Five New Restaurants Opening

This being America, let us start this week’s run-down of new restaurants with the all-American burger. Wright’s Burgers & Wings will open in mid-January at 3133 N. Oakland Ave. where American Euros is preparing to close its doors on December 12th, which we reported on last week. Wright’s will serve a variety of burgers — vegan, beef, chicken and a lamb burger which tastes like gyro meat. Owner Mark Miller plans to make the burgers available in two sizes in order to keep prices ($3-$6) down for college students. Other menu items will include wings with a variety of sauces that will include mild honey mustard and fresh green chile. A children’s menu will be available as well as desserts.

-Also emphasizing burgers will be the new Pub Club, which will be located at 1103 N. Old World 3rd St. This location has changed hands many times and was most recently the Suite nightclub, which closed late September. The owners of Suite, Jake and Seth Dehne, have partnered with the owner of MKE Sports & Entertainment, Mike Zimmerman, to open Pub Club, but also to run food and beverage for other businesses owned by MKE Sports & Entertainment. Pub Club plans a January opening after finishing renovations which include a glass cooler for kegs to be built behind the bar. The restaurant will serve pub-style food and specialize in steamed burgers and cheeseburgers.

-On the Mexican food front, Vagabond will be opening at 1112 N. Edison St. where Rudy’s Mexican Restaurant was previously located. Rudy’s, which had been a popular Walker’s Point restaurant, had closed in 1999, reopened on Edison St. in 2001 and was then run by the R.C. Schmidt chain after Rudolfo (Rudy) Borrego died. Vagabond, also run owned by Schmidt, will open December 11th after Rudy’s closes down. Vagabond will serve street food, such as tacos, and host a DJ every Friday and Saturday night. The new restaurant will serve lunch and dinner.

-On the Japanese front, Kawa will open at 325 W. Silver Spring Dr. in Glendale in the former location of Irina’s Kitchen. Owner Lin Jin Xiao is currently renovating the place and plans to open sometime between late January and early February. Kawa will serve Japanese dishes and sushi.

-On the pie front, more pizza is coming. Riverwest Pizza, which we reported last October had plans to open at 932 E. Wright St., has announced it will open next week, December 15. The restaurant will offer ten different kinds of thin-crust pizza, the classic Milwaukee style, plus a selection of toppings for build-your-own pizza (fennel sausage made in-house, spinach, avocado, bacon, etc.).Vegan options will be available too. The restaurant will also serve appetizers, craft beers, wines and locally-produced spirits.

Delayed

-Last, but certainly not least, a second Pita Pit is coming. Pita Pit, the national chain that runs some 220 franchise locations nationally, has had one location in town, at 2224 N. Farwell Ave., serving its plates of meat and vegetables wrapped in Lebanese pita bread. In July, as we reported, it announced a second location coming in the Railway Exchange Building at 229. E. Wisconsin Ave. Last week the chain announced it has moved back the opening of the restaurant, originally slated for September, to early next year.