A new restaurant held a soft opening last week in the former Wickman House, bringing authentic Italian and Mediterranean-style recipes to the top of the Door peninsula in Ellison Bay.

Osteria Tre Tassi will emphasize freshness and simplicity, pairing the appropriate cooking techniques with fewer and fresher ingredients – something someone could make at home, said Robin Brown, executive chef and co-owner of the restaurant. It will feature homemade pastas, local protein and fish, and veggies and herbs straight from the property’s 1.5-acre garden.

“The property is going to dictate what’s going to happen here,” Brown said.

The native of Naples, Italy draws technique and inspiration from the cooking of his homeland, and the time spent in the kitchen of a four-star resort operated on the Amalfi coast by his mother’s cousins. But he’s serious about the rotation of seasonal produce driving decisions about the Ellison Bay restaurant’s menu. He’s not even planning to serve his Napoletana-style pizza, something for which he’s known and awarded.

“That place does not smell pizza; it does not breathe pizza,” he said. “This [place] breathes 100-percent-everything from scratch.”

Brown’s new gig at Osteria follows a time as executive chef of Della Porta, which opened in 2023 in the former Viking Grill as the Blue Bear for breakfast and lunch (Della Porta hosts the dinner menu). Prior to that, he was the executive chef at Milwaukee’s San Giorgio Pizzeria Napoletana, living in a Midwestern city he had never even visited.

But he has dual citizenship – his dad is American, his mom Italian. So when an uncle requested his help with a staffing problem at San Giorgio, he flew to Milwaukee. 

That was five years ago. A couple of years into that job, he pointed his motorcycle north for a head-clearing ride and discovered Door County for the first time.

“I fell in love with Door County and I promised myself in two years I would open a restaurant,” he said.

Three Businesses, One Location

The former Wickman House property captivated diners with its James-Beard-Award-nominated menu, and craft cocktails that put the location on the map when Mike Holmes first purchased it in 2012. Holmes listed it for sale in late 2023 – 4.64-acres on Mink River Road that included two seasonal cabins, the restaurant and equipment on the first floor of the main building, and guest rooms on the upper floors. 

John “Jack” Gross, who had heard rumors that potential buyers wanted to turn the property into a short-term rental property, snapped it up. He said he had “long-loved” the property that had been both a lodging facility and restaurant under various names since first constructed in 1910. 

“Because it’s such a special place, we don’t want to see it adulterated,” Gross said. “I didn’t want to see one of the iconic properties on the whole peninsula hurt. And frankly, when I saw what Mike [Holmes] was asking for the property [$989,000], it was a good investment.”

Gross, who is retired from corporate America, lives primarily on a 1700s plantation property halfway between Beaufort and Charleston in South Carolina. The other half of the year, he lives on property in northern Door County, where he spent summers as a teenager with his parents, who have owned peninsula property since the 1960s.

“It’s in my heart,” he said about Door County.

Gross owns the restaurant’s real estate, grounds and equipment under one limited liability corporation (LLC). The restaurant business, Osteria Tre Tassi, is owned under a separate LLC evenly by Gross, Brown and Joe Ouimet. Gross then set up a third LLC that he owns and will operate as a special-events business. 

“What we want to do is return the building and grounds to former glory,” he said. “They need some work. To really just be respectful of the roots of the building and what it’s meant to the community.”

After fixing up the cottages and land, he foresees the property being a draw for various special events, with music a core theme. 

“It will be a potpourri of things – from weddings to music events to special tasting events,” Gross said.

The Three Badgers

Osteria Tre Tassi is located in the Badger State and owned by three people – Gross, Brown and Ouimet – as reflected in the English translation (Three Badgers Tavern) of the restaurant’s Italian name.

Gross and Brown met at the Blue Bear in Ellison Bay. Their relationship evolved. Brown would cook at Gross’ house and they’d pop a bottle of wine. They discovered a mutual hobby – clay shooting – that led to hundreds of miles driving together scouting different shooting clubs. 

When the Wickman House went on the market, it seemed tailor-made for a partnership between them. 

“I’m bringing the buildings, the financial position, the guidance,” Gross said, while Brown’s vision of the business was in sync with his own. 

By making it an Italian restaurant, they were also fitting what Gross saw as a market need.

“The county has a dearth of fine Italian-dining options,” Gross said. 

The third partner, Ouimet, is a friend of Brown’s. They met at San Giorgio in Milwaukee. Brown described Ouimet’s role as the finance guy who also knows his way around front-house hosting.

“Every restaurant needs someone who’s very strong on the book side, especially with a property like that,” Brown said. “We need someone pragmatic.”

Gross said he’ll bring a light touch to his role as the CEO of the partnership.

“I’m not going to be involved in the operations part of the restaurant,” he said. “What we will do is try to work hand and glove in a respectful way.”

Hospitable Dining, Year-Round

When Brown first discovered Door County and fell in love with the place, it was owing to the peninsula’s rhythm and pace.

“The old feel, the community feel,” he said. “I’ve been in big cities all my life; I’ve kind of had enough.”

In keeping with that community feel, and unlike Wickman House, Osteria Tre Tassi will be open year-round. 

“I’m keeping it open 11 months of the year,” he said. “That’s for locals.”

The restaurant seats about 90 diners – not a lot, and with fine-dining, that might turn twice a night. Instead of quantity, however, an Osteria Tre Tassi dinner is designed to be a quality experience.

“I don’t want to rush people,” Brown said. “I’m giving you my vision of what I know about the hospitality business; what I think hospitality should be – hospitable.”

An open house is planned on Monday, June 3, for Osteria Tre Tassi, a new Italian restaurant located at 11976 Mink River Road in Ellison Bay. Current hours are Thursday-Monday, 5-9 pm, with reservations only by phone until mid-June. Call 920.309.8390.