Shorewood mainstay Nino's Southern Sides looks to open a new location in Fox Point

Yahoo

06-03-2025

The Shorewood-based, buffet-style restaurant Nino's Southern Sides may soon be bringing Southern comfort food to Fox Point.
The expansion would be a triumph after a rough few years, said Jeffery Carter, director of operations for the Wisconsin market of V&J Food Holding Companies, which operates Nino's, along with several fast food franchises around the country (including numerous Burger King, Haagen-Dazs and Pizza Hut locations).
The restaurant was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic harder than most.
Two of the business' founders and co-owners, husband and wife duo Odell and Gloria Robinson, contracted the virus. Following six successful years of running the beloved restaurant and 40 years of marriage, Gloria died in April 2020 shortly after she was hospitalized for the virus. The two were high school sweethearts.
She had been both tough and pure hearted, friends and family members told the Journal Sentinel at the time. And with decades of experience managing restaurants, Gloria, who had been Nino's kitchen manager, was a staple of the business and a "bright light," Carter told the Journal Sentinel recently.
Odell exited the company shortly after her death, seeking to close the family's chapter in a space holding painful reminders of Gloria's absence, Carter said.
While the pandemic slowed sales, Nino's was able to survive, selling its signature Southern soul food classics like fried chicken, fried catfish and collard greens, he said.
Years later, Nino's is entering a period of growth.
The business has already received partial approval to open the new Fox Point location (7 miles north of the Shorewood one) in the Riverpoint Shopping Center.
On March 3, the business obtained Plan Commission conditional use approval for the restaurant. The Fox Point Village Board will take up the application at a future meeting.
According to V&J Food's application submitted to Fox Point's Plan Commission on Feb. 11, the restaurant is looking to occupy 8775 N. Port Washington Road in the Riverpoint Shopping Center by April 15.
Carter said the goal is to open by early summer of 2025.
The storefront is the 3,600-square-foot former home of Così, a New York-based fast-casual restaurant chain, which opened its first Wisconsin location at the River Point Village Shopping Center in 2001.
The location closed at the end of 2019, according to Fox Point Assistant Village Manager Kevin Ausman, three years after the company first filed for bankruptcy and three months before the company would file for bankruptcy again, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Fox Point Nino's Southern Sides location will be the restaurant's third.
Nino's first started serving generous portions of hearty, homestyle Southern comfort food in 2014 at 4475 N. Oakland Ave. in Shorewood.
The Robinsons then opened a second restaurant, Nino's Express, on King Drive in 2015. That restaurant has been under different ownership since 2018.
The menu at the new Nino's will feature the restaurant's signature Southern-inspired side dishes, including mac and cheese, collard greens, fried corn, pinto beans, yams, mashed potatoes, fries, spaghetti and coleslaw, according to the application.
It also includes fan-favorite entrees like catfish fillet, pork chops, turkey legs, meatloaf and butterfly shrimp and desserts like sweet potato pie, peach cobbler, and banana pudding cheesecake.
Unlike the Shorewood location, the Fox Point one will not sell breakfast and lunch, Carter said.
The restaurant would employ 20 people and stay open between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily, according to the Feb. 11 application.
The application also includes future plans to build out the interior and eventually offer seasonal outdoor seating.
Carter also shared that Nino's Southern Sides will be a participant at the Summerfest Music Festival taking place June 19 to 21, June 26 to 28 and July 3 to 5.
"Our idea is to try to make it the preeminent Southern cuisine brand in the state," he said.
Contact Claudia Levens at [e-mail]. Follow her on X at @levensc13.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Shorewood mainstay Nino's Southern Sides looks to open in Fox Point