Press
Milwaukee’s Top 30 restaurants for 2019: Delicious food, spectacular service set these stars apart
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
hen it comes to who makes the Top 30 and the wider Milwaukee 50, food is always the most important consideration. Is it well-conceived and executed? How ambitious is the menu? Is it delicious?
For the Top 30 restaurants, service received strong consideration. Did the food and the service merit the price tag? Were they what diners would expect and deserve on a special night out? Or any night out, for that matter?
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The 100 Best Restaurants Worth Splurging on This Year, According to Yelp
Travel + Leisure
Sure, it’s always a good idea to live within your means and save for the future. But every now and again, it’s important to treat yourself to something special, too.
Be it a birthday, anniversary, promotion, or a hefty tax refund, splurging on a good meal every so often can be good for your soul. And thankfully, Yelp has parsed out 100 places around the country where those dining-related splurges should take place.
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Motorcycle accident set Waukesha chef’s career path
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
When Jason Tofte and his wife, Cristina, purchased The Steaming Cup in downtown Waukesha in 2015, they embraced simplicity and community.
Tofte spent 18 years immersed in the world of fine dining at Eddie Martini’s in Wauwatosa. It’s where the chef perfected his steak searing skills, and where he met Cristina, who had worked at Sanford.(Continued…)
50 BEST RESTAURANTS – 2017
Milwaukee’s Lifestyle Magazine
The Milwaukee area’s culinary community is undoubtedly stronger than ever, and paring down its many restaurants into a list of just 50 was no easy feat. Our editors weighed various factors, including the inventiveness of the establishment’s cuisine and overall ambiance, when deciding which restaurants deserved a spot on this list, and we’re excited to finally share it with you, our loyal readers and fellow foodies. Enjoy!
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Tofte’s Table: Like eating at home with someone else cooking
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A restaurant with a dining environment free of distractions and focused on the art of conversation with your family can be hard to find.
Dishes designed to be shared by two to four people, no TV’s in sight and a warm simple decor have helped Jason and Cristina Tofte create just such an atmosphere at Tofte’s Table in Waukesha.
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Top 50 Restaurants Ranked
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
#23: Tofte’s Table – How would chef Jason Tofte cook for you if you were invited to his home? Pretty much as he does for customers at Tofte’s Table, he says, the stylish, relaxed restaurant he and his wife, Cristina, opened in downtown Waukesha a year ago. The shareable plates have a homey feel but are served with the polish an accomplished chef provides.Chicken and duck thighs are served with gnocchi and broccolini in the birds’ juices; octopus is grilled and served with greens in a bright lemon-mustard dressing. It’s all thoroughly delicious. The restaurant is as good for date night as it is for groups, especially with a communal table front and center.
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Dish of the Month: Comfort Zone
Milwaukee’s Lifestyle Magazine
“The place is designed to feel like you came to our house for dinner,” says Jason Tofte, co-owner with his wife, Cristina, of Tofte’s Table in downtown Waukesha. A mix of Mason jars, crystal wine glasses and antique serving utensils plus the pair’s regular table visits to chat with guests lend a relaxed atmosphere to the elegant space painted deep purple.Before opening their own restaurant, Jason worked as a chef for almost 20 years at Eddie Martini’s, and Cristina managed Sanford and Coquette Café. Theirs too is a fine-dining establishment, and refined comfort food staples like fried chicken drumsticks and meatloaf with Yukon mash share the menu with octopus and braised pork belly for more adventurous diners.
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2017 Top 10 Rated Restaurants in Waukesha
WAUKESHA, WI — Ever wonder where to go for a good bite to eat? Who has the best American fare? What about the best Mexican food?
Websites like Yelp! have empowered the everyday diner to become their local neighborhood’s food critic, offering helpful insight to others.
Ever wondered if a restaurant is good or bad? Yelp! can be a good indicator of whether that restaurant is worth your time or money.
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Tofte’s Table provides unique dining experience in downtown Waukesha
Homelike Attention
When restaurant veterans hone skills through various experiences to the point that they can be inventive on their own, patrons are treated to a unique experience.
That’s the case at Tofte’s Table, established in August 2016 in the former site of Waukesha’s Key Westconsin, 331 Riverfront Plaza. Owners Jason and Cristina Tofte, also proprietors of nearby The Steaming Cup, have created a place where comfort food and inventive dishes intersect in a setting that combines a cool, sleek environment with an emphasis on communal dining.
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Turning Tables
A long-time steakhouse chef trades in fine dining for laid-back, something-for-everyone shareable plates.
When Jason Tofte helmed the kitchen of Eddie Martini’s, he suited up in a white chef’s coat, cooked on the line and rarely ventured out to chat with patrons. That changed when the 18-year Tosa steakhouse vet left to run Waukesha’s The Steaming Cup with his wife, Cristina. The Cup came with a sizable built-in clientele, and serving up lattes with hummus wraps required interaction with customers.
The trepidation of being visible evaporated over time, so that when Jason and Cristina looked at a vacant restaurant storefront near the Cup (thinking it might benefit their small cafe to have more space), they started considering another venture – one with the informality of a cafe but a more elevated tone, where both owners work the front of the house. A venue where plates are shareable, service is casual and convivial. That’s the premise of Tofte’s Table.
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Milwaukee’s Best New Restaurants of 2016
It was a banner year for new restaurants.
Restaurants that let a diner eat like a world traveler, restaurants that put a personal stamp on their dishes, restaurants that showed just how good a steak or a pizza could be — they’re on the 2016 list of best new restaurants.
Since 2008, this annual list has included anywhere from six to 10 restaurants; in 2016, a dozen places have made the list, and I could have gone on.
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Setting a place at Tofte’s Table
Sharable, Down-home Plates at Tofte’s Table
Here I was at Tofte’s Table, a new restaurant in downtown Waukesha by a chef who had made his name at a popular steakhouse, and one of the plates I was most charmed by was meatless.
I’d seen too many plates of pedestrian steamed vegetables to have huge expectations for the menu’s grilled vegetables ($10). But here came a heaped, vivid plate of vegetables that weren’t the usual suspects, made even more interesting by their time on the grill and a bit of char for extra flavor. Still life with deliciousness.
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3 dishes: Cristina and Jason Tofte of Tofte’s Table
What’s in a restaurant?
In this series, we ask chefs around the city to describe their restaurants in their own words and recommend three dishes that embody the best of what they offer. In this edition, we talk with Cristina and Jason Tofte of Tofte’s Table in Waukesha.
“We’ve been together for almost 20 years, and married for 17,” notes Cristina Tofte. “Since we’ve been together, when we go out to dinner, Jason always orders the food. It keeps coming and we’re sharing all of the dishes. It provokes conversation and interaction. We’re laughing. We’re trying each others plates, and it’s just a more full experience.”
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Chef Jason Tofte to open second restaurant in downtown Waukesha
Chef Jason Tofte and his wife, Cristina Tofte, who took over the Steaming Cup coffeehouse in downtown Waukesha last year, are preparing to open their second restaurant nearby in August.
Called Tofte’s Table, it will serve shareable plates at 331 Riverfront Plaza. That’s the former site of Key Westconsin, the Key West-themed restaurant that closed early this year.
The new restaurant will edge closer to the couple’s fine-dining roots; Jason Tofte was the longtime chef at Eddie Martini’s steakhouse in Wauwatosa, where the couple met.
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