Uppa Yard Opens Water Street Location

Uppa Yard on Water. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

The Jamaican restaurant Uppa Yard opened a second location downtown this week in the former Buffalo Wild Wings location on N. Water Street.

The new restaurant is reactivating a commercial space at 1123 N. Water St. downtown that has been vacant since the national chicken wing chain left in 2022. At one point there were plans for a sports bar in the 2,264-square-foot space, but they ultimately fell through.

Uppa Yard on Water will offer sit-down dining and a menu similar to the restaurant’s flagship location at 4943 N. Fond du Lac Ave. That means Jamaican staples like jerk chicken, oxtail, curry goat and escovitch fish, a traditional dish featuring whole whitefish like snapper, parrotfish or kingfish, topped with spicy pickled vegetables.

The restaurant is open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. License applications filed last year indicate the restaurant may also host live music and events.

Owner Oliver Edwards opened the first Uppa Yard in 2014. OCE Investments, LLC, an entity associated with Edwards, purchased the Water Street building in 2023 for $2.5 million, according to city assessment records.

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