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Two partners are using the space that was most recently Hone, but most notably Forequarter, for a sandwich shop they are calling Hot Lunch.

Two partners with years of restaurant and bar experience are opening a sandwich shop called Hot Lunch in the former Forequarter space on the Near East Side, which last housed the restaurant Hone.

Michael Cerv, 30, and Roger Barts, 35, who both live in the neighborhood, say the shop will elicit the childhood nostalgia of the 1990s.

Their lease started Thursday and they hope to be open at 708 1/4 E. Johnson St., by Oct. 1. Forequarter closed in 2019 after seven years. Hone closed in June after 15 months.

Cerv said he came up with the idea about eight years ago while cooking at Grampa's Pizzeria on Williamson Street. He spent five years there, and met Barts while Barts was bartending next door at Gib's Bar.

"The idea is trying to do an elevated version of things that you would get when you were growing up, just like that nostalgia where your taste in food started to develop," Cerv said.

He said a big part of the concept is the presentation and vibe of food being served on a tray "like in a hot lunch."

The counter-service restaurant will have a sandwich-board menu with specials throughout the week. "Those really classic things you'd see on the hot lunch tray," Cerv said.

He said the menu will include square pizzas and his version of fish sticks, modeled after a fish fish fry he developed at age 16, while growing up in Eagle River in Northern Wisconsin.

Cerv said he began winning contests with that fish fry and it's the same well-received recipe he brought to the Baldwin Street Grille, where he consulted for about six months, leaving a month ago to work on the Hot Lunch project.

He said his mom would make beef dips or roast beef in juices, which she would cook all day, and then get his whole family together. "It's just something that's very memorable in my past, so I'm going to have my version of that."

Cerv is also planning an elaborate BLT, which instead of crispy strips of bacon will have braised pork belly that he will sear and glaze with root beer. It will also have marinated, charred tomatoes, gourmet greens, a housemade aioli, and will come on a special sourdough he's working on with Stalzy's Deli.

He said the menu will have about seven sandwiches, plus sides, salads, soups, chili and a couple of sweets.

Barts said the decor and the atmosphere will be representative of the 1990s, "where it's kind of low-brow, but with fun colors. It's a really unique motif for this elevated, comforting, attainable food."

He said they wanted to start with sandwiches to keep the shop "accessible and understandable." One thing the neighborhood lacks is a sandwich shop, he said.

Barts said they're keeping "the main bones" of the interior, but giving it a new paint job. The front façade will stay relatively the same, but they'll remove the Forequarter logo and put their own design up along with hand-painted designs on the windows.

"Again, kind of going back to that '90s-era motif using Memphis-style colors and designs, you know, lighter purples, blues, kind of that postmodern brutal design," Barts said.

He said they'll keep a lot of the same furnishings and the bar, while taking the emphasis off the more dark, rustic look of the room. "Hopefully, being here all day, every day for the next month, we should be able to accomplish that."

The Forequarter awning was custom made and will be expensive to change, so the partners say they won't remove it or alter it until next summer when they intend to install central air and get rid of the three window units the previous restaurants have used.

Barts said he's been focusing on the bar side of the hospitality business for the last 10 years, including a stint as a lead server at Rare Steakhouse when it opened in 2014.

He said he worked there six months before being recruited to help open Oliver's Public House, which closed in 2019. Barts said his two years there as assistant general manager and then general manager was his introduction into the bar world.

Barts has also worked as creative director for Merchant and Lucille, as bar manager at the Great Dane Downtown, and at The Tinsmith events venue.

Cerv has also worked at Alchemy, the cheese shop Fromagination, and the Old Fashioned. He's already developed the Hot Lunch menu and said it will progress over time.

He'll handle most of the cooking, while Barts will cover beverage and service operations, taking orders and running food out. The men may eventually offer beer and wine, but haven't gone through the licensing process.

The focus will be more on house-crafted soda using Bart's craft cocktail background. "I want to create some unique things that we're going to have on tap, utilizing the tap systems that are already in place, bringing the same kind of flavor profiles and creativity to a level that everybody can appreciate."

Hot Lunch is a neighborhood place, not a bar, Barts said. To start, they plan to be open 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. daily.

Barts said he intends for them to "do a little cooking in tandem. I'm going to see what I can learn from Michael, just so we can help each other and be as efficient as possible."

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Read more restaurant news at: go.madison.com/restaurants

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Wisconsin State Journal feature writer Samara Kalk Derby writes about the arts and brings you the latest news on the Madison area's eclectic restaurant scene. She can be reached at skalk@madison.com or 608-252-6439.

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Two partners are using the space that was most recently Hone, but most notably Forequarter, for a sandwich shop they are calling Hot Lunch.

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