Hot Box Pizza Adding Bay View Location
Owners to launch restaurant, Doh'p, but will continue to operate food truck at Zocalo.
Hot Box Pizza truck, 636 S. 6th St. Photo taken March 23, 2023 by Sophie Bolich.
The owners of Hot Box Pizza are poised for a major expansion, with plans to launch a new, brick-and-mortar restaurant in Bay View while maintaining a presence at Zocalo Food Park.
Doh’p would open at 2509 E. Oklahoma Ave., a building previously planned to be repurposed as a garden center.
Terrell Turner and Suzanne Pham-Banh opened Hot Box in 2020, serving up comfort food in a lot at 1st and Mineral streets in Walker’s Point. In 2022, the truck relocated to Zocalo Food Park, 636 S. 6th St., where it has operated since.
The restaurant’s title is a double entendre — referring both to the dough used for Hot Box’s wood-fired pizzas, as well as a subtle nod to the operation’s marijuana-themed menu.
Doh’p is expected to open this summer, serving the same core menu that Hot Box customers have grown to love, including wood-fired pizzas, cheesy garlic bread, salads, doughnuts and s’mores dessert pizza, as well as several new additions.
“While our main focus will still be the same delicious pies, our menu will be more extensive, serving up delectable and comforting wood-fired creations,” Turner and Pham-Banh wrote in a Thursday morning announcement.
The food truck will continue to operate at Zocalo, as well as making appearances at public and private events throughout the city. The business is also available for catering services.
The Bay View building, located across the street from SmallPie, was previously slated to become a gardening center and event space under Milwaukee restaurateur Valeri Lucks, but that plan never came to fruition.
Most recently the site of Swift Roofing, the 1,100-square-foot building features two retractable garage doors and sits on the corner of a 7,740-square-foot, paved parcel of land.
In the past year, the building received a fresh coat of black paint, covering a mural of superheroes on its east side. The garage doors are newly installed. A previous garage door was transformed into an entry door.
The property is owned by an investment group connected with developer Scott Genke. The developer explored the potential to redevelop the site last year before listing it for lease.
Further updates on the building’s transformation and information regarding an opening date will be shared on Doh’p’s Instagram page. Turner and Pham-Banh have not yet submitted commercial alteration permits for the address. The restaurant’s license will also need Common Council approval prior to opening.
Pham-Banh did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Hot Box is among a wave of mobile restaurants that have recently announced plans for a permanent space. Heirloom MKE would open in the former Lazy Susan, 2378 S. Howell Ave., this summer, while Ruby’s Bagels is moving to 1107 W. Oklahoma Ave.
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