Cornils’ culinary dream comes true

There was a void in the neighborhood when Red Dot’s East Side location closed in July 2016. The restaurant and dive bar, open since 2005, was a gathering place of familiar neighborhood faces, service-industry friends and people looking for an affordable bite to eat paired with cheap drink specials.

Vinny Cornils, a cook who had been making his rounds in the Milwaukee restaurant scene, could typically be spotted occupying a spot at the bar.

“Pretty much every friend I have in Milwaukee, I met at some point through the Red Dot,” Cornils says.

At the time of Red Dot’s closing, Cornils was the sous chef at Easy Tyger, an Asian gastro pub on Brady Street that specializes in small plates.

Like others in the neighborhood, Cornils had high hopes the Red Dot space would be utilized again in the near future. If the funds could have been obtained, he would’ve used the building to open a restaurant that specialized in house-made sausages and craft beer. At the time, it was wishful thinking.

Now the void left by the Red Dot has been filled. The Original specializes in upscale American fare and cocktail pairings — and Cornils is in the kitchen in the role of executive chef.

“It was like a dream come true,” Cornils says. “I’ve lived in or around this neighborhood for the 10 years that I’ve been in Milwaukee.”

Food and cocktail pairings are emphasized on a menu that will change in some way every month. In two months, the menu cycled through a selection of dishes, keeping the dining experience fresh and exciting.

Cornils designs menus that seamlessly combine his love of the Midwest with his fascination with Southern culture. The Laughing Bird Shrimp table-share dish, for instance, is breaded in corn meal and served with deep-fried dill pickles, red onions and a remoulade. Another menu item, the Nashville Hot Tofu and Cauliflower, offers deep-fried spicy tofu and cauliflower, complimented with honey for sweetness and blue cheese for saltiness.

“It’s rich, it’s spicy, it’s flavorful,” Cornils says. “There’s no other place in America where food is more tied into the culture than in the South.”

Typifying Cornil’s love of seasonality is “Apples,” a shared dish. The dish incorporates pickled apples, a roasted apple stuffed with Dunbarton blue cheese and raw apple slices.

Cornils gets the apples from the New Berlin-based Weston’s Antique Apples. A mixed-green salad on the side composed of kale, arugula and endive is tossed in an apple-cider vinaigrette, and a bed of braised radicchio supports the roasted apple. A baked Dunbarton blue cheese chip adds flair. The dish is sweet, salty and a perfect cool-weather appetizer.