The Lafayette Place Will Not Reopen
Damaged in September crash, the Lower East Side cafe space is now for lease.
The Lafayette Place, 1978 N. Farwell Ave. Photo taken April 9, 2025 by Sophie Bolich.
The Lafayette Place has been closed since last September, when a driver crashed into the side of its building, 1978 N. Farwell Ave., causing extensive structural damage.
While building repairs are progressing steadily, the vegan cafe has scrapped its initial plans to reopen.
Lisa Wierzbinski, an employee at The Lafayette Place’s sister cafe, The National Cafe, confirmed the news in a social media comment. “Lafayette Place will not be reopening!” she wrote, noting that owners Amy Plennes and Angela Wierzbinski, along with their employees, “are heartbroken over the choice.”
She encouraged diners to continue supporting The National, 839 W. National Ave., which offers a taste of the former restaurant with dishes like the Vegan Brekkie Sammy and Vegan Cinnamon Roll.
Building owner Michel Aboul-Zelof is seeking a new tenant for the 720-square-foot commercial space, available for lease at $2,500 per month.
The online listing, represented by real estate agent Mark Kivley of RE/MAX Lakeside-North, emphasizes the property’s “prime” location, making it suitable for a variety of uses, including retail, dining or office space. Kivley confirmed that the building’s upper-level residential space is not for lease.
The Lafayette Place opened in November 2021 at the high-traffic corner of N. Farwell Avenue and E. Lafayette Place, serving a fully plant-based menu of breakfast and lunch dishes, plus smoothies and coffee.
On Sept. 2, 2024, a motorist traveling south on the one-way Farwell Avenue attempted to turn left from the center lane, cutting off another driver and causing them to swerve into the north side of cafe.
The cafe was closed at the time, and though no injuries were reported, the building’s entrance, windows and brick facade sustained significant damage. The crash also compromised the building’s structural integrity, making it unsafe for anyone — including customers and staff — to enter.
In the days after the incident, Plennes told Urban Milwaukee that the business would return “better than ever,” following repairs. However, that plan changed course in recent months.
The building, previously home to Celesta and Abu’s Jerusalem of the Gold, has been hit by drivers on previous occasions, according to social media commenters.
Plennes did not respond to multiple requests for comment by the time of publication.
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The city needs to install bollards in front of the building. It’s been hit multiple times.
Agree with CadeLovesMKE.
And place them to protect pedestrians too.
Bollards? please.
Farwell and Prospect both need to be converted to 2-ways is what needs to be done. The problem is that this street is a pair of 1-ways, we don’t need dual lanes of 1-ways encouraging folks to easily drive 40+++++++++ MPH down these streets.
It’s well known that 1-way roads encourage higher speeds. Not to mention it makes navigating the east side more frustrating as it requires folks to circle the blocks more than required. Folks are also less-used to parking on the left side of the street (and it’s harder to see all the way through one’s car, vs parking on the right side and being able to look out one’s own window with ease).
Milwaukee has converted a lot of 1-way pairs to 2-ways, and folks very quickly forget any qualms they had about it. It’s been discussed before for these two streets yet they remain unchanged. I can’t wait to see road diets / complete street makeovers of these corridors.
Oh yeah, one other benefit, takes care of the wrong-way drivers! Which are a daily occurrence over there.
Colin, all good ideas – thanks, but thinking globally doesn’t leave out acting locally. I’d still like to see busy corner lots have
well-designed/placed/dual-purpose bollards.
protecting people and property from drivers
that didn’t “read the manual”.
Colin – yep, the speeding and weaving on those streets is completely out of control. I would have gone with 50++++++. And drivers don’t seem to realize they are supposed to stop at the red lights, especially at Ogden.
The two giant speed bumps on Prospect slow folks down for those points in the road, though some just move over to the edges where the bumps are lower for the bike lanes, further endangering bikers. Also, the speeders seem to think it is an obstacle course to see how they can beat the other cars to the next speed bump. I don’t feel that the speed bumps have done much to slow folks down on Prospect.