Ramen shop to open on east side in May
It’s looking like early May for the debut of Yokohama, the ramen shop by the Stand Eat Drink group that’s opening on the east side.
Yokohama will be at 1932 E. Kenilworth Place, the former site of Yield bar. Besides ramen, burgers on ramen buns, steamed buns and fried wings, it will have karaoke, cocktails on tap and outdoor seating.
Yokohama will have tsukemen ramen — noodles with dipping broth — as well as traditional ramen. Vegetarian, tonkotsu (with chicken and pork stock and pork belly) and seafood with tempura shrimp, all served with a soft-boiled egg, are the tsukemen items.
Traditional ramen bowls will be vegetarian; shio, made with seafood stock and served with crabmeat, avocado and escarole; shoyu, with chicken stock and breast; and tonkotsu. All those are served with egg. Yokohama also will have a spicy ramen bowl.
It will have several appetizers — edamame, lotus root chips, korroke (potato-beef croquettes) and tamago kake (rice with egg and vegetables) — along with pork belly, chicken and mushroom steamed buns. Yokohama also will have beef and vegetarian burgers served on ramen-noodle buns, and Korean-fried chicken wings and foiestuffed wings.
Prices were still being determined.
The bar will serve beer, wine and sake, and it will have cocktails on tap — variations on Singapore Sling, Manhattan and brandy old-fashioned, and sangria that can be served in a coconut for two.
Yokohama is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Miss Molly’s bakery
Molly Sullivan, the pastry chef at Black Shoe Hospitality, plans to open a bakery and breakfastand-lunch cafe in summer at 9201 W. Center St.
That’s the former site of Pattaya Thai restaurant, which closed in February.
Miss Molly’s will have what Sullivan called American bakery items, such as muffins, scones and cinnamon rolls, and also French pastries, such as eclairs and tarts. It will serve Anodyne coffee and have a full espresso bar.
Breakfast and lunch items will be styled for grab-and-go, with menu items such as a slowcooked egg on sproutedgrain bread for breakfast, but the cafe will have seating for guests as well.
The counter-service restaurant will have seats for 25 or so customers, at tables and at lounge seating near a fireplace. A patio on the side of the building also would be able to seat about 25 customers.
Sullivan said the menu will be seasonal and will get its ingredients from local producers, something the restaurants she’s worked for have emphasized.
“That’s very important to me,” she said.
Miss Molly’s is seeking beer and wine licenses for the cafe, which would be available for private events in the evenings.
The cafe is projected to open in mid-July.
New menu at Plaza
The new menu at Cafe at the Plaza, 1007 N. Cass St., bears the imprint of chef Matt Miller in its scratch cooking, from the Italian and chorizo sausages to the chile powder blend to the sauerkraut for the reuben sandwich.
The menu, which debuted Wednesday, brings a longstanding cafe favorite back to the weekend brunch menu — lemon poppyseed pancakes. Miller, who estimated he received 10 customer requests a week for the pancakes while they were off the menu, added almond for crunch and upgraded the syrup, making it with blueberry, ginger and lemon juice.
Miller’s background primarily has been in fine dining; he most recently was the sous chef at c.1880 in Walker’s Point before joining Cafe at the Plaza last year. (The baba ganouj from c.1880 was modified and added to a falafel plate along with a Mediterranean salad with harissa dressing.)
But that’s not to say the cafe menu items have been reinterpreted in fine-dining ways; the reuben sandwich is a reuben sandwich, albeit with house sauerkraut, sauce and corned beef. “We’re not messing with a classic, just making it as good as we can,” Miller said.
Prices range mostly from $7 to $14.
Cafe at the Plaza serves weekday breakfast and lunch with an abbreviated brunch menu, and weekend brunch. Hours are 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
On the Bus
On the Bus, a restaurant serving vegetarian, vegan and super-food menu items, could open in the Milwaukee Public Market as soon as early June, operating from a counter crafted from a 1971 Volkswagen bus.
Owner Emily Ware, a partner in The Green Kitchen at the market, will open On the Bus, the market announced Tuesday. (The Green Kitchen sells salads, sandwiches and juices.)
On the Bus’ menu will include breakfast dishes. It’s expected to make its own veggie burgers, vegan ice cream, almond milk and kale chips.
Sandwiches ($6 to $8) are to run the gamut from melts (including roasted red pepper and pesto panino with vegan cheese), plant-based deli sandwiches (such as eggless salad, made with tofu) and hot sandwiches (barbecue portobello is one example).
Breakfast items ($4 to $8) are to include granola and fresh almond milk and avocado toast.