Blue Tomato Cafe, 2215 E. North Ave., announced this morning via a tweet that it will close its doors on March 12, due to a lack of business.
Co-owner Raluca Stanescu called me a few minutes later.
"It is really sad for me," she said. "We just basically ran out of money. When we developed the business plan, we put a lot of money on building this place and we bet that there would be enough cash flow to keep this going."
But, as she noted, Blue Tomato opened in November and foot traffic wasn't what the owners expected.
Scrubs, a convenience store-style business in the same space, will remain open.
In the meantime, Stanescu said at least one potential buyer for the business is on the radar.
"We'll definitely go for that," she said. "We don't want to see this place close. That wouldn't be good for anybody.
"It's really hard, but it's the right time."
Please note that today's scheduled OnMilwaukee.com Deal of the Day with Blue Tomato Cafe was canceled as soon as we received news of the closing.
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.
