Long-time Milwaukee chef Francisco Sanchez is planning a new breakfast and lunch restaurant in the city’s Bay View neighborhood.
Sabrosa Café & Gallery, 3216 S. Howell Ave. will be located on the first floor of the former Gouda Girls space, just south of Oklahoma Ave. Gouda Girls, which specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches, now operates as a food truck.
Sanchez and his partner, Ruben Piirainen, a pianist at the Florentine Opera Company, plan to open the restaurant in spring 2017.
“We will be living upstairs, surrounded by everything we love: music, art, companionship and our dog,” Sanchez said. “We’re super stoked and excited to be the first breakfast/lunch concept in Bay View. Once we realized that, it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.”
According to plans, the café will seat 40 with additional sidewalk seating in the summer.
Alderman Tony Zielinski, who represents Bay View, said on his Facebook page the restaurant will be the neighborhood’s version of Wauwatosa’s Blue’s Egg and Walker’s Point’s Engine Company No. 3.
“Bay View does not have a true breakfast and lunch location, such as a Blue’s Egg,” Zielinski said. “Sabrosa Café and Gallery will provide that and more.”
The building will be restored to highlight the cream city brick used in its original construction, and an outdoor patio will also be built.
Piirainen will perform classical music for brunch, art events and special events.
Sanchez, was the executive chef of his father’s restaurant, Taqueria Aztec, until it closed in 2008. He also sells a line of his Mexican cooking sauces, called Sabrosa Sauces and offers private catering classes.
