Fast Food Franchises Are Coming!

If you like a Mooyah burger — and who doesn’t? — you can’t do better than to live in Texas, where you can find 38 locations for this national franchise, with another coming soon to Arlington. The first Mooyah’s opened in Plano, Texas in 2007 and the company and now has in the neighborhood of 100 locations. But if you live in a northern state, its franchises are few and far between, with not one in Wisconsin.

That shocking dearth of Mooyahs in Badgerland will soon be remedied, as the company plans to open two locations here, bringing “the next great burger brand,” as it has dubbed itself, to Brookfield and to Fitchburg, a suburb of Madison. Yes, they are “Coming Soon,” its website promises.

But that’s just the start, the company told the Business Journal: it aims to open up to 10 new Mooyahs in Wisconsin in the next three years, “becoming a potential competitor for Culver’s,” the custard and hamburger chain based in Wisconsin.

Mooyahs, however, is far surpassed by the weirdly-named Chick-fil-A when it comes to a southern-based, fast-food franchise conquering American. Chick-fil-A, based in Atlanta and founded in 1946, now has nearly 1,800 franchises and its annual sales surpass that of Kentucky Fried Chicken, as Business Week reported.

Until recently, just one Chick-fil-A was located in Wisconsin, which left us very Chick unfilled, whereas those hearty Texans have 270 locations they can call home away from home. But, as the Business Journal reports, Chick-fil-A recently opened locations in Brookfield in Glendale, with a new one about to open in the Drexel Town Square development in Oak Creek.

Which still leaves not one Mooyah or Chick-fil-A located in the city of Milwaukee. We’ll try to bear up.

Amilinda Settling Down

As Michael Horne first reported for Urban Milwaukee last week, the south side’s popular pop-up restaurant, Amilinda, appears to have found a permanent home. Amilinda, which offers dining fare influenced by Spanish and Portuguese cuisine, will be establishing its home base at 315 E. Wisconsin Ave., previously the home of Thai restaurant Tai Makii. The new restaurant, owned and operated by partners Orry DeYoung and Chef Gregory Leon, will serve up to 50 guests and offer a wider and more varied assortment of dishes than they did as a pop-up. Chef Leon hopes to open in early June. Amilinda previously operated Saturday evenings out of the National Café.

The Pub Club

As we reported in December, Old World Third Street is welcoming a new addition to its already eclectic assortment of restaurants, bars, and hangouts, the Pub Club. Owned by  brothers Jake and Seth Dehne, the new establishment celebrated its grand opening last Friday, as the Journal Sentinel reported. The new place occupies the space previously held by the brothers’ last venture, Suite Night Club, and offers afternoon drinking and dining and a dance-heavy lounge atmosphere. The menu offers pasta, steak and sandwiches, as well as shareable pub grub that may appeal to those going to or coming from events at the nearby BMO Harris Bradley Center.

In addition to The Pub Club, the brothers Dehne also manage Buckhead Saloon and Upper 90s Sports Pub, both located on and just off Old World Third, respectively.

Buddha Lounge

Last month we reported that the restaurant and bar, Buddha Lounge, would be opening at 1504 E. North Ave., and would be serving Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. The location has had a lot of turnover: In recent years, it housed Node Cafe, Glass Nickel Pizza, La Piazza and Clutch. But Buddha Lounge owners, Drs. Yosef Goldstein and Michael Nguyen, are undaunted, and hope to offer guests a classy, date-night atmosphere. Its grand opening was last week Monday and garnered a positive review from OnMilwaukee’s Molly Snyder.

Pita Pit

As we reported last week, a second Pita Pit opened Downtown in the Railway Exchange Building on E. Wisconsin Ave. The first Pita Pit in town is on E. Farwell Ave. Now the company is planning a third location, at a site still to be determined, the Business Journal reported.

Now Closing

–Prodigal Gastropub, the Walker’s Point establishment that advertises “a creative take on American comfort food,” closed this week. According to co-owner Guy Lamberg, who wrote to the Milwaukee Business Journal, the pub on Pittsburgh Ave. is indefinitely closed. He and co-owner Robert Butterfield are currently “Not certain if it will reopen at this point.” Details are murky why the restaurant, which opened in July 2013, has closed its doors. As the Journal Sentinel reports, Lamberg “noted the competitive nature of the restaurant business, particularly in Walker’s Point, where new restaurants open with some frequency.”

-Also closing recently is the Italian restaurant Mia Famiglia in Hales Corners, which shut down on January 17. Its chef, Tom White, Jr., told the Journal Sentinel he planned to open a new restaurant in downtown Waukesha.

Research assistance for the story provided by Andrew McCann.