Finally, DELICIOUS comfort foods for a vegan diet or any conscientious omnivore. This is a bite of paradise. I can’t believe that’s plant-based! Get ready to embark on a gastronomic adventure that challenges expectations and celebrates the diversity of vegan cuisine in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Milwaukee is known as a meat and potatoes kind of town, but there’s an emerging culinary movement of plant-based dining that is elevating the possibilities and opportunities for further food excellence. In this exciting episode of Wisconsin Foodie, Host Luke Zahm ventures to two restaurants with vastly different cooking styles and approaches to comfort food that are often missing from the vegan dining world.

When Milwaukee native Brandon Hawthorne and his wife switched to a plant-based diet due to a health diagnosis, the couple quickly noticed the lack of vegan or vegetarian options when going out for comfort food, sparking their creation of Twisted Plants. This cannabis-themed burger joint on Brady Street crafts classic dishes using entirely plant-based ingredients, proving that indulgence doesn't have to compromise your values. Definitely comfort food, everything that’s on a regular every day menu you will find here: spicy, sweet, savory, burgers with pineapples, chicken, boneless wings, mac and cheese, gumbo, onion rings, and more. “Meat eaters can’t tell the difference so we know we’re doing something right. It’s no tricks, just love, flavor, seasoning, and consistency.”

With burgers, you need that perfect cheese melt, and often there’s this stubborn stigma about vegan cheese, which could be true if you don’t know how to do it properly. Twisted Plants has perfected the technique, and infuses this craft into their process of taking classic Americana and rewrapping it into something really healthy and sustainable that tastes better than a lot of burgers out there. For Luke, devouring the Up In Smoke burger, named after the Cheech & Chong film, showcases the quintessential tangy, smokey, richness of a dank burger. Not often in Midwest do we lean into plant-based for comfort food and it is exciting to have a restaurant like this where you know you will love the way it tastes.

For an elevated and eco-conscious plant-based dining experience, Luke heads to Strange Town. This charming small restaurant specializes in refined small, shareable plates and prides itself on sourcing local and seasonal ingredients to create rotational dishes that are as fresh as they are flavorful. Owner and Chef Mia Le Tendre is self-taught after deciding to stop eating meat as teenager, and has developed a focus on the balance of flavors and textures instead of making substitutions. This unique and unwritten challenge to traditional recipes paired with a romantic vibe of vinyl and candlelight, make Strange Town a hot spot for date nights, and caters to those omnivores who just want to eat more conscientiously without giving up flavor.

Luke’s sample of sophisticated vegan cuisine includes Fancy Nachos made with carrot queso, Cauliflower Chowder which basically has everything Luke loves about food in one piece, and Daikon Cakes bringing a bite of paradise that you can tell was a process that took time. “God bless America that’s good!” The inventive, delicious, imaginative, and very comfortable way these dishes are crafted present that little bit of umami that can be hard to find in the plant world, and reveal the mind-blowing truth that culinary possibilities are ultimately endless.

If you’re skeptical at all about plant-based dining, simply recognize that there is so much food that we eat all the time that is plant-based. It’s really not a stretch at all to lean into these dining experiences, and with the care and excellence of places like Twisted Plants and Strange Town, it’s just as satisfying.

As a chef, this journey has me rethinking how I can use my garden next year. Looking at the depth of bounty across Wisconsin’s seasons and reworking those familiar ingredients that are distinctive to this culinary landscape is an opportunity to reimagine and reframe dishes and processes with ethos at the forefront. I love food that makes me think and I love seeing how the differences in life experience and perspective that is shared across the upper Midwest always comes down to a delicious bite - no matter the vastness of our stories and differences, this is still the place we love and call home.

0:00 This week on WI Foodie
1:34 Twisted Plants, for a relaxing quick bite
4:08 Up In Smoke Burger - tangy, smoky, rich, dank
8:28 Strange Town, for an energetic and romantic date night
11:13 Fancy Nachos, Cauliflower Chowder, and Daikon Cakes - a bite of paradise
22:04 Say what? (Outtakes)

Don’t believe vegan can be this good? Try it for yourself!

Twisted Plants: https://www.twistedplants.com/

Support Black-owned small business

Strange Town: https://www.strangetownmke.com/

Support women-owned small business