Soul Food Restaurant Joins Paper Table

Operations at Paper Table, a food hall and ghost kitchen downtown, are beginning to ramp up

A soul food restaurant has filed a license application and occupancy permit at Paper Table, 733-737 N. Milwaukee St. And the first restaurant to join the food hall, MilTex Kitchen, will have its grand opening this weekend, complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

A restaurant called Taste of Life Soul Food, which already has a location at 724 S. Layton Blvd., is planning to open in early October at Paper Table. The restaurant, owned by Joe Rogers, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner with an emphasis on comfort foods like shrimp and grits, burgers, meatloaf, rib tips and baked chicken, plus traditional soul food sides and desserts. Taste of Life will offer an expanded menu at Paper Table, Rogers said.

MilTex Kitchen, which quietly opened in August, is gearing up for a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony this Saturday, Sept. 17. Owner Raven Gee opened MilTex Kitchen as a food truck in Houston in 2019 and later expanded into Milwaukee, her hometown. An industry veteran, Gee has more than 20 years of restaurant and management experience. She previously owned Sista 2 Sista Soul Food and Catering in Milwaukee.

MilTex Kitchen specializes in cream cheese and candied jalapeño stuffed burgers, “Jacked Up” fries and egg rolls with a variety of savory fillings. The restaurant will be open Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Taste of Life will join Po’Manz Food in offering southern style or soul food options downtown. As Urban Milwaukee previously reported, Po’Manz is being opened by Cheticka Cotton, with plans to begin service in mid-October or early November, offering dishes like crab boil and gumbo.

“Our thing with cooking is that that feeling you get, that sensation you get, when you give someone one of your cuisines and after their first bite, they look over and they give you that head nod,” said a spokesperson for the restaurant. “That’s what we’re in it for. That’s what we look for to every day.”

Po’Manz may be new to downtown, but the business has been operating as a catering company and pop-up since 2010. The catering operation will continue alongside the brick-and-mortar. Once Po’Manz opens at Paper Table, it will have daily business hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., possibly later on weekends for late-night and third-shift crowds.

Two other restaurants planning to open in Paper Table include FreshWerks and Wingstop. FreshWerks will serve breakfast foods, burgers, wraps, sandwiches and smoothies. Wingstop’s occupancy permit is still pending. If accepted, the aviation-themed chicken-wing chain would be the first national franchise to join Paper Table.

Once Taste of Life and Po’Manz Food launch, Paper Table will have six vendors. The food hall, which has room for more than a dozen restaurant concepts, would be operating at about 50% occupancy. The first vendor, Blac Bistro, opened in August.

Paper Table is far from the city’s only food hall, but is unique in its takeout and delivery-focused business model. A project of CloudKitchens, a startup from Uber founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick, the food hall leases turnkey kitchens to restaurant owners, partnering with apps like DoorDash, Grub Hub and Uber Eats for delivery.

The food hall does have limited dining space, and there is a kiosk for ordering in person. Otherwise, the business accepts for pickup on the Paper Table website.