Friday night was an amazing night for my guest and I. We spent the hours between 6:30pm and 9:30pm at a grocery store. You heard it right. 3 hours of food, wine, conversation at what Whole Foods calls Community Table.

Consider that on Friday nights chef Tim Mclean hosts an intimate evening for a small group of people featuring rare wine, fine dining, great conversation and fellowship. What a truly unique and creative experience.

We parked conveniently below Whole Foods and made our way through the store to a room on the far west side of the building that is visible from North Ave. Perhaps you’ve seen it? It’s a complete kitchen with all the accoutrements one would find in a newly remodeled home.

The decor and composition of the place lends itself to a relaxed and homestyle feeling. Add a fridge stocked with a variety of beers (I split a large Sapporo with my guest), wines and water and it’s not difficult to settle right in.

Chef Tim Mclean’s disarming and friendly disposition makes for a fun, casual and interactive evening. As he frequently states “Its about you tonight” and it definately was.

The first thing we did, after brief introductions and light conversation, was to grab baskets and go shopping in the store. Included in the price of admission are all of the ingredients to the dinner you are going to watch Chef Mclean prepare. How do you know what ingredients to choose? Choose whatever you want - the night is about you and its your hosts challenge to combine your selected ingredients into a superb 5 course meal.

As we walked around the store with wine glasses in hand we chose ginger, sun dried tomatoes and Japanese eggplant from the vegetable section to name just a few. From the fresh fish section we chose Chilean Sea Bass and jumbo scallops. We selected choice filet from the meat department as well.

The idea is to work together to draw some consensus about the overall dinner for the evening. It wasn’t difficult for the 6 of us to decide what we wanted although we were considerate of some milk aversions as well as any allergies the group might have had.

Once everything was loaded into the baskets we returned to the kitchen/dining room and dove into some more wine and appetizers while Tim prepared our first course, then second, then third, then fourth (you get the point) course. We…were…stuffed. Dessert is not one of the courses participants are allowed to select because Chef Mclean likes to sometimes prepare fresh pastries which require extra preparation time.

Are there other 5 course fine dining options in Milwaukee? Of course there are and they are very good, but I doubt they come close to being as entertaining, informative and interesting as this one.

Every Friday

Individual Seats are $60pp

Private Parties can be reserved for 10 or more.

Whole Foods
2305 N Prospect Ave
(414) 223-1500 or email tim.mclean@wholefoods.com

When you enter Good Life you’re immediately greeted with a sign that says “Seat Yourself” so naturally, thats exactly what we did. What you notice after you grab a seat and take a look around is the relaxing atmosphere of the place. From the music to the lighting; from the architecture to the menu there is an ever abundant feeling of comfort and simplicity.
Looking over the menu you’ll notice that menu prices including entree’s are all under $15. There are 5 entree’s to choose from, 5 sandwiches on the menu and 6 appetizers available to start it all off. My guests and I chose the Grilled Shrimp Skewers (the most expensive app at $12) and were presented with 3 tasty skewers served in what they call a rum fruit glaze.

From there we moved on to our dinner entree’s which in the case of my guest included the Shark and Bake Sandwich ($12) and in my case I chose the Jerk Chicken Plate ($14). The Jerk Chicken Plate came with a side of coconut rice which was a hit when mixed with the sweet sauce - yum! and also came with a side of beans that i wasnt a super fan of but one of my guests gobbled it down in a hurry :)

The Shark and Bake Sandwich is a fried white fish wrap as pictured with the gal in the middle. Individually the fish tasted crisp and fresh but when lightly covered with the white sauce provided it was very good. Of particular note were the home made potato chips served as a side that I couldnt keep my hands off of.

The space is split nearly 50/50 between bar and restaurant which makes it very easy to transition between a dinner crowd and a night time bar scene.

Good Life is a casual, modern, open space concept with great food (at least what we tried so far) and great prices. It will be a pleasure to return and sample more of the atmosphere and menu.
http://goodlifemilwaukee.com/