Odd Duck owners plan Hello Falafel
Journal Sentinel dining critic
Chef Ross Bachhuber and Melissa Buchholz, who own the popular Top 30 restaurant Odd Duck in Bay View, thought the neighborhood didn’t have enough casual, quick restaurants serving healthful food.
Now Buchholz and Bachhuber are planning their second place, a mostly vegetarian counter-service restaurant that would serve Middle Eastern fare at 2301 S. Howell Ave.
They’re calling the new spot Hello Falafel. It’s expected to open in late spring.
“We have always wanted to do a place that serves lunch, which is just not possible at the Duck, since it is so busy and the menu is everchanging,” Buchholz said in announcing the restaurant this week. “We think Bay View could use some more options for casual cuisine that is healthy and fast but still has exciting, delicious options for everyone.”
The lunch-and-dinner restaurant would sell items such as falafel sandwiches; components like laffa flatbread, sauces and pickles would be made in house.
“I think this kind of food lends itself to a healthy style of eating,” Bachhuber said.
The menu in this small restaurant would be brief, Bachhuber said: four sandwiches and five or six salads and a like number of appetizers.
Because the restaurant will get produce from the same area farmers and markets as Odd Duck, elements of dishes would change somewhat over the course of the growing season, but the core of the menu would remain constant.
Unlike Odd Duck, which has a lineup of cocktails, wine and beer, Hello Falafel won’t have a bar. Instead, it will serve juices.
Hello Falafel will be just a couple of blocks from Odd Duck, 2352 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. It previously housed a couple of pizzerias in quick succession, and it was the site of Guanajuato Mexican restaurant’s first location.
The couple expects much of the business will be takeout; the restaurant will have about 20 seats for those who dine in, plus a patio in summer.
A veteran of the Odd Duck kitchen, Theresa Schuenke, will be the restaurant’s chef de cuisine.