Waterfront Warehouse
We’ve been making trips to Pleasant Prairie, WI for a figure skating competition for four years now. It’s one of our favorite competitions. We like the Pleasant Prairie/Kenosha area and we’ve liked exploring it over the past few years.
We were in the area last week for the annual Southport Summer Classic at the Pleasant Prairie Rec Plex. We got to town Wednesday night and competition started first thing Thursday morning for us.
Thursday was, by far, the busiest of the three days of competition. L had two skates in the morning, B had two skates in the afternoon then L had one more skate in the evening.
My parents always come to this competition and this time, they decided to stay for the entire weekend. They usually do a day or so but they hadn’t seen B’s free dance at all and they’ve only seen L’s once so they wanted to stay and watch those.
B finished up his Thursday event at about 2:30P PM. He got his medal and got changed then I asked what the plan for the rest of the day was. L had another event at about 6:30 PM. She wanted to stay at the rink and asked if I’d go get her Chipotle. J decided she was going to do the same. B also wanted to stay at the rink but he just wanted something from the concession stand.
I took my parents to get Chipotle for J and L. We dropped it off then we headed over to their hotel in Kenosha so they could get checked in. We still had a couple of hours before we needed to be back at the rink and they were hungry. They knew that I had some ideas so they left dinner up to me.
I had a couple of ideas in mind. We had some time so we could venture away from Pleasant Prairie a bit. I headed towards the shores of the wrong side of Lake Michigan.
I picked Waterfront Warehouse on Sheridan Road near 35th Street in Kenosha. It’s actually about a block from Lake Michigan but you can see the lake from the amazing deck they have along Sheridan Road. The restaurant is a sister restaurant to La Fogata which is just down the street. Waterfront Warehouse has been around for about a decade. It opened in 2016 after an extensive remodel of the former Animal House restaurant which had a much, much smaller deck that didn’t have the views that the current restaurant has. The parking lot is off to the south of the building and that’s where the main entrance is. It was pretty empty when we pulled in but it was also 3:30 PM on a Thursday. The hours said it was open so we walked in.
We walked by an outdoor patio on the south side of the building and we briefly considered asking to sit outside. It was a decent enough day and there was a lot of shade but we ultimately decided sitting at the bar was going to be the best option.
The host stand is right inside the door of the multilevel building. Off to the left is a dining area up a short flight of stairs. The thing that catches your eye is the “House Divided” flag that hangs on the railing. Kenosha is kind of in the middle between Chicago and Green Bay but my brain says we’re in Wisconsin so everyone is a Packers fan.
We were actually taken to the bar area which is off to the right of the building. There is a huge bar in the middle of the spaces with seating on either side. The aesthetic is very much industrial with exposed brick walls, hard wood flooring, exposed ductwork in the ceiling and lighting from exposed bulbs in wire cages to go with the large amount of natural light let in from the windows and garage doors that open out to the front deck.
Our waitress came over right away after we sat down and she was very soft spoken. Once I figured out she was asking about drinks, I ordered an IPA from Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee. This must be my Kenosha go-to. I’ve had it twice now and both times were while we were in Wisconsin for this competition. The last time was when we ate at Blue Badger Bar & Grill in Sturtevant in 2023. It’s a fine IPA. Nothing too special but I wanted a pint and this was the best sounded beer that came in that size.
When I was doing my restaurant research, this was one of the places that I really thought we’d go to as a family because there was pretty much something for everyone.
I jumped straight to the burger section and picked a sandwich called Just a Lil Heat. The burger is two 4 oz smash patties topped with pepperjack cheese, Wisconsin cheese curds, grilled jalapenos, and a Honey-Sriracha BBQ sauce and it’s as delicious as it sounds. The dominate flavor was the BBQ sauce. It was a good mix of sweet and spicy. It was also very sticky so it kind of made a mess. The cheese curds and grilled jalapenos added another layer of both crunch and heat. The meat itself was almost lost in the whole thing. Every so often I’d get a bit of the crunchiness from the edges of the smash burger but the sauce really dominated everything else. Dealing with the mess from the BBQ sauce was worth it. This burger was delicious.
I chose fries as my side. They were pretty generic frozen battered fries. They came with a little cup of ketchup that I just gave to my dad. I’m not a ketchup person. I used whatever of the BBQ sauce dripped off the sandwich for the fries. There wasn’t enough for all of them but that was fine.
My dad went with a simple burger called The Single Stack. It was two smash patties and the typical lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo and cheese.
My mom went someplace else. They had Greek Freak Tacos on a specials menu. These tacos are made with Naan bread tortillas, grilled chicken, though you can upgrade to Gyro meat if you want, Feta cheese and a house made cucumber sauce. I had no idea my mom liked what is essentially a high quality Gyro but she really did. There was a lot of food on the plate though. I think she ate two and maybe a half of the third. She also got a side salad but she just had that boxed up and brought it back to the hotel for later.
Our bill for the 3 of us was just under $60 before tip. Most of that was me. My parents always just get water to drink but I always have to have a beer and the most expensive burger on the menu while they typically order off specials or go with more basic sandwiches. Still, my dad pointed out it was about $20/person which is pretty typical for restaurant dining anymore.
Waterfront Warehouse was a good find and a great restaurant to go on a little drive for. We spend most of our time in Pleasant Prairie and don’t make it out to this part of Kenosha. There are a ton of restaurants I wanted to try on this trip but my family tends to stay at the rink and cheer on their friends. It’s great that my parents decided to come to town so I could at least get a way for a bit and spend some time with them and get some tasty meals.
SW Michigan Dining 