Restaurant and bar Twisted Fork, located in old Oriental Drugs space at 2238 N. Farwell Ave., will dish up its finale fare on Sunday, Sept. 12.
But the space will not be empty. After renovations, the business will re-open on Oct. 8 as Replay Sports Bar. The new venue will boast 31 flat screen TVs and "comfortable viewing" in the hopes of luring East Side sports fans.
"With the residential growth of the Farwell Avenue/North Avenue corridor, we recognized a need in the neighborhood for this type of entertainment and dining option," said Replay manager Abby Lutgen, who is also marketing director of Roaring Fork Restaurant Group, the company that runs Twisted Fork.
The 6,000-square foot bar will continue to have a capacity of 250 and will also continue to serve food.
"There are other venues in the area where people currently go to watch sporting events, but Replay Sports Bar will be the only one ideally set up to meet up with friends while still having a great view of the game or match on the screen," said Lutgen, who noted that the business plans to hire an additional 30 employees.
"We're also really proud of our decision to reinvest in that neighborhood by remaining in our current space and providing additional jobs in the City of Milwaukee."
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.
