Beans & Barley coming to Spur 16
Construction underway at site on Mequon Road
By Gary Achterberg - News Graphic Staff
May 17, 2018
Beans & Barley owners James Neumeyer and Polly Kaplan are adding a second location, in the Mequon Public Market.
Submitted photo
MEQUON — Beans & Barley is the latest business to join the Mequon Public Market at Spur 16.
This will be the second location for the restaurant, which has offered healthy choices at its location on Milwaukee’s East Side for decades.
Beans & Barley will join the other announced tenants – Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co. and Purple Door Ice Cream – in the Public Market space in Mequon’s growing Town Center. There will be about 10 businesses in the space. Additional tenants will be announced in the coming months.
Cindy Shaffer, owner of Mequon-based Shaffer Development, said Wednesday morning she anticipates a fall opening for the Mequon Public Market, as well as the adjacent St. Paul Fish Co., which plans to open a restaurant in the historic “smokestack building” along Mequon Road.
“Beans & Barley has always been about fresh food, made from scratch, but it is really so much more. It is a community of customers and employees who are invested in seeing ‘their place’ thrive,” said Polly Kaplan, a co-owner.
“We have survived fires, corporate competition and sink holes, all because we care about the food we serve and the friends we make,” she added. “We are really looking forward to working with the other vendors in the marketplace.”
Beans & Barley started on Murray Avenue in Milwaukee in 1973 as a small health food store. It moved to 1901 E. North Ave. in 1979 and added a restaurant. The building was destroyed by fire 25 years ago this summer. It was rebuilt on the same site.
Plans for townhomes and apartments at Spur 16 – along Mequon Road west of the railroad tracks to Buntrock Avenue – also are advancing. Shaffer said the 10 townhomes will be available for occupancy by January 2019. The 146 planned apartments will be completed in the spring and summer of 2019.
“If somebody wants one, they’d better jump on it fast,” she said in an interview Wednesday morning.
Construction work on the site is in full swing. Current work involves grading the site and installing utilities and other infrastructure, she said.
“The city has been real helpful in fast-tracking our project,” Shaffer added. “We want to generate tax revenue (for the city) as fast as we can.”
More information on the project is available at Spur 16’s website,www.spur16.com, as well as its Twitter account, @Spur16Mequon.