The SURG Restaurant Group, Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun and Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers announced today they will be opening a new restaurant in Brookfield called 8*twelve (the numbers of both Braun and Rodgers).
This is Braun's second venture with SURG, which owns Ryan Braun's Graffito in Milwaukee.
Stay tuned! OnMilwaukee.com will have more in-depth look coming shortly at how the two friends - who also happen to be league Most Valuable Players - decided on the idea, and what it will have to offer.
8*twelve will be located at 17800 W. Bluemound Rd., with a planned opening in June.
Jim Owczarski is an award-winning sports journalist and comes to Milwaukee by way of the Chicago Sun-Times Media Network.
A three-year Wisconsin resident who has considered Milwaukee a second home for the better part of seven years, he brings to the market experience covering nearly all major and college sports.
To this point in his career, he has been awarded six national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting, feature writing, breaking news and projects. He is also a four-time nominee for the prestigious Peter J. Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism, presented by the Chicago Headline Club, and is a two-time winner for Best Sports Story. He has also won numerous other Illinois Press Association, Illinois Associated Press and Northern Illinois Newspaper Association awards.
Jim's career started in earnest as a North Central College (Naperville, Ill.) senior in 2002 when he received a Richter Fellowship to cover the Chicago White Sox in spring training. He was hired by the Naperville Sun in 2003 and moved on to the Aurora Beacon News in 2007 before joining OnMilwaukee.com.
In that time, he has covered the events, news and personalities that make up the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, NCAA football, baseball and men's and women's basketball as well as boxing, mixed martial arts and various U.S. Olympic teams.
Golf aficionados who venture into Illinois have also read Jim in GOLF Chicago Magazine as well as the Chicago District Golfer and Illinois Golfer magazines.
