Tim Mulcahy, owner of Brennan’s Market at 8210 Watts Road, is slowly and quietly rolling out Skip’s After-Market.
The new restaurant is being treated as another section of Brennan’s. It showcases food and drinks sold in the store, which sells high-end products like cheese, meat, produce, chocolate and alcohol.
Skip’s — named after Brennan’s founder Skip Brennan — pours some of that very same beer from tap lines, and mixes craft cocktails like an Old Fashioned with Berens Old Fashioned Brandy.
While a full menu is still incoming — food like sandwiches can be purchased from the deli at the moment — appetizers like Honeycrisp apples paired with Abergele cheese and Fortune Favors Candied pecans, are being served alongside Silver Moon Springs smoked trout and Terrapin Ridge Apple Horseradish Jam.
The elevated market replaces The Cider Farm as tenants, which vacated the location toward the end of 2024 to move its taproom to Verona to open the Orchard, a farm-to-table gastropub.
Mulcahy said he wanted to extend Brennan’s into the empty space after the connected space became vacant to create another reason to visit.
“We really wanted it to highlight the best of Brennan’s,” Mulcay said. “The idea wasn’t to add a separate business. This is just a separate department as if we were going to add another extension, or product offering or what have you.”
So now, Skip’s offers “the best of Brennan’s.”
A full-service bar, appetizers, bar plates, outdoor patio, firepits, live music and eventually full food service will exist in the location.
Mulcahy hopes like Brennan’s, Skip’s becomes a destination.
“We understand that we’re a destination shopping experience for most of our customers,” he said. “We’re not an all-inclusive, one-stop shop.
“So, we understand people are shopping here because they want to be.”
He wants Brennan’s the shopping market and Skip’s the sit-down-and-eat market to both be experiences fit for a destination.
Mulcahy said initially they were playing with the idea of a Wisconsin beer garden that is family friendly and a sort of hybrid with private dinners and events.
“We’re still in our infancy,” as far as planning and events go, he said. “We want it to grow, and morph and develop through the summer and seasonally.”
The seasonal aspect means foods in season will make their way on to the menu, as well as cocktails.
But overall, whatever the menu changes, Skip’s will reflect the strengths of Brennan’s like flagship products that sell well, such as Brennan’s Famous Sweet and Hot Dip and a house frozen pizza made with house-made Bomba ranch and hot sauce.
As for the dip, it’s “kind of one of those products that has had legs for a lot of years,” Mulcahy said.
Skip’s has been open for three months, but Mulcahy already likes what Brennan’s is building.
He hired a chef, a food service coordinator and a general manager for Skip’s. Outside consultants were also hired in the planning phase, and the space was reshaped to be more acoustically friendly.
“Along with my staff, we’ve put a lot of effort and thought into the buildout itself,” Mulcahy said. “We’ve put a lot of capital into this space.”
He calls it a work in progress, an ongoing evolution. He’s been slow to get word out and has not done any advertising, but on a random evening, tables are steadily filled.
“It’s gaining traction a little each week,” Mulcahy said. “We’re really happy with the result.”
