Someone is finally doing something with The Grand Avenue Mall. It will get a remodel and simply become The Avenue in 2019. And it'll have a much less sad food court. The Avenue will have a food hall instead, which is much trendier these days. It's called 3rd Street Market Hall and we have a preview of the first vendors.
Each week on Radio Milwaukee, Milwaukee Magazine’s dining critic, Ann Christenson, and 88Nine’s foodie, Tarik Moody, discuss Milwaukee’s culinary and restaurant culture on This Bites. This Bites is supported by Society Insurance.
Read more and listen to the podcast episode below for our discussion on The Avenue, Momo Mee, Bavette's meat raffle, Uncle Wolfie’s Breakfast Tavern, Wild Roots and Cottonmouth (cotton candy).
Preview of 3rd Street Market Hall
The food hall trend continues. Another, called 3rd Street Market Hall, is coming to the new development taking over the Grand Avenue Mall, simply called The Avenue. On the street level, the food hall is set to feature more then 20 diverse food vendors from around the city.
The first round of vendors announced are:
- Stone Creek Coffee, who already has a small kiosk inside the Grand Ave Mall skywalk.
- Milk Can, a startup concept by Milwaukee chef Kurt Fogle and the team behind Muskego’s Bass Bay Brewhouse and noted pastry chef Kurt Fogle. Milk Can will feature the staples of the Dairy State—cheese curds, burgers and frozen custard.
- Funky Fresh Spring Rolls, who already has one of its locations inside the existing Shops of Grand Avenue. The other location is inside the Sherman Phoenix.
- Donut Monster, the brainchild of Jackie Woods (a former Ardent chef) and his spouse Sara. Their line of scratch doughnuts toots the horn of quality ingredients.
- Char’d, a “New Korean” concept whose owners also have a full-service Third Ward Char'd location and a new Korean fried chicken bar, called Merge, on the East Side.
- Waterford Wine & Spirits, a 13-year-old company with locations on Brady Street and in Delafield.
Other Milwaukee food news and culinary events
Momo Mee
There's a new Asian fusion spot tucked away in Walker's Point. This makes the second place in Milwaukee that serves traditional Shanghai soup dumplings. It also serves traditional Japanese yakisoba and ramen. Plus, xiao long bao, Szechuan spicy chicken wings, samosas and more. This place is definitely worth checking out for its variety—there are plenty of vegan options too. It's open now. See the menu and location here.
Bavette's Uplands farm cheese tasting and meat raffle
And now, let's talk about meat. This is the sixth year that Bavette La Boucherie is doing its Uplands farm cheese tasting and meat raffle. Each year, Uplands farm buys some Berkshire piglets to raise at the farm, feeding it the whey from the cheesemaking and letting them out to pasture. They then finish the hogs on acorns. The result is delicious, nutty pork. For this event, Bavette will butcher the whole hog ahead of time, and then for three dollars per ticket, raffle off the cuts.
To start the night off, there's a tasting of the award winning artisan cheese from Uplands farm, including the very seasonal Rush Creek. Then comes the meat raffle of this special pork. The full menu will also be available to eat for dinner while the meat raffle is happening. Get tickets here.
Uncle Wolfie’s Breakfast Tavern
Uncle Wolfie's has done some recent pop up events at Drink Wisconsinibly and The Tandem, but the people wanted more. On December 17, Uncle Wolfie’s Breakfast Tavern will be open for business in the Brewers Hill neighborhood. We don't quite have a full menu, but take a look at the restaurant's Instagram for views of the delicious breakfast food and the beautiful Cream City brick building, which also holds Orange and Blue Co., a boutique owned by the same couple.
Wild Roots
Thi Cao, the executive chef at Buckley's, is opening a new restaurant in West Allis called Wild Roots. It'll be contemporary American food with plenty of flavorful spins on the familiar dishes brought to you by Cao's creativity, which includes Vietnamese, American, French, Spanish and Italian influences. He says you can also expect many "wild" elements, like local seasonal ingredients, foraged mushrooms and venison. He also plans to have a chef's table, where he will invite those sitting there to watch him create new dishes, sample fresh ingredients and be the first to try new innovations. Wild Roots is expected to open late January or early February.
Cottonmouth...
We just discovered a really delicious new thing—the small-batch cotton candy at an African American woman-owned business called Cottonmouth. Forget that artificial pink and blue nonsense on a stick that you had as a kid, Cottonmouth has flavors like caramel apple, coconut, mint chocolate chip, mocha latte, wedding cake, salted caramel, pumpkin spice and more. We didn't know cotton candy could be so good or so artisanal. Right now, it looks like you can only find it at pop-up events and for-hire at events like weddings, but follow Cottonmouth on Instagram to know when they'll be spinning cotton candy in a place near you.
