"Open for: Lunch, dinnerPrice range: $$$Before you could find a small plate on every corner of Walker’s Point, La Merenda was the quiet forerunner, slinging international tapas in a reservations-required dining room. Owner Peter Sandroni offered worldly brunch dishes at the Barack Obama-approved Engine Company No. 3 (now an event space), and briefly tried his hand at a retail storefront, but today the action centers strictly on his flagship, which serves Milwaukee’s quintessential shareable goods: Colombian empanadas with mushroom and quark can be ordered alongside house-made gnocchi. Butter chicken somehow copacetically rubs shoulders with rich lamb Bolognese. It’s almost like Calvin Trillin’s “Continental Cuisine” brought to life, and yet it works. Of course Clock Shadow Creamery goat cheese curds in chorizo cream sauce atop just-this-side-of-burnt crostini — spicy, lavishly comforting, and offering whiffs of cilantro — can go with just about anything. Know before you go: Grab a reservation if you want to secure a table, though you might have even more fun spending an entire night at the bar." - Todd Lazarski
