MKE DINER

With all-day menu, Valentine Coffee set for Oak Creek

Carol Deptolla
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The new Valentine Coffee cafe opens May 1 at 7981 S. 6th St., Oak Creek. The second floor holds more seating and a shop selling wine by the bottle.

The new Valentine Coffee cafe opens Monday in Oak Creek's Drexel Town Square, and this location for the roaster will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, with craft beer and wine on tap.

It's a big expansion for Valentine, which has its roasting plant on Milwaukee's west side and an attached tasting room. The west side tasting room is a fraction of the size of the new location, which has two floors. Seats indoors number more than 40; the large patio has seats for 70.

The mezzanine also has a shop where customers can buy wine by the bottle, from a selection of 80 to 120 wines. Valentine's partners, founder Robb Kashevarof and managing partner Joe Gilsdorf, both have backgrounds in wine.

The new place also has breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, whereas the tasting room at 5918 W. Vliet St. sells only baked goods to go with pour-over coffee and espresso drinks.

Breakfast, served until 10 a.m., will have items that customers can order at the counter, including the Sconnie ($8), a brat patty and fried egg with aged cheddar on a pretzel roll, and a Greek yogurt parfait with berries and granola ($6).

The cafe will have table service for the lunch and dinner menu of soups, salads, sandwiches and shared plates, served starting at 10 a.m. Some of the dishes are Caesar salad ($6) and fattoush salad, greens with pita chips, herbs, feta, cucumber and tomato in lemon vinaigrette ($7); flank steak sandwich with caramelized onions on baguette ($10) and the Vietnamese sandwich banh mi with tofu ($7), or a choice of chicken, salmon or steak for an extra charge; and cheese or charcuterie boards ($14), artichoke dip ($9) and roasted bone marrow with grilled bread and greens ($10).

The chef is Bruce Badke, formerly of Distil lounge downtown.

The cafe will have four wines on tap, 20 wines by the glass, sold by the "splash," glass, half bottle or bottle. Gilsdorf said the focus for wines is "fun and out-of-the-way stuff." One of the first wines on tap will be Arriviste rosé from Blackbird Vineyards in California's Napa Valley; it's a sentimental favorite for Gilsdorf, who used to bicycle past the winery when he worked in California.

Eight craft beers will be on tap, too. "Draft beer, to me, is all about freshness," Gilsdorf said, so the beers will all be from Wisconsin, and most will be from Milwaukee's growing roster of craft brewers. Some of the brews for easy soring and summer drinking will be the That's Gold! Kölsch from Third Space Brewing and Cream City Brix cream ale from Enlightened Brewing.

Kitchen hours will be 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday; the cafe will stay open later for customers stopping in for drinks.

The Oak Creek cafe eventually will have wine tastings and coffee events, Kashevarof said.

The building, designed by Rinka Chung Architecture, faces the park in the Drexel Town Square development; it has three garage doors to open in warm weather. The original west side tasting room is decorated in white, like a coffee laboratory; the Oak Creek cafe has a more rustic modern look, Kashevarof said, with glazed brick on the walls, wood, black steel, a tiled bar, brass bar top and abundant windows.

The cafe does have TVs but, Kashevarof said, "Those we'll use sparingly." The television on the mezzanine makes it suitable for private meetings, he said.

May 6 will be the Oak Creek location's grand opening, when commemorative glasses will be handed out with splashes of sparkling wine, and Kashevarof and Gilsdorf will be on hand to meet customers.

Customers will be able to phone in carryout orders; the number for the new cafe is (414) 405-2280.