By Dennis R. Getto
Journal Sentinel dining critic

Published: Aug. 20, 2004

Some restaurants are far more than a place to eat. They're a place to see friends, hang out and listen to live music. The Grove in downtown Elm Grove is such a place.

An 80-seat restaurant with a spacious bar and live music from Wednesday to Saturday night, The Grove has a faithful following. Many of the diners, said manager Maureen Sullivan, have been restaurant patrons since the late 1980s.

In those days, the restaurant was called The Grove Public House. In the early 1990s it was briefly known as Goyette's. After a year or two, current owners Chris and Brenda Skibinski took over and simply called the 80-seat restaurant The Grove.

"It's almost the 'Cheers' of Elm Grove," Sullivan said.

I noticed that neighborhood feeling in two recent visits. Because I wasn't aware of the live music (a jazz quartet), I didn't realize that the hostess was really offering me a chance to take in some entertainment when she asked if I wanted a booth in the bar.

My focus was on food, so I chose the dining room on both occasions. And after two visits, my verdict on the food at The Grove is a mixed one: How satisfyingyou find your meal depends on what you order.

My guess, based on a near-perfect, 12-ounce New York strip ($24.95), is that you'll be safe with a steak. The one that we ordered had been grilled a bit cooler than we'd ordered it (we asked for medium, but the center was still a little red), but it was so tender and flavorful that we didn't mind. And the Merlot mushroom sauce served on the side gave the meat extra mellowness. (The steak's flavor was so good that the sauce wasn't necessary.)

I'm also nearly certain you'll do well with fish, especially the catch of the day. That conclusion is based on our sampling of two entrees and two appetizers.

The better entree was an order of sand dabs ($22.95), offered as a special. These delicate little sole fillets come from the Pacific Coast and are best prepared simply. At The Grove, they had been sauteed and then covered in a silky tarragon-cream sauce that was light enough for the sweet flavor of the fish to emerge clearly.

The second fish entree, Parmesan baked walleye ($21.95) was listed on the regular menu but was not quite as good. Like sand dabs, walleye are fish prized for their mild flavor. The Parmesan cheese that formed a crust around the fish was simply too strong for that mild flavor. With the flavors out of balance, we tasted more cheese than fish.

By contrast, the two seafood appetizers we tried - walleye cheeks ($8.95) and calamari ($7.95) - both satisfied our initial hunger well. The cheeks were small, thin pieces of fresh walleye that we had ordered breaded and deep-fried. They arrived at our table still steaming and wonderfully crisp.

The small squid that made up the calamari order had been cut into smaller pieces, which ensured uniform cooking. Simply breaded and flash-fried, they were crunchy and sweet and didn't need the basil-honey vinaigrette sauce served beneath them.

Two other appetizers had been nicely executed. Brie cheese in puff pastry ($8.95) had been baked just long enough to turn its pastry shell a deep golden color and to melt the cheese inside. We spread that gooey cheese and the apricot preserves baked atop it on garlicky slices of toasted French bread, alternating bites with fresh apple slices and grapes.

A stuffed Portobello appetizer ($6.95) showed me some refreshing culinary creativity. Most appetizers I've tried stuff the large mushroom caps with cheese or crab. This had Parmesan and provolone cheese, along with tomatoes, onions, basil, kalamata olives and toasted Italian bread crumbs. All those ingredients combined in a lovely filling that soaked up the juices of the mushrooms during cooking, adding richness to the overall flavorings.

One other entree, veal piccata ($23.95), had a pleasant tartness. Instead of the usual, thin veal scallops that most restaurants use in the dish, these were thicker slices cut from a veal loin that was so tender they needed no pounding.

The slices had been sauteed, and then finished with white wine, fresh lemon and capers. The result was a meat glaze with a pleasant piquancy.

While the veal and many other dishes met my expectations, there were a couple of major problems. The most aggravating was an order of pesto pasta with chicken ($15.95).

The menu had indicated that there would be broccoli in the dish, and I wondered how well the strong flavor of that vegetable would blend with the anise notes of the basil, a key ingredient in classic pesto.

The answer was not at all - because there was no basil in the dish whatsoever. The chunks of sauteed white meat of chicken, the small broccoli florets and the noodles were all fine, but they weren't what the name of the dish implied.

Side dishes were another weak suit at The Grove. They ranged from a nearly inedible "garden vegetable wild rice" that tasted bad for two reasons - the wild rice hadn't been blanched (soaked briefly in boiling water, then rinsed), and the vegetables in the mix were burned.

Then there were the Gorgonzola scalloped potatoes, which were served with the veal. Here the problem was the choice of cheese. Gorgonzola, the Italian cousin of bleu cheese, was so strong tasting that it threatened to cloud the delicate taste of the veal. I stuck to the fresh green beans that lay beside the meat and avoided the potatoes.

Things took a turn for the better with desserts ($4.95 each). Three-berry pie teamed red and black raspberries with blueberries in a homemade double-crust dessert. And caramel cheesecake was light with bits of toffee adding both flavor and crunch.

One of the reasons that The Grove has developed so loyal a following must have to do with its friendly wait staff: Our servers at both dinners were personable yet confident and made us feel as though we'd been invited to their homes for dinner.

It's that kind of feeling, I'm sure, that keeps the regulars returning to The Grove.