A franchisee for Tampa, Fla.-based fondue restaurant chain The Melting Pot Restaurants Inc., plans to open a Melting Pot location in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward.
Matt Soik, a franchisee for Tampa, Fla.-based fondue restaurant chain The Melting Pot Restaurants Inc., plans to open a Melting Pot location in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward this fall in the former Milwaukee Antique Center building at 341 N. Milwaukee St., according to the company’s web site.
The five-story, 43,200-square-foot building is located at the southwest corner of North Milwaukee Street and East St. Paul Avenue and is owned by Frank Andrews Jr., David Stroud, Craig Stoehr and other investors.
Soik has a contract to purchase the 6,000-square-foot first floor of the building. He is doing due diligence on the space and the deal is scheduled to close in June, Stroud said. The other floors of the building are available for sale or lease, most likely for office space, Stroud said.
In recent years the Third Ward has added several new retail stores, bars and restaurants.
"I think we’ve gotten to a certain threshold of bars and restaurants that we are a destination now," said Historic Third Ward Association president Ron San Felippo. "It used to be we only had one or two and you had to be going to one of those specifically. Now people going out (without a specific destination in mind) just say, ‘Let’s go to The Third Ward, there are plenty of places to choose from.’ Certainly in this economic climate we’re happy that people realize that the Third Ward is the place to be."
There are more than 140 Melting Pot locations in the U.S., but the only other Melting Pot location in Wisconsin is in Brookfield at 19850 W. Bluemound Road.
