An Alabama-style smokehouse restaurant is planned at the SpringHill Suites by Marriott hotel in downtown Milwaukee.
Doc’s Commerce Smokehouse will be located in the historic Commerce Building at 745 N. 4th St., on the first floor, facing Wells Street.
The 5,200-square-foot restaurant will feature southern-style barbecue that’s smoked with hickory and dry rub, said Brent Brashier, owner of Doc’s Smokehouse. The restaurant will also feature 64 tap craft beers and a large bourbon selection.
“We’ll have a local focus on the beers,” Brashier said. “There have been so many breweries that have opened, there will never be a shortage of quality beers.”
This will be Brashier’s second Doc’s restaurant. He opened Doc’s Smokehouse & Craft Bar in Dyer, Ind., in April 2016.
Brashier, an Alabama native, began his career in fine dining before working for corporations, including White Lodging Services, which manages the SpringHill Suites, but said his dream was always to open his own place.
He worked in Milwaukee with White Lodging, helping to open Millioke in the Marriott Hotel downtown.
“I developed a good relationship with the ownership group of the Marriott,” he said. “They wanted to put a barbecue restaurant here, and called me up. I saw the space, I loved the city of Milwaukee when I was up there, and it was on my shortlist of places if I did another restaurant.”
Doc’s Commerce Smokehouse will be open seven days a week from 11 a.m. until the kitchen runs out of food, Brashier said. He is hoping to have it open by the second week in March, just in time for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and St. Patrick’s Day.
SpringHill Suites opened in July at the corner of North 4th and Wells streets. It is operated as a Marriott franchise and is owned by Milwaukee-based JSWD Commerce, LLC, an affiliate of Jackson Street Holdings and managed by White Lodging Services.
Brian Atkinson will be the chef of the restaurant. Atkinson moved to Milwaukee about five years ago after starting his career at the Marriott Denver West in Golden, Colorado.
He has worked as the chef de cuisine at Kil@wat in the Intercontinental Hotel and Millioke before becoming a sous chef at the Milwaukee ChopHouse at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center.
“We’re really excited to open up this restaurant and believe it will do really, really well,” Atkinson said. “We’re happy to be a part of the new Westown area of downtown and all of the excitement that is happening there.”
