Amazing Architecture versus A Perfect Beef and Mushroom Strudel

I traveled to Milwaukee yesterday.  The drive north to Wisconsin is enjoyable.  Milwaukee is not as sprawling as Chicago, a more user-friendly city by the lake.  The cost of parking is reasonable there too.  We wanted to visit the Christkindl Market that was situated near the BMO Harris Bradley Center.  The Bradley Center is home court for the Milwaukee Bucks.

The scale of the Bradley Center arena, what an impressive feat of engineering!  The walls of the building cantilevered out, soaring and curving in, finished with a brown faux stone facade.  The building gave the impression of a post modern cathedral, a suitable locale for celebrating what seems to be most important to us in our early 21st Century society, our core values.  I doubt that any of the season ticket holder fans reflect upon their commitment of time and money in those terms.  But then again, I am not a fan.

But I want to talk about Mader’s Restaurant.  We were hungry and saw building of German architecture about a half block away.  It looked a substantial (not fast food) place to have lunch so we entered.  Entering,  it seemed as if I had stepped into 19th Century Bavaria.  The decor, atmosphere of the room, statuary, the pre-industrial age weapons decorating the wall all signaled that this was a special corner in Milwaukee.  I have little experience with German cuisine, so I ordered the first entre on the menu.  Why not start at the top?  I was not disappointed.  The Beef and Mushroom Strudel with Ginger Snap Sauce was the perfect lunch.  I would order it again.  Who would not be a fan of strudel?  Generations of German mothers and grand mothers have prepared this meal with love for their children.

As we prepared to depart I asked our wait person how long has Maders been in business.  She answered, “Since 1902.”  That was before the Wright Bros flight, and before Henry Ford’s model T.

I could not help compare my impression of the hyper contemporary Bradley Center with the patina of Mader’s Restaurant.  The civilizations represented by these two architectures, one past and one contemporary, –are worlds apart.  These words came to mind which I noted down many years ago from a text that I read,  The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul.

In essence civilizations become identical.  They will be techniques.  What differences there are will result from the cold calculation of some technician, instead of being the result of the profound spiritual and material effort of generations of human beings.  Instead of being the expression of man’s essence, they will be accidents of what is essential: technique.   p. 131

I was strangely comforted as we left Maders to read a sign listing some of the famous patrons that have been served.  Frank Sinatra and John Wayne were on the list.