Business & Tech

New Whitefish Bay Restaurant 'The Bay' Opens Softly Thursday

Whitefish Bay's new dinner spot prioritizes fresh, approachable and unique food options in its remodeled space at 342 E. Silver Spring Drive.

James McMahon knows how to do three things particularly well: write music, maintain a handlebar mustache and open restaurants.

The first two might be irrelevant for the point of this article, but his experience opening restaurants is anything but. After opening six Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants in the last 15 years, and helping out with other restaurants in the area, McMahon knows that a good restauranteur listens closely to their customers in the beginning weeks.

McMahon and co-owner Paul Berlin are off to a good start by opening up a community-focused eatery at 342 E. Silver Spring Drive, which has been a constant target for redevelopment ever since El Guapo's Mexican restaurant left in December 2010. 

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But McMahon also hopes to continue to listen to customers in fine-tuning his restaurant after customers get a taste of the initial menu on their opening day Thursday.

"Anybody coming in for our pre-opening weeks are going to be seeing a menu that is smaller than the final menu is going to be - same thing on the bar side," he said. "The community has been asking for a restaurant for so long, and we want to make sure we're giving them the great service and the great food they've been requesting."

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The Bay will open its doors to the public at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, and will be closed on Sunday and Monday. Eventually, The Bay plans to offer lunch, and further down the road, a weekend brunch. It also has plans to offer outdoor seating.

The Bay's menu will feature classic but unique entrees like burgers, salmon, andouille-encrusted cod and hanger steak and fries. Sandwiches include buffalo chicken, blue cheese and roast beef and a roast veggie sandwich. They will also offer appetizers, soups, salads and desserts.

"We're really trying to focus on as fresh as ingredients as possible," he said. "You'll see fresh veggies on the menu in a couple different incarnations."

The Bay's chef, Erik Hansen, is coming from Distil in downtown Milwaukee.

Behind the bar, The Bay will serve bottled beers, primarily from local breweries like Lakefront, Horny Goat, Milwaukee Brewing Company, Big Bay and some others. The bar menu will feature six craft cocktails at its launch, but may expand in the coming months. 

The Bay's space looks different since the El Guapo days, as the bar has been extended, seating has grown to about 75 to 80 seats, and the walls have been refinished and adorned with historical photos of Whitefish Bay. McMahon's wife Nancy helped with the interior design.

When he's not managing The Bay, McMahon is the lead singer in a rock band called The Form, serves as president of Wisconsin Area Music Industry and sports a silver-medalist mustache, as judged by the National Beard and Mustache Championships.

Working with Berlin, a Whitefish Bay resident, McMahon has already teamed up with Sendik's on certain items and is looking forward to getting involved in the Whitefish Bay community.

"With a slogan of 'By the Bay, For the Bay,' we're going to be very community-based," he said. "Any way we can be tied to the community, we're going to try to do that."


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