Barossa, the wonderful and practically all-organic Walker's Point restaurant at 235 S. 2nd St. will close on Sunday.

"Our last day as Barossa will be Sunday, June 17," said co-owner Julia LaLoggia via e-mail. "While we will miss Barossa, we are all moving on to other projects. I will be retaining the space and will be opening another business with a new partner at that location. This week we will be running 1/2 off all bottles of wines. There are some amazing bottles that we are basically closing out at cost.

"The plans are for a more casual restaurant and cocktail lounge with music and night club events. The target opening date is sometime in August. More details will be announced in the next few weeks! Deanne (Wecker) will be the sole owner of Lee's Lounge and is pursuing other opportunities. Our head chef Jan will be opening her own restaurant on the west side of town.

"Basically, Deanne and I had an awesome run there for four years. We received top dining awards every year that we were open, and were just picked again last week as one of Dennis Getto's Top 30. We are very proud of running as an organic restaurant, and working with local farmers. However, we both want to move away from the fine dining business. That is the simple and probably kind of boring answer."

A friend to OMC through its years (it opened in June 2003), Barossa has not only been an advertiser but a partner donating gift certificates for our events, hosting a wonderful lunch after our "Simply Interactive" conference in 2005 and of course, rocking the neighborhood at its upstairs B-Side for OMC's Lucky 7 Birthday event -- also in 2005. On a personal level, it's always been a breakfast favorite and I've shared many meals there with my wife and good friends.

"We are both very excited about about our future plans and will stay on as consultants for each other with our agreed upon payment being bottles of fine red wine.

"We really appreciate the support we have had from our customers. So many people really embraced what we were doing there. To them, a heart-felt thanks! We will be able to absorb some of the staff into our other businesses."

Keep reading OnMilwaukee.com for more details and updates. But, for now, good-bye Barossa. You will be missed.