As opening of Uncle Wolfie's Breakfast Tavern nears, a pop-up previews the menu

The restaurant long has been in the works, in a handsome Cream City brick building on a prime corner in Brewers Hill. Now that the opening is a just few months away, curious diners can get a taste of Uncle Wolfie’s Breakfast Tavern at pop-up brunches in June at Amilinda downtown.

The brunches at 11 a.m. June 3 and 4 will be four-course meals plus bread service and cocktail pairings for $50; tickets are at unclewolfies.com.

“We wanted to showcase a spread of things we’re working on,” said Wolfgang Schaefer, who owns Uncle Wolfie’s with his wife, Whitney. The chef for the breakfast tavern is Joe Singer, who most recently was the banquet chef at Bass Bay Brewhouse in Muskego and has worked at Blue’s Egg and Maxie’s.

Those dishes will be a preview for the menu at Uncle Wolfie’s, which is due in early fall at 234 E. Vine St., at N. Hubbard Street. It looks like it will be a creative one (but Schaefer was quick to say that the restaurant also will have classic diner-style breakfasts).

For the pop-up, breads baked by Aaron Cleavland will be bacon and cheese curd buttermilk biscuits, plus lox and sun-dried tomato bagel bombs, which Schaefer described as “globes of bagel with cream cheese and goodies injected into them, essentially.”

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The drink pairing for bread service will be a nonalcoholic coffee Bloody Mary, made with a darker roast and Uncle Wolfie’s Bloody Mary mix. “Trust me on this,” said Schaefer, who was a barista and director of education for Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co.

It’s garnished with a pork stick and cheese stick, lemon and lime, but also a fennel frond to accent the anise-like flavor of this particular coffee. The glass is rimmed in honey and jerk seasoning for a sweet-spicy effect.

“It’s really tasty and sort of strange. You don’t think it’s going to be that good and it is. Why does this taste good? I don’t know, on paper it should be horrible,” Schaefer said.

On the pop-ups' menu

The courses are sweet potato and chorizo omelet, with a hibiscus tea Negroni; peanut butter and jelly stuffed French toast with spiced rum chai; huevos verdes y jamon with tavern potatoes with candied-lemon, fennel and gin mimosa; and caramelized bacon granola with Greek yogurt, apple compote and brown sugar bourbon sauce, with limoncello creme.

The breakfast tavern, a long-held dream of Schaefer’s and in the works since 2016, now is on track after a number of delays.

“Construction has started, and we’re cruising on it,” Schaefer said. It could open sooner, but he projects it will be early fall.

More pop-ups coming

He’s planning more pop-ups in summer to lead up to the opening. June 16 will be a party outside the building; the day marks the one-year anniversary of his wife’s business in the same building but around the corner, Orange and Blue Co., 1809 N. Hubbard St.

The couple call it a curated lifestyle store, with home goods that Uncle Wolfie’s customers can browse while they wait for a table. Items from the store will be used to decorate the restaurant; it’s possible, Schaefer said, that customers who like the salt and pepper shakers or the table they’re sitting at can buy them.

Once the restaurant opens, it also will be “that spot where people can pop in and pop out, as well” while on their way to work, Schaefer said. It will have items like morning buns, bagel bombs, coffee and espresso drinks for quick stops.

Uncle Wolfie's is on Facebook.