East Side Gets African, Caribbean Fare

Planned location of Frankies. Photo taken September 6, 2021 by Jeramey Jannene.

Frankies, a new restaurant that will specialize in a melting pot of American, African and Caribbean cuisine, is coming soon to Milwaukee’s East Side. The restaurant aims to open sometime in January or February at 1815 E. Kenilworth Pl., the former home of painting bar Splash Studio. Some might remember Frankies as a food court vendor at Southridge Mall in Greendale, or as a returning staple at the Summer Solstice street festival. Currently, the business operates as a seasonal food truck and caterer. Frankies will operate with counter service only to start, but an eventual move to full service isn’t out of the question. Carol Deptolla reports:

The restaurant will serve Caribbean dishes such as jerk chicken, oxtail stew and Jamaican beef patties; African menu items such as fataya, the savory pastries, and suya, the spiced chicken or beef skewers; and (Owner Donna) Aboagye‘s Hawaiian barbecue ribs, so called because she uses pineapple juice in the sauce.

The space already has a bar, where Aboagye hopes to serve Caribbean and African cocktails as well as milkshakes and smoothies.

Half of the space will be for private events but also serve as overflow seating for the restaurant, which will offer takeout, as well.

3rd Street Market Hall Adds Pizza Purveyor

The hype for the upcoming 3rd Street Market Hall continues to grow as another vendor has been announced by the hall’s owner Omar Shaikh. Paper Plane Pizza, a pop-up and food truck based in Chicago, will have a new home at the food hall, joining a lineup that will eventually consist of 19 vendors. Paper Plane Pizza serves up slices as well as entire pies. Maredithe Meyer reports:

Paper Plane will source most ingredients from Wisconsin, including Milwaukee’s own Usinger’s sausages. Owners Milos Stevanovic and Dustin Drank launched the concept two years ago and have been experimenting with different toppings and doughs to create their “Broad Shoulders” dough style and their “Sconnie Style” pizza, which will be on the menu at its Milwaukee location.

A native of Milwaukee, Drank will return to his roots after spending the past several years in Las Vegas and Chicago learning about bar and restaurant ownership. Launching Paper Plane’s first permanent location at 3rd Street Market Hall hits extra close to home.

The market hall will also feature a 50-seat, full-service central bar and several entertainment amenities such as Top Golf Swing Suites, shuffleboard courts, snookball, a selfie museum, old-school arcade games, and a turf area with yard games and seating. A grand opening event will be held in March or April when most of its vendors are up and running.

Indian Bar & Grill Coming to South Side

A new Indian restaurant named Indian Bar & Grill will open soon on Milwaukee’s South Side in the former Shah Jee’s location at 3933 S. 76th St. The restaurant will serve Indian favorites and specialties, such as chicken tikka masala, butter chicken and paneer. Once open, Indian Bar & Grill’s hour of operation will be 11 a.m. to midnight every day according to a business application. Graham Kilmer reports:

This is (Owner Pawan) Saini’s first restaurant, but he is an experienced cook, he said. He’s cooked in one capacity or another for 35 years, including a stint as a cook in the Indian Army.

Saini said he is still in the process of moving into and cleaning his new restaurant. He plans to open by the end of the month, or the beginning of January, should his licensing go through.

The space for the restaurant was formerly Shah Jee’s, which opened in 2018 as part of an expansion by the local restaurant; it’s unclear when it closed.

New Mobile Sandwich Trucks Coming Soon

A fleet of electric food trucks will soon be popping up throughout the city as a new, mobile Italian Beef business gets ready to launch. Called Little Beefy Sandwiches, the business will sell hot Italian beef sandwiches for starters and perhaps add other food items later. If all goes according to plan, partners Frank Velazquez and Earnest Thompson hope to be open by early January 2022. Kilmer reports:

Velazquez said the trailers (converted trucks whose engines have been removed to create more storage room) will be leased to operators and Little Beefy will provide the rest. Each trailer is entirely self-sufficient and runs on electric power, he said. Operators will not need to run a noisy generator or hook up to water. They will simply need to find a place to park, turn the system on and they can begin accepting Uber Eats orders and serving walk-up customers. The trailers are approximately 12 feet long, 6 feet wide and 9 feet tall…

Velazquez and Thompson have been working on Little Beefy for three years, he said. It started when Thompson bought the first food truck. “It was a good looking little truck,” he said. From there, the idea for the business grew. All other trailers in the fleet have since been built to the specifications of the first converted truck.