Read the full story from the Milwaukee Business Journal here. 

Crossroads Collective neared capacity on Thursday evening as Milwaukee’s newest food hall launched for a soft opening. Check out the attached slideshow to get your first look inside the east side Milwaukee venue.

The project, developed by New Land Enterprises, celebrates its grand opening Dec. 17. Tim Gokhman, the firm’s director, hosted an invitation-only event on Thursday to see how guests would respond to the venue. Crossroads Collective is located at 2238 N. Farwell Ave., in the space previously filled by Rosati’s pizza and Oriental Drugs. 

Crossroads Collective has stalls for eight micro-restaurants. So far, six vendors are booked, plus a pop-up shop.

Dawn’s Yummy Delights is selling treats like granola trail mix, cookie bites and apple butter for a limited time, while The Beerline Café, Laughing Taco, Frida, Heaven’s Table BBQ, Falafel Guys and Scratch Ice Cream have longer-term leases. 

“We’re working on a seventh and eighth,” he said. “We’re being deliberately slow and very picky about it. We have such a great line-up, the six vendors are so amazing, that we want to make sure that, that bar stays high.” 

The food hall also includes a front-of-house bar and a hidden speakeasy, which opens Thursday. 

Guests at the soft opening were provided a ticket redeemable for a complimentary alcoholic beverage. The venue also donated 30 percent of gross sales from the event to the Riverwest Food Pantry. 

Milwaukee-area business executives at the event included Linda Gorens-Levey of General Capital Group, Jonathan Jackson of Milwaukee Film, Milwaukee real estate developer Blair Williams, Lyle Landowski of Colliers International Wisconsin, Craig Haskins of Knight Barry Title Group and Ian Abston of Millenian Inc.