Cocina 1022 moves into Chez Jacques site
Cocina 1022, a new Walker’s Point restaurant serving Mexican dishes, wants to take a different approach to its menu and craft cocktails.
It officially opened this week for lunch and dinner at 1022 S. 1st St., the former site of Chez Jacques.
Kevin Lopez, who owns the restaurant with his mother, Judith Figueroa, said the menu was devised to give diners options.
With their main dishes, customers choose from side dishes that go beyond the usual rice and refried beans, Lopez said, such as potatoes with chorizo or jalapeños with vegetables in vinegar.
Cocina 1022’s main dishes include molcajete, the heated stone bowl that holds beef, chicken, shrimp or vegetables or a combination (from $15 to $27). Another is pinchos de camaron ($14), skewers of grilled shrimp with chipotle cream sauce and white rice, a version of street kebabs diners find in Mexico, Lopez said.
At lunch, served 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the choices include sandwiches ($7 and $8), such as breaded steak, ham with avocado and jalapeño, and eggs with chorizo.
Some main dishes are served at lunch only, including flautas ($8), but tacos ($2.50 to $3) are available at both lunch and dinner.
At dinnertime, appetizers include picaditas, another name for sopes, the corn-dough cakes that are topped here with black beans, tomato, lettuce, sour cream, cheese and a choice of cactus, chicken tinga or grilled steak ($7 to $9).
A weekday lunch buffet is due to begin in a month or so. A separate takeout menu will be launched, too, of dishes that hold up well in transit, said general manager Sara Arenas.
The craft cocktails were created by Adam Sarkis of Phoenix Cocktail Club downtown, Arenas said. Because Cocina’s menu is a different take on Mexican food, they wanted the cocktails to be different, too.
Cocina’s Firing Squad, for instance, mixes mezcal, grenadine, lime, seltzer and bitters; the Champurrado Old-Fashioned, named for the Mexican chocolate drink, combines rum, chocolate bitters, allspice dram and Squirt.
Arenas said the Drop Top Clay Pot is popular; it’s tequila, tamarind soda, lime, honey and cinnamon, served in a small clay vessel.
The restaurant opens at 11 a.m. Monday to Saturday, staying open until at least 11 p.m. Starting April 13, it will stay open until 4 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Lopez said, with some late-night menu bites. Happy hour is 3 to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday. Cocina 1022 is on Facebook; and at (414) 810-1022.
Blue’s Egg in Shorewood
All systems are now go in Shorewood, the owners of Blue’s Egg restaurant have announced, and the brunch restaurant’s second location is due in May.
Plans for the restaurant have been in the works since at least September.
Dan Sidner, co-owner of parent company Black Shoe Hospitality, said the opening likely would be sometime after Mother’s Day and before Memorial Day.
Chef Joe Muench is the other owner of Black Shoe. The men, who also own and operate Maxie’s and Story Hill BKC, will be partners with two others in the Shorewood restaurant: Amy and Jason Kerstein.
She is Black Shoe’s “administrative czar,” according to the company’s announcement, and he is its director of operations.
Point Burger Bar in New Berlin
The Point Burger Bar that’s opening April 11 in New Berlin will be the local chain’s fourth, but the only one with a drive-through.
Point Burger Bar will be at 4900 S. Moorland Road, in the former Quaker Steak & Lube restaurant.
It’s a quick turnaround for the space; Quaker Steak closed in mid-March. Point Burger Bar owner Brian Ward said the compressed time-frame allows him to retain much of the staff from Quaker Steak.
With a capacity of 280 people, the New Berlin location will be the chain’s second largest. The biggest is in Pewaukee, at W229-N1400 Westwood Drive; it includes a game room.
The original restaurant is on Milwaukee’s northwest side, 10950 W. Good Hope Road; a Point Burger Bar Express is in downtown Milwaukee, 322 W. State St.
Burgers range from $9.95 to $17.95 for a 1-pound Angus burger; most are $13.95 or less. Build-your-own burgers start at $8.95. The burger bar also serves appetizers, sandwiches and entrees, plus a lineup of Stevens Point Brewery beers on draft.
The drive-through menu will be the same as the downtown location’s express menu.
The new burger bar will open at 10:30 a.m. daily and close at 10 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 9 p.m. Sunday.
To contact, (414) 255-2265.
The first Point Burger Bar opened in late 2015. Ward said he hopes to open a location in Madison next.
At Ardent, from Oslo
The next chef in the collaborative series at Ardent will have traveled the farthest to cook at the east side restaurant: It’s Mikael Svensson, who owns the Michelin-starred Kontrast in Oslo.
Justin Carlisle, the chef-owner of Ardent, said he met Svensson when Carlisle and his wife, Lucia Muñoz, traveled to Copenhagen and Oslo last year.
They went to Kontrast for dinner at the urging of other chefs in Oslo and found Svensson has a philosophy aligned with Carlisle’s — emphasizing local and seasonal ingredients, the use of whole animals and the drive to make everything from scratch.
On April 29 and 30, Svensson will cook a tasting menu with Carlisle at Ardent, 1751 N. Farwell Ave. The first dinner is sold out; the second dinner went on sale this week.
The price is more than the usual for a dinner in the collaborative series: $225 for eight to 10 courses, plus savory snacks and dessert bites, for about 17 plates in all. Beverage pairings are $70.
It takes into account airfare for the visiting chefs, Carlisle noted.
It’s like a private dinner party, he said: About 24 people are seated at one long table, and diners can talk afterward with the visiting chef — something they wouldn’t be able to do if they went to Kontrast in Oslo.
Reservations, paid with a credit card, can be made
at ardentmke.com.
Details will come later for the June collaborative dinner, which will feature Matt Lambert of the Musket Room in New York.
Make other plans
The Irish-themed restaurant and 40-tap bar Dublin’s in West Bend closed March 31 because two partners, Todd and Jamie Ceman, moved to California.
Dublin’s opened at 110 Wisconsin Ave. in November 2013. David and Kristen Toman also were partners in it; they still operate the original Dublin’s in Oshkosh.
Find restaurant reviews in the Wednesday Food section. Contact Carol Deptolla at (414) 224-2841, carol .deptolla@jrn.com or on Twitter, @mkediner.