Caleb Westphal hasn’t missed a Friday fish fry since 2013. Follow his never-ending adventures HERE. This week: fish fry #657, at The Neighborhood Draft in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
My wife told me I bit my lip when they informed us it would be an hour-and-a-half wait for a table, and then told me I bite my lip when I’m angry. A one-and-a-half hour wait with a one-and-a-half-year-old along wouldn’t be doable, and I wouldn’t have wanted to wait that long if I had been on my own either, so I began scrambling for a place for us to go instead of Buckatabon Tavern & Supper Club. I’d already written about a few places just up the road, Colonel Hart’s and Leff’s Lucky Town, and wasn’t feeling like walking across the patio to Café Hollander, another Lowlands restaurant. The situation was getting desperate, my equilibrium shot to hell, but then it occurred to me that we weren’t that far from The Neighborhood Draft (5921 W. Vliet St.; 414-885-2028), a place that had a fish fry I’d appreciated three times over—twice on a Friday and once as part of a Friday Fish Fry Day promotion with Feeding America—but never written about. I gave them a quick call to confirm they still had a fish fry and to ask how long the wait would be. After being told it would be 15 or 20 minutes, we proceeded to make the five-minute drive.
The Neighborhood Draft keeps a relatively low profile, with their only social media presence being an Instagram page tied to owner Brian Felten that hasn’t been posted on for over a year. Felten opened The Neighborhood Draft in 2019 with backing from his mother, who owns Tomken’s Bar & Grill in West Allis, where Felten ran the kitchen. The unassuming building it calls home, near the southwest corner of Vliet and 60th Streets, was built in 1914. In the immediate years before The Neighborhood Draft moved in it housed Maison and Meritage, and before that places like Indigo, The Highlander (which served a fish fry), and Sam Dooley’s Cafe and Deli. In the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s it was a neighborhood grocery store owned by the Hofmeister family.
“Neighborhood” is the operative word in The Neighborhood Draft’s name, and they lean heavily into the theme with their decor. While technically in the Hawthorne Glen neighborhood, they border Washington Heights, and thus hang a print of the neighborhood on their wall. But they also embrace nearby neighborhoods and Milwaukee, with art devoted to Miller Brewery, Bob Uecker, Miller High Life, and Laverne and Shirley. We found this and more when we walked in, but also spotted an unoccupied two-top table, the kind of table a high chair could easily be pulled up to. We were seated at it almost immediately.
Fried cod is the only fried fish on the menu (two-piece for $14 or four-piece for $18), and it comes with a choice of straight-cut fries or potato pancakes. They also have the Codfather ($17), consisting of broiled cod, shrimp, sautéed spinach, and red potatoes with a white wine butter beurre blanc. In addition, Friday Fish Bites ($10.50) made with High Life-battered cod are available every day of the week. I went for the four-piece cod with potato pancakes.
Lightly buttered and put together with care, the rye bread was light in color but yielded a potent caraway punch. Red cabbage bathed in a light vinegar marinade formed the whole of the coleslaw, a one-man band slaw with an original melody. Structurally, the potato pancakes were dense, compact, and soft but slightly crisp around their edges. Seasonings and onion were light, but there was a sizable dose of salt, which along with the heavy potato presence conjured the flavor of french fries. A small cup of cinnamon applesauce came along to undercut my french fry comparison.
On one hand, the batter on the fish was crisp and light, while on the other it was billowy and thick with a soft underbelly. Seasonings were plain as day to see, but not to define, but even if I couldn’t tell exactly what they were (dill and more?), I could tell they were working well. What was more clear was the flavor of beer, all the more convincing with Laverne and Shirley ahead of me on the Shotz bottling line and Miller Brewery to my right. Salt was the third salient flavor component of the batter. The cod was chunky and broke apart easily, and while not remarkable, delivered exactly as needed. The mayo-centric tartar was a premier dunking station, and didn’t have much more to it than a sprinkling of dill and smattering of relish.
If you are looking for another cod fish fry within the Milwaukee city limits, The Neighborhood Draft should be in your rotation. The same goes for if you are looking for a welcoming neighborhood bar and restaurant that’s well kept and presented, and moderately quaint and small. For it’s not only the name and decor that make The Neighborhood Draft feel neighborly, it’s the overall essence, the aura taken as a whole. Make it a Friday and add a fish fry into the equation, and you’ll be living the high life.
Takeaways: Light caraway rye; red cabbage slaw; nicely salted potato pancakes; crisp and light yet billowy and thick batter with seasonings, salt, and beer on chunky cod; mayo-centric tartar; the name of the business accurately reflects the experience of visiting it.
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