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The dish:
What's new in city dining
Tutto
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| By CARI TAYLOR-CARLSON |
June 2008 |
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 It’s
trendy and that’s good when you’re a downtown Milwaukee
restaurant. We had only kudos after a lunch at Tutto. It’s a rave: a
combination of good food, attentive service and great ambiance.
Because this is Milwaukee — where we want good value for our
restaurant dollars — I’ll add, generous portions.
Because the
owners hung life-size sepia portraits of famous sports figures on the
walls and placed a TV in every booth, one might assume this is a
sports bar. That might be the case, but the food goes way beyond 12
designer burgers and fancy frozen fries. Perhaps we can attribute the
fine dining to the Safina family, owners of the former Giovanni’s,
located at the west end of Brady Street.
Sometimes Giovanni himself
cooks, but most of the menu comes from his sons, Joe and David. A
fourth Safina works the front, keeping customers happy while they dine
on a variety of Italian specialties, or not. It’s a varied menu at
Tutto, from Insulata di Mare to Crispy Chicken Pot Stickers.
After we
learned this was a Giovanni’s spin off, we wanted to sample
everything Italian on the menu but it was noon and there were only two
of us. Instead we ordered Mozzarella Marinara, a dip with Blackened
Popcorn Shrimp and Crayfish in a spicy cheese fondue, Blackened
Chicken Breast with roasted poblano chili, caramelized onions and
mozzarella and Grilled Swordfish with arugula, tomato, caramelized
onions and cilantro butter. Eclectic, you say? It’s all good.
The
sandwiches came with piles of Parmesan herb fries and eggplant fries
with marinara. Next time, and there will be a next time, we’ll
sample only Italian, perhaps Veal Parmesan and Tenderloin Spiedini,
and for dessert, of course, Tiramisu.
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This story ran in the June 2008 issue of:
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