Dandan chefs to open a restaurant at Coquette site
It’ll be their 3rd venture, set to open in midsummer
Chefs Dan Jacobs and Dan Van Rite will open the new restaurant that’s going into the former Coquette Cafe space in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward.
This will be the men’s third restaurant together. Jacobs and Van Rite operate Dandan, an American Chinese restaurant, and EsterEv, a fine-dining, tasting-menu restaurant.
Both are at 360 E. Erie St. in the Third Ward.
Their partner in all three restaurants is Jeffrey Joerres, the former ManpowerGroup chief executive officer.
French brasserie Coquette, which opened at 316 N. Milwaukee St. in 1999, closed in February. A representative of the building’s owner, Joseph Property Development, said at the time of the closing that another restaurant was lined up for the space, but he declined to specify what or whose it would be.
Jacobs said the new restaurant is projected to open in midsummer. He said details about the restaurant, such as its theme and its name, would be announced in June.
Work on redecorating the space is underway.
Jacobs and Van Rite have hired people key to the new restaurant and have promoted staff.
Matt Haase will be culinary director for all three Jacobs-Van Rite restaurants. Haase, who joined Ardent in 2014 as executive sous chef, left the fine-dining restaurant in late March.
Haase will help run all three restaurants, contribute to developing the menus and be a mentor for the restaurants’ employees, including helping them consider how they think about a dish.
“The goal is to achieve something craveable,” he said.
Culinary director is a new position for the restaurants, Jacobs noted. “When you have the opportunity to hire the smartest guy in the room, you hire the smartest guy in the room,” Jacobs said of Haase.
Blair Herridge will be the new restaurant’s chef de cuisine. Herridge comes from Goodkind in Bay View, where he was sous chef. Jacobs said he first worked with Herridge at Sprout in Chicago in 2009, and the two have talked about working together one day.
Meanwhile, Kristen Schwab, who has been one of two sous chefs at Dandan, was promoted to Dandan’s chef de cuisine.
“She’s been the driving force of the food for some time now at Dandan,” Jacobs said.