The East Side's new food hall, Crossroads Collective, has a new tenant—Egg & Flour Pasta Bar.
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Read more and listen to the podcast below to hear more about the pasta bar and Chinese New Year celebration coming to Crossroads Collective, Cafe Centraal's reopening and Pączki Day in Milwaukee.
News from Crossroads Collective
Egg & Flour
Crossroads Collective has been open since December, offering soup, vegetarian fare, BBQ and more. And in March, it'll be adding pasta to the lineup.
Adam Pawlak, recent executive chef at Black Sheep in Walker’s Point, will be opening the Egg & Flour Pasta Bar in mid-March.
He says it will be all about people being able to come in to "enjoy handmade truffle ravioli with Parmesan cream sauce in less than 10 minutes… and without breaking the bank.”
Handmade is the key word. They'll be making pasta from scratch every morning—like by putting dough through a handmade extruder to make linguine, spaghetti and rigatoni, or by hand sculpting pastas like ravioli and tortellini.
But these traditional methods don't exclusively come with traditional ingredients. Gluten free and vegan recipes will also be available.
And they'll include a range of fanciness, from mac and cheese to pasta Bolognese.
Chinese New Year
In honor of Chinese New Year (February 5-19), all of the vendors at Crossroads Collective are doing Asian-inspired specials to celebrate the Year of the Pig. Here's what each is doing:
Shanghai speakeasy and main bar - Brews from both Singha and Tsingtao and craft cocktails like "To Catch a Humming Pig" (two gins, housemade orange rosemary syrup, lime), "Hea-ting and Coo-li hing" (avagales silver, li-hing syrup, lime juice) and "Call me Xingfu!" (Tito's vodka, passion fruit puree, tamarind).
Beerline Cafe - Shanghai noodles featuring udon with stir-fried shiitake mushrooms, Napa cabbage, bok choy, carrots, ginger, scallions and thinly sliced seitan steak strips in garlic hoisin sauce
Falafel Guys - Asian shawarma bowl featuring yellow rice, hummus, chicken shawarma and housemade Asian sauce
Frida - Chinese corn, crab and shrimp soup (gluten and dairy-free); broccoli and Napa slaw with cashews, bean sprouts, blood orange, wonton crisps, edamame and miso vinaigrette; lemongrass chicken bao burger with pickled carrots, daikon, cucumber, cilantro and togarashi aioli on a steamed bun
Heaven's Table BBQ - Smoked five spice pork brisket served with ginger and garlic rice and hoisin bbq sauce
The Laughing Taco - Red light ramen rice bowl featuring rice, scallion, trout roe, bonito, togarashi and soy sauce (with the option to upgrade your bowl with a serving of trompo pork)
Scratch Ice Cream - Candied banana fritters served with a scoop of ice cream
Other Milwaukee food news and culinary events
Pączki Day
Fat Tuesday is also Pączki Day in Milwaukee. Pączki is a sweet Polish donut-like bakery item and here are the The Wisconsin Bakers Association's Paczki Preview Party is the place to eat and celebrate the pastry.
This event on Sunday, February 24 at the Polish Center of Wisconsin includes a "Paczki Passport" which gets you samples from each of the participating paczki vendors: Cranky Al's, Grebe's Bakery, Le Rêve Patisserie and Café, Neat-O's Bake Shoppe and Sweet Perfections Bake Shoppe.
Centraal Grand Café and Tappery
Cafe Centraal in Bay View was closed for over a month to renovate and innovate. Now, they've reopened as Centraal Grand Café and Tappery. They've tripled their draft lines for the new and improved beverage program. And of course, these expansions include the menu too. Take a look at the new menu here, which includes a new snacks section, lots of friets and a weekday brunch menu. We can't wait to try almost everything on here.
Twisted Fork Vegan Festival
February 24 from noon to 5 p.m., the Sherman Phoenix will be participating in a statewide celebration of this hashtag called #HealthierYou. Twisted Fork Vegan Festival is a free event, open to the public where vegans, vegetarians, omnivores and everything in between are welcome. And it's a good chance to check out the Sherman Phoenix if you haven't yet.
