Bay View Community Center to host 6-course beer dinner featuring Milwaukee-area chefs

According to Bay View Community Center President and CEO Mike Mortell, the center’s emergency food pantry is busier than ever.

“Before the pandemic, we were serving about 120 people every month. Then, when the pandemic hit, it went up to around 500 people,” he said. “Now, we’re easily serving 1,000 people per month.”

To support the growing food pantry, the center has been planning creative fundraising efforts, including an upcoming dinner where guests can taste food from Milwaukee-area chefs while sipping locally brewed beer.

The six-course dinner from 5:30 to 8 p.m. July 28 will feature dishes from Jon Monyo of Morel , John Levine of Coco's Seafood & Steakhouse , Suzzette Metcalfe of The Pasta Tree , Gregory León of Amilinda , Kevin Bauman of Halverson House and Kurt and Katie Fogel of Dairyland .

For the “pig and a brew” dinner concept, each chef will present one course, with dishes including porchetta-stuffed cannoli with artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomato, charred pork belly rillette with tellicherry gastrique, pork tostada with caramelized pineapple, pickled Serrano, Roma tomatoes and corn elote, a pulled pork francesinha sandwich with shoestring potatoes, and a dark chocolate frozen custard with pretzel praline and marshmallow fluff.

Chef AJ Dixon, who has been involved with the Bay View Community Center for more than 17 years, helped organize the dinner, including tapping the chefs who are volunteering their talents. She will add a welcome dish at the start of the meal: a deviled egg with pimento cheese and fresh ham.

Each course will include a beer pairing with brews from Bay View breweries including 1840 Brewing Co ., Component Brewing , Enlightened Brewing Co ., New Barons Brewing Cooperative , Supermoon Beer Co . and Torzala Brewing Co . Wine and nonalcoholic beverage pairings are available, as well.

Tickets are available for $150 per person. Guests must be 21 years or older.

The event begins at 5:30 p.m. under a tent at The Exchange , the beer garden in the newly renovated Zillman Park, 2168 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.

The Exchange, which opened in late May, is another fundraising effort for the Bay View Community Center. Open Thursdays to Sundays, it features eight taps with Wisconsin-made beer, including from Bay View’s breweries. It also serves Cache Cider , Odyssea Sangria , System Seltzers and Sprecher Brewing Co. soda.

Proceeds from beverage sales directly support the Bay View Community Center’s programs.

“There's only so many times you can send a letter or write for grants,” Mortell said. “There's a lot of need out there. So these efforts help us be a little more entrepreneurial, a little more self-sustaining and create kind of a social enterprise.”

For tickets and more information, see bayviewcenter.org .

Rachel Bernhard joined the Journal Sentinel as dining critic in June 2023. She’s been busy exploring the Milwaukee area food scene to share her favorite finds with readers along the way. Like all Journal Sentinel reporters, she buys all meals, accepts no gifts and is independent of all establishments she covers.

What should she cover next? Contact her at rseis@gannett.com . Follow her on Twitter at @rachelbernhard or on Instagram at @rach.eats.mke .

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bay View Community Center to host 6-course beer dinner featuring Milwaukee-area chefs