After nearly 40 years in business, one of Milwaukee's longest running ethnic restaurants, Old Town (522 W. Lincoln Ave.), is changing. And it's positive change, tending to the roots while growing new shoots. Some of those shoots will be green, as the new generation at this family-run Serbian restaurant investigates the possibility of organic cleaning fluids and even a solar-powered kitchen. But most of the changes at this point are on the daily specials list. A new menu will soon follow.
When it opened in the '70s, Old Town was ahead of the curve for being behind the times. Serving an array of traditional Serbian favorites such as burek, roast lamb and chicken paprikash, founding owner Alex Radicevich was committed to the old fashioned verities of fresh produce, locally grown, whenever possible. Much of it came from the West Allis Farmers Market in the benighted years when farmers markets were unusual in Milwaukee. Old Town's appetizers and entrees were mostly homemade, cooked from scratch.
Recently, Radicevich's daughter Natalia expanded the range and scope of Old Town's local providers, including fresh pigs and lambs raised on Wisconsin farms and dispatched without cruelty, and hydroponic farms producing winter produce.
As for the food itself, many things will remain, including the popular fresh-baked burek and eccentric touches like the sardine sandwich on the lunch menu. But Old Town is branching out, reconnecting its Serbian roots to the wider cuisine of the Mediterranean with dishes such as peppers stuffed with couscous, an olive and feta cheese platter and a dish called pita-not the flat bread, but filo dough filled with a savory blend of leeks, cheese and herbs. A recent special, the Mediterranean tomato soup, was a pleasant blend of fresh tomatoes and herbs topped with a creamy swirl.
And never mind the trendy lattes. Nothing tops that grandfather of espresso, a demitasse of the chocolate brown, frothy sweet coffee common to Arabs and Armenians, Turks and Greeks and Serbs alike. Served in a copper genva (a small coffee pot), a cup of Serbian coffee packs a pleasant, caffeinated high at the end of any meal.
