A new barbecue restaurant coming to Milwaukee's Harambee neighborhood will fill a long-vacant building

A new restaurant is planned for a prominent building in Milwaukee's Harambee neighborhood that once housed another restaurant but has been vacant for several years.

Q is to open in about 30 days at 2730 N. King Drive, said Darnell Ashley, who will operate the restaurant.

Q will feature barbecue, but will include other items such as seafood, grilled chicken and soul food on Sundays, Ashley said Friday. It will be open for both lunch and dinner.

The restaurant might also include vegan options, Ashley said at a board meeting of the Historic King Drive Business Improvement District.

"I want a place where we can all go," said Ashley.

The board approved a resolution supporting Ashley's application for a license to serve alcohol at Q.

The Common Council's Licenses Committee is to review that application at its Tuesday meeting.

Ashley said he's been planning the restaurant for about a year. He said concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic have delayed its opening.

His family started operating Ashley's Barbeque, at 1501 W. Center St., in 1961.

Also, Ashley and his partners in 2018 opened Ashley’s Restaurant and Bar in Port Washington.

The 6,800-square-foot King Drive building has been vacant for several years.

It was built in 2002, and initially housed a Ponderosa steakhouse. 

The $1.75 million project was financed by a variety of public and private sources, and was seen as an important step in the development of King Drive.

The Ponderosa ran into financial trouble with the onset of the 2008 recession, losing its franchise and switching its name to Stella's Restaurant, before closing in 2010.

The city acquired the building through property tax foreclosure, and in 2016 sold it to an investors group that planned to develop a supermarket there.

However, despite renovations, that grocery store didn't open.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.