Murf’s Frozen Custard and Jumbo Burgers, 12505 W. Burleigh Rd. in Brookfield, has been sold by its founder Jerry Murphy.
The business remains open, operated by the new owner, Talat Mahmood, who owns a number of restaurant franchises in the state.
"You know, there's the old adage, sell at the top," Murphy says. "We were doing record numbers.
"And this is no secret, in the restaurant business everybody knows that margins have shrunk, costs are way high, labor is very high. It just became the point where it just felt like the right time. "
Murphy sold the location and business name in November.
"(Mahmood) is an experienced guy, which is good," Murphy says. "I feel good about selling to selling to someone with restaurant experience. And he's brought a few people with him, and there's a lot of good experienced people from my staff still there, so hopefully he'll do well with it. I would think he would."
Murphy opened the first Murf’s Frozen Custard in Waukesha in 1993. A second location on Burleigh Road in Brookfield followed six years later, serving up the same frozen custard, jumbo burgers, cheese curds, fish sandwiches and other items.
After learning the business working at Kopp’s Frozen Custard in Glendale while he was in high school in the 1980s, Murphy helped developer Fred Miller Jr. open Freddy’s Frozen Custard in Mequon in 1990.
Murphy ultimately owned that stand from 1994 until 1999, when he sold it to Jim and Suzie Taylor, owners of Oscar’s Frozen Custard and Taylor’s bar Downtown, and opened the second Murf’s. Freddy’s closed in 2001.
Murphy closed the Waukesha Murf’s location Aug. 4, 2020.
So will he miss it?
"(After) 43 years of it, since I was 15 years old, I'll miss the people," Murphy says. "I don't know if I'll miss standing behind the counter at my age, in my late 50s.
"But I've had some good people that worked for me over the years for, you know, 25, 30 years. I'll miss them and I'll miss some of the relationships with suppliers and other folks and, and customers, too. We got some really great customers over the years. The social portion I'll miss for sure."
But, Murphy says, he's not retiring – "I'm too active to retire," he says. Instead, he's working in his son's financial business.
"It does not involve the nights and the weekends," Murphy says, "which is terrific."
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.
