Three Brothers

The story of Three Brothers in Milwaukee, WI is a dramatic one. “My father bought this tavern in 1950,” recalls proprietor Branko Radiecevich. “He chose the name Three Brothers in anticipation of his three sons coming to the United States. Alexander, Milutin, and I escaped Yugoslavia in 1956. It was a real reunion; I had not seen my father for fourteen years, when we were separated in a Nazi concentration camp.”

Branko’s family restaurant has become a quiet landmark that attracts eaters from all walks of life and all ethnic groups. Accommodations are polite but humble – dine at a bare-top, steel-banded table – and the ethnic food is grand. We started with lemon-and-wine marinated rice-stuffed grape leaves, which were served with black olives and firm sticks of nut-sweet kashkaval (a goat’s milk cheese) and a “Serbian salad” of tomatoes, green peppers, and onions veiled with a web of finely-grated Bryndza, a soft goat’s-milk cheese.

When we first came for supper in the fall, Branko reminded us that it was leek season and brought out a savory pastry pie layered with caramelized peppered leeks. He was even more enthusiastic about roast lamb, a Three Brothers signature dish that is basted four hours in its own juices with tomato, pepper, onion, and garlic, and served just barely on the bone. Poke it with fork tines, and bite-size hunks of meat separate from the haunch and fall into the juice on the plate. The menu describes it as A must for the lamb lover; but we suspect that even non-lamb lovers might find its refined taste irresistible.

The building in which Three Brothers serves these fine meals is a corner tavern that was built in 1897 and for decades was owned and operated by the Schlitz Brewing Company. The Schlitz insignia – a globe – still crowns the peak of the roof. There are no longer seats at the old bar, which runs the length of the front room and is now a service area, but the wood-floored saloon retains the warmth of a community gathering place.