The owners of Kanpai, a Japanese restaurant located in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward, will open another Kanpai restaurant at the end of February on Milwaukee’s East Side.
Kanpai 2, to open at 2150 N. Prospect Ave., will be similar to the original, but its food will incorporate more “Korean flavor,” co-owner Jongsoo Kim said.
The space currently houses Izumi’s, a longtime Japanese restaurant that opened in 1998, but Kim said owner Fujiko Yamauchi plans to soon retire and close the restaurant. Yamauchi could not be immediately reached for comment.
Kampai opened in 2013 and last year, Kim and his wife, Hae Jeong Kim, bought the restaurant. The two moved to the United States from South Korea in 2001 and have resided in Wisconsin for four years.
Kim said he looks forward to operating a restaurant on the East Side because it is a “dynamic location.” He said the space will not require extensive renovations before the opening of the new restaurant.
