For the first episode of 2025 — our 11th(!) year bringing This Bites to your ears — we started in a very familiar (and familial) place: the recently closed Ardent, which is welcoming the first of hopefully many more things to come from its former chef, Vanessa Rose.

Rose will bring some playful flavors to the space when she hosts an extended pop-up called Mother’s that hosts its first diners today. You can expect small plates from an a la carte menu that gets a little out there. One example she provided to the Journal Sentinel’s Rachel Bernhard is “a scallion crepe cake with crab Rangoon, grilled pineapple and ssamjang.”

The pop-up will serve 5 to 9 p.m. Fridays to Mondays between now and Jan. 25. Rose said they’ll welcome walk-ins but prefer reservations you can make via Instagram direct message (@mothers.mke or @86d.heard).

Before we give you the rest of this week’s food news, one more note about Rose’s aspirations. She’s pushing to give Mother’s a permanent home as part of a space dedicated to Milwaukee’s LGBTQ+ community while also developing another concept called House of Bridges. According to the GoFundMe she set up to make those dreams a reality, “Both of these projects seek to make restaurants a more fair and less exploitative industry.” The goal is to implement:

• Cooperative ownership
• Royalties on dishes created by staff
• Annual cookbooks and cooking tutorials, with profits going back to the restaurants to supplement wages and benefits
• Employer-paid insurance
• Reasonable work weeks
• Support of local farmers over corporate food providers
• Profit sharing
• Mutual aid across all demographics
• Weekly pay-what-you-can meals for people struggling to keep food on their tables

It’s clear Rose has a vision, and you can support it by contributing to her GoFundMe. As for the rest of our episode, you’ll hear a little bit about:

• Ann’s story about Flourchild that you can find in the pages of Milwaukee Magazine.
• Private chef Michaela Ericson’s plans to open a public-facing restaurant and retail store.
• A new Mexican restaurant called El Caporal coming to Clark Square.
• A review of Margaux Brasserie that Ann put together for Milwaukee Magazine.
• Milwaukee Flavor Live, a four-course culinary event tied into a city-centric cookbook.
• The return of SoundBites, a much-loved Radio Milwaukee event that pairs food and music.