Sampling the menu at Il Cervo

Right, from pizza to pasta to breathtaking views of Milwaukee, Il Cervo has upped the game when it comes to dining downtown. Nicola is there this morning checking out some of their new additions to the menu. Hey, Nicola. Hey, guys. Good morning to you. The timing for this segment could not be more perfect because this place is called Il Cervo, which means deer in Italian. Perfect name for it because we are right here in the Deer District at the top floor of the Trade Hotel. Obviously, this place is super busy all year round. We know that they have an awesome rooftop, a great bar, a fabulous menu. But they're especially busy this time of year because the Bucks are playing. Okay, so I'm so excited now to join you live from the Il Cervo kitchen. Not my kitchen. This one has way fancier stuff. And I'm joined live by the chef himself who's responsible for coming up with all of the incredible, tasty, decadent Italian recipes that you can find right here all year long, but obviously your fall menu is probably the most important. And again, this is Chef Mike Sheeran. Good morning to you, Chef. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Okay, so what is your favorite menu to create all year here at Il Cervo? well I'd say late summer and early fall because you get all the late squashes from summer into your hard ones which pumpkins butternut red curries and then we have all the great mushrooms that are coming into play right now so we are adding quite a few mushrooms to the menu so we have a mushroom pizza mushroom We're going to be making a gnocchi today with wild mushrooms and Madeira. Let me just grab this. Amazing. So, yeah, guys, this morning we're not seeing how the sausage is made. We're seeing how the gnocchi is made. Yes. Can I say that this is a health food? Because we're talking about a lot of vegetables this morning, Chef. So we are talking a lot of vegetables, but I'll be honest, Italian food is… Delicious. It is quite delicious, but there is quite a bit of cream, quite a bit of cheese in there as well. well so as the lord intended okay so how do you mix up these mushrooms here and what kind of mushrooms are they so i have a hen of the woods cremini some portabellos and some oyster mushrooms as well beautiful i've been sauteing them with a little bit of onion and garlic and olive oil we're going to finish with a little bit of madeira what's madeira madeira is a fortified wine wonderful i love that flick of the wrist there you know so i just want to deglaze with that a little bit i'm going to hit our this pan for a little show there we go and i'm going to drop our gnocchis in you guys this is so cool i feel like i'm at one of those hibachi restaurants where they make the food for you at the table they do i'm getting a show here so we have our mushrooms that have been sauteed they're about to finish we're going to mount it with obviously a little bit of butter i have some fresh oregano that's going to go in to finish right at the end and as As the gnocchis have come out, in one minute here. This looks amazing. So we make everything in-house. We have focaccia that we make in-house, we have sourdough we make in-house, it's called ciabatta in Italian. All of our pastas are made in-house, pizza dough, everything. So from desserts, to sauces, to fresh gnocchis as well, are all made in-house. house. And it really shows in your product and in the flavors that you bring out. It really tastes fresh. Now, Chef, I'm so honored to be... Oh, a little pasta water in there. Okay. A little pasta water. A little cheese. Some mountains. Yeah. I'm very honored to be in the kitchen with you because you're kind of a big deal. I did some reading on you. Yeah, you're a very well-known cook, or Chef Mike, I should say, is a very well-known cook in Chicago, known in particular for this kind of cooking farm to table what makes you so passionate about farm to table cooking over you know other kinds of cooking uh well i'm just passionate about cooking number one but farm to table is about more supporting uh local and artisans as well so being at the top of the trade hotel we're all about trades or craftsmanship so being a farmer being um someone that makes sausage or bread and all that it's it's to me it's all about the love of of giving to to other people and feeding and feeding so and it really shows in your product here you can see just how carefully this one dish is made this is the kind of um service the kind of quality that you can expect every time you come here to El Tirao um i have to ask you chef you i'm sure you're busy all year round but buck season has to be really busy for you guys it's the best season so number number one we got basketball right across the street but uh just lively entertainment with uh with people coming in every day and just enjoying our during the end of the patio season and also our wonderful bar up front it is fantastic all right um chef Mike Sheeran thank you so so much this is a look guys at the finished product the gnocchi which looks absolutely beautiful oh boy now he's gonna plate it oh you got to try some gnocchi really quickly is he making anything in honor of the World Series game one being in game two being here in our city we're gonna finish with a little bit oh don that's a good question okay so i have a question chef mike from one of my co-anchors he was curious if you're doing anything special for the World Series on your menu um well we do have some new sausages that are uh we have a couple of club brand sausages and perfect for the brewers yep you got to do that with the brew crew and we'll probably do a couple pizzas as well so amazing oh my gosh yeah okay so don there you have it uh they're doing a special um line of oh my god are those truffles these are these are the last of the summer truffles oh my gosh i love truffles okay guys it's been so fun to show you inside of the kitchen here at Il Cervo um they just launched their new fall menu it looks delicious lines up perfectly with the buck season as we know their home opener is friday at 3 p.m but really we have all season to enjoy the food here i mean how lucky are we to have such a lovely classy sophisticated restaurant so close to the deer district i mean it kind of gives you the best of both worlds here yeah absolutely thanks nicola it looked incredible yes delicious yeah perfection there all right well frightfully fun all the essentials for your halloween gathering that's coming up next well good morning everybody Welcome back to Real Milwaukee. We are live at Il Cervo, which means deer in Italian. Perfect, because it's located in the Deer District. And this restaurant is so excited for the new buck season. And with that, they are releasing their brand new fall menu, and it looks absolutely delicious. We were in the kitchen earlier with Chef Mike. He's whipped up some other entrees here that you can enjoy this season. And now I am so grateful to be joined live by General Manager Rob Levin. Thank you for being here. Our pleasure. Thanks for being up here. congratulations of course on the big home openers tomorrow and you guys are about to get really busy yeah we sure hope so I mean we've got a lot going on in the city right we've got Brewers finally which is helping us bucks start at home right Marquette men's starts as well which we get because they play across the street so and then we're jumping into holiday season so Thanksgiving time holiday parties Christmas with Santa here cookie cookie making classes for kids and whatever over the December weekend. So, yeah, we've got a lot going on before the end of the year. And then New Year's Eve is coming up, like, right around the corner. So I know nobody makes reservations until three days beforehand, but we will have that going on starting on November 1 for reservations. So we're really excited about the next, let's say, 60 days of the year, last 60 days. So much to look forward to. And to me, this time of year is all about comfort food, and that is something that you all do so well. This is the final product of the fully plated gnocchi. that we just saw from Chef Mike Sheeran. He does such a great job. That's chicken parm. Looks amazing as well. And your homemade sourdough ciabatta. Yeah, focaccia. Yeah, we do. I think Chef spoke about it earlier. One of the best things that we do in this business, in our building, I'm sorry, is we make everything for the most part. So the gnocchi, which he spoke to, all of the bread, all of the pizza crust. And then obviously with our restaurant manager and bar-focused mixologist, Nicole Dursey, who is uh makes all of our cocktails we do all of our syrups in-house we do all of our batching in-house so we try to make everything as much uh you know um uh field to table right you know what I mean at the end of the day whether it's beverage and or food or just homegrown Midwest hospitality is what we kind of put ourselves on yeah and that's what people in this community love so much okay so tell me a little bit about the cocktail uh that we're taking a look at here yeah so uh it is a um it is the Fiori Rosso uh it is a hibiscus syrup um you can use any vodka we use Tito's as our house vodka and then we have a passion fruit liqueur which we use chinola which is uh used in a lot of the bars and then we just we shake it up and we put some love into it and we've got a beautiful flower to showcase it and it is the perfect cocktail to be with a loved one, to be by yourself, or just stare out of the window at a night here on the ninth floor in the Deer District, looking over downtown Milwaukee. I mean, it's so versatile. It's perfect for anything and anything you want to do. I love how you took a classic cocktail, Cosmopolitan, and then kind of gave it your own twist here. And that's something that guys, they really do well here. They take fabulous dishes that maybe you've seen before, but you haven't seen them quite like this because you really put your own edge and your own spin on it um but you know not everybody's a cocktail person some people are more into beer and wine yep and i have to compliment you guys this is what i call a holiday pour that is generous well we knew you were coming so normally it's not that much so anyone who's coming don't act like it it's like that all the time but no it's a normal six ounce pour but yeah we're definitely wine focused uh we have over 125 SKUs from a wine standpoint obviously italian uh managed but a lot of stuff from over the globe and then we try to stay local with some of our beers yes i saw that right and then obviously we got to have the italian with the Peroni but yeah we're we're very versatile we have something for everyone whether it be on the menu from a food standpoint whether it be on the menu from a beverage standpoint and again everything is served with that midwestern hospitality right so everyone feels welcome you can be in a hoodie you can be in a suit uh just come in relax enjoy yourself enjoy the view it's the best space in in downtown milwaukee by far to dine into and by yourself with a loved one like i said just a just a great great space to sit back, relax, whether it be a lunch, uh, excuse me, whether it be happy hour starting at four o'clock Sunday through Friday, whether it be, um, dinner service, which is seven days a week starting at 4 PM till midnight. And on the weekends we do brunch starting at 10 o'clock till two o'clock, uh, with our boozy brunch, which is a $44 deal. Um, you get two cocktails, you get an entree, uh, and you get a bottomless coffee. So, I mean, it seems like a good deal to me. Yeah. And then you look out there, right? So that the, the, the, the view is a million dollars. the brunch is 44 you're winning and the view is included of course the view is free yeah it's gratis of us yeah exactly so yeah it's it's a great place for everything uh from food from beverage from hospitality and ambience i think this space really uh checks those boxes pretty perfectly oh it's spectacular i know you guys have been here for what a couple years now so yeah and obviously you're still doing so well you're so successful there's clearly a need for a place like this in the Deer District we love in wisconsin our fun like sports bar vibes but i think everybody um sometimes you just want to have like a nice uh you know more fine dining experience before after you go to a box yeah i don't i don't like to use their fine dining i think we're polished right we're polished we're elegant but we're casual also at the same time i think fine dining gives people this pretension piece of what we are we're not we're very laid back we just enjoy having a good time taking care of guests and producing great product on all levels of the spectrum and just making people happy when they walk out feeling like that was worth it right and then they come back and they come back and they come back so that's what we're looking for we need more we want more and we're ready for more so come on down well congratulations on this brand new fall menu that you can get right now is that right yes we are and we are in that process so we're looking probably uh much bigger flip wine some cocktail and food uh probably the last week of november right after the thanksgiving holiday so black friday i have a reason to come to go now yeah before the end of the year now and then come again perfect and you will give patrons a reason to do so this all guys looks amazing i can tell you firsthand. It smells even better. This food looks spectacular and I'm sure that having a lovely beverage to go with it would only enhance those incredible flavors. So yeah, we are live at El Cherivo in the Deer District and they are open, ready to go, of course, for the buck season and they would love to feed you. Every option looks incredible. I don't know which one I would want a bite of because I feel like I want a bite of everything. Probably one of those spots where everybody gets something different and then you share it. I don't like to go out with people who all get the same thing like no oh no because i'm that shouldn't be allowed you know you know exactly that's like an unwritten rule menu yeah you need to get something different then we'll just try each other's and but everyone has to understand too like we are sharing right exactly let's set that from the get-go yes please understand i'm stabbing my fork in your plate i'm gonna keep uh i'm just gonna start referring to myself as polished i know i love that polished distinguished you know it's nice it's elegant it can be casual i love that it's hailey to a t actually oh my gosh guys you're gonna walk in monday morning with a t-shirt that says polish there we go there we go but like not too over polished just like just enough yeah right can't overdo it i'm picking up what he's putting down well we could all use a little grace we know that, are getting a new perspective with some tips for healthy aging. That's next.