Riverwest’s Kitchen Kings Is Closed
The takeout-only restaurant shuttered its Locust Avenue location earlier this summer.
Kitchen Kings, 1000 E. Locust St. Photo taken Aug. 12, 2024 by Sophie Bolich.
The late-night dining scene in Riverwest shrunk by one with the recent closure of Kitchen Kings, a takeout-only restaurant serving burgers, chicken wings, cheese fries and other casual eats.
The business, a project of Waleed Kamal Mohamady, opened at 1000 E. Locust St. in October 2023, joining the nearby Lush Popcorn, in a much-celebrated reinvigoration of the neighborhood thoroughfare.
In recent weeks, however, Kitchen Kings was marked permanently closed. A Monday afternoon call to the restaurant went unanswered.
Kitchen Kings was a solo venture for Mohamady, though he brought plenty of experience to the role as a co-founder of Milwaukee-based fast food chain Mad Chicken. The fast-growing company operates 21 restaurants across the country, including three locations in Milwaukee.
Like Mad Chicken, Kitchen Kings specialized in fried chicken sandwiches, wings and fries. But Mohamady didn’t stop there. Also on the menu were a variety of burgers with toppings such as mushrooms and Swiss cheese, jalapeño poppers and bacon; Nashville-style hot chicken; cajun fries; mozzarella sticks; onion rings; pizza puffs; and desserts including strawberry cheesecake and banana pudding.
The restaurant served soda and juice, but no alcohol.
With convenience at the forefront, Kitchen Kings offered online ordering and delivery, also catering to the college and bar crowds with hours extending to 3 a.m. on the weekends.
Prior to Kitchen Kings, the Riverwest building was home to Sticky Rice, which opened its flagship location there in August 2020. The Thai-Lao restaurant left the space in early 2023 to focus fully on its second — now only — location on the Lower East Side.
Shane Zolper of 1126 Kane LLC owns the building, as well as 10 additional properties throughout the Riverwest neighborhood.
Mohamady did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
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