An American Diner

In a hurry to squeeze in one last tasting before D-day for my luscious baby belly, I followed Gaelle on a curious trail. Harry's Diner on the southern side had recently changed up their menu and with a bold sign across their exterior with large bold black letters, stated the following: Home Made Fresh Mozzarella Made Here. I thought it was either pure daringness on Gaelle's part to venture to Harry's Diner for fresh handmade mozzarella or perhaps she just didn't know what local diner fare was and how unconventionally scary it was to envision an organic cheese making factory set up in the same line kitchen that cooked corned beef and hash. But we went anyway because this was a serious piece of advertisement that required serious attention.

As always, the service was pretty great. Our waitress was super friendly and knowledgable and the atmosphere is as it always has been. A very 50's diner theme. The menu however has changed significantly since I last visited several years ago. At least 2 years ago, there was a large italian inspired pasta fare. This time, all the italian dishes had vanished and replaced with simple American lunch and dinner specials typical to the local area. Speaking with the waitress, the owner whom at his heart is an epicurian, uses his base station (the diner) as a place to also experiment and play with his own evolving culinary self expression. At the moment, he is in a cheesemaking mood and is trying to justify his passion with any item on the menu where fresh mozzarella can find a home. Even on a Sheboygan bun on top of a grilled bratwurst. There is talk about adding pizza to the menu. Interestingly, and possibly for legal reasons, or perhaps a matter of sufficient hours in the day, they do not sell fresh mozzarella to the public. You can't even order a plate of fresh mozzarella alone as an appetizer. It only comes incorporated in a prepared dish. But the waitress was gracious enough to let us try a small plate sampler and guarantee that we would be as impressed by it as she has been. For lunch, we decide to go exotic by going native...we order a plate of German potato pancake (which received positive reviews by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), a simple Nutella crepe, the cheese sampler plate, and each a cup of coffee.

Our ultimate assessment of the cheese? Pretty sublime. A pure soft milky white silky and moist to the touch. The taste is pure and simple. Sweet simple flavor of light creamy milk and the clean taste of the quality water that created it. My only question to the owner is whether he used local tap water in making the cheese or filtered water? There was something about the afternote that almost hinted at chlorine like the tap water at home. However, maybe I'm just hyper sensitive to the flavor of chlorine since I've been drinking too much tap water lately and my pregnant taste buds were hallucinating. Or maybe i just don't know what I'm talking about as far as fresh made mozzarella is concerned. In any case, I give it a n 8.5 out of 10 and I would head back and order a bowl of it to take home if I could. It was very impressive. If only he made buffalo mozzarella, I'd camp out in front of the restaurant for that any day.

A second surprising discovery we both made there unexpectedly was their nutella crepe. Now, we're not talking about the best crepe in the world, or even a standard good quality crepe you'd find in France. But, admittedly, it was a very decent to good crepe that truly hit the spot both visually and taste wise for the both of us. So decent that it would even justify Gaelle bringing her family out to Harry's Diner for a french inspired treat. And now that I'm thinking about it, am craving it again too and will be taking my entire family out for a plate of it tomorrow morning.

The German potato pancake wasn't what I had envisioned, although I really have nothing to compare it to except the smell and visual of my coworker's homemade crunchy fried potato pancakes that she use to bring to the office and make me salivate over. If I had to criticize it with no prior knowledge of what a good potato pancake should be like, I'd say that this pancake could have done with less flour, more shredded potato, be less cake like and more greasy-cruncy-savory-potatoey, could have had more green onions in it and a little more salt to season. The waitress had asked whether I wanted it with a side of sour cream or apple sauce. I asked for both and they came in little dip sized ramekins. I didn't understand the ramekin of applesauce. Was it only for dipping? I wish I had a German friend there to explain to me the proper way of eating a potato pancake. Gaelle and I agreed that it was missing something in the dipping sauce to bring out its potential. I ended up dipping mine in both the apple sauce and sour cream, which worked. Even though the Milwaukee Journal dubbed it the best potato pancake ever between here and Milwaukee, I sadly won't reorder it.

I wish the owner the best success with his culinary ventures because thus far, it's made Harry's Diner an interesting place on the map to check into once in a while for new inspiration.