Dinn-Arr

Last night we had dinner at the latest addition to the Tippecanoe neighborhood, Shiver Me Timbers, a new restaurant specializing in American-Pirate Fusion... That's right, a Pirate restaurant right here in Milwaukee (which clearly has a long, prestigious pirate history).

I think (it was hard to tell, because their stories seemed to keep changing) last night may have been the first night they were serving food... Our reactions were mixed. A lot of first week kinks still to work out... Only about a third of the menu was up and running, the bar was a bit sparse, and they hadn't fully figured out their feel...

First-off, this place needs to get some pirate drinks. I inquired after juices and the only ones they had were cranberry, orange, and pineapple, which is pretty standard for most bars, but a Pirate bar??? Don't you think you need something more exotic? I mean, a minute and a half of internet research produced a list of pirate drinks... Additionally, splash some Welch's passion fruit juice onto some white rum makes a tasty instant pirate cockt-arr-l.

This place didn't even have rum... I ordered a second-rate pirate drink, but they only had Malibu or Captain Morgan Spiced Rum... I mean, if you're opening a pirate restaurant (which is awesome, by the way, and we totally have to open one in Decorah) you better have a damn impressive rum list.

On the other hand, i ordered the Pecan Red Snapper, and it was hands down, the best red snapper i've had in my life. The chef came out to apologize for a slight delay in getting our meals and was concerned about the dish, but i think it was fantastic... Brooke's goat cheese/smoked salmon salad was adequate, but nothing special & brig's chicken was ok, but the fish, my god the fish...

As a self-proclaimed great orderer, my two rules are 1) order the special & 2) what does this place seem like they should know? order that. And pirates ought to know fish. And these pirates did..., though they didn't know rum... yet.