Honeypie Moving to Former Alchemist Theatre Space

A popular Bay View purveyor of locally-sourced Midwestern comfort foods and pies will soon be moving into a new home a few blocks north of its current one. 

On Wednesday, Valeri Lucks filed a license application to relocate Honeypie to 2569 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., the former Alchemist Theatre. On her application, Lucks indicated that she estimates construction on the new restaurant to be completed in March and hopes to open in April.

The Alchemist closed in December 2018 after twelve years of operation. Developer Scott Genke purchased the 7,683 square-foot building in February for $433,133 and announced plans to redevelop it and construct a new apartment building on an adjacent, vacant lot. The adjoining projects are known collectively as BV+ or Bay View Addition.

Both Lucks and Genke declined to comment on the restaurant’s new location. 

Honeypie opened in 2009 at 2643 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Through Pie, Inc., Lucks also owns and operates Palomino, 2491 S. Superior St., SmallPie, 2504 E. Oklahoma Ave. and the Honeypie Bakeshop, located in the same building as the café.

Lucks, a Bay View resident, opened SmallPie in August 2018 in a building owned by Genke and plans to open another location later this year in the East Side’s new Crossroads Collective, 2238 N. Farwell Ave. The eatery serves sweet and savory hand pies, hot sandwiches, pastries, and Anodyne and Pilcrow coffee. 

Honeypie’s new proposed hours of operation will be 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily according to the application. The restaurant’s menu is still expected to include customer breakfast and lunch favorites, such as smoked salmon hash, ham biscuits, the Honeypie burger, the porkslaw sandwich, and ham and cheese pies, along with specialty cocktails and a variety of pies and desserts.

A diagram of the restaurant attached to the application shows an approximately 3,500-square-foot restaurant on the building’s first floor and an outdoor dining patio on the north side of the building.

Lucks signed a ten-year lease with two five-year extensions for the property according to the application.

A commercial alteration permit on file with the Department of Neighborhood Services has the project listed as “DWG Honey Pie Interior Alteration” since September 23rd. Four apartments are planned for the building’s upper floor.

Genke’s firm, SG Property Development + Management, owns and operates a number of properties in the area, including the redeveloped King Building, which has 14 apartments, including live-work units, and two street-facing commercial spaces. He is also working on two development projects further south on S. Kinnickinnic Ave.

The license application will be reviewed by the Common Council’s Licenses Committee at an upcoming meeting.

Building Photos and Drawings

If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits, all detailed here.