Black Shoe Hospitality has permanently closed its Shorewood location of Blue’s Egg, 4195 N. Oakland Ave., and plans to open a different restaurant there later.

Its last day open was Saturday; the restaurant had to-go brunch on the previous two Sundays. The group's other restaurants, Maxie’s and Story Hill BKC on Milwaukee's west side, continue to offer carryout, and Black Shoe plans to keep them open.

It's perhaps the highest-profile permanent closing since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent mandatory closing of state dining rooms in March.

Blue's Egg in Shorewood opened in May 2018, the second location of the group's popular brunch restaurant. The original, at 317 N. 76th St. in Milwaukee, has been temporarily closed since the mandatory dining room shutdown. Black Shoe plans to reopen the Milwaukee Blue's Egg when dining-in is again allowed.

“This is the last thing any business owner wants to do, but we do it with gratitude for where we have been. We thank all the team members who have worked at Blue’s Egg in Shorewood for the hard work, energy, and effort,” Black Shoe Hospitality co-owner Dan Sidner said in a written statement. “We made a lot of people happy over the last year and a half, and that is a worthy thing to have done.”

Black Shoe spokesman John Buchel said the group decided to close the Shorewood restaurant because its to-go business didn't justify staying open for carryout alone, and the restaurant had not been as successful as the group had hoped before the pandemic. "We felt it might not survive as the economy slowly returns," Buchel said in an email.

As for the new restaurant, it's expected to have dinner service and weekend brunch. Black Shoe said in the announcement that it wants to open it "as soon as possible," but that depends on when the prohibition on dining in is lifted.

"We feel that a focus on dinner will prove more successful in this location. We are choosing to keep a brunch offering because we have seen there is demand for daytime service on the weekends," Buchel said.

The new restaurant will have the same owners that Shorewood Blue's Egg did: Sidner, chef Joe Muench, Black Shoe administrator Amy Kerstein and director of operations Jason Kerstein. The Kersteins also became part owners of the Milwaukee location of Blue’s Egg in 2020.

Shorewood Blue's Egg gift cards and loyalty-program points will be honored at the new restaurant and at the group's other restaurants.

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Contact Carol at carol.deptolla@jrn.com or (414) 224-2841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_diner.