The historic White House building in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood will soon be home to a new, community-focused dining concept and gathering space.
Called
Mother's, the business recently signed a lease for the ground floor of the iconic building at 2900 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Chef-owner
Vanessa Rose, who launched Mother's in 2024 as a fine dining pop-up, plans to have the restaurant up and running in June. Rose has worked her way through the local culinary industry, most recently as sous chef at
Ardent, which closed in late 2024. Her past experience also includes
Amilinda,
Odd Duck,
Braise,
County Clare Irish Inn & Pub and the now-closed
Balzac Wine Bar.
"I've been around some of the best chefs in the city and I'm looking forward to bringing a little bit of all of those experiences to what we're doing here now, finally in my own space," said Rose. Mother's will offer global cuisine, with dishes made from fresh ingredients sourced from local farms and vendors.
The White House space has been unoccupied for the past couple of weeks following the closure of restaurant
SAGE. Operator and building owner
Allison Meinhardt closed SAGE in late March,
listing the space for lease and the building for sale. Meinhardt purchased the property in 2019 and opened her original fine dining restaurant concept,
The White House, soon thereafter. She rebranded it to SAGE in February 2024. The building is perhaps best known as the longtime home of the White House Tavern, which originally opened as aÂ
Schlitz tied-house in 1891. The tavern shuttered in 2017.
Mother's is part of a larger initiative by Rose, called
House of Bridges, which aims to be a third space for Milwaukee's LGBTQ+ community. She had originally been eyeing the former Company Brewing space in Riverwest for Mother's permanent home, but those negotiations ultimately fell through. Company Brewing closed in May 2024.
Rose had looked at the White House space earlier in her search for a brick-and-mortar location and already knew it would be a fit, especially given its fully outfitted kitchen and dining room. Her goal was to keep startup costs low and avoid spending tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on kitchen equipment and furniture for a white-box space.
"If we weren't going to have our first option in (the former Company Brewing space), the fact of the matter is there weren't a lot of spaces that can do what Company could do without a massive amount of investment and a massive amount of construction," said Rose. "Part of the business plan is to be conscientious of those big expenditures to get yourself off the ground. I would rather open imperfectly and refine than open perfectly and close two years later."
Rose noted she wants to buck the trend of what seems to be a roughly 10-year lifespan for many higher-end restaurants in the local market. Extending that lifespan requires a concerted effort to "diversify" and not waiting around for a limited busy season -- during Milwaukee's handful of warm weather months -- to bring in all the business.
Events will play a role in driving revenue for Mother's, she said. That includes weddings, catering gigs and public community events. For example, if all goes to plan with Mother's target opening in June, the business will host a series of Pride Month celebrations in its back parking lot -- similar to County Clare's massive St. Patrick's Day events, said Rose.
" I'm not the type of chef that thinks that all I can do is restauranting," said Rose. "Because our concept is so community focused and art focused and about platforming people, we want to be more than a place that serves food. ... In pursuit of more longevity, change and adaptation is part of what it is we'll do from the day we open until the day we close."
Mother's is currently raising money through crowdsourcing platform NuMarket to help cover immediate startup costs for the business as well as for the planned Pride Month events such as licensing, staff and equipment.
The campaign runs through April 24.
