INdustri Café

Excellent food and top notch Bloody Mary. I highly suggest the savory crêpe and the black and bleu burger. Only qualm was they ran out of the Waldorf salad and the service was a little curt.

I hear this place is either closing or attempting to move. That’s sad because it’s a decent spot.
I’ve been here probably five or six times, and it’s generally always been good, although a little inconsistent.
The chef/​owner Robert Klemm is a talented guy who has worked hard to put his place on the map.
Just a guess, but the restaurant seems like it’s a little undercapitalized and I think that’s always somewhat of an issue. It would be a great thing if someone would step forward and invest some real money in the place and allow Robert to focus on what he’s good at, which is creating innovative cuisine.

The food was delicious, but I’m torn in rating a 2 or 3 star because our service was extremely slow and not friendly at all. I hate to put down a negative review but I believe it’s important to note the actual Bloody Mary was disgusting. I mean the worst I’ve ever had. If you like bloody Mary’s from café Hollander and trocadero, then you will be extremely disappointed. They cover up the actual bloody with a lot of toppings. I probably won’t be back for brunch after that horrible overpriced warm bloody.

We went for dinner on a cold weeknight and it was very empty. Which meant the service was great, very polite.
I appreciate trying to support local breweries but with so many bars having amazing beer selections, I ended up being kind of disappointed with the selection of taps and bottles. Also, as mentioned previously, I’m just not going to pay $ 12 for a cocktail on anything short of a very special occasion.
But the food; I agree that it is a poor value. I did not enjoy the bruschetta. The cheese spread was tasty but I had a hard time biting through the marinated tomatoes and it found the whole thing so odd I wouldn’t have called it bruschetta.
I got the butternut squash ravioli which were greasy and very chewy. The filling had good flavor. I also got to taste the Industri burger which was very, very good. And was served with some nice home made chips.
The décor is very nice but I wouldn’t go back, there are more delicious places for the money.

A quality restaurant. My reasoning?
Food was tasty, with good portion sizes.
I shared the Mac and cheese (with seafood added). Great dish — creamy, with plenty of fish and not too rich. I had the Thai red curry with chicken over a bed of white rice and pita triangles on the side. It was spicy (in a good way), tasty, and filling.
Our server was friendly, attentive, and punctual. The owner came by and chatted with us for a bit — he seemed like a really friendly guy with a great sense of humor.
The décor and music was great — a relaxed yet chic ambiance that was quiet enough for romance or business but hip enough for a group of friends or a party.
Overall: Definitely worth checking out.
One final note: Anyone who complains about the share plates doesn’t understand the concept of an appetizer… Or sharing.

Summary: Good food & service but lacking on value. The first time there we got burgers which were just fine. The second time around we ventured into the small plates section and were pretty disappointed. I do understand the small plate concept, but we payed $ 11 and $ 15 for two dinky portions. The worst of the two was butternut squash ravioli, there were only *four* of them on the plate, and they weren’t even on the big side.
My advice to someone coming here is to not be super hungry and to have the right expectations set.

First time to INdustri Café and I would go back for seconds. The atmosphere for Sunday brunch was intimate and the space lives up to its name: industrial chic. The service was wonderful and attentive. The waitress kept checking back with us to refill our waters/​coffees, etc.
I ordered the special of the day: Carnitas Crepes w/​Poblanos, onions, queso fresco, ranchero and rosemary potatoes ($ 13). The flavors balanced well together and it wasn’t a heavy meal; the meat was tender and delicious. My friend got the Eggs Benedict and also enjoyed it. The coffee was by local roaster, Valentine, so kudos for INdustri Café for sticking with local vendors for many of their suppliers.
The only reason I didn’t give this place a 4 ½ or 5 stars was because my friend got the (epic) Bloody Mary ($ 14) and while the meal that basically came with it (a prawn, cheese curds, celery, banana peppers, olives, etc.) was entertaining, my friend said the actually Bloody Mary wasn’t that good, she didn’t even finish it. Since I don’t drink Bloody Marys, I couldn’t weigh in.
Moral of the story: I will recommend INdustri Café to friends and I will go back myself.

The three stars isn’t a fair representation, it’s more of a 3−½ stars.
I love that the food served here is local, and another Unilocaler mentioned the veggies are grown on site. My girlfriend loves a good Bloody Mary and what INdustri had to offer looked really impressive. The menu looked delicious, so we went.
We were seated relatively quickly, which we were worried about. It was Sunday at high brunch time. We ordered drinks right when we sat, the Bloody Mary of course, and I had a Moscow Mule. Both drinks were amazing and fresh.
This is how the rest of the dining experience went: We ordered our food, and waited.
And waited.
Three tables were seated around us, two of them after we had sat down. All of them ordered and received their food, with two of them paying their bills before we even saw our meals delivered to our table. Service took forever, which is a shame because the food is GOOD. I had this turkey club that was just perfect, and we loved the home made chips.
Honestly, we will be back because we loved the space, the food and drinks. We live close by, and we love the rustic-​cool décor. Until next time, INdustri!

This could have been a five, but the service (or lake thereof), paired with a sub par monte cristo, took it to a 2. Details below.
I generally rate a restaurant on the following metrics: ambience, drinks, food, service, and services (restroom, seating, etc.). Let’s start with the good. The décor is inviting, well organized space, that visually has the restaurant divided into bar and restaurant. There is nothing to prevent you from wandering to either aspect, but you definitely know which you’re in at all times. The lofted ceilings are well lit, and the upstairs seating option has windows to provide a view of the local scenery.
Moving on to drinks I decided to forego the Bloody Mary, as it’s been well reviewed and is clearly good, and opted for a more basic staple; iced tea. This was a real surprise, that started off on a good note. It’s a nice, well balanced, properly steeped black tea, with a hint of bergamot that gave it a citrusy brightness. I had the choice of splenda, or raw sugar, to sweeten it, but I used the sweetener sparingly as I really wanted to taste the wonderful tea. I also enjoyed how they served it with cocktail ice cubes (the cube shaped, dense, large, ice that is usually reserved for liquor based drinks), that helped keep the drink nice and crisp.
The food was not as well balanced as the tea, or the décor. I tried ‘The Cubano’ (sandwich), Monte Cristo, and Tiramisu. The Cubano, and the Tiramisu, were spot on. Both featured well balanced flavours, with nothing overpowing any other element on the plate. The Cubano was served with house made potato chips, a maple mustard, and crisp pickle, which played well with one another. The same could be said of the elements in the Tiramisu; bitter coffee and sweet cream played perfectly together.
The challenge of course was the service. And not in the sense that I had a poor waitress. In the sense that she was the only waitress, for the restaurant, and the bar. When I first arrived there were two other waitresses whom were sitting at the bar enjoying a conversation, and watching the football game, but they quickly left after I (and other customers) began arriving.
This left a single waitress to attend to both the bar patrons, and the restaurant patrons, for the remainder of my meal. What was once prompt service for all turned into drinks being left empty, dishes coming out at an odd pace, and a transition from meal to dessert so long that I had forgot I had ordered it and began grabbing my things while waiting for the cheque to come. Still, my waitress (Luz) was an absolute delight, and she did all that any reasonable person could to help every guest.
Sadly the combination between a half okay and half great food experience, as well as dismally slow service, resulted in what could have been a great dining experience to an odd one. At the end of the day this venue becomes just another store front that falls somewhere between not quite bad enough to be a comical visit, but not quite good enough to be remembered. If it weren’t for taking the time to write a review I have a feeling I would not even recall that I had been here by tomorrow morning, and consequently will not have a pleasant enough memory to consider returning.

Amazing food and even better service! This place is a must see in Milwaukee! The lamb lollipops are some of the best I have had, and if you like Mac N Chz, it is amazing here. I had them add a little truffle oil to the dish and it was a heavenly experience!

Well Well Well, little Industri Café. Aren’t you just the sweetest little thing? We had some friends in town and we all took vacation to get day drunk on a Friday. We’re adults, after all.
This was our first stop for brunch. We stopped in and it was dark inside. It’s probably pretty sexy at night, but during the day it was cave-​like. We had a 6 top and there was at least one other larger group, a couple of two tops, and a few people at the bar. Service was oh so slow. We inquired… because the sweet gal that was taking our orders was also acting as hostess, server, expo, and bartender. Was someone else coming in? we asked. Nay, she’s on her own.
So, they claim to have the largest Bloody Marys in town. They may be right. The actual liquid content is probably about normal, but there’s a meal in accoutrements lurking within. Shrimp, pickle, cheese curds, beef stick, asparagus, peppers, olives, etc. Let’s be honest, no one gets a bloody mary because they love tomato juice. It’s all about the accoutrements, people.
They also hand squeeze (thanks, only gal working here!) their own orange juice. Obviously this is tasty. If you screw up hand squeezed orange juice, something is very very very wrong.
So our table had a couple burgers, chilaquiles, a monte cristo, and the cubano. Everything tasted great. We were pretty happy we decided to stay and eat here. Of note, the cubano has maple mustard on it. Big licking YES. The montecristo has a sweet orangey spread that was finger licking also. The aioli the comes with fries or chips is tasty. I have no complaints about the food at all.
It was all a bit on the pricey side, but we had a great time, the food was great, the drinks were good, and the one single person working that day did a respectable job despite being totally understaffed. Not a bad way to start Drunk Friday!
In general, for me, a top 5 brunch find. Woo!

I’ve been meaning to try INdustri for well over a year now. We finally stopped in for a late breakfast, walking past several sidewalk diners and taking some open seats at the bar.
The bartender greeted us and said he would be with us shortly. He was quite busy making big Bloody Marys.
I decided to grab some menus from the hostess podium so we could have some ideas by the time he got back. I thought the menu might feature a plethora of Bloody’s, but there was just one. «I’ll take it!»
The brunch menu doesn’t feature a wide selection, but there are some interesting choices. Since I was having a savory drink, I decided to go sweet on my entrée: sweet orange crepes filled with quark cheese, topped with a honey-​orange marmalade, orange segments and pecans, surrounded by a pillow of whipped cream. The ingredients made a great combination. For good measure, I tossed in a side of Canadian bacon. It was was nice quality and the portion was more than I expected.
This was no fast in and out brunch, but the bartender checked on us many times and kept up the pace making loads of Bloody Marys. With all of the garnishes on the Bloody, I managed to keep my appetite at bay for a while.
While quaffing my drink I had plenty of time to take in the industrial flair of the space. I told Mister R we could make a great loft living space out of the restaurant.

I was told to try this place by folks in «the industry» which means bartenders, and wish I had passed.
The service was so-​so, and the food was overpriced and boring and a terrible value compared to amazing places within a 10 minute walk of this place.
We had order problems and as a large staff stood around chatting it took 10 minutes to repair simple errors. The «super awesome» (someone else’s words) Bloody Mary was pretty lame. Once you ate the monster garnish you were left with a Bloody that seemed to come right out of a jar of pre made mix from the Pick and Save. Come on. For the price it should be something spectacular right? YES! Was it? NO.
For the $ 40 we dropped for a mediocre brunch I regretted even walking in this place.

My friends and I came here to kill some time in between a wedding and the reception. We ordered a few drinks and some appetizers:
Clock Shadow Bruschetta
S’mores Bread Pudding
Wild Berry Cosmo
Milwaukee Mule
Eve’s Gimlet
The Bruschetta was SO good. The marinated tomatoes and cheese on top of the crispy bread. And the balsamic on top just brought all the flavors together.
I’m not a huge fan of bread pudding, but the S’mores Bread Pudding was really delicious. The marshmallow was toasted on top and you could taste the flavors of the chocolate and graham crackers with the bread pudding. On top was a scoop of vanilla ice cream which was just what the dessert needed.
The drinks were good and strong. Service was super friendly, as was the case everywhere we went in Milwaukee.

Industri had been on our «we should try that place» list forever, so I was excited to give them a try for dinner. There were things I really liked, and things I really didn’t — you be the judge:
Loved:
*Mister loved his lobster mac’n’cheese — for $ 13, it was a good size and very rich and delicious
*I had the meatloaf — something I never do — it was amazing! Well seasoned, and served with a rich jus over homemade mash.
*Flamed Sazerac cocktail. You’re going to hear some bitching + moaning about drinks below, but not this one. It was PERFECT — wonderfully aromatic and all that is great about whiskey.
*Service — sweet and attentive
Indifferent to:
*Margarita flatbread — it was the size of my outstretched hand and described as «spicy tomato sauce, queso fresco, Serranos». It was HOT, which I like a lot but the heat overshadowed all of the other flavors. Maybe add some crema for balance?
*The menu — it appeared to be a checklist of Things That Are Currently Trendy. You know — fancy pants mac’n’cheese, short ribs, small plates, craft cocktails, etc.
*Risotto side — full of flavor but not creamy as it should be. Appeared to be premade and re-​heated.
*As others have noted, there is a «oily smell» in here from the previous machin shop occupant. It goes well with the décor and didn’t bother me but watch out if you’re sensitive.
Hated:
*Drink prices — you must be out of your damn mind if you think I’m paying $ 12 for an Old Fashioned in Milwaukee. Period.
*Selection — you have a choice of a dozen small plates and three burgers. I’d like to see an alternative sandwich option, and maybe some cheese/​charcuterie plates since they are next door to Clock Shadow.
*Overall value — it just wasn’t there for me. When I look at what we spent, I would have had more dishes + drinks at both Odd Duck and La Merenda for the same price.
I vacillated between 3 – 4 stars for a long time. The dishes we had we generally tasty and our service was good. I think with a few tweaks on the menu and realistic drinks pricing, Industri would be 5 stars.

This place is solid.
I’ve seen this space house a number of different businesses over the last 10 years. A short-​lived coffee shop deserves most of the credit for renovating this old machine shop into a venue suitable for a restaurant. The machine shop has left its DNA in the walls and floors of INdustri Café and given this place unique charm. The wood floor has a rich color and a distinct, not unpleasant, odor from years of machining coolants and oils seeping into the fibers. Having worked in machine shops, the smell is unmistakable and makes me wax nostalgic.
INdustri specializes in Wisconsin sourced products and excels at turning our state’s finest foods into delectable dishes. We dined there this afternoon. Both my wife and I couldn’t decide if we were in the mood for something savory or sweet. We compromised: she’d order the orange crepes and I’d get the turkey club; we would split and share.
They were both very good.
The turkey club used crisp Nueske’s bacon and thick slabs of moist, tender turkey. In lieu of a club’s normal tomato, INdustri substitutes a pickled onion. I like the onion — it gives the sandwich a little more zing than a normal club. The crepes were excellent too. Arriving at our table, the crepes were eyebrow raising. They looked like they belonged on the cover of a food magazine with their fancy fresh whipped cream and peeled orange segments.
And you know what was really cool? FREE DESSERT WITH A Unilocal CHECKIN. Oh yeah, I needed dessert like I needed a hole in the head. Or, more appropriately, like I needed another 5 lbs. around my waist, but I went for it anyway. Apple strudel, get in my belly!
I enjoyed dessert, but I wouldn’t call it «apple» strudel. It was so chock-​full of nuts and stuff, it more like a strudel nut roll or something.
Lastly, I was pleased to see INdustri busy this afternoon. That doesn’t make me privy to their bottom line, but butts in seats I hope means they aren’t sharing the same fate as the building’s prior inhabitants.
Do your part to make sure they don’t and enjoy a meal at INdustri Café.
Or just stop in for a beer. They’ve got a good selection of Wisconsin crafts there too.

We came here for a few drinks before our tour of MKE Brewing Co. While we did not eat, the food menu looked really impressive.
The beer list was fantastic! We loved seeing so many local brews. However, a small note about the bartender (or perhaps the bar management):
If you are a craft beer bar, please DO NOT serve the delicious craft beer IN THE BOTTLE. My husband and I were shocked to see our beers arrive in the bottle without a glass. Thankfully, the bartender was only slightly annoyed when we asked for glasses.
Now, we are not snobs by any means. My husband is a professional brewer, as is my uncle and cousin. We go to A LOT of breweries, gastropubs, craft beer bars, tap houses etc. and I have never witnessed a craft beer served out of the bottle or can. You just don’t do it. And not just in Chicago where we are from — in other areas of MKE and Wisconsin, in CO, NM, OH, IN, MI, pretty much everywhere. This was a first.
However, I would still return.

This place has HANDS DOWN the best Bloody Mary in town. They make their own infused vodka, they make their owns bloody mix and it’s all to-​die-​for. Top that off with the «meal» it comes with! Smoked cheese, olives, brussel sprout, asparagus, marinated mushrooms, beef stick, pearl onions, and the best darn grilled shrimp I have EVER eaten.
I’ll be honest, I only tried one meal here every and it was good too, but I come for the bloody mary.
The décor is a really cool industrial (surprise) look.
The staff and the owners are SO friendly.
I Love this place

We went for Sunday brunch with a few friends (table of 4). We arrived at right about opening time (11am) and did not have to wait for a table. I wanted to like this place.
The coffee was good. The service was decent.
The entrees: my three companions all ordered egg dishes and seemed quite satisfied. Boyfriend got the egg-​casserole of the day, which was eggs and cheddar cheese and pork belly. Our two friends got Eggs Benedict and the steak and eggs dish. I ordered the lingonberry crepes (one of two vegetarian selections, the other being pecan french toast).
The egg casserole was gigantic. It was in a little casserole dish that was about 5″ by 7″. The eggs benedict was a normal size. The steak and eggs dish (which was an expensive $ 17) also looked pretty large, in the same casserole type dish as the egg casserole dish. My companions all seemed to enjoy their food.
My crepes? Incredibly disappointing. The crepes were miniature. Three approximately 2″ by 2″ triangles absolutely slathered in sour, canned or preserved lingonberries. I understand that the lingonberries need to be preserved as they are likely imported from northern Europe. But I don’t think the chef prepared them at all. A small squirt of whipped topping from a can on each little square. This is NOT an entrée size dish. It is definitely an appetizer. I left pretty hungry. I am still as bitter as the lingonberries about this dish. An absolute shame that INdustri café is trying to pass this off as a breakfast. I would say that to the owner’s face.
Additional item: one of our friends was raving about a cheese curd and kielbasa stuffed pretzel she had loved the weekend before. It is no longer available.

Oh, Industri, you have completely won me over. Let me tell you a secret, I checked out your menu months ago and wrote you off. Not enough food options for me and too meat-​heavy. Then I attended a fantastic Unilocal event (Flannel Fling), and your superb service and delicious appetizers won me over. After that, I vowed to give your dining experience a chance and Sunday brunch was that opportunity.
It was fantastic. First of all, you won me over with your fresh-​squeezed lemonade. I got mine berry-​fied and it was so, so good. I’m glad to know that I can get a real lemonade here now, instead of the powdered junk at most places. I had a couple sips of my husband’s Surly Temple and that was so wonderful, too. You have a great deal on Bloody Marys during brunch and after I saw servers bringing them out to many other diners, I wish I had gotten one (but day drinking makes me sleepy, zzzz). It was positively gigantic and stuffed with a billion garnishes. I LOVE beverages that are also appetizers. Next time, I will drink the hell out of one of those.
I ordered the fried egg muffin sandwich and the homemade kettle chips. The sandwich had cheddar and apples on it, which was a lovely combination. The kettle chips had a good texture and a nice, smoky BBQ flavoring. Paired with a garlic aioli, these are easy to get addicted to.
My husband got the pulled duck wontons and he loved them. Even the coleslaw served on the side was delicious — probably the best I’ve ever had! He also got the Industri eggs benedict and thought they were good. He liked the cheesy grits as a base but thought the apples had an odd flavor.
I also love your décor and layout. It pleases me that while you do have a TV by the bar, it’s easily visible, should you want to watch something, but not so prominent that it’s a distraction to everyone.
Our server Nicholas was friendly and attentive. We’ll be back!