That, combined with other changes, Lump says, makes it reasonable that the boom could come to an end.

"It's not illogical that there would be a shake-out here," says Lump, pointing to a trend toward more casual dining, right at the time that young Milwaukee, especially, was beginning to re-discover fine dining.

"Milwaukeeans' preferences have been shifting to a more casual, flexible dining experience," notes Eitel. "They don't necessarily want to sit down for two hours and roll with the traditional drink/app/salad/main/dessert/coffee meal structure. Nationwide, 'fast casual' as a business model is what is booming.

"Fine dining in this city is having to adapt and adjust to this changing set of preferences. Those who can't adapt must dominate the market, operate with incredible efficiencies, and find suitable talent in a very tough job market."

Lump adds, "Certainly the growth in the industry is in the casual sector and has been for a couple years. There's been a boom in Milwaukee in fine dining and the question is whether the community will support that many places. You've had successes," he adds, pointing to Bartolotta, Bianchini and Vassallo, "but there have been a limited number of them.

"How many people in Milwaukee are going to spend $30 on a steak? It relies heavily on the business traveler, so you ask questions like, how is the convention business doing? They're more likely to spend the money."

While Bianchini -- who owns Cubanitas and Osteria del Mondo -- agrees, he suggests there are a number of ways to think about the issue of oversaturation.

"You could say that there are too many restaurants and you could also say people don't go out to eat enough. For the last three years we've had way too many restaurants," he says.

"The last year we've now had not enough customers. People are eating out less. I think it's the economy."

Like the others, Bianchini thinks the trend is toward less fuss and more focus on value and the food itself. And that could hurt some places that bank on hype.

"Of course, you need to provide a high quality atmosphere, but when everything is going great, people really put quality and value secondary to atmosphere and hype," Bianchini says. "But when money regains its value, like now when it's harder to come by, people say, 'You know what? I'm really tired of the hype. Forget the bells and whistles, I want to get a great dinner and I want to get great service.''"

Good help hard to find

And all agree that great service is hard to come by. The problem is that Milwaukee's restaurant scene blew up faster than it could be reliably staffed. And that has been a major problem for restaurateurs aiming to provide top-notch, fine dining service to diners.

"It is incredibly difficult to find affordable workers at the skilled positions," Eitel says flat-out.

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Posted by Winegirl on Sept. 14, 2007 at 8:08 p.m. (report)

This is an interesting piece because it echos what I've been thinking recently, after seeing restaurant after restaurant close. We live in Brookfield and spend about $ 12,000 a year on dining. So we aren't out 6 nights a week like some others. I commute downtown to work every day, and it's an hour door to door. Given that, we don't often return downtown in the evening due to the excessive drive times caused by the freeway reconstruction. The seemingly permanent closure of Wisconsin Avenue in front of the Midwest Express Center adds to the problem. We now pretty much stick to restaurants on the west side and in Waukesha County. There are plenty of great independent places on this side of town: Eddie Martini's, Ristorante Bartolotta, Jake's, Union House, Andrews, the Pines, Mr. B's, Red Circle Inn, Palmer's, Kurt's--even venerable east side places like Carini's and North Star American Bistro have opened locations in the western 'burbs. It's not just national chains out here. I am wondering if the long term effect of the freeway construction will be the permanent alteration of dining habits of folks on this side of town, since we have so many great alternatives.

Posted by DowntownRed on Sept. 9, 2007 at 11:25 a.m. (report)

Park East and the Marquette Interchange are being blamed for restaurant closures? So I am guessing Mo's incredibly bad service and mediocre food had nothing to do with it? As for the chain restaurants, if they don't have good service and a good product they will die just like everybody else. Bartolotta's on Downer closed because weekday traffic was slow, which is a problem facing a lot of restaurants. X/O in Chicago closed for the same reason. Don't blame the closings on the interchange or chain restaurants. Blame in on bad food/service and some owners thinking they can just open any restaurant because it's them.

Posted by OlderWiser on Sept. 7, 2007 at 9:22 a.m. (report)

Bravo Mr. Woland. I could not agree with you more. BTW, when did Holiday House close? Ate there twice with friends and while the food did not blow me away, I really loved the bar. We often stopped there for drinks before or after eating elsewhere...while I enjoy unusual menus, most of my companions prefer more traditional offerings.

Posted by curlyboy1978 on Sept. 6, 2007 at 12:03 p.m. (report)

This is not just a Milwaukee thing. I hope the influx of chains in the suburbs ends soon or else the area will look more like Denver or Columbus - one big shopping center.

Posted by Mr.Woland on Sept. 5, 2007 at 10:45 p.m. (report)

Ugh. How about writing with something other than anecdotal evidence from four extraordinarily biased parties? Places opening and closing isn't necessarily a sign of saturation, it may be a sign that locals, with more options, are now demanding more from their restaurants. Many oft he places you mention in the article that have closed simply weren't very good, or had poor locations. There isn't supposed to be anything easy about the restaurant business, and even if you do set up something successful, there's no guarantee it will stay that way. Old gives way to new, etc. In any event, it would be nice to read an OMC "feature" one of these days that has more behind it than an author providing a sounding board for his frustrated buddies. How about talking to some people who study this stuff? Some statistics?