Street-Food Inspired Restaurant Comes to Brady St.

Hybrid Lounge. Photo by Michael Horne.

The owners of successful Milwaukee street food and catering company Street Chefs MKE – known for its Pig Tailz and Roll MKE food trucks – have plans to bring a new dining experience to the former Hybrid Lounge space at 707 E. Brady St. If approved, the restaurant could open as soon as April. Urban Milwaukee first reported a new restaurant was coming to the location in February. The owners of the new restaurant recently announced the name: The Truck Stop. OnMilwaukee’s Lori Fredrich reports:

[Co-owner Jordan] Stewart says the goal of the new restaurant will be to infuse the spirit of street food culture into a brick and mortar establishment, offering guests an enhanced “From Truck to Table” experience.  

Both Pig Tailz and Roll MKE (which Stewart and [Justin] Kling purchased from Chad Rittgers in 2019) have made a name for themselves by operating a bit differently from other food trucks. Using a hibachi grill-style set-up which allows customers to see their food being prepared, they’ve created an interactive street food experience which delivers award-winning tacos, burgers and sandwiches to an engaged customer base.

The fast casual counter service restaurant will aim to harness that experience, bringing diners the street food they love in an environment that emulates the look and feel of a food truck.

As for the menu, Stewart says they’ll start off featuring best sellers from the two food trucks. That will include a wide assortment of Pig Tailz award-winning outside-the-box tacos, including chimichurri steak, buffalo chicken and Third Space beer braised Korean BBQ brisket.

There will also be Roll MKE favorites like the fan favorite brisket grilled cheese, the MKE burger, the bacon and pastrami sandwich and a selection of “crazy yet tasty” loaded fries.

Among the brand new offerings they’re likely to roll out sometime this summer is a street food inspired brunch on the weekends.

Faklandia Brewing to open new brewery and taproom

Faklandia Brewing, a brewery that focuses on combining fantasy storytelling with creative beverages, has turned to crowd funding in order to help with the funds required to open a new location at 3807 S. Packard Ave., the newly-vacant space that was previously home to 42 Ale House. The Kickstarter campaign has a goal of $10,000 and will be active for one month. OnMilwaukee’s Bobby Tanzilo has more details: 

“[The Kickstarter is] for building repairs, furniture, ingredients, and some additional permitting,” says [Brewmaster and Co-Owner Nate] Fakler. “Our stretch goal is $25,000 and we plan on doing something special with our backers when we hit that.”

Fakler says they expect to have a soft opening in April, and are, “aiming at June for the real deal.”

The two still plan to buy the six-barrel system from Colorado Brewing that they expected to install on Crawford Avenue. However, it will go into a much more turn-key space – they can even use the old Ale House tables and chairs – in a much more visible, higher-profile location.

“There is less work to do,” says Fakler. “The bar is there, all the taps are in. There is a kitchen. And the neighborhood is really welcoming.”

They will utilize the kitchen – something they hadn’t planned for the previous location – to become more brewpub than straight brewery.

Two previous Kickstarter campaigns last year did not reach their funding goals, but hopefully the third time’s the charm for Faklandia.

Egg & Flour Pasta Bar sets opening date

Pasta. Photo courtesy of Egg & Flour.

Popular Crossroads Collective (2238 N. Farwell Ave.) vendor Egg & Flour Pasta Bar, which opened in 2019, recently announced that it would open a second location at 2273 S. Howell Ave. sometime in early 2020. Now, the restaurant has an official opening date of March 9. The restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The new location will also offer private-label wine, craft beer, soda and prosecco. Eventually, the restaurant will also host pasta-making classes and course-tasting menus.

Pot Liquor comes to former Scrappy’s BBQ location

A Southern-and-soul-food inspired restaurant called Pot Liquor will celebrate its grand opening on March 7. The restaurant is set to open at 925 Madison Ave., South Milwaukee, the space previously home to Scrappy’s BBQ. Journal Sentinel’s Carol Deptolla reports: 

Pot Liquor’s owner is Ann Hall. She’s operated Sensational Fruit for years, selling strawberry lemonade at fairs and festivals, including the Washington County Fair.

At Saturday’s grand opening, Hall will be giving away strawberry lemonades with the purchase of a meal.

“There’s not a lot of Southern restaurants around,” Hall said, and not enough were making catfish to her liking. And that’s how Pot Liquor came to be.

The counter-service restaurant will have items made from Hall’s recipes, such as fried chicken, catfish, red beans and rice, shrimp and grits, mac and cheese, candied yams and green beans. Meatloaf will be the special on Wednesdays, and desserts will include banana pudding.

Certainly, Pot Liquor will have collard greens (the restaurant’s name refers to the liquid left at the bottom of the pot after greens have been boiled, usually with smoked pork hocks or smoked turkey wings).

The restaurant, which has a jazz and blues theme, can seat about 30 patrons. Hours will be 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.

Lao pop-up makes Milwaukee debut

A Lao pop-up from Racine known as SapSap will make its Milwaukee debut on March 12 at Crossroads Collective. The pop-up will have an 11-day run and will sell its newly bottled signature hot sauce for the first time. Deptolla has the scoop: 

SapSap owner Alex Hanesakda announced the pop-up back in January. Since then, he’s hired a sous chef, Darlene Vanmanivong; she’ll be working at the food hall pop-up and collaborating with Hanesakda on SapSap’s popular dinners in Racine in elsewhere.

The menu now is set. It will have smaller bites such as Mamma’s chicken-and-potato eggrolls ($5), Lao-style beef jerky (sien savanh, $5) and fried rice cakes (khao ji-kai, $3).

Entrees will include the Lao coconut-curry soup khao poon ($11) with catfish and rice noodles, and pa-khao, a platter with a choice of skirt steak ($15), Lao sausage ($12), Isan-style chicken ($12) or fried tofu ($12), served with sticky rice, papaya salad and dipping sauces.

Diners can try SapSap’s home-style Lao cooking during regular hours at the food hall, 2238 N. Farwell Ave. Those are from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. It continues through March 22.

The pop-up will mark the debut for SapSap’s first wholesale product, which it will be selling from its stall at Crossroads. Production began Wednesday of iJeow Som, its Lao hot sauce made of Thai chiles, ginger, garlic, cane sugar, lime juice and fish sauce.

Aloha Poke Co. plans second location

Milwaukee’s poke craze isn’t over yet. Aloha Poke Co. has plans to open a second location in Wauwatosa at 1417 N. Wauwatosa Ave., potentially by the end of May. Journal Sentinel’s Evan Casey reports: 

The space, which is approximately 900 square feet, will have seating for about 10 inside the restaurant, as well as four on an outside patio.

[Co-owner Thomas] Wang said the menu will be the same as what is offered at the Third Ward location. Aloha Poke Co. has a variety of signature house bowls, as well as ingredients for build-your-own bowls. The menu also consists of vegan and gluten-free items. 

The restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

The first Aloha Poke Co. location was inside a Chicago train station, according to Aloha’s website. The company now has 17 locations across several sates. 

Chicago deep dish pizza coming to Brookfield Square

Chicago-style pizza chain Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria, which specializes in deep dish pizza, has confirmed that it will open its Brookfield Square location at 15795 W. Bluemound Rd. sometime in late spring. Casey reports: 

The pizzeria plans to hire about 100 new employees at the restaurant, which will also have space for carryout, delivery and dropoff catering services. 

The 7,750-square-foot-space will be at 15795 W. Bluemound Road at Brookfield Square. It will feature private party rooms, an outdoor patio and a full bar. 

The new pizzeria will take over the space previously occupied by Stir Crazy. 

Along with the Fox Point location that opened Dec. 11, 2019, Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria has 56 Chicago area locations and three Arizona locations. 

Malnati also said the company plans to open two to three restaurants and four or five carryout and delivery stores over the next three to five years in Wisconsin. 

Lou Malnati’s plans to hold a hiring event in the upcoming months, the news release added. 

Colorado-based Asian restaurant chain comes to Wauwatosa

A Denver-based fast-casual-Asian restaurant chain will be opening its first Wisconsin location in Wauwatosa. Teriyaki Madness is set to open at a former Starbucks space on West Capitol Drive. Although this marks the chain’s first Wisconsin location, Teriyaki Madness has 110 locations open or in the works across the United States. BizTimes’ Maredithe Meyer reports:  

Teriyaki Madness is expected to open July 2020 in a 1,594-square-foot space, with indoor seating for approximately 40 diners, according to plans submitted to the City of Wauwatosa.

The Wauwatosa restaurant will be managed by Restaurant Sherpas, an affiliate of Teriyaki Maddness that runs the company’s franchise locations. It will have 15 employees, with up to five working each shift. Proposed hours of operation are 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., which line up with those of the adjacent Qdoba.

Plans for Teriyaki Madness will be considered by the city’s Plan Commission during a March 9 meeting.

Teriyaki Madness’ menu focuses on a variety of wok-tossed bowls, including chicken or beef teriyaki, spicy chicken, orange chicken teriyaki and yakisoba noodles.