Turner Hall's restaurant is now vacant. Here is its plan for the RNC and beyond
The restaurant at Turner Hall has become vacant as Turning Tables Tavern, which occupied the space for two years, is leaving for a new space.
Milwaukee Turners Executive Director Emilio De Torre said that it will have no effect on their plans for the Republican National Convention, which is to rent out the entire building.
"We have a client lined up in the whole building for the RNC, the hall, the restaurant and parking lot, and we don't have to provide catering," De Torre said.
He was not able to disclose the client at this time.
Following the RNC, the Milwaukee Turners, which owns the building at 1040 N. Phillips Ave. and runs the gym in the basement, would like to find a new restaurateur for the space.
De Torre said that a restaurant that can be flexible and work around Pabst Theater Group shows at Turner Hall or neighboring Fiserv Forum and Miller Theater would be an ideal candidate.
"We want it to be community minded and we're open to suggestions from folks," De Torre said. "We want a place that can respond to the events in the area, and hopefully keep up our historic fish fries."
Milwaukee Turners also use the building for free community programs like yoga, peer support groups and philanthropic events.
"There's a lot of activity in the building," he said. "It'd be good to know that folks can break bread here, too."
Turning Tables Tavern move
Turning Tables Tavern is planning to move in June to a new space at 250 E. Wisconsin Ave., in the former space of Freshii.
The concept was created by Milwaukeean Emerald Mills to help up-and-coming food-based entrepreneurs, specifically chefs of color, learn what it's like to run a kitchen.
The restaurant space at Turner Hall needed front-of-house support that was getting in the way of Turning Table's mission, Mills said. When it opened in 2022, daily downtown traffic was low, causing sales to be down and stalling Mills' desire to hire more help.
"I never intended on being behind the bar or cooking food. We thought we'd get a team but, because of the projections versus what was happening in the neighborhood, it's how we had to sustain it," Mills told the Journal Sentinel in March.
Turning Tables Tavern's new space has room for multiple entrepreneurs, less overhead, and little front-of-house service, so that the focus can be on making food.
Mills also set up a nonprofit organization at the end of last year called Community Minded, with a goal of creating incubator kitchens around the city to provide low- or no-cost kitchen space for food entrepreneurs.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Turner Hall's restaurant is now vacant as Turning Tables moves
