Ride to MOTOR for a Wood-Fired Experience

The recently revised menu by Chef Doug Stringer offers unique recipes and presentations of hearty fare which is made entirely in house, down to the hand-cut fries.

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Let’s Eat!

The outdoor smoker marks the spot. Sitting just outside MOTOR, the Harley-Davidson Museum’s restaurant, is a canopied, wood-fired smoker, working in snow, rain or sun, giving the meat served inside a distinct flavor.

The restaurant is located at the heart of the museum’s campus, in between the gift shop and the Menomonee River. The interior is designed in industrial American iron fashion: concrete floors, hard surfaced and dark hued despite the floor-to-ceiling windows, with a pair of Harleys on display as well as engine parts on pedestals like metal sculpture. The condiment buckets on each table are proudly stamped “1903,” the year the motorcycle company was founded.

If you haven’t been to MOTOR lately, know that a revised menu was introduced at the start of the year under the guidance of longtime Chef Doug Stringer. The menu is hearty and heavy on meat and cheese, albeit vegetarians have several choices including lavish salads ($14-$17) and the Smokehouse Vegan Chili ($9) made with pickled red onions, tortilla crisps and cilantro.

Among the filling appetizers are baskets of Clock Shadow Creamery cheese curds ($14) fried golden brown outside, and crunchy Fired-up Cauliflower ($12), sprinkled with sesame seeds and scallions and offering a slight spicy kick. Both are served with tart Vidalia onion dip.

The recipes and presentations are unique throughout the menu, and everything is made in house, down to the hand-cut fries. Where to start? The Roadside BBQ Platter ($34) is a good way to sample the entrees. It’s ample enough to serve two, crowded with juicy Groppi’s beer and cheese curd bratwursts, tender sliced brisket and pulled pork, a quarter rack of ribs that surrender easily to the fork, a jalapeño cheddar biscuit, small bowls of refrigerator pickles and creamy coleslaw plus a separate griddle with a generous spread of Steel Horse Cowboy Beans featuring three beans with a smokey flavor.

MOTOR also offers sandwiches ($15-$19) including burgers, chicken, pastrami, brisket and smoked bratwurst. On Fridays comes a Milwaukee favorite, the three-piece beer-battered fish fry ($19.95) with a cornbread muffin substituted for the traditional rye bread. Shareable side dishes include fries ($6) and coleslaw ($6). The full bar serves specialty cocktails such as the vodka-cranberry juice Crank and Cran ($14), an extensive draft and canned beer roster with many local brews (Lakefront, Third Space and more), hard ciders, wine by the glass and non-alcoholic options such as the Harley-Davison Road King Pilsner. And of course, good old Colectivo coffee, Rishi tea or Sprecher soda.

Milwaukee brands are well represented at MOTOR, as expected from a company like Harley-Davidson, one of the city’s most famous brands worldwide and a source of local pride. Any room for dessert? Try the buttermilk banana pudding ($7), sweet and creamy beneath the whipped cream, banana chips and the brûléed half-banana that rises like a Tiki drink umbrella. In the warm months, Motor serves outdoors at tables along the Menomonee. Live bands hold forth from a nearby stage on Thursday Bike Nights.

You won’t leave hungry when you leave MOTOR. The restaurant is another reason to visit the H-D campus, even on a day when you don’t have time to check out the exhibits in the museum.

Motor