New Restaurant Announced For Ardent Space

Ardent, 1751 N. Farwell Ave. Photo taken May 9, 2024 by Sophie Bolich

For the past 11 years, the intimate restaurant space at 1751 N. Farwell Ave. has been home to Ardent, Milwaukee’s first — and still one of its finest — tasting menu restaurants.

As Justin Carlisle prepares to retire the concept at the turn of the New Year, an new tenant is already lined up to take its place.

James Beard Semi-Finalist Mary Kastman is bringing her pop-up concept, Purslane, to the building, establishing its first brick-and-mortar location and introducing Milwaukee to her farm-driven, Mediterranean-inspired cuisine.

Carlisle and Kastman first connected nearly two decades ago when Kastman landed an internship at Restaurant Muramoto in Madison, where Carlisle was working as executive chef at the time. Both were relatively early in their careers—still years away from launching their current businesses—and quickly formed a lasting friendship.

“He and I go back a long time,” Kastman said of Carlisle, who she calls a “dear friend and mentor.”

Kastman, a graduate of the UW-Madison and the Madison College Culinary Arts Program, began her career in the same city, where she cut her teeth at establishments including Carlisle’s 43 North before relocating to Boston in 2011. On the East Coast, she discovered a “deep love” for Eastern Mediterranean food and spice while working at standout establishments Oleana and Sarma.

“Just seeing this method of cooking, which is so different from what I had been taught in culinary school — French, traditional, very stock-based — this was lighter, with vegetables really at the forefront,” she said. “And not only this new approach to cooking, but an entirely new approach to eating and food.”

The experience left Kastman transformed, she said, with a fresh perspective on how to develop her own flavor profiles and a greater appreciation for communal, mezze-style dining.

“You’re sharing all these plates together, eating them with your hands and bread, and there’s just something intimate about it that I love and want to share with people,” she said. “It’s not just going out for dinner, it’s this true experience of talking to one another and communicating through food.”

In 2019, Kastman relocated to Viroqua, a small town in Wisconsin’s Driftless Region, and worked locally as an executive chef before launching Purslane last summer.

The concept, much like the spice blends Kastman reaches for in the kitchen, draws from a variety of cultures, customs and locales to tell a story on the plate — one that continually evolves with each new season, guest and passing day.

“Food is borderless, right? So what connects us in Wisconsin to, you know, people in Istanbul? It’s really a sense of place,” she said. “It’s the land, it’s what we grow, we all have that connection.”

In that way, the name Purslane is symbolic, connecting the plant’s origins in the Middle East and India to Wisconsin and beyond.

“It’s everywhere,” Kastman said. “It grows in our gardens, it grows on the sidewalk cracks of Milwaukee. It’s also used as an ingredient in a lot of cuisines around the world, but it’s not something that we necessarily look at and understand that ‘Oh, this is something that can transcend into something beautiful.'”

This philosophy sets the stage for Kastman’s upcoming Milwaukee restaurant, which aims to open in late spring or early summer 2025. The menu will likely feature both small and entrée-sized plates, with a focus on mezze-style dips and salads. Some dishes will include Wisconsin-inspired twists, such as spanakopita with native wild rice and falafel made with native whitefish, she said.

The Mediterranean theme will also be incorporated into the beverage program, with cocktails featuring Mediterranean ingredients and wines from Greece, Turkey and beyond.

Once open, Purslane will be Kastman’s first brick-and-mortar venture in Milwaukee; however, she is well-versed in the city’s culinary scene, having showcased dishes at the Fondy Farm Feast, Amilinda‘s women-led SMOKE collaboration and others.

As a soon-to-be-permanent resident, Kastman told Urban Milwaukee she looks forward to exploring the area’s rich network of local products, intending to incorporate them into her dishes and further connect her food to the community.

Amilinda Pop-Up

Although Purslane is — at minimum — several months away from opening, Milwaukee diners have a chance to preview the restaurant during a Dec. 10 pop-up at Amilinda.

Chef Gregory León, owner of the Spanish and Portuguese restaurant, often opens his space for collaborations and chef-led events — something Kastman said she has always appreciated.

The pair share similar backgrounds, both starting with pop-ups and drawing influence from adjacent regions. They’ve worked together several times over the past year, building on a friendship that first sparked at a James Beard summit in 2021, Kastman said.

“I just respect him so much as a chef, but also as a community figure, too. I feel like he does so much for Milwaukee, and he is an advocate for so many different issues that are important to me.”

At the pop-up, Kastman plans to serve a five-course meal of Mediterranean-inspired comfort food, noting that the menu will be similar to what might be offered at Purslane.

The menu includes: tuna nayah (crudo) with yuzu charmoula and togashari; honeynut squash baba ganoush with purple cauliflower, brown butter pine nuts and pomegranate; quail “spanakopita” stuffed with spinach and cheese filling, served with avgolemono broth and crispy wild rice cake; beef cheek with root vegetable tagine and puffed couscous and, for dessert, kunefe (sweet cheese pie made with shredded phyllo) with poached quince and kaymak (Turkish-style clotted cream).

Tickets for the pop-up, which begins at 6 p.m., are available to purchase online for $85. Amilinda is located at 315 E. Wisconsin Ave.

Existing members must be signed in to see the interactive map. Sign in.