New Cafe Opens in East Town
Bear & Bean on Jackson St. offers breakfast, lunch and Valentine coffee.
Site of Bear & Bean, 731 N. Jackson St. Photo taken June 12, 2024 by Sophie Bolich.
Earlier this year, the owners of Bear & Bean set out to “serve the good land,” as their slogan states. And though the new cafe’s customer base is currently concentrated in East Town, its reach is growing every day.
Since opening in April, the coffee shop and counter-service restaurant, 731 N. Jackson St., has been serving breakfast and lunch items, pastries and a wide variety of beverages — including Valentine coffee — to nearby office workers and passersby.
It’s been a slow build, said co-owner Emily Mayeshiba, who noted that she expects to see business pick up as the cafe continues to settle in; exterior signage and sidewalk furniture are both in the works.
Mayeshiba operates the cafe with partners Matt Edwards, Aimee Brashier, Brent Brashier and Pat Niebling. The group collectively brings decades of industry experience to the new venture, having each worked at various restaurants throughout the city before uniting at DOC’s Commerce Smokehouse.
“Servicing the city of Milwaukee is something that all of us have already been doing for 10 plus years,” Edwards told Urban Milwaukee. “‘Serving the good land’ is one of the things we say — we’re just continuing to do that and give back to this town that we love so much.”
The group’s culinary chops are evident in the menu, despite the business’s fast-casual format. Breakfast tacos, for example, feature cubes of smoked brisket, a nod to DOC’s. The dish also includes scrambled eggs, salsa roja, queso fresco and cilantro — all piled into a flour tortilla.
Another breakfast offering, The Marx, is a take on the classic bacon, egg and cheese bagel with added depth from caramelized onion jam.
For lunch, Bear & Bean serves several different sandwiches including turkey, barbecue pork shoulder, chicken salad croissant and others, along with soup of the day, garden salad (add chicken or turkey) and a Mediterranean pita wrap with hummus, roasted portabella, artichokes, spinach and cucumber.
Snack-sized bites such as muffins, cookies, chips, yogurt and hummus with crudites are also available.
To drink, the cafe serves a full range of coffee and espresso — cold brew, latte, mocha — along with matcha, hot teas, soda and smoothies. Bear & Bean also offers an assortment of signature energy drinks, or boosters, made with fresh fruit and an eight-ounce pour of Red Bull. Booster flavors include orange creamsicle, peach lemonade, strawberry lemonade, blackberry lemonade and bear’s blood with strawberry, coconut and lemon.
“We’re just kind of taking some of the things we did with cocktails for so long and applying it to our boosters,” said Edwards. “They all have a real fruit element in them.”
Bear & Bean occupies a small restaurant space at ground level of the Wintrust bank building. Its predecessor, Brooks’ Balanced Kitchen, operated there until December 2023.
Before that, the space was home to Java Corner Cafe. Coincidentally, Edwards was once an employee of the former cafe; the new business brings his experience full-circle.
Bear & Bean is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Online ordering is available.
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