Instead of Jake’s, Redstone Kitchen to open

Jake’s Corned Beef will not be coming to Saukville.

Instead, Redstone Kitchen — a name that hearkens back to Saukville’s past — will open in the former Lam’s Restaurant at 470 E. Green Bay Ave.

Amin Juma, who owns the restaurant and building with his wife Edita Siaulyte, had planned to open Jake’s Corned Beef with his partner Wajeeh Alturkman, who purchased Jake’s Delicatessen in Milwaukee from former Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig in 2021. Alturkman, however, pulled out of the partnership for health reasons, Juma said.

So he, his wife and their son David decided to open a family run restaurant and name it after the eatery that once operated on the site.

“My wife researched the history of the building,” Juma said. “It was a lot of things over the years — a gas station, a tavern and the Redstone Kitchen in the 1950s. We have historic photos on the wall.”

The Village of Saukville Plan Commission on Tuesday was expected to approve a certificate of compliance for the restaurant, the last approval Juma and Siaulyte need. They plan to open Redstone Kitchen in April.

“We are ready to go,” he said.

The restaurant will employ a “fast-casual” dining concept and offer dine-in and takeout services from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, according to its business plan.

The menu will resemble the one that had been planned for Jake’s, with hand-cut corned beef and pastrami sandwiches, Italian beef, Italian and Polish sausages, burgers, soups and salads.

“The restaurant blends traditional comfort food with subtle international influences, creating a menu that is both familiar and distinctive,” according to the business plan.

Juma and Siaulyte are both immigrants. He is from Jerusalem and she is from Lithuania, and their vision for Redstone Kitchen “grew from years of preparing meals for family gatherings, experimenting with recipes and dreaming of opening a restaurant that reflects both their dedication to services and their love for bringing people together around food,” according to the plan.

The couple live in Port Washington, and after Siaulyte drove past the shuttered Lam’s Restaurant, they decided to chase their dream.

“I’m 62. I’m about to retire, so I said, ‘Let’s buy it and do this,’” Juma said.

But purchasing the property was just the beginning. Then came the long process of renovating the building.

“We were shocked,” Juma said. “It was a Chinese restaurant for 27 years. There was grease and peanut oil everywhere.

“We took out everything from the floors to the walls and the electricity to the plumbing and replaced it.”

The project is complete and the restaurant is essentially ready to open, Juma said.

And given the couple’s investment in the building and commitment to their dream of running a restaurant, Redstone Kitchen will be in Saukville to stay, Juma said.

“It won’t be like other restaurants that open and close,” he said. “We’re a family run restaurant committed to taking care of this community.”