch was pretty spectacular.
But it was a harrowing few days for the place, owned by Ben Nerenhausen and Staci Lopez (the restaurant is named for her father, who was a native of New York’s lower east side; the couple met while working in California).
After operating as a pop-up in April at nearby Laughing Taco, selling bagels, schmears and a couple of sandwiches, Allie Boy was ready to move into its own home on East National Avenue for carryout, with a bigger menu.
It debuted May 14, a Thursday, and kept hours through Sunday, the day that epic rains drenched Milwaukee. Nerenhausen said he went to the basement to retrieve a printout. “Within 15 minutes, there were 6 inches of water, and it was coming up fast. When all was said and done, we had 16 inches of water,” he recalled.
The basement is where the restaurant’s prep kitchen is, as well as its storage and much of its equipment. Allie Boy’s lost a freezer and a couple of dehumidifiers, and the jury’s still out on whether its big mixer ultimately will work. The restaurant hasn’t been able to use it because of a mix-up during construction — the electrical system isn’t yet powerful enough to run it.
Allie Boy’s has been able to make only 40 bagels at a time in a 20-quart mixer instead of the 250 the big mixer would be able to handle.
Friends and family helped clean up the watery mess alongside the couple, who had insurance to cover the damage. Professional cleaners came in to finish the job and make sure everything was up to snuff.
Allie Boy’s was able to open for the weekend after the rainstorm, May 23 and 24. The next week, it finally was up to its full schedule, Wednesday through Sunday for breakfast and lunch.
Because of the mayor’s stay-at-home order, the restaurant is carryout only. But it’s so worth a trip right now, even before Allie Boy’s is fully what it will become.
There are the bagels, of course — bagels the way they’re meant to be, chewy, gorgeous rings in plain, pumpernickel and everything ($2.50 apiece, $14 a halfdozen). Other flavors will drop in and out as specials, but those three will be the restaurant’s bagel core, Nerenhausen said.
They’re the base for schmears like French onion, which might remind you, too, of the soup and its caramelized goodness, and for top-notch sandwiches.
Bagels are the perfect foil for smoked and cured fish, and Allie Boy’s obliges
allieboysmke.com
8 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday
In advance through the website at toasttab.com for curbside pickup, or drop in to order and pick up (the floor is marked for social distancing). Orders can be phoned in, but the line mainly is used for arriving customers to notify the restaurant that they’re curbside.
with two excellent kinds. One is smoked whitefish salad sandwich ($12) with lettuce and thin-sliced cucumbers, brightened with lemon and fresh herbs. The other, house-cured salmon ($13), layered with an herbed schmear, capers and thin slices of tomato and onion. It’s called The Classic for a reason, a combination that never fails.
The restaurant smokes its own pastrami for a sandwich with its horseradish sauerkraut and French onion schmear ($13), and it makes a scrambled egg-and-cheese breakfast sandwich ($10) with a choice of bacon or an exotic import: Taylor ham from New Jersey.
Don’t miss the thoughtful, delicious menu items the luncheonette calls noshes, like the house’s sturdy salt-and-vinegar potato chips ($7) and dip — crème fraîche topped with lemony salsa verde and trout roe. After craving and having mainly comfort food for a couple of months, indulging in something a little luxe was an extra pleasure.
Being on Team Open-Face Bagel myself, I appreciated the rich tartine, a pumpernickel bagel half ($8, or $12 for a whole) topped with chicken liver mousse, granola of seeds and chicken cracklings, bits of bacon and date molasses.
The salad ($7), built on butter-soft Bibb lettuce, stands out with its shallot vinaigrette, springtime additions of asparagus and radish, and crunchy croutons made of, yes, delicately thin bagel slices.
Allie Boy’s has begun offering splits of bubbles and beer and wine to take home, and sweets and more specials are on the horizon. It’s adding vegetarian sandwiches to a roster that I’m eager to try, especially the spicy avocado and egg sandwich that has the Yemenite sauce zhoug and the cow-sheep-goat cheese Triple Play from Hook’s in Mineral Point.
There’s much to look forward to at the luncheonette, not least of which is actually sitting in the restaurant someday and staying awhile.
Carol Deptolla has been reviewing restaurants in Milwaukee and Wisconsin since 2008. Like all Journal Sentinel reporters, she buys all meals, accepts no gifts and is independent of all establishments she covers, working only for our readers.
Contact her at carol.deptolla@jrn. com or (414) 224-2841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_ diner.