The owners of the new Draft & Co. cafe planned for the newly constructed food and beverage building in Vel R. Phillips Plaza Downtown have shared renderings of the space, 401 W. Wisconsin Ave.
The new eatery – which will focus on beer, burgers and cheese curds – is a project of Nat Davauer of Draft & Vessel, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this past weekend.
Davauer told me recently that the cafe, "will bring in Crave Cafe to partner on kitchen operations and resurrect the original Soup Brothers from Walkers Point."
Davauer secured the lease on the new building in Vel R. Phillips Plaza after a deal between the City of Milwaukee and The Nomad fell apart.
The architect on the project is The Kubala Washatko Architects (TKWA).
You can read much more about the plan in this article.
Just yesterday, the Milwaukee Department of City Development announced that it has selected an artist to create a large sculptural installment in the plaza, which opened in June.
“It's been exciting to watch the Downtown renaissance in Milwaukee,” Davauer said in a statement when his proposal was announced in May.
“As a farm kid who would be lucky for a single trip to Grand Avenue in the '80s, the opportunity to operate at Vel Phillips Plaza will be a full-circle experience. Considering the storied history of Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee, it's even more significant to be a part of the streetscape’s future in this stunning building at the Plaza.”
Now, Draft & Co. has shared renderings of the new project on its Instagram account and those with a trained eye will notice that the just might be a Joust game coming to Westown!
Here are the renderings, courtesy of Draft & Co.:
Exterior
Exterior on 5th Street
Site plan
High-top tables
Bar
A variety of seating types
Joust!!
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
