Each week on This Bites, dining critic Ann Christenson from Milwaukee Magazine and Radio Milwaukee’s resident foodie Tarik Moody dig into the city’s culinary and restaurant culture to help you find new spots, old favorites and the best ingestibles around Milwaukee.
Resilience is a non-negotiable in the restaurant business. If you’re not ready to rebound from a setback — even a literally devastating one — you probably won’t last long. We’ve got two examples of that bounceback-ability in this episode, starting with a new home that rose from the ashes of disaster.
Cocina Filipina rolled out its first food truck in 2023 and found a home at Zócalo before expanding into a mini-fleet that set up shop at events all over the Milwaukee area, including stands at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena and the Baird Center. But a fire at their base kitchen shut everything down in December of 2025 and forced them to rethink the eatery’s future.
That process has led them to 3801 W. Vliet St., which will be the home of Cocina Filipina Fare, the first brick-and-mortar location for owners Marilupe “Lupe” Moreno and Edu Aragon Guzman. They plan to serve some of the food trucks’ best-known dishes at the restaurant, which they hope to open in July, while keeping the mobile part of the business in operation.
Another delicious spot coming back from a bad break is Ruta’s Fresh Indian Fare, which closed its Walker’s Point location just a couple weeks ago. Their doors won’t stay shuttered for long, though, as the fast-casual restaurant secured a new location in downtown West Allis.
Owner Ruta Kahate told the Journal Sentinel she had a move in mind for a long time before the closing and eventually chose the former Ethiopia Coffee Shop at 7629 W. Greenfield Ave. That made the move pretty simple, as everything simply went from Walker’s Point directly to the West Allis space for a planned mid-June opening.
Also in this episode, we have a few items from some of the city’s top restaurants:
- Ann sat down with chef Alex Hanesakda of SapSap to talk about his life in food and the huge role his culture has played in it.
- Amilinda will offer more flavors from Portugal with the introduction of its Piri Piri Chicken special every Wednesday.
- Birch will host another installment of its Pepe’s Oyster Bar pop-up series June 11.
Our next installment is never too far away, so make sure you subscribe to This Bites wherever you listen to fine podcasts like this one. Thanks.
