“Welcome to the Jungle,” reads a hand-painted sign on the front of the host stand at the Radler. It matches the pieces of plywood that adorn the walls, painted with fierce-looking images of a bear, a wolf, a chicken, and a boxing glove (artists from Galerie F, located next door to the restaurant, painted the wood when it was covering the outside of the building during renovations).
That slightly expensive pretzel, shiny with a liberal coating of oil, is accompanied not by mustard but barley-malt butter and blackberry jam. Barley-malt butter, as it turns out, is magical. Nutty, slightly sweet, and a little malty-tasting, it transformed the pretzel from a run-of-the-mill crispy twist of dough into something that I couldn’t stop eating—I just barely restrained myself from ordering it again on my second visit. I was also impressed by the mushroom and cheese appetizer, which included cubes of Rahmkase (a mild cow’s cheese) marinated in oil and vinegar with tiny enoki mushrooms and caramelized onions, served with dense buckwheat bread.
Desserts are fairly traditional; we had the Black Forest cake, which was more like a soft, chocolatey brownie baked in a small, shallow ramekin and served with cherry jam and whipped creme fraiche. I preferred the buttery, nutty Bee Sting cake, a round of almond cake sliced in half down the center and filled with a rich custard—though I would have liked a little more custard, the cake being just a bit on the dry side (or more of the “wheat beer syrup,” though I couldn’t detect any beeriness to the dessert).
2375 N. Milwaukee 773-276-0270dasradler.com
