Milwaukee food news with bite and butter.
This Bites is a Milwaukee food-scene check-in built around restaurant openings, reviews, chef interviews, and event tips. The mood is loose and quick, but the recommendations stay specific: Cassis, Zocalo, Third Street Market Hall, seafood, bakeries, relish trays, and whatever needs more butter.
PRESS PLAY
This Bites treats Milwaukee’s food scene as something alive, crowded, funny, and worth tracking week by week. It is a restaurant-news show, but not the sterile kind. Openings, closings, pop-ups, chef events, reviews, food halls, and neighborhood finds all pass through a fast conversational filter. Cassis becomes more than a French bistro opening; it becomes a running story about lunch, apero, Birch, Kyle and Megan Nall, and what an all-day restaurant can add downtown. Third Street Market Hall is watched vendor by vendor. Zocalo Food Park keeps turning up, whether the subject is Lao American cooking, Cambodian sandwiches, or a new truck. The show has a useful appetite for specifics. It names dishes. It cares about texture. It notices butter, brine, char, crunch, brown sauce, tropical drinks, lobster-roll temperature, and whether fried cheese curds look like Wisconsin expects them to look. That small-scale attention keeps the recommendations grounded. The bigger food-world stories still get room. Michelin’s American Great Lakes Guide is explained through stars, Bib Gourmand, tire-company history, and Milwaukee’s place among regional cities. James Beard semifinalists and chef collaborations sit alongside broasted chicken, relish trays, chocolate, soup, and holiday pop-ups. The register is warm but mischievous. A conversation can veer from French pronunciation to Malort, from Valentine’s chocolate to a governor joke, then circle back to the restaurant detail that matters. Interviews give the show a more reflective lane, especially when chefs talk about Cassis, Birch, Agency, Cinta, French cuisine, consistency, or why a concept took the shape it did. The result is insider-ish without turning precious. This Bites is for people who want to know where Milwaukee is eating next, what is worth caring about, and which dish might actually be the thing to order.
Made for: Best for Milwaukee diners, restaurant watchers, food-event people, and anyone who wants local recommendations with personality. It especially suits listeners who enjoy chef news, neighborhood specificity, and playful disagreement over dishes.
What sets it apart: The show pairs critic-level local knowledge with a loose local rhythm, so restaurant intelligence arrives through jokes, corrections, tasting notes, and side tangents. It feels close to the scene without becoming polished or promotional.
Each week on This Bites, dining critic Ann Christenson from Milwaukee Magazine and Radio Milwaukee’s resident foodie Tarik Moody dig into the city’s culinary and restaurant culture to help you find new spots, old favorites and the best ingestibles around Milwaukee.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Tariq Moody and Anne Christensen make Milwaukee food reporting useful through specific recommendations, informed questions and an easy comic rapport.
This Bites turns Milwaukee dining news into an informed conversation between Tariq Moody and Anne Christensen. Restaurant openings, reviews and event announcements share space with questions about Michelin recognition, seafood preparation and the dining community's response to…
Michelin stars meet Malort, and your Milwaukee dinner plans get pleasantly complicated.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A warm Milwaukee dining roundup with Casis opinions and a clear look at what Michelin attention could mean locally.
This Bites follows Milwaukee dining news through a relaxed run of updates, from Amalinda and Trickle Bee Cafe's Tables Across Borders dinners to a Caribbean kitchen planned for Story Hill.
Milwaukee seafood, experimental bar food, home technique, and the quiet discipline behind a consistent restaurant dish.
Milwaukee seafood takes center stage as Tariq Moody and Anne Christensen move between skate wing in brown butter and the rival charms of cold Maine and warm Connecticut lobster rolls.
Milwaukee bakery news takes a briny, locally grounded turn.
This Bites gives Milwaukee food reporting a hands-on feel, moving from a difficult year for restaurants into Anne Christensen's notes on new bakeries and Tariq Moody's habit of buying and trying the baked goods himself.
A brisk Milwaukee food-news roundtable where Thanksgiving planning meets restaurant talk and real community stakes.
With Thanksgiving closing in, this PlayNext episode turns Milwaukee food news into a practical holiday roundtable, moving from turkey, duck, capon, smoking, brining, gravy, and the familiar danger of dry white meat into a wider scan of the local dining scene.
A lively Milwaukee food check-in pairs January restaurant news and dining events with mocktails, fernet, and easy local banter.
This Bites starts 2024 with a local check-in on Milwaukee food and restaurants, moving from Wolf on Broadway to updates on Cavas, a new Crossroad Collective spot, and January dining events at Loopy and Iris.
Dan Pashman revisits food science with Kenji López-Alt and rotating live comedy guests.
Des Moines mornings with bite-sized arguments.
Business, culture, and power in motion.
Tiny food stories, treated seriously.
Fast opinions, warm chaos, be normal.
Philadelphia food, reported one kitchen at a time
In the first episode of 2024, hosts Ann Christenson and Tarik Moody discuss Milwaukee's culinary scene.
This episode of This Bites covers three upcoming Milwaukee restaurant openings and a local food festival.
Ann Christensen and Tariq Moody discuss Burmese cuisine, a review of Purslane, and upcoming Milwaukee Vegan Restaurant Week.
Michelin's American Great Lakes Guide now includes Milwaukee, and Anne Christensen and Tariq Moody spend time on what a $150,000-per-year partnership and Michelin inspectors might mean for local restaurants.
This episode of This Bites discusses Milwaukee's culinary scene, including the Dim Sum Give Some event, new vendors at 3rd Street Market Hall, Cassis's new lunch menu, and a new food truck at Zocalo.
This Bites examines Milwaukee’s seafood options, including skate wing at Empire Fish, Pastiche, and Harbor House.
This episode discusses Milwaukee's culinary scene, Valentine's Day chocolate, and features an interview with chefs Kyle and Meghan Knall about their French restaurant Cassis.
This Bites hosts Tariq Moody and Anne Christensen examine Milwaukee food culture through Sap Sap, broasted chicken, James Beard semifinalists, doner kebab, and a planned Mexican seafood restaurant.
This episode of This Bites discusses Milwaukee restaurant news including Bad Piggy's new location, a review of Mother's, and Honeybee Sage's new spot.
Anne Christensen and Tariq Moody discuss the opening of Cassis, the closing of Bavette, and soup spots in Milwaukee.
Anne Christensen says 2025 looks like a bakery boom, with Poppy, Matilda, and Midwest Sad all opening or expanding.
Martino's is closing on December 19 after serving Chicago-style dogs, Italian beef, and banana bread since 1977.
Ann Christensen and Tariq Moody discuss Burmese cuisine, a review of Purslane, and upcoming Milwaukee Vegan Restaurant Week.
This episode of This Bites discusses budget-friendly Monday night dining deals in Milwaukee and features an interview with Chef Alex Hanesakda of SapSap about his upcoming event.