Sven’s Cafe, 2699 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., is closed and is being sold. The new owners are expected to reopen it next month.
A sign posted on the door reads, "Sven's Cafe has been sold. Thank you for the great 15 years. You will all be missed. The new owners will be opening in August."
According to a post in the Bay View Town Hall group on Facebook, owner Steve Goretzko told Katherine Keller of the Bay View Compass that a week after the business was listed for sale he has accepted an offer from a young couple that plans to reopen the cafe in August.
Goretzko – who also runs the Sven's Organic Coffee Company, a coffee roasting and wholesaling business – opened Sven’s in 2004 and told Keller that running both businesses became overwhelming.
Sven's opened a second cafe Downtown on Water Street in 2011 and sold it four years later.
OnMilwaukee called the Bay View Sven's a "hidden gem" in February for its "eclectic European style, looking like it could be nestled amid the German countryside." You can read that post here.
Stay tuned for more updates as they become available.
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.
