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By Dennis R. Getto
Journal Sentinel dining critic Published: Feb. 10, 2002 Past and present come together every Friday night at Klug's Creekside Inn in Cedarburg. You can see it in the dining room and on the plates of your fellow diners.
Klug's large seafood buffet is one of the few left in southeastern Wisconsin. For $10.75, diners can help themselves to a tossed salad, cole slaw, pasta salad, potato salad and boiled-in-the shell shrimp, then follow with a variety of fish that ranges from lightly breaded perch fillets to cod pieces breaded in pretzel crumbs.
But if you look around, you'll see that not everyone is at the buffet. They might be ordering from the menu instead - choosing a Friday night special like batter-fried cod ($8.75), a traditional German entree like Jaeger Schnitzel ($13.95), or a meatless entree like Eggplant Parmesan ($11.50).
Ten years ago, a restaurant like Klug's wouldn't have needed a meatless entree. Most of the people showing up for Friday night dinner would pile their plates high with buffet food. I took that Eggplant Parmesan as a sign of how much things have changed.
Owners with a history
Things have changed at Klug's, too.
For years, it was a place called Barth's at the Bridge. Last August, the husband-and-wife team of Bruce and Kris Klug took over. Bruce had worked as the chef at Barth's for 14 years; Kris had been a waitress, bartender and part-time office manager.
Before taking over, Bruce had taken a year off to travel and work in restaurants in Germany. That experience is reflected in three German schnitzel dishes that appear on the regular menu and in six other German entrees (including a sampler platter) offered on Wednesday and Sunday nights.
And that's not all.
Diners whose tastes have switched from steaks to fish can order salmon ($13.95), orange roughy ($13.95), whitefish ($12.95) or walleye ($15.25). Or they can try one of three chicken dishes. A sandwich menu's available for those who don't want a full meal.
One of my two most recent visits to the restaurant was on a Sunday night. A few minutes after my companion and I were seated at our table, we heard a religious hymn being sung in the next room.
"Is it like this every Sunday night?" I asked our server.
"No," she said. "We've got a church choir dinner in the other room."
Both of us ordered Sunday night specials. I chose a German sampler platter ($14.95), my friend picked roast duck ($14.95, available Saturday, too). Both dishes scored well above average.
The duck was all it should have been - moist meat beneath a crisp skin with a light gravy to accent its flavor.
A trio of German tastes
Two out of three entrees on the sampler platter matched the duck in quality. A well-made German classic roll-up, Rinderrouladen, drew its lively flavor and great texture from a combination of beef filet, bacon, gravy and a still-crunchy dill pickle inside. Zweibelschnitzel - sauteed pork loin with a light brown gravy and batter-fried onions on top -delivered rich flavor with a touch of sweetness.
The only disappointment of the platter was sauerbraten. Another classic German entree, sauerbraten starts with beef that can be marinated in either brine or vinegar, which tenderizes it well. The beef is stewed and a sauce is made with the marinade. The strips of meat served on the platter were a little tough and needed a livelier gravy to cover the spaetzel served on the side. German-style red cabbage rounded out the platter.
The next visit was on a Friday. My three dining companions ordered from the menu; I braved the buffet.
After drawing a cup of clam chowder and piling a glass plate with the salads, I headed to the main spread.
One of the drawbacks of a buffet is a lack of freshness. Things like fried fish and potato pancakes lose much of their attractive crispness under the heat lamps.
But despite that danger, I found a few items that were quite good. The best were perch fillets, thin, sweet and enveloped in a thin coat of crumbs. I also liked the contrast in flavors that I found in cod that had been breaded with tasty pretzel crumbs.
Breaded shrimp and smelt, broiled cod and Beef Goulash with rice were all just average, and the small potato pancakes had lost any trace of crunch.
A batter-fried success
Far better was the batter-fried cod ($8.75) that we ordered off the menu. Like the Pretzel Cod, it had been made with thin slices of fish that crisped nicely in frying and delivered that perfect balance of batter and fish that Milwaukeeans crave on Friday.
The other two entrees, Jaeger Schnitzel and Chicken Marsala ($10.95), were good choices. The schnitzel started with a generous pork cutlet, floured and sauteed, covered with onions, bacon and mushrooms, and served in a rich brown sauce that tasted as good on the meat as it did on the spaetzel that accompanied it.
The chicken breast pieces had been sauteed and covered with a light, nutty sauce that tasted of sweet Italian wine. The only problem was that there wasn't enough sauce to properly cover the angel hair pasta beneath it.
For appetizers, Spinach and Artichoke Dip ($4.50) and Baked Brie ($6.25) were generous enough to qualify as a light lunch. The dip came with toasted bread and the brie arrived with a an attractive platter of freshly sliced fruit. That melted cheese tasted just as good on the warm house bread.
Creekside diners can choose between soup and salad with their dinners and can't go wrong with either. My favorite soup was a Turkey Curry with just enough spice to keep it interesting. Salads tasted best with the house hot bacon dressing. And both pecan pie ($3.50) and lemon torte ($3.50) delivered full flavor without being overly sweet.
Service at both meals was friendly, making Klug's feel more like a neighborhood spot than a formal restaurant. * Prices and items may have changed since the publication of this article. *
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