On Tuesday, Jerry Murphy closed the Murf's Frozen Custard at 1345 S. West Ave. in Waukesha.
The burger and custard location at 12505 Burleigh Rd. in Brookfield will remain open.
"I've been doing this 39 years now," says owner Jerry Murphy, "and it was just time to simplify to one location."
The shop closed Tuesday after having been, "carefully orchestrated to get it right," says Murphy.
Murphy opened the Waukesha stand in 1993. The Brookfield location followed six years later.
Murphy got his start working at Kopps in 1981 and then managed Sweets Frozen Custard on the northwest side during college.
He helped Fred Miller open Freddy's in Mequon in 1990 and ultimately ended up buying that stand.
Murphy declined to name the new buyer of the Waukesha stand, but said a sale is in the process.
As for whether or not it will be a custard stand, he says, "I can't reveal that right now, but more than likely it will be."
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.
