After a year of renovations to the former Blue’s Egg in Shorewood, the midcentury-themed Buttermint Finer Dining and Cocktails opens Tuesday for happy hour and dinner.
Black Shoe Hospitality, which also operates Story Hill BKC, Maxie’s and the original Blue’s Egg in Milwaukee, on Monday announced the opening. It looked to the early 1960s for inspiration for Buttermint’s menu and decor.
The restaurant is at 4195 N. Oakland Ave., on the first floor of the Mosaic apartment building.
Dan Sidner, who owns Buttermint with chef Joe Muench, administrative director Amy Kerstein and operations and beverage director Jason Kerstein, has called the restaurant the most upscale of Black Shoe’s restaurants but also has said the group intends to keep the mood light.
The name refers to the midcentury tradition of presenting mints with the check at the end of the meal. Muench drew in part on the early 1960s’ fascination with French and other Continental food as he designed the menu, but also looked to Japanese and other cuisines.
Chilled appetizers include duck liver pate with blackberry port gelee and onion marmalade and turkey galantine but also root vegetable terrine.
The restaurant’s raw bar will supply chilled seafood such as oysters on the half shell, house-smoked sturgeon and hiramasu, or yellowtail, crudo with satsuma, apple, ginger and mint.
Hot appetizers include retro veal sweetbreads and classic chickpea fries as well as the savory Japanese pancake okonomiyaki, with steelhead trout and bonito, and crisp fried chicken with XO sauce.
Main dishes cover seafood (such as flounder with potato puree, beans and cipollini onions) and meats (grilled pork chop with candied bacon, celery root hash and potato croquette), as well as a vegetarian option (house-made pasta with greens and mushrooms).
This being 2021, a burger made from ground brisket makes it onto the menu, as well.
The menu is expected to change frequently. Entrees at the opening range from $22 to $44; the burger is $16.
Breads and desserts for the restaurant will come from Black Shoe’s own bakery.
Buttermint’s bar opens at 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and happy hour — with something the restaurant calls the North Shore pour, a larger pour of wine or chaser on a beer or cocktail — runs until 6 p.m.
Cocktails run to classics popular in the ’60s, including mai tai, vesper, rye Manhattan and sidecar cocktails. Old fashioneds and a Long Island iced tea version called the Atwater Beach will be on draft.
The restaurant also has a 150-bottle wine list and focuses on local and regional craft brewers for its beers on tap, and it will carry nonalcoholic options for beer, wine and cocktails.
Weekend brunch is expected to start in spring, after the restaurant hires more workers.
Hours for dinner are 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, but the restaurant will be open Dec. 27, a Monday, and closed Dec. 24 and 25 and Jan. 1.
Although the restaurant will reserve about 30 seats a night for drop-in diners in the lounge, it recommends making reservations through the website, buttermintrestaurant.com, or by calling the restaurant at (414) 488-2587.
It will post updates at @buttermintfinerdining on Facebook and Instagram.
Related: Buttermint, a midcentury-style restaurant, will replace the Shorewood Blue’s Egg
Contact dining critic Carol Deptolla at carol.deptolla@jrn.com or (414) 224-2841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_diner.
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