Mexican Restaurant Planned for Bay View

Bay View is slated to get a new Mexican restaurant.

Milwaukeean Jorge Ventura Ramirez has plans to bring a Mexican restaurant to 2899 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. It would be his second for the neighborhood. Ventura Ramirez is the registered agent and co-owner of Las 7 Estrellas restaurant at 112 E. Dakota St. on the western edge of Bay View.

Area residents will recognize the new location as the squat, pink building on the northwest corner of S. Kinnickinnic Ave. and S. Ellen Street.

Ventura Ramirez doesn’t have any word on menu or the name of the restaurant yet, nor has a license been applied for. He told Urban Milwaukee those are still being worked on. For now, he’s making some repairs and building out the space.

The Department of Neighborhood Services refers to the business as “Ventura’s Tacos” in a commercial alteration permit. The concrete block building is owned by Athina and Marko Tase. BMR Design Group is listed as the project architect.

About a year ago, A donut shop called Sweet Rings had plans to open in the building. But a dispute with a contractor doomed the business.

As Urban Milwaukee reported in May 2019, owners Bobby and Amanda Ring paid thousands of dollars for work on the building. But that didn’t work out. “These guys took my money and never came back to do any real work,” the owners wrote on their Facebook page. The Ring’s contractors, Ken and Vance Grabske, have a long history of civil or small claims cases in Walworth, Waukesha and Milwaukee counties. Ken Grabske has paid out thousands over the years in garnishments, and in 2019 had multiple delinquent tax warrant issued against him.

Ventura Ramirez isn’t the only operator opening a new Mexican restaurant in the neighborhood, or even on the street. A mile to the north Taco Stop MKE is slated to open at 2121 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Owner AJ Agiss has applied for an occupancy permit for the business.