Airport Restaurant’s New Menu Offers Iconic Local Foods

The Garden District Kitchen & Bar unveiled a new menu Tuesday as part of a “major refresh” at the Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport.

The restaurant, which originally opened in December 2020, is revamping its menu to showcase some of Wisconsin’s most iconic foods, including Usinger’s corned beef and brats, jalapeno cheese curds, a beer cheesesteak sandwich and Wisconsin fish fry. The restaurant’s eight tap lines feature an array of local brews including Lakefront Brewery‘s Riverwest Stein, Third Space Brewing Company‘s Heavenly Haze and New Glarus’s Spotted Cow.

The restaurant opened more than two years ago as an upscale, sit-down dining option for travelers, but COVID-19 cut short its opening celebration, and it has served a limited menu since.

“This is just another example of how the airport is making efforts to showcase Milwaukee’s neighborhoods to all of our travelers,” said airport director Brian Dranzik of the restaurant, which is named for the southside Milwaukee neighborhood where the airport is located.

In the past year, the airport added three new airlines: Sun Country Airlines, Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways. The airlines are located in Concourse D, the location of the restaurant, alongside Delta Air Lines and Frontier Airlines.

“Visitors fly to Milwaukee to see family or friends and attend conventions, sports events or festivals. The new menu will give them a taste of what Milwaukee has to offer,” said Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley at the unveiling event.

The event also celebrated the launch of a business partnership with Milwaukee-based Perlick Corporation. The manufacturer outfitted the restaurant’s bar with custom-made, brewers-pipe, draft-beer towers, an 86-bottle, temperature-controlled wine display column, two specialty dispensing units for draft wine or craft cocktails on draft and four temperature-controlled wine drawers for wine-by-the-glass service. The draft beer towers feature eight tap lines with six dedicated to Wisconsin-brewed beers.

The restaurant’s walls feature historical imagery of Perlick, formerly R. Perlick Brass Works, which was founded in 1917 by German immigrant Robert K. Perlick.

HMSHost, an international airport food-service company, operates the restaurant in partnership with Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprise joint venture partners, Limitless Brands and Newburns Management Group.

“HMSHost and Perlick provide family-sustaining jobs to hundreds of people in Milwaukee, and the investments they continue to make in our hometown airport is great news for the traveling public,” Crowley said.

Stephen Douglas, vice president of business development at HMSHost and Theodore “TJ” Perlick Molinari, vice president of commercial sales at Perlick were also in attendance.

“Representing local business and food culture is a meaningful and authentic way to connect with the traveling public,” Douglas said.

“Perlick has been manufacturing commercial bar and beverage equipment and premium residential refrigeration in the heart of Milwaukee,” Perlick Molinari added. “We are proud to showcase our strong history in the Brew City to travelers from around the world.”

The new menu is now available for guests during regular hours, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.