When downtown Milwaukee’s new arts hotel Saint Kate opens this spring, it will include an array of food and beverage offerings located throughout the space.
Operator Marcus Hotels & Resorts today rolled out its culinary plans for the hotel, including an all-day cafe, pizzeria and two bars with one specializing in champagne.
Aria Café & Bar, an “all-day neighborhood café and restaurant” will be located on the hotel’s second floor. It will serve classic American-style dishes made with seasonal ingredients including blueberry granola pancakes and house made corned beef hash for breakfast, the Big Boy Burger for lunch, and sugar and spice crispy Amish chicken and shareable plates for dinner, according to the announcement.
The restaurant plans to partner with local butchers, bakers, brewers and potters to showcase various forms of artwork.
Aria will share the second floor with Giggly Champagne & Wine Bar, which would claim the title as Milwaukee’s only champagne bar (Cuvee in the Third Ward is a champagne bar, opens for special events only). Giggly will offer a selection of champagne and international sparkling wines from the world’s finest vintners, served both by the glass and bottle.
It will also include an extensive wine list, a full selection of cocktails, beer and nonalcoholic beverages. Bar bites will also be available.
A new pizzeria, called Proof Pizza, will be located on Water Street adjacent to Saint Kate. It will serve “specialty and build-your-own hand-made Neapolitan-style pizzas featuring 48-hour slow-rise dough and homemade tomato sauce, all cooked in under two minutes in a handcrafted 800-degree brick oven.” Proof’s drink offerings will include imported and craft beers and wines.
Saint Kate’s lobby will be home to “the Bar,” which positions itself as a destination for work meetings over coffee or social gatherings over happy hour cocktails. Open throughout the day and night, it will serve typical bar offerings like house-made cocktails, local beer and wine, but it will also serve and nonalcoholic beverages such as fresh squeezed juice and coffee.
In the evening, the Bar will host live entertainment acts including DJs and performers. It will offer a late-night menu from Proof Pizza. The bar’s cocktail services will also be available to order in-room.
Saint Kate’s culinary programs will be headed by food and beverage director Brent Hockenberry and executive chef Aaron Miles.
The 219-room hotel at 139 E. Kilbourn Ave. (the former InterContinental hotel) will include art-inspired rooms, 13,000 square feet of meeting space, 11 event rooms and three restaurants, as well as bars and lounges. Design plans also include a theater that will feature plays, lectures, classes and musical and dance performances; gallery space; a working artist-in-residence studio, and event spaces to host rotating exhibitions, screenings and workshops. The name pays homage to Saint Catherine, the patron saint of artists.
