This summer, Walker's Point will put on a new jacket; one initially intended for the East Side.
Blue Jacket Bar will open at 135 E. National Ave. in July, according to Laura van Heijningen, who will own the place with her husband, Tom.
The van Heijningens were initially eying a location on Murray Avenue on the East Side, before settling on the space that, until last Friday, housed the Triangle Bar.
"We intend to add a full menu to the new space, featuring appetizers, salads, burgers and sandwiches," Laura told me via email. "We will give a percentage of the proceeds back to organizations that support Lake Michigan."
Blue Jacket will serve lunch and dinner and run as a full-service bar.
Construction on the space is set to begin.
"It looks pretty crazy right now," says van Heijningen. "Tom has his work cut out for him."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
