Third Ward spot in works

A new restaurant is due in spring to replace Water Buffalo, which closed in the Third Ward after service on New Year’s Eve.

Joe Sorge of Hospitality Democracy this week announced the closing and the restaurant group’s plans to open another restaurant at 249 N. Water St., although he disclosed no details of the new restaurant.

The site is off the end of Buffalo St. and faces the Milwaukee River.

In the announcement, Hospitality Democracy partner Angie Sorge said the new restaurant would have better access to the Riverwalk and would have more of a street presence. The restaurant, though it’s near busy Water St., was tucked off the beaten path, with its entrance on the stub of Buffalo St. that ends at the river.

Flux Design, which has designed other Hospitality Democracy restaurants including Smoke Shack and A.J. Bombers, will design the new restaurant.

Water Buffalo opened in 2007 with a casual menu of appetizers to share, pastas and other dishes. Dennis Getto, then the dining critic of the Journal Sentinel, wrote that the restaurant offered “a look at the future of dining out in Milwaukee. Water Buffalo exemplifies a trend away from white tablecloths and fine china and toward the casual.”

New chef at Delafield Brewhaus

Delafield Brewhaus has a new menu from its new chef: Richard Sweed, the former chef of Artisan 179 in Pewaukee.

He joined the brewpub, at 3832 Hillside Drive in Delafield, late last year; the new menu went into effect in early January.

It makes use of the kitchen’s wood-fired brick oven and smoker, and incorporates Brewhaus beers and ingredients from local purveyors.

On the menu: beef short rib from Wisconsin Meadows ($26), served with sour cream mashed potatoes and green-bean succotash.