Here's what diners can expect at The Wolf, set to open downtown in mid-November

The wait is nearly over for those who’ve been eager to dine at The Wolf on Broadway. The highly anticipated restaurant, located on the ground floor of the Kinn Guesthouse at 600 N. Broadway., is set for a mid-November soft opening.

The restaurant plans to offer dinner service in its first week and will introduce weekend lunch service as soon as a week later.

The Wolf is owned by Wolfgang Schaefer and Whitney McAllister, who also own Uncle Wolfie’s Breakfast Tavern and Orange and Blue Co., located in the same building in Brewers Hill.

Schaefer and McAllister want their new restaurant to feel like an extension of Uncle Wolfie’s but with a more fine-dining approach.

“It’s like Uncle Wolfie’s hip, downtown older sister. We’re giving a more upscale experience. Bring your kids or family to Uncle Wolfie’s, but if you want a night out, The Wolf is where you’d go,” McAllister said.

The menu was developed by Kristen Schwab, a Milwaukee restaurant veteran who was previously chef de cuisine at DanDan and has worked at Odd Duck, Goodkind and VIA Downer.

During the height of the pandemic, Schwab also operated the Phat Dumpling pop-up operation alongside her husband, chef Jeff Marquardt.

Schwab says she’s eager to show off a menu that allows her to flex her creativity while reflecting the comfort of Uncle Wolfie’s with a more fine-dining approach. Much of the dishes’ flavors are influenced by her part-Indonesian heritage.

“I’ve always been successful running other people’s restaurants, so it’s exciting to have the chance to represent myself and explore the kind of food I’m passionate about,” she said. “And I love that the kitchen is run by two women.”

Helping Schwab in the kitchen is Val Bartram as chef de cuisine. Schwab and Bartram have known each other since their college days at MATC’s Oak Creek campus and have worked together in multiple Milwaukee kitchens.

“I wouldn’t be doing this without her,” Schwab said. “We’re like a two-headed dragon. We have a very similar food philosophy, we work in similar ways, and we’re both kind of silly and serious. It’s a great balance.”

Rounding out the managerial staff are Nick Witte as front of house manager and Erik Wickman, who as bar manager will create a cocktail menu that’s simple and approachable but will feature drinks that complement the menu’s Southeast Asian-influenced flavors.

A globally inspired menu with comfort at its core

Schwab was working as executive sous chef at Fiserv Forum when Schaefer called her about joining their team as The Wolf's executive chef.

"I thought about it for about two days. I hadn't planned to be involved in another restaurant at the time, but that's when the best opportunities come up," she said. "Then I called Val to join me. She said yes right away."

Schwab spent about a year-and-a-half developing the menu. She wanted to create food that mirrored the approachability of Uncle Wolfie’s menu, but in a more refined, elevated way that still allowed for a little playfulness. She pulled inspiration from travels across the globe and leaned heavily on the food she loves cooking at home.

“My mom’s side of the family has deep Southern roots, and my dad’s side is Southeast Asian, so the menu is a reflection of who I am in that way,” said Schwab.

Schwab, whose grandmother is from Sumatra, infuses her cooking with Indonesian flavors like lemongrass, chiles, lime leaf and garlic.

“Val and I worked really hard to source special ingredients dear to our hearts,” Schwab said. “We’re trying to work as much as we can with local farmers to show off the incredible produce we grow here in Wisconsin.”

She said her goal was that everything on the menu be “cute and craveable.”

The curated menu of cute and craveable items is a mix of salads, appetizers, sandwiches and more sophisticated entrees. The Wolf also will have a couple rotating dessert options.

One of those items will be a gado-gado Cobb salad with little gem lettuce, hard-cooked egg, corn, green beans, potato, tomato, coconut, puffed rice cracker and peanut dressing ($19).

“Gado-gado salad is very traditionally Indonesian,” Schwab said. “My grandma used to make it, but here I’ll present it in a more fine-dining way.”

Another family influence that appears on the menu is the corn fritters appetizer ($14). They're made with sweet corn, cilantro, shallots and come with a tamarind dipping sauce.

“My aunts and my dad would make them for every holiday,” Schwab said.

Other appetizers include butter chicken wings with yogurt and cilantro ($16); cabbage cups filled with cauliflower, toasted rice powder, noc cham (a Vietnamese dipping sauce), shallot, mint, basil fried shallot and lime ($12); and rendang roll, a signature dish of Indonesia that Schwab presents like “an elevated version of a Hot Pocket,” served with house-made tomato sambal.

“That’s one of my favorites on the menu for sure,” said Schwab.

Another of her favorites is the arctic char dinner entree, a type of fish served in a mango curry with vermicelli noodles, macadamia nuts and basil ($34). Shwab said the sauce was inspired by a mango curry served at Bamboo, a Thai and Laotian restaurant in Milwaukee’s Silver City neighborhood.

“My version is like a fancy version of that, with a silky-smooth sauce. It’s rich and creamy, tangy and fruity,” she said. “My favorite flavor profile.”

Other dishes on the dinner menu include duck fried farro, with duck confit, turmeric, sweet soy sauce, egg yolk, cucumber, tomato and shrimp chip ($35); flank steak with cabbage, corn, watercress and sweet corn puree ($32); and garlic Indo-Mie, a dish with crisp egg noodles, maitake mushrooms, sambal sweet soy sauce, miso butter, broccolini, pickled shallot and fried garlic topped with a sunny-side egg ($24).

There are three sandwiches on the menu, including the cheeseburger served with smoked gouda, pickles, lettuce, tomato, fried shallot, onion and Calabrian chili aioli ($18); a salt and pepper fish sandwich with chili crisp, preserved mustard tartar sauce pickles, dill and shredded lettuce ($20); and Irma’s chicken sandwich ($18), made with a lemongrass-infused chicken patty that Schwab refers to as “a grown-up Chicken McNugget.” The chicken sandwich is served with herbs, pickled chili, rice powder, cilantro, iceberg lettuce, red onion and a lime leaf aioli. All sandwiches are served with a side of french fries.

Desserts will rotate, but at the soft opening, expect an ube cheesecake with an almond crust, coconut streusel and blackberry ($8); and a banana lumpia dish named Bananas in Pajamas, with pandan custard and condensed milk caramel ($8), which Schwab described as "a deep-friend banana spring roll" that "tastes like a really fancy funnel cake."

“While we’re going for more fine-dining versions of the dishes, I still want everything to feel really playful and unexpected,” Schwab said. “And always comfortable. You don’t have to know everything about these unique ingredients, but the way they’re presented, it should be really approachable for all kinds of people.”

A cool and contemporary interior

The Wolf’s location on the corner of N. Broadway and E. Michigan Street affords lots of windows on the west- and south-facing sides of the building, creating a bright and sunbeam-lit space for weekend lunches and offering a glimmering view of downtown at night.

“It’s absolutely stunning at golden hour,” McAllister said. “Then it gets super moody and magical at night. A perfect date spot.”

The space was designed by the Three Sixty design firm, which has also designed 1033, Centraal in Bay View, Hacienda Taproom & Kitchen, DanDan and Uncle Wolfie’s.

“We want people to walk in and get a sense that, if they’ve been to Uncle Wolfie’s, they see the similarities, they feel familiar here,” McAllister said. “It’s an extension of that space that we love, but a little sexier, a little more grown-up.”

McAllister was hands-on with the design, selecting the colors for the restaurant’s stained-glass partition feature and the finishes and details of the restaurant’s decor.

The tile by the bar is the same as at Uncle Wolfie’s, as is the style of barstool and the soffit above the bar. The wash of warm apricot on the back wall was inspired by the wallpaper at Uncle Wolfie’s and the limewash paint is the same color and texture that appears in Orange and Blue Co.

Aside from bringing in design nods from Uncle Wolfie’s, the interior was inspired by the greens and apricots in one of McAllister’s and Schaefer’s favorite Parisian cafes. The rest is a West Coast, Joshua Tree-style influence, with large, hexagonal terracotta tiles, warm wooden finishes, natural elements, earth tones, wicker-backed chairs, large greenery and an open and airy feel.

“We also wanted to bring in local artists to the design,” McAllister said, pointing out the custom wallpaper feature on the restaurant’s ceiling that was created by Whitney Nettles of Wit & Co. design studio. (Look closely and you’ll spot illustrated wolves hidden in the wallpaper’s pattern.) The stained-glass partition was cut and put together by Jon Schroder of Milwaukee’s Cobalt Glassworks.

“I’m really proud of how it turned out,” McAllister said. “It feels so different than a lot of places in Milwaukee but still so right at home here.”

Hours, offerings and what’s to come at The Wolf

For the soft opening in mid-November, dinner reservations will be open from 4:30 to 9 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Thursday, and from 4:30 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Lunch hours will follow a week later, and will be served Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

On weekends, the bar will be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., with plans to serve snacks during happy hour.

For now, the plan is to keep a consistent lunch and dinner schedule, with brunch as a possibility in the future.

The Wolf will offer valet parking through the Kinn’s internal valet service. There is metered street parking on both Broadway and Michigan, as well as a paid surface lot across the street. The Wolf is also along the route of The Hop.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New downtown Milwaukee restaurant The Wolf set to open in mid-November