EsterEv restaurant to move to new space in Bay View
EsterEv, 360 E. Erie St., the private fine-dining restaurant co-owned by James Beard Award nominees Dan Jacobs and Dan Van Rite, has plans to open its first standalone restaurant space in Bay View.
The new location, at 2165 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., will be in the former space of C-Viche, which closed in October 2023. Jacobs told the Journal Sentinel the new location should open “sooner than you’d expect.” The proposed opening date on the restaurant’s license application is March 20, 2024.
The last day of service at EsterEv's current location is Saturday, Feb. 17.
EsterEv opened in 2016 as a separate restaurant inside DanDan, the popular Chinese-American restaurant also owned by Jacobs and Van Rite. Since opening, Jacobs and Van Rite have earned five James Beard Award semifinalist nods for their work at EsterEv, in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023.
The restaurant’s name comes from Jacobs’ and Van Rite’s grandmothers, Ester and Evelyn, the inspirations behind the adventurous cooking styles of the restaurant’s co-owners. The restaurant offers ever-changing multicourse tasting menus centered around seasonal ingredients and flavors.
Currently, EsterEv offers seatings on only Friday and Saturday evenings. In its new iteration, EsterEv plans to be open from 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
The new space is roughly double the size of its current footprint inside DanDan, but Jacobs said EsterEv's signature intimate dining experience will not change.
“The space still isn't super large. We aren’t going to be a big restaurant,” he said. “But instead of seating 20 people a night, now we’ll be able to seat 40.”
The new space also allows for EsterEv to operate out of its own kitchen. Currently, it shares the same kitchen space with DanDan.
"No longer hidden in the back of DanDan, this rebirth also signifies a change in the menu format to make the tasting concept accessible to more people –– something the 'Dans' are very passionate about with rising food costs," Jacobs and Van Rite said in a statement. "After many years working in the confines of a shared kitchen, the team is excited to have expanded capabilities in a large dedicated space."
Aside from a larger space and separate kitchen, EsterEv’s move south is especially exciting for Jacobs and Van Rite, who both live in Bay View.
“I’ve lived in Bay View for almost 10 years now, and I’m so happy to be working again back in the neighborhood,” Jacobs said.
While Jacobs said more details about the restaurant’s future in its new space are to come, he shared that diners can expect much of what they already love about EsterEv to continue. “It was just time to give it its own thing,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: EsterEv to move to new space in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood