Review-Happy Hour At Morel

I live in Milwaukee so extreme cold should never surprise me with it's awfulness, but last week truly challenged my grit. How fortuitous then that Chef Jonathan Manyo would welcome me to his warm and welcoming restaurant, Morel, to have a chat and try his new happy hour menu.

photos by Laurelyn Savannah - www.laurelynsavannahphotography.com

Joining me to help document the occasion was the very talented Laurelyn Taglienti of Laurelyn Savannah Photography.  We popped in around four o'clock, about an hour before service was set to begin.  I noticed something immediately; the very rarely seen happy and relaxed restaurant staff. I mean everyone has their good and bad days, but this was literally the entire scheduled staff of a restaurant laughing and joking and singing along to B-52's songs that were playing on Morel's speaker system. This might not seem like a huge deal, but like with any job, chemistry goes a long way in a kitchen. You want someone who loves their job making your food.

From left to right: Deviled beet pickled eggs, pheasant pistachio terrine, lamb poutine with Clock Shadow cheese curds. 

photos by Laurelyn Savannah - www.laurelynsavannahphotography.com

Despite the bustling activity of the restaurant and the deadline of service hot on his heels, Chef Manyo graciously sat down with me to talk a little bit about the incarnation of Morel and his plan going forward.  A former vegan, Manyo found a lot of his initial inspiration in rivaling the ambitiously bland flavors that health food in the late nineties associated itself with.  After working in a few vegan and vegetarian restaurants in San Francisco, a chef he was working under encouraged him to go out in to the world of French cuisine to learn technique. As he learned and fell in love with the art that is French cooking, his vision for food evolved. No longer satisfied with the limitations of cooking exclusively vegan cooking, Manyo bounced around Europe and the United States for a while before settling back in his hometown of Milwaukee to open up Morel.

Morel itself feels executed purposefully.  The omnipresent woodwork, the casual but still elegant vibe, the amount of things manifestly constructed specifically for Morel by the employees themselves; most impressively for me was the dividing wall made entirely out of pallets that had been used to ship things to the restaurant prior to opening. Even the bathrooms had an intentional and well-executed aesthetic, complete with sinks looked like they were carved out of salvaged driftwood. A restaurant's ambiance speaks volumes for the quality of their food.  Few and far between have been the times where I've walked in to a dingy, decrepit restaurant and been served anything the opposite of those adjectives. That sentiment is doubly true for a restaurant owned by it's chef.

photos by Laurelyn Savannah - www.laurelynsavannahphotography.com

We came in to try out the new happy hour menu, which came out in rapid succession. We didn't ask for anything specific, but were suddenly awash in a tantalizing array of Morel style bar food classics. I was happy to see that everything was a version of something familiar, wheels only being improved upon and not reinvented. Chicken wings, burgers and poutine are dishes that can oftentimes accurately be assumed are easy ways to achieve deliciousness without putting in a ton of effort or money. The challenge is making something that familiar and ubiquitous (to the point of being wrongly stigmatized as cheap or trashy) stand out, and that is where Morel shined for me. A chicken wing with hours of care put in to it is an entirely different beast than chicken wings thawed and thrown in to some factory made mix and flavor enhancing toxins then murdered in a deep fryer and doused in some sauce, also made in a factory and also containing toxins. Things that might seem like minor differences, smoking the wings and making sriracha in-house, actually make a tremendous difference; a difference that makes taking a trip to Morel worth it.

From left to right: Honey sriracha smoked chicken wings, the Morel burger, the ham biscuit with honey butter and fermented honey

photos by Laurelyn Savannah - www.laurelynsavannahphotography.com

The burger and wings were both great, but I want to quickly give a strong endorsement to two other standouts.  First, the pheasant terrine. I especially like this dish because it doesn't exactly scream "happy hour" food.  The texture of a terrine isn't something most American diners would typically associate with the crunchy, chewy, saucy experiences one usually associates with gorging themselves bar side.  That being said, pheasant and pistachio chopped together in all of their delicate glory and spread on a bread still hits an indulgent note that goes wonderfully with the cozy, homelike setting Morel puts forth.  

The other dish, and holy shit is this one just the tops, is the ham biscuit with honey butter and fermented honey. Before we got a chance to taste this little morsel from heaven Chef Manyo informed us that people have gotten it as both an appetizer and a dessert in the same meal.  I was skeptical as to how something could be both that versatile and that delicious, as to be ordered twice on both ends of a dinner. Truth be told I'm skeptical of ham in general and more oftentimes than not find it to be a totally lame and uninspired protein... but then I tasted it.  I really do try to avoid superlative-laden culinary freak outs on this blog, I swear to god, but this was just so damn good. The bite itself was ethereally light, which was then completely contrasted by intensity of the married flavor of honey and ham.  Seriously go and get this and tell me you don't love it. I dare you.

photos by Laurelyn Savannah - www.laurelynsavannahphotography.com

It didn't hurt that we were emerging from one of the more bitter days of the year, but if I had to describe Morel in a word, it would be "warm".  The jubilance of the staff, Chef Manyo's welcoming and unpretentious disposition, the enthusiasm and care put in to the food, just kind of all of it. And look, I'm not going to call the food I had revolutionary. First off, this wasn't even Morel's standard menu; but secondly and more importantly, "revolutionary" doesn't seem at all like something Manyo is striving for. Good food, thoughtful food, and food that simply feels like a good experience.  I could prattle on with a bunch of platitudes about how a fine dining restaurant gave me food, but that's boring and if I haven't made my case yet then you probably don't know how to read. What I can say is that the experience was good enough that, boldly and without the permission of my wife, I made reservations for this weekend to dine there again.  I recommend that you do the same sometime, I bet you'll enjoy it.

Morel's happy hour hours Tuesday through Friday 5pm to 6:30pm.