Milwaukee's popular Uppa Yard is getting ready to take its Jamaican comfort food downtown, with a new Water Street restaurant expected to open in mid-August. The second location will be less grab-and-go and more night-out: sit-down service, a bar, live performances, and the sort of late hours that suggest oxtails may be competing with last call.
Owner Oliver Edwards plans to open Uppa Yard on Water in the former Buffalo Wild Wings space, a renovated ground-floor restaurant in a four-story building he purchased in 2023, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The new venue will offer a more polished dine-in experience than the Northside flagship, which is known primarily for takeout.
The menu is expected to carry Uppa Yard staples including jerk and curry dishes, brown stew, and oxtails, while expanding the restaurant's role as an evening destination. Earlier plans reported by Urban Milwaukee also included jerk pork, cow feet, stew peas, Jamaican patties, plantains, coco bread, and other homestyle favorites.
Uppa Yard's family-owned brand has been serving Jamaican cooking in Milwaukee for more than a decade, with recipes rooted in family tradition. The restaurant describes its name as a reference to going to Grandma's house to eat, socialize, and spend time with family, a feeling it says remains central to the business, according to Uppa Yard.
Water Street Location Adds Music, Patio And A Bar
The Water Street restaurant is designed around more than dinner. The Journal Sentinel reports that the space will feature a black interior, large-screen televisions, a removable stage for reggae, jazz, and blues performances, plus an outdoor patio with a fire pit and a wheelchair lift.
A 3,000-square-foot industrial kitchen will support the operation, while the remaining floors of the building could eventually become office space. Milwaukee's public food-license report lists Uppa Yard on Water at the new site, adding another sign that the long-planned expansion is moving toward its downtown debut.
