The Brewery Opens Food Court

Eleven25 at Pabst. Photo from Eleven25 at Pabst website.

Westallion Brewing Co.

West Allis will soon be home to a new brewery, which will be the city’s first. Westallion Brewing Co. (1825 S. 72nd St.) was originally set to open in April 2016, but due to construction delays the project was delayed. The new brewery will host an open house, including mini tours and beer samples, on Friday, Dec. 16. Westallion Brewing Co. plans to open for business by this February or March. Molly Snyder of OnMilwaukee highlights the brewery’s plans:

Westallion – which is a playful nickname for people who live in West Allis – will offer rotating seasonal beers with a historical tie to West Allis and four flagship beers.

“Western Days” is a Vienna Lager that’s named after the city’s beloved-but-defunct festival.

“Gener-ale,” a Scottish Ale, will also be available, along with a Pale Ale named “Mustang” after the mascot of now-closed West Milwaukee High School and a Kolsch-style beer called “Lillehammer” named after the city in Norway where West Allis’ Dan Jansen won an Olympic gold medal for speed skating in 1994.

Westallion products will initially only be available in West Allis, but will expand to other markets shortly after opening. The first bars to offer Westallion include Braun’s, Drunk Uncle, Liquid Johnny’s, The Brass Monkey, The Network, West Allis Cheese & Sausage, Ka-bob’s Bistro, Jack Rabbit Slims and a few others.

Westallion is also a member of the Milwaukee Craft Brewery League and Eat West Allis, an organization that promotes new and different businesses in the city. Other members include Farmer’s Wife, Chef Paz, Kabob’s, Crawdaddy’s and Antigua.

Once open, Westallion’s tasting room will feature a “restaurant of the day” from the Eat West Allis group, allowing customers to order items from one of the restaurants on a particular day. In exchange, the restaurants will offer Westallion beer on tap.

Sushi Go

The popular food truck known for sushi burritos will soon move into a brick-and-mortar location in Bay View. The new restaurant will be located in the former home of Subway at 2110 E. Oklahoma Ave. and could open as soon as March 2017. Sushi Go is owned and operated by Amanda Trenbeth and sushi chef Erik Irmiger. Lori Fredrich of OMC has more:

The highlight of the Sushi Go menu will be its sushi burritos, of which there will be six core offerings, along with a rotating selection of chef’s specials. As always, customers will have their choice of brown rice, white rice or quinoa.

Trenbeth says they’ll also offer about five more traditional maki selections, along with three types of ramen: vegetarian, chicken and beef bone broth, all with traditional fixings. A small menu of appetizer items, including dumplings and edamame, will also be available, along with beer and wine.

Trenbeth says the goal is to create a space that’s easygoing, where parents feel comfortable bringing their children. “We want it to be the sort of place where families can go when they don’t want fried chicken or pizza for dinner,” she says.

Once open, the restaurant will offer lunch and dinner, along with carryout. Delivery is also on the wish list, but is likely to come later. The restaurant also has an outdoor patio space, which they’ll likely begin building out after they open.

Trenbeth says that Sushi Go will continue to maintain a food truck presence, even after the brick-and-mortar location is established. In fact, expansion may be on the docket for the future.

Eleven25 at Pabst

The former Pabst Brewing Co. bottling house was recently transformed into student housing, and now the refurbished building is home to five new restaurants. Eleven25 at Pabst (1125 N. 9th St.) opened its food court Monday and includes Gouda Girls, Huan Xi Express, Tokyo Express and Bread House, Upper Crust Pizza and Meat on the Street. The food court will be able to sit approximately 250 guests in 8,000 square feet of space. Melanie Lawder of the Milwaukee Business Journal reports:

“The Restaurants at Eleven25 has been a significant undertaking,” said Michael Kelly, executive vice president of Blue Ribbon Management LLC, developer and owner of Eleven25 at Pabst, in a news release. “Once we had completed the 400-bed student residential portion of the historic bottling complex, which dates back to the early 1900s, we quickly turned our attention to creating this spectacular food court and finding the mix of existing restaurant operators and award-winning food truck operators to move into space that includes kitchens that are custom designed and equipped to meet each individual owner’s needs.”

The food court — which will be open to the public and serve the businesses located in The Brewery neighborhood — is just one of several amenities that Eleven25 offers. The student-housing complex also features a fitness center, laundry facilities, lounges, private study rooms, a theater, garage parking and a convenience store opening in spring 2017. The entire project has cost more than $40 million.

Birch & Banyan

Hartland’s newest coffee shop, Birch & Banyan, is set to open by mid-March at 150 E. Capitol Dr. in that far-west suburb. Jessie Senglaub is the brain behind the coffee shop, which gets its name from the street where Senglaub grew up (Birch Road in Delafield) and the state tree of Hawaii, where Senglaub first thought of the idea of a new coffee shop. Fredrich adds more:

“I absolutely love Milwaukee and the Third Ward, but the market is a lot more saturated here,” she says of the decision to put her cafe in Lake Country. “So, I made a list of places that I might want to consider. Essentially, I really love small towns, and I really wanted to build my business in a place where I could really get to know all of my customers.”

According to Senglaub, the 1,750-square foot cafe will serve coffee and espresso drinks, along with grab-and-go items sourced from Lake Country area businesses. The environment will be comfortable and cozy with hardwood floors, comfortable couches, a fireplace and warm brick walls that complement an interior palette of neutral tans and browns with dark blue accents…

Tentative hours for the cafe will be 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week.

Shawarma House: Brookfield

After successfully opening its first location on Milwaukee’s East Side in 2014, Shawarma House will open its second location tomorrow (December 8). The newest location is at 17385 W. Blue Mound Rd. Fredrich has the story:

The Brookfield Shawarma House will offer counter service and the same menu as the East Side location, including items like falafel, hummus, soup, salad and kebabs, along with chicken and beef shawarma.

The grand opening will feature a ribbon cutting on Dec. 8 at 10:30 a.m., followed by $4 sandwiches all day long.

Shawarma House in Brookfield will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.