Extreme cold and subzero windchills over the past week have not deterred diners from getting their first taste of Milwaukee’s newest restaurant, CASSIS, a French-inspired bistro in the Third Ward.
Since opening Jan. 20, the 179-seat restaurant has reached capacity each night during certain times, with the 12-seat bar often filling up by 5:30, owners Kyle and Meghan Knall told BizTimes Wednesday.
The restaurant is open daily, currently just for dinner, with plans to soon add apéro (happy hour) and eventually weekday lunch and weekend brunch. Reservations are filling quickly, with Fridays and Saturdays booked through February.
“The weather has not kept anyone away, which is fantastic,” said Meghan. “People come in and their response is, I think, exactly what we were going for: ‘I don’t feel like I’m Milwaukee.'”
CASSIS is the Knalls’ second restaurant concept following the success of Birch on the city’s Lower East Side, which they purchased in 2022. Kyle, who originally joined the culinary team at Birch in 2021 following stints at top restaurants in New York City, was nominated for James Beard Awards in 2022, 2024 and 2025. Kyle’s identity as a chef is on full display at Birch, he says, highlighted by a seasonally driven menu and farm-to-table cuisine — and that’s what brings diners through the door at that restaurant.
CASSIS takes a slightly different approach, leading with the overall experience as its main attraction.
“We knew being in the Third Ward … it was all about the vibe of the restaurant,” said Meghan.
CASSIS’ 5,175-square-foot riverfront space on the ground floor of the 31-story luxury apartment tower 333 Water, which was completed in 2024, was purposefully designed to look and feel like a classic French bistro or brasserie in a big city.
Diners will notice details, from ceramic subway-tiled walls and vintage lighting to marble seashell mosaic floors and antique mirrors. Chicago-based design studio Kuchar headed up the interior design work, but many of the accent items and touches that decorate the space were hand-picked. Meghan found the host stand, for example, at Antiques on Pierce after the one they ordered from France came in too short. A mirror hanging near the bar came from the foyer of the Knalls’ home.
Floor-to-ceiling windows offer views of the adjoining RiverWalk and Milwaukee River to the west and Third Ward cityscape to the north and east. The restaurant’s positioning at the corner of North Water Street and East Saint Paul Avenue is additive to the overall atmosphere.
“This is a high-traffic corner, which also means it’s a pricey corner to be on,” said Kyle. “I think it’s almost a fact that a smaller percentage of people care more about food than they do about the atmosphere and the vibe, so we really want to make sure we capture that and then that the food’s good.”
CASSIS and Birch differ operationally as well. Birch has been able to keep food and delivery costs low by sourcing directly from farmers. That won’t be the case for CASSIS. Plus, consider the amount of labor it takes to operate an all-day restaurant that runs seven days a week, opposed to Birch’s Tuesday through Saturday dinner service. CASSIS has already hired a team of 50 between the front and back of house and that number will continue to grow as service expands. Birch has 25 employees.
The concept behind CASSIS has been in the works for some time. Birch ran a series of bistro lunch pop-ups about two and a half years ago that later evolved into monthly pop-ups previewing CASSIS’ menu. Plans for the new restaurant were announced in December 2024 and construction delays pushed back the opening date several months.
This likely won’t be the last big restaurant opening Milwaukee gets from the Knalls. The couple hinted at the possibility of additional restaurants in the future but clarified that there are no concrete plans yet. As they consider next moves down the road, Birch remains home base and offers a window into what the market wants.
“If we open another restaurant, we’ll definitely do pop-ups (at Birch), test things out there and that will be kind of our thing where we use to really push ideas. We’ll have guest chefs there, we’ll do special dinners and stuff like that,” said Kyle. “It’s definitely our home and (CASSIS) is as well, but just in a different way.”
Dining and Cooking