In what they call "an effort to restore the building to its former glory," the owners of The Cheel restaurant in Thiensville – Jesse and Barkha Daily – have restored the turret on the northeast side of the Queen Anne building in the heart of the town's Main Street Historic District.
The Cheel, 105 S. Main St., occupies the old Commercial House Hotel at the intersection of Buntrock Avenue, Main Street and Green Bay Road, erected in 1890.
According to the Wisconsin Historical Society:
"This structure was built by Nic Wilson, who also ran the grain elevator that was located immediately to the west and along the railroad line. Opening of the bar took place on Nov. 16 and 17 of 1895. Alvin Riemer purchased the hotel/bar and ran it for a time before selling to William Heusler. The structure functioned as a tavern into the 1970s; thereafter it has served as a restaurant."
WHS also notes that the building's corner turret – which had arched windows and bracketed eaves, was originally topped with a truncated pyramidal cupola.
Ozaukee County personality Bill Conley – known as a businessman and musician, who performs locally with Five Guys with Day Jobs – who has done other restoration work in the area, restored the turret, which is topped with a bronze eagle that serves as a link to the name of the restaurant.
Cheel is the Nepalese word for eagle and the restaurant specializes in Nepalese cuisine.
The eagle is the work of Thiensville artist Allen Caucutt and sculptor Tom Queoff.
Here's video of the turret installation:
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.
