Alton Brown Date Night Part One: Dinner

I have to be honest – it’s hard for me to decide which part of our Saturday night date I enjoyed more: Dinner at the Harbor House along Milwaukee’s Lake Michigan where we enjoyed views of the art museum while eating a meal straight from Alton Brown’s “Good Eats 3: The Later Years” cookbook or the q and a-style chat we attended at the Pabst Theater where he took the stage and told stories of food and his experiences.

For us, the experience – one where you spend time in the same room as a Food Network star you’ve watched on TV hundreds and hundreds of times – was new. We had no clue what to expect when it came to dinner or the show, which felt odd to us because we do go to a lot of shows.

So, to make a complete night of it, we added on the $45 per person dinner option and found ourselves at Harbor House a few minutes before our 5 p.m. reservation.

The restaurant was beautiful. Crisp. White. Clean. Wide-open with a nice bar and seafood case (with a five pound lobster!) near the front entrance. It was nice to be on a “fancy” date, one with white table cloths and dress shirts. A date outside of usual go-tos in our own town.

We knew our menus were preselected, and we were so very excited about what we would eat, so we simply took our seats with an open mind…and a beer.

See that? Alton Brown Dinner. Upon seeing the menu, we were even more excited. I must have said, “I’m so exited” about 300 times before our first course – Tuna Croquettes with Remoulade – arrived.

The tuna croquettes were particularly funny to us because on the way there, on a whim, Jeff said, “I hope we have something coated in Panko.” And sure enough, we did, according to the recipe, which you can find on page 152 of Alton’s 430-page book (complete with a Good Eats Sock Puppet making guide).

The croquettes were very delicious. The sauce was a little tangy and the side salad was spicy. I thought the croquettes as a first course were pretty large. I seriously could have eaten just those as my meal. Satisfying and delicious.

We were undeniably most excited about the second course – Bouillabaisse  – because we are such seafood lovers. It did not disappoint. Nope, not one bit.

The fish was cooked perfectly, the mussels were awesome and the broth was just flavorful enough that it didn’t take over any of the fish or seafood. I thought they paced the courses very well, especially since they knew they had to rush along the folks heading to the theater.

And finally, dessert: Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes, Praline Bacon, Dark Salty Caramels and an Oatmeal Cookie.

My favorites were the caramels and bacon. Oh. My. God. You know me, I don’t bake or make many desserts but think I will make both of these recipes from the book.

With our dinner, we each had a glass of red wine. And, like I said, we enjoyed such a beautiful view.

And then, we took a short stroll to our car and headed to the Pabst. Doors opened at 6 p.m.