New Restaurant Brings Home Cooking To Sherman Park
Dinner Today is slated to open in the former Mr. J’s Lounge.
Mr. J’s Lounge at 4600-4636 W. Fond du Lac Ave. in 2021. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Jonathan Springfield-Burnett is a biochemist at heart. But while studying the topic in college, he realized his ideal lab might just be a kitchen.
The chef has a passion for health, and applies his scientific knowledge to prepare fresh, healthy meals. “I started learning about the body and the way it responds to food,” he said in an interview. “Because we are what we eat, and your body reacts to what you put in it.”
After earning his chops at Culvers restaurants and working for Sodexo at Children’s Hospital, Springfield-Burnett is preparing to launch his own restaurant, Dinner Today, on the edge of the Sherman Park neighborhood.
“I wanted to create a restaurant where you can get food served fresh — almost like you’d get at home when you make dinner,” he said. “So I wanted to try to cater to that and serve a variety of foods.”
So what’s for dinner? Springfield-Burnett said he plans to serve dishes from a diversity of cuisines including Mexican, Italian and Chinese. Meals will be prepared using fresh, non-GMO ingredients and an emphasis on whole grains such as barley, rice and amaranth.
“Most restaurants around town, they don’t have that as an option,” he said. “So I’m just trying to get back to that better health.”
The restaurant will serve more than just dinner foods. A tentative menu includes breakfast offerings such as pancakes, waffles, eggs and hashbrowns alongside lunch and dinner items like spaghetti, fish, chicken, burgers and fries.
Both dine in and carryout service will be available at Dinner Today. The restaurant will not serve alcohol.
Dinner Today will be located at 4610 W. Fond du Lac Ave., inside the former Mr. J’s Lounge. The bar occupied the space for more than a decade, but closed in January after the Milwaukee Common Council voted not to renew its license.
Ahead of the restaurant’s opening date, tentatively set for early 2024, Springfield-Burnett is planning to complete minor changes to the building’s interior. That includes purchasing equipment and removing the drop ceiling to make the space feel bigger.
Aside from that, he said, the space is “in really good condition.”
Dinner Today would occupy a portion of a larger, 25,224-square-foot building that also houses a furniture store and a youth resource center. Building owner Charnjit Kaur purchased the property in 2021.
Once open, the proposed hours of operation for Dinner Today are 10 a.m. to midnight daily.
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