Angry Taco headed for Water Street corner
Robert Montemayor, who has been in the grocery business on Milwaukee’s south side for 17 years, would go to City Hall on business and, in search of a quick lunch, think, “Man, you just cannot get tacos down here.”
Now Montemayor is getting ready to open the Angry Taco for breakfast and lunch at 753 N. Water St., in what had been a Bruegger’s Bagels store. The opening could be late August “if all the planets align,” he said.
Montemayor, who owns the Monterrey Market grocery store at 3014 S. 13th St., also is the chairman of the business improvement district for the S. 13th St-W. Oklahoma Ave. neighborhood.
Until the end of June, he owned Burrito Express at Southridge Mall in Greendale. An arm of the market operates a catering service, Monterrey Express and Catering, and Montemayor runs five stands at the Wisconsin State Fair, including Fiesta Grill and Cantina. He paused from a busy week preparing for the fair to talk about his newest venture.
Beyond tacos served on corn or flour tortillas (with flour tortillas made on site), the counter-service restaurant will have menu items such as nachos, quesadillas and tamales made by Monterrey Market. Montemayor is considering offering specials such as enchiladas, tostadas and tortas.
For breakfast, the shop will have items including chorizo-and-egg tacos and burritos, and chilequiles.
Tacos will be on 6-inch tortillas and about $3 to $4 apiece. The menu also will have combinations, and customers can add rice and beans.
The decor will have a theme of lucha libre, Mexican pro wrestling known in part for the colorful masks the participants wear. “I got a kick out of it when I was a kid, growing up in ’70s and ’80s,” Montemayor said. TVs in the restaurant occasionally will show old matches from the ’70s, he said.
So, while the restaurant’s aim is for fast service, it also welcomes customers who want to hang out a while.
To that end, the Angry Taco plans to have two beers made for the restaurant by Explorium Brew Pub in Greendale — a lime lager and a light dunkel lager, said Mike Doble, Explorium owner. It also will have frozen margaritas.
Soft drinks will include Jarritos sodas by the bottle and a fountain for other sodas.
Montemayor said the restaurant would have a rewards program, and plans call for an app and online ordering. The Angry Taco is on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; the website was under construction.
Brunch spot Fiesta Cafe is open
The latest in a wave of brunch restaurants has opened, serving its breakfast and lunch dishes at 1407 S. 1st St.: Fiesta Cafe.
The Walker’s Point space has been transformed since it housed Wayward Kitchen. Several new overhead doors open in warm weather and let more light into the concrete-block building. And decorative panels in the dining room now cover those concrete block walls.
Fiesta Cafe is owned by Rosa-Isela Real, who operates it with her husband, Valdemar Escobar. They also operate Chicken Palace restaurants — the one at 1957 W. Forest Home previously was a breakfast restaurant — and Fat Valdy’s at 5108 W. Blue Mound Road.
American and Mexican breakfast and lunch plates are woven into Fiesta Cafe’s menu; omelets, for instance, include options such as ham and cheese, and Mexican steak (beef, jalapeño, onion and tomato). Omelets are served with toast and roasted potatoes or fruit.
The restaurant makes variations on eggs Benedict, skillets, pancakes, waffles and French toast, plus Mexican dishes such as chilaquiles and divorced eggs, with red and green salsas.
Lunchtime fare includes salads such as chicken-avocado with citrus-chipotle dressing and a dozen or so sandwiches, like a BLT or the Fiesta burger, garnished with a whole sauteed jalapeño pepper.
Prices are mainly $9 to $12, and a children’s menu ($4.50 to $6.50) is available.
The restaurant mixes brunch cocktails like Bloody Marys and Mimosas and has a full bar. It also shows world soccer and other games on three TVs.
Fiesta Cafe hours are 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily; the restaurant also caters and soon will begin delivery within 3 miles, which includes downtown, with a minimum order of $50. It has that rarity of rarities for restaurants in downtown and surrounding neighborhoods: a parking lot.
Reservations are accepted. To contact: (414) 914-9569. The restaurant is online at fiestacafe.net and on Facebook.
Soup Otzie’s new owners
Closed briefly, the longtime south side cafe the Soup Otzie’s has reopened with new owners who used to be customers.
The restaurant at 3950 S. Howell Ave. was closed for about a month after cofounder Joan Otzelberger sold it to the McCowans — Scott runs the day-to-day operations and his wife, Molly, works behind the scenes. Their son, Jaden, 16, helps at the restaurant.
Otzelberger is “staying on board,” Scott McCowan said, teaching him the tricks of the soup trade.
“We beat the sun in every morning,” he said.
McCowan has been working at the restaurant since the beginning of the year, while details of the sale were worked out, but he and his family have been customers for 10 years.
McCowan, who worked in sales, wanted to own his own business at the same time Otzelberger wanted to sell hers. The Soup Otzie’s — the name is a spin on the Soup Nazi character on “Seinfeld” — first opened in 2003.
The cafe got a little freshening up in the time it was closed, but the new owners are “keeping heart and soul of place the same,” McCowan said.
That means the format should be familiar to longtime customers: daily soups of Mom’s pot roast, cream of potato and old-fashioned chicken soup with noodles or homemade dumplings Monday through Friday, plus two daily specials (Manhattan clam chowder and roasted carrot with candied pecans this Friday). On Saturdays, Texas chili, cream of chicken with wild rice and a changing third soup are served. Freshbaked bread comes with soup.
The cafe also makes a dozen kinds of panini, such as Cuban and tuna melt, plus mini subs; pork and chicken prepared at the restaurant are sliced to order.
Something new: The 30-seat cafe will offer more creative specials during the week, McCowan said; this week, that meant a mushroom and Swiss melt one day, Italian sausage another. Some lighter menu items will be added down the road.
Prices for soups vary by size and kind but start at $3.95 for a cup, $5.75 for a bowl, and slightly more for takeout. Sandwiches range from $5.25 to $7.25, and soup and sandwich combos start about $7.50.
The Soup Otzie’s hours are 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
Orders can be called in just before they’re picked up; some customers place larger orders a couple of weeks in advance, once the menu is issued for the month, McCowan said. The cafe’s number is (414) 747-9670.
Each month’s menu is posted on the website, thesoupotzies.com. The Soup Otzie’s also is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Look for dining reviews in Wednesday’s Food & Dining section. Contact Carol at carol.deptolla@jrn.com, (414) 224-2841 or on Twitter, @mkediner.