America's Classics: Justin Aprahamian on Three Brothers

Three Brothers
Milwaukee

It’s like a little storefront, kind of an old-school bar, so there’s a really cozy feel to it. It’s family-run and family-owned so it’s kind of intimate, like you’re being welcomed in by them. 

The food is super soulful. The burek is a must; they run it as an appetizer. There’s spinach and cheese in it—it’s so good, very comforting. It says on the menu that there’s a forty-minute wait for it so you should go in and order it right away. Don’t even think about it—just place your order for the burek and then go about reading the menu and deciding what else you want to get or what your drinks are going to be. They’ve got a pretty good selection of some of those eastern European liqueurs tucked away back there so I’d recommend trying one. It’s a lot of Serbian food: suckling pig, veal breast, they have goose on the menu from time to time. The food is very homey—it’s not plated elaborately or anything. You have your vegetable on the plate with the meat—cabbage or roasted carrots.

Sanford D’Amato, the former owner of the Sanford restaurant and my mentor, who I bought the restaurant from, he’s known them for a long time. My first time eating there was with Sandy five or six years ago. There were some chefs in town cooking for a dinner and he took a bunch of us over there to eat. And we actually cooked for Branko’s daughter’s wedding—we had her wedding here on a Sunday afternoon. They’ve always been super generous and supportive of us and vice versa. 

—Justin Aprahamian, JBF Award Winner

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