When the 220-room Westin hotel opens in downtown Milwaukee’s next summer, it will include an Italian steakhouse on the ground floor.
White Lodging, which will manage the hotel for developer Jackson Street Holdings, is working with Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Inc. on the project, which will feature pastas prepared fresh daily, Italian specialties with an “elevated twist,” and steaks, said Jeffrey Hess, general manager of the Marriott Milwaukee Downtown hotel (also developed by Jackson Street Holdings). Hess will transition to general manager of the Westin Milwaukee hotel when it opens.
James Beard award nominee, Andrew Ashmore, the research and development chef with White Lodging, has been developing the menu for the still unnamed restaurant.
“We’re taking a modern approach to this restaurant with a very Italian spirit,” Hess said.
In addition to the restaurant, the 10-story hotel will include 9,000 square feet of meeting space and a 5,000-square-foot ballroom. The hotel will be located on the east side of North Van Buren Street between East Michigan Street and East Clybourn Street. It will be just south of the U.S. Bank Center and just west of the new 833 East Michigan office building.
The Westin will connect to the U.S. Bank Center’s Galleria Level, which also connects to 833 East Michigan. The ground floor of the 833 East Michigan building, which opened earlier this year, also includes a new high end restaurant, Rare Steakhouse, owned by Madison-based Noble Chef Hospitality.
Rare and the restaurant at the Westin bring two high end restaurants to a block that previously had none.
The Westin is the third hotel partnership between White Lodging and Jackson Street Holdings, and is Jackson Street Holdings’ fourth hotel in downtown Milwaukee. The 155-all-suite SpringHill Suites Milwaukee, 744 N 4th St, opened this spring and is connected via skywalk to the Wisconsin Center.
Jackson Street Holdings is also proposing a $279.6 million plan at North 4th Street and Wisconsin Avenue that would include three hotels totaling 506 rooms, 103,000 square feet of convention space and 22,000 square feet of street-level restaurants, bars and cafés.
