Couples experience flavors area restaurant

After selling a previous eatery, they quickly got the itch to open another

By: Amanda Lauer, The Business News

It’s often said that the best presents come in small packages.  The owners of Al Corso, a fine-dining restaurant at the intersection of Milwaukee and Main Street in the quaint, unincorporated community of Collins in Manitowoc County, believes their business fits that description.

Collins  is a sleepy little that hamlet that is home to a bowling alley, two taverns, a pattern shop, a marsh, and a restaurant similar to a bistro in a major metropolitan area.

Al Corso is just two years old, but its owners, Alexandria and Dave Slam, have decades of experience in the food industry and have poured that knowledge into their dream eatery.  Alex, who is from Milwaukee, has been married to Dave, a Chilton native, for 25 years.  The couple has four children ages 18 to 23 who help out in the family business in whatever capacity they can.

Dave’s family is well-known in the restaurant business. “My family started a restaurant in Chilton when I was in third or fourth grade called Marcals,” Dave said. “I started working there right away.”

He worked there through high school.  He graduated in 1976 and in 1980 went to culinary school at Fox Valley Technical College.

“At that time, my dad had Marcals in Chilton and Brillion,” Dave said. “Two-and-a-half years into the program, my dad asked me, ‘Do you want to run one? I need your help.”

Dave and Alex then ran the Chilton restaurant until they bought it from his mom and ad in 1994. 

In 1999, they sold the restaurant to a family member from Chicago.

At that point, Dave and Alex were looking to change careers.  “We got out of it and said, ‘We’re never going to do that again,’” Alex said.

“I took a job as a supervisor for about a year in a wax factory in Oshkosh,” Dave said. “I didn’t like that, so I took a job in food service at St. Lawrence Seminary in Mount Calvary.  I’m now the full-time food director there.”

Within a few years, the couple got the itch to open their own restaurant again.  Dave knew of a historic building in Collins he thought might fit the bill.  “It was a bar named Tiny’s,” Alex said.  “We bought this building in November of 2005 for a ridiculous amount of money and put a ridiculous amount of money into it.  We completely gutted it.  We literally lifted building six inches off the ground and added new windows, new walls, new plumbing, new electric, new insulation, new everything.  It’s a pretty little place now.”

Al Corso, which is Italian for “at the main street” has turned into a destination dining spot.  Collins is within 45 minutes f a base of 250,000 potential customers, sitting at point between Green Bay, Manitowoc, and Appleton. While the majority of their diners come the 20 minutes from Manitowoc, Al Corso draws patrons from Two Rivers, Kohler, Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, Milwaukee, Saumico, De Pere, Sherwood and the Fox Cities.

Collins makes for a nice day trip for people throughout the State of Wisconsin.  “It’s a pretty community,” Dave said. “It’s nice because of the Collins Marsh wildlife refuge.  For thousands of, birds have migrated through this area to go to Canada.  During the spring, we have eagles and swans – every kind of bird that goes to Canada goes through this flyway.  There are 4,000 acres here of pristine wildlife area.”

Dave oversees the operations of the restaurant and Alex is the restaurant manager.  They also own a bar in Chilton called 40 West, which is in a renovated building as well.  Al Corso is open Wednesday through Sunday evenings for dining and by appointment for events such as weddings, anniversary parties and showers.  Wine dinners, beer dinners and patio parties are held throughout the year.  They also do catering on-premise and off-premise.

The food served at the 46-seat restaurant is American style, but Alex said they offer something for everyone, ranging from Friday night fish fries and hamburgers to steaks and seafood.  A recent five-course special event dinner included oyster artichoke soup, asparagus and crabmeat salad, chicken and smoked sausage gumbo with roasted green onion stuffed quail, roasted pork chop with red cabbage and green apple jam accented by a rosemary pan au jus, and pecan cake with white chocolate mocha sauce.

The most gratifying thing for Dave being the co-owner of Al Corso is the comments he receives from satisfied customers. “The comment cards make you do what you want to do,” he said. “We are in the entertainment industry.  People are coming in to be entertained, and we do it with food.”

For Alex, providing a place for people to come to for an enjoyable night out has been rewarding. “It was a difficult decision coming back into this industry because it is so hard, with all the hours,” she said. “but coming back to it, we have a new appreciation for what we do.”

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