Eagle Park Acquires Milwaukee Brewing
Plus: Two new chicken restaurants now open, and farewell to Boo Boo's sandwiches.
Milwaukee Brewing and Eagle Park logos. Photos courtesy of Eagle Park Brewing Company.
Eagle Park Brewing Will Continue Milwaukee Brewing Beers
Eagle Park Brewing & Distilling Company has acquired the Milwaukee Brewing Company brand — the final piece in the company’s sale. The Milwaukee Ale House closed earlier this month and the physical brewery was sold to Chicago-based Pilot Project Brewing last week.
Eagle Park announced Monday it purchased MKE Brewing’s intellectual property, recipes and branding and said it plans to “ensure the future of Milwaukee’s third-oldest craft brewery.”
With a slight design update, Eagle Park said it intends to continue producing MKE Brewing’s flagship beers and would develop new seasonal and year-round recipes under the Milwaukee Brewing name.
“Milwaukee Brewing was one of the first three breweries in the city that kind of paved the way for the rest of us here,” said Jake Schinker, co-owner of Eagle Park Brewing. Eagle Park opened in 2017, 20 years after MKE Brewing’s launch. “I was drinking Milwaukee Brewing Company beers before I even started home brewing.”
Dave’s Hot Chicken Plans Grand Opening
A popular chicken restaurant will have the grand opening of its first Milwaukee location Friday, Sept. 30.
The countdown is on for Dave’s Hot Chicken, 544 E. Ogden Ave., which will open in a retail stall at East Pointe Marketplace, a Lower East Side shopping center anchored by a Pick ‘n Save. A soft opening for the restaurant will be Thursday, Sept. 29.
Franchisee MR Chicken opened the first Wisconsin location for the fast-growing chain in Menomonee Falls in January.
One of the MR Chicken owners, Ron Stokes, is president of Roaring Fork Restaurant Group, which operates 58 Qdoba restaurants in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. Mike Pranke is also a partner in MR Chicken.
Yum Yum Fish and Chicken Planned for North Side
The owners of a new restaurant in Milwaukee’s Lincoln Park neighborhood hope to evoke the comfort of home-cooked meals in a fast-food format.
“That’s what we’re going to bring to the table,” said co-owner Myron Smith. “That Southern cuisine taste that our mothers, grandmothers and aunts have always cooked in the kitchen.”
Smith and his partner Jonathan Adams plan to open Yum Yum Fish and Chicken at 1912 W. Hampton Ave. A grand opening is scheduled for Sept. 28.
“We invite everyone to come down and taste some of the best fish and chicken on this side of heaven,” Smith said.
Boo Boo’s Sandwich Shop Closed
Boo Boo’s sandwich shop in Walker’s Point is closed, a month after its sister business Soup Bros closed.
A representative of Boo Boo’s confirmed Friday morning that the restaurant is seeking a new location and urged customers to check the Facebook page for updates.
The restaurant opened at 405 S. 2nd St. in 2017 as a sister establishment to Soup Bros, which closed in August after 23 years in business.
Owner Richard Regner grew up in Whitefish Bay and went on to graduate from the Culinary Institute of America. He worked at various restaurants in New York before returning to Wisconsin and opening his own.
Pilot Project Buys Milwaukee Brewing Company
Chicago-based Pilot Project Brewing has emerged as the buyer of Milwaukee Brewing Company‘s production facility and the attached Bottle House 42 restaurant, 1128 N. 9th St.
Pilot Project co-founders Dan Abel and Jordan Radke and head brewer Glenn Allen used funds from an $8 million seed round to purchase the approximately 60,000-square-foot commercial brewing facility. Chicago-based investment group InvestBev led the round of fundraising, following a 2019 friends and family fundraise of $500,000, according to a news release.
Described as a first-of-its-kind brewery incubator, Pilot Project assists start-up breweries with fine-tuning recipes, production scaling, business development, marketing and distribution. The company said its expansion to the Milwaukee facility would further the growth potential for Pilot Project’s incubated brands and help support their national growth throughout the Midwest and beyond.
“Pilot Project was established to support creativity, diversity and innovation in an industry that often overlooks it or maintains unreasonable barriers to allow it,” Abel said.
Pilot Brewing Announces Chief Innovation Officer
Pilot Brewing announced Friday that Todd Haug will become the company’s chief innovation officer. The news comes as the Chicago-based “brewery incubator” prepares to move into Milwaukee Brewing’s former production facility at 1128 N. 9th St.
As innovation lead, Haug will support Pilot Brewing’s “ongoing strategy to launch and grow its host of incubated brands and innovative concepts,” according to a news release from the company.
“Our team has been a massive supporter of Todd’s work and influence in our industry over the years,” says Pilot Project co-founder Dan Abel. “As an incubator, it’s vital Pilot Project builds a place for itself at the helm of all things experimentation and innovation. Pilot Project isn’t just a place to launch a brand. You’re building your brand with the best minds and talent in our industry. From R&Ding new concepts and using first-of-their-kind ingredients to implementing modern brewing techniques and ensuring consistency and efficiency in production across Pilot Project’s locations, Todd’s role is to ensure we stay proactive in both disrupting our industry and making better products.”
HoneyBee Sage Plans November Grand Opening on King Drive
HoneyBee Sage, a wellness-focused business at 9141 W. Lisbon Ave., will soon add a new location in Bronzeville.
The new HoneyBee Sage Apothecary & Herbal Beverage Lounge, 1819 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., has been generating a buzz since early 2022, but encountered difficulties with construction permitting that delayed its opening.
Owner Angela Mallett is now in the final stages of preparation for a Nov. 3 grand opening.
Mallett, a certified massage therapist, reiki healer, full circle doula and yoni steam practitioner, founded the business in 2018 at Sherman Phoenix with the intention of making alternative healing methods more accessible to underserved communities.
Poutine Stop Joins Paper Table
When Silvia Larsson moved to Wisconsin from Canada, she was surprised to find that hardly any area restaurants offered authentic poutine. Although Wisconsin is no stranger to cheese curds, the state was missing out on a critical application — on top of carbs and smothered in gravy.
“Why would they not sell poutine?” she said. “I mean, in Canada, you get it at McDonald’s, Burger King, you can get it anywhere.”
After years of trial and error, Larsson perfected her version of the dish, which will star on the menu at her new restaurant, Poutine Stop. The business is expected to make its debut later this fall at Paper Table, the delivery-focused downtown food hall.
At its most basic, poutine consists of a hearty mound of french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. In such a straightforward dish, each individual component must be in perfect balance with the others. That’s where other restaurants go wrong, according to Larsson.
Anodyne Hosting Community Harvest Dinner
Anodyne Coffee will host a community dinner in celebration of the fall harvest.
The event is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 8 at the Bay View cafe, 2920 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.
In a departure from the cafe’s usual coffee and pizza, the family-style meal will lean on fresh, seasonal produce from co-owner Lacee Perry‘s garden.
Perry launched Anodyne along with her husband Matt McClutchy in 1999. For the past few years, Perry has tended to a garden and greenhouse, incorporating a bounty of seasonal produce into the summer menu, and preserving the extras to use throughout the colder seasons.
New Restaurant for Walker’s Point?
A new owner is taking over Triskele’s — though the upscale American restaurant is still operating, albeit on a more limited basis.
Called La Pina, the restaurant and bar has a target opening date of Nov. 1, according to a recently-filed license application.
While dine-in service is no longer available, Triskele’s still offers a limited menu for curbside pickup every Wednesday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Online ordering and delivery (within a five-mile radius) for select items is also available.
After nearly 15 years in business, co-owners Lynn Winter and JoLinda Klopp listed Triskele’s, 1801 S. 3rd St., and the surrounding property for sale last spring. The 1,540-square-foot restaurant sits on a 3,400-square-foot lot in the Walker’s Point neighborhood.
New Empanada Restaurant For Riverwest
Pedro’s, the popular South American food truck, will open its first brick-and-mortar location at 701 E. Keefe Ave., former home of Riverwest Filling Station.
Pedro Tejada, who owns the food truck, would open La Cocina Del Sur Empanada Bar, giving the mobile operation a more permanent home. The step would allow Tejada to serve customers all year-round, rather than being confined to Wisconsin’s five — give or take — fair-weather months.
The news is bittersweet, as it marks the end of the Filling Station’s nearly 10 year tenure in the Riverwest neighborhood. The globally-inspired gastropub announced in July that it would close for the remainder of the summer.
In the interim, a take-and-bake empanada business, La Mendocina, used the restaurant as a commercial kitchen space.
Pomona Cider Company Opening in City
A new cidery planned for Milwaukee’s Lower East Side would transform a former office building into a cozy, urban oasis.
Co-owners Tom Gabert and Sawyer Purman would open Pomona Cider Company, named for the Roman goddess of orchards, at 2163 N. Farwell Ave.
Set to open in early 2023, the “warm and cozy feel” of the cidery, according to Gabert, would come as a welcome respite from the chill of Wisconsin winters.
Gabert, who also owns the mobile bartending business Pour Inc., said he first turned to hard cider as an alternative to beer. He later became a sales rep for the Door County cidery Island Orchard, where he grew close with owners Bob and Yannique Purman.
SlyFox Plans to Bewitch Brady Street
“Come, we fly!” To SlyFox, that is, for the cocktail bar’s Hocus Pocus-themed Halloween pop-up.
Come Oct. 28 through 31, the bar’s sleek interior will transform into an eerie lair — suitable for villainous witches and thrill-seeking Milwaukeeans alike.
This will be the first Halloween for SlyFox, which opened in August at 1692 N. Van Buren St. Managing Partner Andrew Logman said that he wanted to plan something outside of the ordinary for the holiday, and given the hype surrounding the upcoming release of Hocus Pocus 2, a pop-up dedicated to the cult-classic Halloween film seemed like a good option.
The event will feature five craft cocktails inspired by the 1993 film and its 2022 sequel, which is set to release on Sept. 30.
North-Side Shopping Center Gains New Businesses
Changes are coming to a strip shopping center on Milwaukee’s North Side.
Constructed in 1960 and located at 1935 W. Silver Spring Dr., near the border of Milwaukee and Glendale, the center was home to approximately 10 businesses more than a decade ago, but occupancy has dwindled in recent years. Now, several recently-opened and upcoming businesses are bringing new life to the center.
One of the new tenants is taking advantage of a unique retail stall, which includes a storefront area attached to a garage in the back of the building. Where others might see an inconvenience, Cory Hudson saw the opportunity for a multi-purpose space.
In August, Hudson opened Q&R Studios. The business is a reverse mullet of sorts — the front area of the 1,829-square-foot space operates as an event venue for parties, while the back area, a garage for car tune-ups, is all business.
The Trade Hotel Plans Rooftop Restaurant
The Trade hotel took pizza delivery to new heights Monday, hoisting a 4,500-pound pizza oven to its place in what will become a rooftop restaurant and bar.
Representatives of North Central Group (NCG) hospitality, Food Fight Restaurant Group and Milwaukee Bucks Ventures and Development gathered Monday morning to observe the placement of the oven and announce the restaurant concept for the space, which will have a rooftop deck overlooking the NBA arena and downtown skyline.
“We wanted to save some of the best views in the hotel for the local residents,” said Andy Inman, chief development officer for NCG.
Il Cervo, an Italian-focused restaurant by the Madison-based Food Fight group, is planned for the ninth-floor space. The restaurant’s name means “the deer” in Italian — fitting for its location atop a hotel rising over Fiserv Forum and the Deer District.
Mobile Markets Come to Food Deserts
For Shirley Johnson, getting groceries is not easy.
Johnson, a 64-year-old retiree who lives alone in Milwaukee, does not own a vehicle and has to rely on others to get food. She often calls her daughter or other family members who live in the city, hoping to catch a ride to the grocery store.
But if they are tied up or busy, Johnson has to pay someone to take her shopping — except when the store comes to her.
Once a month, Johnson waits for a long, colorful semi-trailer hitched to a truck to pull up at the Highland Gardens apartments. The narrow aisles of the Piggly Wiggly on wheels are filled with fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products.
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