Paper Plane Pizza, a pop-up and food truck based in Chicago, will be among the food vendors people can sample at 3rd Street Market Hall’s upcoming fundraiser for the United for Waukesha Community Fund.
The evening event is set for Dec. 22, featuring food and beverages from the soon-to-open food hall. All proceeds will be donated to the United for Waukesha Community Fund, which was established by the Waukesha County Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County to support the needs of families impacted by the massacre at the annual Waukesha Christmas Parade in November. Tickets are $100 per person and are available for purchase here.
In addition to raising money, the event also serves as a preview of 3rd Street Market Hall, which is slated to softly open this month at The Avenue development in downtown Milwaukee after much delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent supply chain disruption.
Serving pizza by the slice and the whole pie, Paper Plane is the latest business to join the lineup of what will eventually be 19 vendors at the food hall. So far, the cohort includes Dairyland Old Fashioned Hamburgers and its off-shoot Mid-Way Bakery, Super Nova Coffee & Doughnuts, Anytime Arepa, Middle East Side, Brew City Brand, Strega, Amano Pan, MaKE Waves, Green House, and Dawg City. A few of those concepts will occupy miniature vendor spaces, or hawker stalls, managed by Dairyland.
Vendors to be featured at next week’s fundraiser include Paper Plane, Dairyland, Mid-Way Bakery, Strega, Amano Pan, Middle East Side, Hot Dish Pantry, Make Waves, Green House, Dawg City, and Anytime Arepa, as well as upscale downtown steakhouse Carnevor.
“This event is proof once again of how we come together as a community,” said Omar Shaikh, owner and operator of 3rd Street Market Hall. “What stood out the most from the pandemic in the Greater Milwaukee area was our resilience. Our area now faces another tragedy, and that resilience is what will get us through again. By using our new market hall as a premier venue for this benefit, we hope for that resilience to be proudly on display while also giving guests a unique food and beverage experience.”
Paper Plane will source most ingredients from Wisconsin, including Milwaukee’s own Usinger’s sausages. Owners Milos Stevanovic and Dustin Drank launched the concept two years ago and have been experimenting with different toppings and doughs to create their “Broad Shoulders” dough style and their “Sconnie Style” pizza, which will be on the menu at its Milwaukee location.
A native of Milwaukee, Drank will return to his roots after spending the past several years in Las Vegas and Chicago learning about bar and restaurant ownership. Launching Paper Plane’s first permanent location at 3rd Street Market Hall hits extra close to home.
“I used to live down the street (from 3rd Street Market Hall) and was a big fan of Grand Avenue Mall, so when I saw this project, I knew I wouldn’t have wanted to launch anywhere else,” he said.
The market hall will also feature a 50-seat, full-service central bar and several entertainment amenities such as Top Golf Swing Suites, shuffleboard courts, snookball, a selfie museum, old-school arcade games, and a turf area with yard games and seating. A grand opening event will be held in March or April when most of its vendors are up and running, said Shaikh.
