It was 6:15 on a Wednesday evening, and there was a wait for a table for two at Maxie's Southern Comfort, 6732 W. Fairview Ave., which had just completed its half-price happy hour. But, we didn't mind; the transformed Gerry O'Brien's butcher shop/grocery is now a lovely setting for wine and oysters at the bar while you wait for a table.

Maxie's Southern Comfort, the sister restaurant to Maxie's Supper Club in Ithaca, N.Y., opened earlier this spring bringing with it Milwaukee's only daily raw bar and "blunch" (too late for breakfast, too early for lunch).

The staff at Maxie's is friendly and knowledgeable, and the oysters are fresh and delicious. We sampled Cape Bretons (from Nova Scotia) and PEI (Prince Edward Island) oysters on our most recent visit. Served with malt vinegar, freshly grated horseradish and cocktail sauce accoutrements, these were some of the finest and freshest oysters, well-shucked and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. At $2 each (although market price may vary slightly), and half price during happy hour, if you have any appreciation for a raw bar, a trip out to Maxie's is well worth the drive.

Lunches and dinners here focus on New Orleans style cuisine. Maxie's mighty-mighty gumbo (cup $4.50, bowl ($7.95) is rich and spicy, with smoky hints of andouille sausage. Appetizers like Cajun popcorn ($9.95) feature fresh crawfish tails that quite literally popped with flavor in each mouthful, especially when paired with the accompanying remoulade.

Steamed littleneck clams (8 for $8.95, 12 for $12.95, 16 for $16.95) were a delight in garlic butter broth with French bread for mopping up the rich broth and clam juice once the mollusks were gone. And the Maxie's deluxe crab cake ($9.95) was plump and brown due to the Portobello mushrooms use in the recipe, and was satisfying and excellent in flavor-unless you happened to grab a forkful of the rwb slaw beneath it, which was thick with a pungent bleu cheese flavor and detracted from the crab cake's already complex flavors.

Entrées here ranked well above average, with our favorites being the pulled pork plate ($12.95) and a special of a half rack of BBQ ribs ($16.95). The former was a compilation of pork slow cooked in cider vinegars and other spices and juices for close to day before arriving, looking somewhat dry on a diner's plate, but the pork is anything but dry, and such a novelty here in Milwaukee (although quite popular in Eastern North Carolina, where it is rarely seen served without a pitcher of iced tea) that it, too, is worth a visit to Maxie's.

The dinners come with large portions and sides galore, all of which were very, very good. Sweet potato fries were crisp and well seasoned, baked beans were slow cooked with tender pork, and mashed potatoes were teeming with butter. Perhaps my favorite side, the cornbread, is crumbly and delicious, and absolutely divine when spread with their orange honey butter.

The only real disappointment we found at Maxie's was the fried chicken ($13.95), a delightfully tender crisp breast of chicken that was overpowered slightly by the pool of Maxie's version of tasso gravy, which our waitress said was flavored with pork and bacon and lots of cumin. So much cumin in fact, that the gravy, which traditionally is white and creamy and flavored with ham, tasted more like a thick, bitter chili and overpowered the chicken.

For a new restaurant, Maxie's consistently exceeded our expectations on all three visits, and under the watchful eye of owner Dan Sidner who I saw go to every table, every visit, and inquire about every diner's experience, I wholly expect Maxie's to continue to improve and flourish. The unique atmosphere and the quality of fun, distinct items on the menu makes Maxie's a great place to go for a light-hearted evening out, hence its slogan, "Get in here!"