The Brown Bottle Pub, 221 W. Galena St., in the Schlitz Park complex, will close at least temporarily, according to an email sent to tenants Monday morning by owners of the complex, who also run the restaurant.
Schlitz Park was sold in February to TPG Real Estate and Crestlight Capital.
The evocative tavern and restaurant with its historical decor opened in 1938 as the Schlitz Brewing Co. tasting room and was open to the public on and off ever since. In more recent years, the pub closed in 2004 and replaced by Libiamo restaurant the following year.
When Libiamo closed in 2012 it set the stage for the 2014 return of the Brown Bottle Pub.
This morning’s email says that the restaurant’s general manager has resigned, but that the bar and restaurant is expected to reopen later in the year.
Here is the full text of the email:
"The Brown Bottle has been a part of Milwaukee’s history on and off since 1938, first beginning as a place for visitors to grab a beverage after Schlitz brewery tours. Since then it has taken many different twists and turns but has remained a part of the Schlitz Park experience. Unfortunately, the current general manager has resigned and moved on to other endeavors, creating a natural inflection point for us to explore what the next iteration of The Brown Bottle will be. The history of Schlitz Park is one of the main reasons we decided to purchase the property, and we look forward to exploring concepts that honor its rich history and also provide best-in-class amenity experience for our current and future tenants.
"Effective today, The Brown Bottle will temporarily close while we spend time deciding what that next chapter will be. In the interim, we will be providing additional food options for Schlitz Park in the Stock-House from FOODA, a new concept that provides onsite pop-up restaurants with a daily changing menu. We are also exploring a new coffee bar operator and will have a solution shortly.
"We could not be more grateful for the opportunity to restore and shepherd this historic and unique venue into a new and improved look later this year."
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.
