New Guadalajaran-inspired restaurant coming to the Pritzlaff Building in the Third Ward

A new restaurant named Las Gardenias is planned for the Pritzlaff Building, with a menu that draws inspiration from Guadalajara, Jalisco, in Mexico, where one of the owners' wives is from.

The new concept comes from partners Kendall Breunig, who owns the building, and Richard Kerhin, who will operate the space. The two also own Apertivo in the Pritzlaff Building, two doors down from the new concept.

Las Gardenias, 305 N. Plankinton Ave. #102, will serve regional food from the southwestern Mexican state with small bites, and tacos and burritos a la carte. It will also have a section of meals that will feed a table of four made up of things like taquitos, pozole and more.

The new restaurant will have a cocktail program with a curated selection of tequila, mezcal, sotol and more agave spirits.

Las Gardenias plans to utilize a large outdoor space for a patio and will have garage doors leading out from the dining room.

The name comes from Kerhin's wife, Patricia, whose family grew up outside of Guadalajara and had homes with large gardenia bushes.

"My wife's grandmother lives in a small town. They had farmland and she had a beautiful garden in the back of the house with a gardenia arch that you could walk under. It was just gorgeous," Kerhin said. "It's something that will remind my wife of home a little bit."

Kerhin said that the new restaurant would capitalize on a slew of new developments in the area.

"There is a lot of development coming this way with the dog park and a brewery, and extending the river walk," he said. "I'm somebody who thinks a rising tide helps all boats. So the more visibility, the better."

The owners hope to open the new restaurant in late summer or early fall.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New Mexican restaurant Las Gardenias coming to the Third Ward