Coquette Cafe closes

A new restaurant will replace the casual French restaurant in the Third Ward.

Longtime casual French restaurant Coquette Cafe in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward is closed, and a new restaurant is in the works to take its place.

Nathan Bernstein, director of commercial real estate for Joseph Property Development, the owner of the building, confirmed Wednesday morning that the restaurant that had been in the Landmark Building for 19 years was permanently closed.

“We do have another concept going in there,” Bernstein said. He declined to specify what the new restaurant would be but said work on the space likely would begin in the next 30 days. The opening could come about three months after that.

The restaurant at 316 N. Milwaukee St. had appeared to be closed temporarily Tuesday. A telephone recording and a sign on the door said it was closed for repairs, with hopes it would reopen at 11 a.m. Wednesday. By Wednesday morning, the glass door was papered and the restaurant’s telephone number removed.

Coquette was bought by chefs Nick Burki and Chris Hatleli from its founders, Sanford and Angie D’Amato, in 2010. It officially changed hands on March 1 of that year.

Burki could not be reached immediately for comment.

Burki and Hatleli had worked for the D’Amatos at Coquette and what was then the D’Amatos’ fine-dining restaurant, Sanford. Sanford is now owned and operated by Justin Aprahamian, and the D’Amatos live in Massachusetts.

Coquette opened in 1999 as something new in the Milwaukee dining market, a casual, rather than fine-dining French restaurant, where a customer could get a sandwich as easily as chocolate mousse.