Maison makes self at home on Vliet St.
April showers bring French dishes, apparently. Maison, the French restaurant that will call the former Meritage building home, is gearing up for a midApril opening.
With remodeling largely finished, Maison’s owner is putting finishing touches on the restaurant, at 5921 W. Vliet St., where the name is painted on the windows in gilded red letters.
Chef-owner Michael Quinn last weekend gave diners at Coquette Cafe, his former employer, a little preview of Maison. A special was a dish from Maison’s menu: Provençal fish stew with red snapper, mussels, clams and langoustines, in a broth with cognac, saffron and wine.
The opening menu at Maison will be fairly brief, Quinn said, so that he can change dishes frequently.
Besides the fish stew, diners can expect to find smoked, braised lamb shank among the seven or so entrées.
The menu was still in play this week, but it would have a half-dozen appetizers, such as mussels; two soups, including onion; several salads; and three desserts, including a chocolate dessert from chef Jan Kelly’s Meritage, which closed in summer.
Entrée prices are to be comparable to Meritage’s, around $18 to $27.
At the bar, a drink list by bartending consultant Daniel Beres includes a house cocktail on tap: a Sazerac, but made with cognac instead of the expected rye whiskey.
Drinks generally will feature spirits from the French company Maison Ferrand, a notable exception being kirschwasser by Milwaukee’s Great Lakes Distillery, Beres said. (The kirsch will be used in the Rose cocktail, a 1920s Parisian cocktail made with raspberry syrup.)
The 50-or-so-bottle wine list is all French, Beres said, with an eye toward affordability; more than half of the bottles will be less than $50.
Maison will have wines in smaller carafes around $15, the size of a split bottle, and bottles of house wines around $25. It will also keep some larger format bottles on hand for groups of four to eight people.
Maison kept the brass draft system in place at Meritage; besides local brews, France’s Kronenbourg 1664 will be on tap, “an easy-drinking beer for spring and summer,” Beres said.
A colleague of Quinn’s at Coquette, Joseph Roethal, is Quinn’s sous chef at Maison.
Quinn and Roethal said the dining room, previously in wine and butter colors, is now in gray tones with black and copper. The dining room has new wooden tabletops and a bartop with copper cutouts.
The secluded patio behind the restaurant will open when the weather allows, Quinn said; he’s already planning a rosé festival on the patio.
Maison will serve dinner Monday to Saturday and lunch Tuesday to Friday. It will take reservations on OpenTable and at the restaurant, once it opens: (414) 323-4030.
Bar now Oak & Oyster
The bar below chef Andrew Miller’s downtown restaurant Third Coast Provisions debuted late last week as its own entity, Oak & Oyster.
If you go during late-night happy hour this weekend, bring sharp elbows; the bar is giving away burgers from 10 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday with the purchase of a drink.
The bar, downstairs at 724 N. Milwaukee St., has its own lineup of cocktails separate from Third Coast’s drink list, and a menu of po’ boy sandwiches and raw items beyond oysters on the half shell.
Oak & Oyster was due to start tapping its own oak-barrel-aged cocktails this week; it will generally have from two to four barrel-aged cocktails available, Miller said.
Sandwiches include fried oysters ($15), fried Gulf shrimp ($15) and the house pastrami with Gruyere and sauerkraut ($14).
Oak & Oyster also has snacks, such as smoked whitefish dip ($9), fried smelt ($8) and fish tacos ($13).
Besides an oyster platter ($19), raw items include tuna crudo ($14).
On the cocktail list are drinks such as the O+O Collins, made with cucumber-grapefruit infused gin ($9), and a spin on a Negroni called the Lucien Gaudin: gin, Cointreau, Campari and dry vermouth ($12). Wines are available by the glass, beers by the bottle.
The bar is casual and rustic, different from its upstairs counterpart. Its walls are whitewashed stone, the floor is acidwashed concrete and tables are zinc. “More of a hangout kind of space,” Miller said.
Seating includes a communal table for 12. The bar also has a few high tables for resting a drink while standing and chatting. In all, the bar can hold up to 60, Miller said.
Oak & Oyster opens at 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Happy hour is 4 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and latenight happy hour is 10 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.
Happy hour deals include $1 oysters and $5 weekly Crush, a boozy punch served over crushed ice, like the ones at seafood shacks in Maryland, Miller said.
The burger (usually $10, which includes a beer) will be available only during late-night happy hour.
Doc’s barbecue open
The Southern-style barbecue restaurant Doc’s Commerce Smokehouse downtown is in soft-opening mode. It launched in time last weekend to catch some of the NCAA championship tournament crowds at the nearby BMO Harris Bradley Center.
It’s open for lunch and dinner, with soft drinks only for now. Doc’s is expected to open with a full bar on Wednesday, said executive chef Brian Atkinson. (Its liquor license application goes before the Common Council on Tuesday for approval.)
The restaurant, 754 N. 4th St, is in what was originally known as the Commerce Building, which now also houses the SpringHill Suites by Marriott.
Dry-rubbed, smoked meats are the restaurant’s specialty. Sauces are available on the side.
Meat platters, served with two sides, range mainly from $12 to $24, with $33 for a slab of ribs and two pints of sides, and $45 for a sampler platter of ribs, brisket, pulled pork, turkey, wings and sausage.
The menu also has appetizers such as smoked wings (six for $7, up to $52 for 50) and sandwiches ($10 to $12 for meats, $9 for vegetarian).
The bar will have 64 draft lines for beer and a wide selection of bourbon.
It’s the second location for Doc’s; the original is in Dyer, Ind., and another is in the works for Mokena, Ill., east of Joliet.
Doc’s opens at 11 a.m. daily. The kitchen is expected to stay open until 11 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 12:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday. There isn’t yet a set closing time on Sundays.
Doc’s doesn’t take reservations, but guests can sign up for tables through the NoWait app.
The full menu is at