Like many immigrants, Yollande Tchouapi Deacon was disappointed by how difficult it was to find her native cuisine in Milwaukee after she moved here in 2001. African restaurants were, and still are, a rarity in the city, and the

 In recent years the belowground space at the busy corner of Broadway and Buffalo Street in the Third Ward has hosted a café, a bakery, a bistro and a taco restaurant, but its latest occupant must be its most ambitious yet.

In its early years, the Eat Local Resource Fair at Milwaukee's Urban Ecology Center stressed the environmental, economic and health benefits of eating locally sourced foods, a message that fell on receptive ears. Now in its sixth year, the Eat Local...