A legendary Milwaukee restaurant, The Savoy Room, quietly reopened inside a historic dining space on March 18.
Now called The Savoy Room Piano Bar and Lounge, it's still located inside the Shorecrest Hotel 1962 N. Prospect Ave., at the same historic space that housed Beccofino and Dolce Vita in the early 2000s and for many years Snug's.
All history aside, today's Savoy Room Piano Bar and Lounge aims to be a "new taste and sound of Milwaukee's East Side." It's open daily for lunch from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. and every evening (closed Sundays) for dinner.
Anthony D'Amico, who oversees the restaurant and bar, talked passionately about Savoy's new Aperitivo happy hour. Featured daily from 4-7 p.m. Savoy's take on the tradition is "much more than just happy hour cocktails."
Aperitivo has a full display of Italian foods, all "entirely endless and seemingly endless, that is, if you buy a drink." Drinks at the new Savoy, says D'Amico, are "very, very reasonable" with martinis featured at $8.
Aperitivo is what the new Savoy wants to be known for. Here's how this "ora felice" is explained on the menu, "Aperitivo is an important part of Italian life as a way of socializing and winding down after a day of work. Yet aperitivo is much more than the happy hour we know and love; bars throughout Italy display an array of foods with the hopes of attracting drinkers who want to get an early start on the night."
As for the food, the menu is simple and full of Italian flavor with appetizers, salads, soups and sandwiches. It's also committed to local sources. "Our menu items are prepared by hand using fresh ingredients from local sources whenever possible. With the exception of our steak fries, none of our food ingredients have been frozen," states the menu. Highlights include Italian sausage, meatball and beef sandwiches and BBQ, veal and Savoy's most expensive item (which really isn't that expensive at all) a $12.95 5 oz. "open face steak" sandwich that's "topped with a mountain of crispy onion rings."
Lunch orders, if called in, are prepared in 15 minutes or less and available for pick up.
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
