Oggie’s restaurant at Hotel Metro debuts Aug. 4
The new restaurant at the revamped Hotel Metro downtown, called Oggie’s, opens Aug. 4 with the chef of the late, well-regarded c.1880 at the helm.
“I’m excited to be back in and cooking,” said Thomas Hauck, who owned Circa in Walker’s Point from 2012 to 2018, perennially ranked among the top restaurants in Milwaukee.
Hauck described Oggie’s as a modern European restaurant with “Midwestern charm.” It replaces the French restaurant Pastiche, which closed its downtown location at the end of 2019. (Pastiche in Brown Deer is open.)
The dining room at 411 E. Mason St. is freshly renovated, along with the entire hotel. Metro is owned by John Ogden and managed by Coury Hospitality, based in Oklahoma, and it will soon take on the Marriott Autograph brand while keeping the Hotel Metro name.
Diners will see a room decorated in grays and dark greens, with old mirrors, a little wood and a lot of natural light, Hauck said, reflecting the Art Moderne era of the building.
“Imagine you could take the 1920s … and plop it into 2020,” Hauck said.
Photographs on Instagram of Hauck’s dishes for Oggie’s, meanwhile, show a modern aesthetic reminiscent of c.1880 dishes.
One of the desserts, in fact, is a revival of a popular dessert he made there, based on the flavors of a Whatchamacallit candy bar.
Other dishes Hauck has planned for the dinner menu include roast duck breast with confit duck leg meat, charred cabbage, an assortment of summer beans, cherries, pistachios and cherry duck jus, as well as classics such as mussels and frites (with leeks, shallots, dragon carrots and vadouvan seasoning), and steak tartare, something he imagines a diner having on a sidewalk table with frites and a glass of rosé.
The restaurant will have seven distanced tables along the Milwaukee Street side of the hotel; in addition to seating in the dining room, the lounge has distanced high-top tables.
Lunchtime plates will include roast beef croissant sandwiches with aged cheddar, smoked horseradish sour cream and arugula; a smash-patty-style cheeseburger with onion marmalade and pickled peppers; and grilled salmon salad with peaches, tomato and corn.
Oggie’s will be open for lunch and dinner, starting at 5 p.m. Aug. 4 and at 11:30 a.m.Aug. 5. It will serve its lounge menu between 2 and 5 p.m. Reservations can be made July 29 through OpenTable or by calling the hotel.