Paper Table Vendor Plans Two New Restaurants At Downtown Food Hall

Kamal Shkoukani is on a mission to prove that good things do, in fact, come in threes.

Just one month after opening his first restaurant, Secret Hot Chicken, the Paper Table vendor launched a second, dessert-focused concept, Evil Slice. In the coming months, he plans to add a third restaurant, Crooks Chicken & Waffles, to his collection at the downtown food hall, 733-737 N. Milwaukee St.

The business owner has built up an audience with his cloak-and-dagger antics, which included building an active, albeit mysterious, social media presence ahead of Secret Hot Chicken’s launch.

The same is true for Evil Slice and Crooks Chicken & Waffles. While both have active social media accounts, Shkoukani has mostly refrained from sharing any further information about the businesses.

That is until Dec. 2, which marked the long-awaited soft opening of Evil Slice. The restaurant made its debut ahead of the Friday evening Bucks game, serving “giant” slices of chocolate mousse cake, french press coffee and hot chocolate with halal marshmallows.

An online menu for Evil Slice features chocolate, red velvet, chocolate and turtle cake slices, as well as New York-style cheesecake. Evil Slice will also offer milk, soda, coffee, water and hot chocolate.

The red velvet slice, teased in a social media post, is a four-layer stunner crowned with swirls of cream cheese frosting and chocolate shavings.

The other restaurant, Crooks Chicken & Waffles, is expected to launch in the coming months.

The chicken and waffle concept marks a natural progression for Shkoukani, who told Urban Milwaukee in an October interview that he has been refining his “killer hot chicken recipe” since before 2020.

Shkoukani, who was living in Los Angeles when the hot chicken craze hit the West Coast, said that sampling each restaurant’s rendition inspired him to create his own version at home.

The two new restaurant concepts would join several recent additions to the food hall, including Po’Manz, Taste of Life Soul Food and Poutine Stop.

Paper Table is far from the city’s only food hall, but is unique in its takeout and delivery-focused business model.

A project of CloudKitchens, a startup from Uber founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick, the food hall leases turnkey kitchens to restaurant owners, partnering with apps like DoorDash, Grub Hub and Uber Eats for delivery.