Hinterland closes in Third Ward

Owners to focus on Titletown District restaurant, brewery

Hinterland Erie St. Gastropub, the casual fine-dining restaurant in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward by the owners of Hinterland Brewery, closed its doors for good Tuesday night.

“It’s been something that we’ve been looking at for a while,” co-owner Bill Tressler said. Business had been declining, he said, and “we really needed to focus our attention on our restaurant and brewery in the Titletown District” in Green Bay.

“There’s a lot of market pressure, a lot going on in Milwaukee,” he said.

Bill and Michelle Tressler in March closed their downtown Green Bay Hinterland restaurant as they prepared to open a larger Hinterland restaurant and brewery in the Titletown entertainment district, across the street from Lambeau Field.

The new Green Bay venue holds two restaurants that opened in April: One is a large beer-hall style restaurant and the other is an 80-seat restaurant called High Gravity Kitchen. The expanded brewery opened in March.

Hinterland, at 222 E. Erie St., opened in September 2007. It was a mainstay on the Journal Sentinel’s Top 30 list, ranking No. 5 in 2016.

In December 2015, when rumors arose that Hinterland would close in the Third Ward at that time, Tressler said it was staying open, adding that he had signed a five-year lease for the space in 2014.

Tressler said he has no other plans for the space at the moment.

Hinterland, in its 2008 Journal Sentinel review, received 31⁄2 stars for its progressive and masterful cooking. Its chef for most of its existence was Dan Van Rite, who now is co-owner of Dandan and EsterEv restaurants a few blocks away.

The most recent chef and general manager was Matt Kerley.

Hinterland opened with a wood-fire grill in the kitchen and served fish flown in from

Honolulu within 48 hours of being caught.

It combined an aesthetic that was both modern and rustic in its dining room, which could seat almost 90. The restaurant was filled with diners in its heyday, less so in recent years. A lounge at the back of the space could seat almost 40.

Dining room prices were at the higher end, with a number of entrees in the $30 to $40 range, and game entrees such as elk and antelope over $40. But it also had a more affordable bar menu, and its double-patty burger, at $15, last year was added to the dining room’s menu.

“It was a good run,” Bill Tressler said of the Milwaukee restaurant. “We had 10 great years . ... Honestly, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s definitely a hard thing to close a business like this . ... We’ve always had an amazing staff.”