A slice of apple. The crisp, cool bite; refreshingly tart, then juicy-sweet. 

Memories of youth -Biking down rural roads, streaming summer sun. Apple stolen from a neighbor’s tree, still warm, both illicit and innocent. 

First cooking experience – An apple, fresh-picked, cored then filled, butter, brown sugar; microwaved until just soft, recalling baked apples. 

Some of my earliest, most enduring memories are of apples. Today, an everyday treat; commonplace. Enjoyed, but no longer savored as in childhood summers. Still, a good apple pie, caramelized crust, warm from the oven, will make me swoon.

Yet it was a raw apple that recently delighted, surprised and inspired. For me, these are essential to any great experience dining out. And a recent celebration at Birch Restaurant in Milwaukee, WI, delivered.

The restaurant is owned and operated by Executive Chef Kyle Knall, also the Culinary Director at Stone Bank Farm in Oconomowoc, WI. He started his culinary journey in Birmingham, AL, with James Beard award winner, Frank Stitt, then moved to New York, and eventually became sous chef at Michelin-starred Gramercy Tavern. He moved on to become Executive Chef  and partner at Maysville Restaurant in New York, which featured Southern cuisine with ingredients sourced from greater New York.

Birch Restaurant’s menu has been described as “hyper-seasonal New American”, which falls in line with Chef Knall’s background at Gramercy Tavern and his effort at Maysville Restaurant, both of which featured local, seasonal ingredients. The menu on a recent visit accented fresh, local produce including a prominent use of raw vegetables and fruits, which was the source of some of the delight, surprise, and inspiration.

Several dishes featured raw vegetables and fruits in unexpected ways, but my favorite was the use of cool, raw apple slices to accentuate the warm, house-made ravioli filled with fresh ricotta, with a few leaves of sorrel. Ravioli, of course, put us squarely into Italian and Italian/American cuisine, rather than Great Lakes, though they were absolutely delicious. Warm, oozing with fresh ricotta, and then the unexpected pop of tart and sweet from the apple.

That unexpected pop of the apple stayed with us for a few days after the meal. We began to wonder about a version of the dish that would bring this approach to Great Lakes Cuisine. The natural answer to the ravioli? Perogies! We decided to use Pelmen’s Sauerkraut Perogies as the base of our dish, then top them with a local-made ultra-thick Greek-style yogurt in place of the more traditional sour cream, and a sprinkle of chives.

Then for the apple – We wanted to bring the green, vegetal tones that the sorel added to the Birch ravioli dish, and we connected that thought to fennel fronds. So we went with a “salad” of thinly sliced fennel, red onion, and apple. We rinsed the red onion well to remove some of the bite, then marinated the salad in a house-made malt vinaigrette. We added fennel fronds and radish greens to the plated dish. 

We served this with an Okocim O.K. Beer, which despite the name was definitely better than OK. Located in Poland, Okocim was once the fifth largest brewery in the Hapsburg Empire, which gives you a feel for the legacy. This was a very crisp, clean lager in the traditional European-style. And it was the perfect accompaniment to our perogies.

Each bite of the rich sauerkraut perogi with a bit of creamy yogurt, was accentuated by the contrasting crispness of our salad. The apple still shown through as the unexpected star it was meant to be. Adapting an old Eastern European tradition with a “New American” inspiration definitely falls in our definition of Great Lakes Cuisine.

So a hat tip to Chef Knall and the folks at Birch Restaurant for the inspiration.  Their menu is ever-changing but makes wonderful use of the bounty of the Great Lakes and our long-standing agricultural tradition. Definitely recommend a visit to both the restaurant and the farm market.