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Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Milwaukee-area restaurant, bar closures due to flooding include Cafe Hollander, Mothership
Torrential rain in the Milwaukee area over the weekend of Aug. 9 and 10 led to flash floods that damaged area homes and businesses. Here are some area restaurants and bars that are closed temporarily as they repair the damage. Cafe Hollander in Wauwatosa closed temporarily due to flooding Cafe Hollander, 7677 W. State St., Wauwatosa, shared on social media on Aug. 11 that the restaurant is closed due to damage incurred from flooding of the Menomonee River, which flows alongside the restaurant. 'Our Cafe Hollander – Wauwatosa is getting an unexpected remodel, so we are temporarily closed,' the restaurant wrote on Facebook. Cafe Hollander's locations in Brookfield, Mequon, Milwaukee's east side and Madison remain open, as well as the Lowlands Group's sister restaurant, Buckatabon, located directly across the street from Hollander in the Tosa Village. Buckatabon was not damaged by the flooding, but its main patio remains closed so the city can monitor the pedestrian bridge and river below, the restaurant said in posts on social media. Its State Street patio is open. 'Our hearts are with the Village and everyone affected by the recent floods,' the Hollander post continued. 'Stay strong, Tosa!' On Aug. 13, Lowlands Group Founder and CEO Eric Wagner said Cafe Hollander would be closed for six weeks as they repaired the damage to the restaurant's lower-level kitchen. The Mothership in Bay View closed temporarily after flooding The Mothership, a corner cocktail bar at 2301 S. Logan Ave. in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood, is closed temporarily after incurring excessive water damage to its basement. 'I have no clue what temporary means but the loss we endured at the hands of the flood Saturday is going to put us out of commission for a while,' owner Ricky Ramirez posted on the bar's Instagram account. According to the post, the bar's basement was flooded 'from floor to ceiling,' destroying equipment, its entire stock of merchandise, rare bottles of liquor and more. 'You name it, we lost it,' the post continued. The bar is located near the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Bay Street, an area of Bay View that saw significant flooding during the Aug. 10 storm. Ian's Pizza downtown closed for a week Ian's Pizza, 146 E. Juneau Ave., will be closed for about a week due to sewage backup in the basement of the restaurant where all of its storage is. Managing Partner Ryan Donovan said around 1:30 a.m. Aug. 10 employees noticed flooding in the basement as they were preparing to close at 2 a.m., and they immediately closed the restaurant. Donovan said they have since cleaned up what they could, but they are waiting on a professional cleaning service. "We can't open until that's done. Our best bet at the moment is that maybe we'll be open by next week, fingers crossed," Donovan said on Aug. 12. "There's so much damage everywhere. It's really hard to get the help that we need." He said his insurance covers $25,000 for sewage backup, which is about how much he estimated in damages from the flooding. The Newport bar in Bay View is temporarily closed due to water damage Bay View corner bar The Newport, 939 E. Conway St., is closed as it recovers from water damage as a result of the Aug. 9 and 10 storms. Owner Tim Creed said that he optimistically hopes to reopen his bar by Aug. 14 or 15. 'We're still determining what equipment is lost, but it's probably going to be significant,' he said on Aug. 12. That includes over $10,000 in beer and liquor alone, but when factoring in equipment, Creed estimates the bar could be looking at more than $50,000 in losses. 'And that doesn't include loss of income,' he said. Water reached about waist high in the rear space of The Newport's three-level basement, where its office, ice machine and liquor storage are located. The drains in all three areas of the basement failed. 'We were down there as the backup was starting,' Creed said. 'We were pumping and cleared the basement completely, then it came right back, only faster. The pump couldn't keep up, and we just had to walk away.' The bar's ice machine is a total loss, and the bar's compressors and two furnaces may be unsalvageable, as well, Creed said. 'Our biggest concern is getting open so our employees can get back to working,' Creed said, noting that his staff has been working voluntarily to help clean and clear the basement. 'We have the best staff in Milwaukee,' he said. 'We're going to have a much smaller bank account, but hopefully we're going to come back stronger." Milwaukee sports bar and restaurant The Slow Buffalo will be closed for 'an extended period of time' The Slow Buffalo, 3872 S. 92 St., shared on Facebook that its basement flooded during the two-day storm that began the night of Aug. 9. The sports bar and restaurant, which opened on Milwaukee's southwest side in March, shared an image of the business's basement that shows debris floating on water that is near the top of the stairs. 'Currently our basement, like a lot of other homes/businesses, is flooded,' the social media post read. 'We will be closed for an extended period of time. This will not be a quick clean up. We will hopefully know more in the next few days." Owner Jeremy Chounard could not immediately be reached for comment. Chounard and business partner Joseph Vagnini also own The Hale House, 10539 W. Forest Home Ave., Hales Corners, and The Local Bar & Grill, W191S6409 Hillendale Dr., Muskego. Both businesses are open and were not impacted by flooding. This story was updated to add new information. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee-area restaurants closed after flooding include Cafe Hollander
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
'A complete disaster': Cafe Hollander Wauwatosa will be closed for six weeks after flooding
On the evening of Aug. 9, the kitchen at Café Hollander 7677 W. State St., Wauwatosa, was buzzing with fired-up ovens, cooks prepping dishes and servers running up trays during the Saturday-night dinnertime rush. Hours later, it was submerged in four feet of water. It was the result of the two-day, 1,000-year flood that caused the Menomonee River, which flows directly alongside Café Hollander's Wauwatosa location, to rise from just under two feet to more than fives times that height in two hours. On Aug. 11, the restaurant and bar, in the heart of the Tosa Village, announced on social media that it would be temporarily closed for an 'unexpected remodel.' The cost of that 'remodel' could approach $1 million and six weeks of business closure. That's according to Eric Wagner, founder and CEO of the Lowlands Group, which owns Café Hollander and its four other locations, as well as Milwaukee-area restaurants Buckatabon Tavern & Supper Club, Café Benelux and Centraal Grand Café & Tappery. He got his first call at around 6:30 a.m. Aug. 10, when early-morning employees showed up to the restaurant. Water had already started coming into the kitchen, which is located on the restaurant's lower level. Over the next three or four hours, he and his employees watched it swell to four feet deep. Outside, the Menomonee River splashed over the pedestrian bridge that leads to the restaurant's outdoor patio. The water crested about four feet above Café Hollander's kitchen. The entire lower level is almost a total loss, including cooking equipment, walk-in coolers, the manager's office, the stereo system and all the food stored in the kitchen. 'When there's pressure from the river, the water starts getting into the drywall. There was equipment floating everywhere and the electrical got all burned out,' Wagner said. 'It was a complete disaster.' That's when we started to realize that it was going to be more of a construction project than just the cleaning project.' The first flooding of its kind at Café Hollander When Café Hollander opened in the Tosa Village in 2009, its proximity to the Menomonee River provided one of the area's most picturesque waterfront views. Wagner never expected that the restaurant would see this amount of water damage. It's the first time the space has flooded in its 16 years. 'With all the investments that have been made in the retention ponds and systems here, we assumed that those issues wouldn't be there anymore,' Wagner said. What's left now is the clean-up effort, led by Milwaukee's Sid Grinker Restoration, with plenty of help from employees and volunteers from the community. "Even on Sunday, when we were moving furniture around, I looked up and there were just people in the community that had been down here picking up tables and umbrellas and moving chairs without being asked,' Wagner said. 'It was really cool to see.' Hourly employees of Café Hollander's Wauwatosa location have been placed at other restaurants within the Lowland Group, with managers continuing at other locations or overseeing the cleanup. 'Our people should not be impacted much at all,' Wagner said. Buckatabon Tavern & Supper Club will open for weekday breakfast For those who'd like to support the business, Wagner encouraged customers to dine at any of the Lowlands Group restaurants, which all remain open. He also hopes the community will support neighboring businesses in any way they can. That includes donating to the Wauwatosa BID's fundraiser supporting small businesses impacted by the flood. To donate, visit 'In the village or any of these other areas that got hit, I think every single one of these business owners would really appreciate people coming by to say 'hello,'' Wagner said. And for those who will miss their weekday breakfasts at Café Hollander, sister restaurant Buckatabon Tavern & Supper Club, located next to Hollander in the Village, will extend its hours to offer breakfast beginning Aug. 15. In addition to its standard weekend brunch, Buckatabon will serve breakfast from 8 to 11 a.m. Monday to Friday while Hollander is closed. When will Cafe Hollander Wauwatosa reopen after flooding? Café Hollander Wauwatosa will be closed for about six weeks, Wagner said, aiming for a potential reopen date of Sept. 28. There is a possibility that its bar could reopen sooner. Wagner is working with the city of Wauwatosa to open its bar, without food service, in time for TosaFest, the annual community festival that kicks off in the village on Sept. 5. But the time in between will be spent rebuilding, restocking and bolstering a community that's been rocked by this unprecedented flooding. "Of course, it's an incredible business impact. But our hearts really go out to the residents and homeowners. What's happened in their basements and what they're going through has got to be incredibly challenging,' Wagner said. "We see this happen all over the country, but seeing it firsthand and the power of it was pretty scary.' This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Cafe Hollander Wauwatosa to be closed for 6 weeks due to flood damage
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Milwaukee-area restaurant, bar closures due to flooding include Cafe Hollander and Mothership
Torrential rain in the Milwaukee area over the weekend of Aug. 9 and 10 led to flash floods that damaged area homes and businesses. Here are some area restaurants and bars that are closed temporarily as they repair the damage. Cafe Hollander in Wauwatosa closed temporarily due to flooding Cafe Hollander, 7677 W. State St., Wauwatosa, shared on social media on Aug. 11 that the restaurant is closed for an undetermined amount of time due to damage incurred from flooding of the Menomonee River, which flows alongside the restaurant. 'Our Cafe Hollander – Wauwatosa is getting an unexpected remodel, so we are temporarily closed,' the restaurant wrote on Facebook. Cafe Hollander's locations in Brookfield, Mequon, Milwaukee's east side and Madison remain open, as well as the Lowlands Group's sister restaurant, Buckatabon, located directly across the street from Hollander in the Tosa Village. Buckatabon was not damaged by the flooding, but its main patio remains closed so the city can monitor the pedestrian bridge and river below, the restaurant said in posts on social media. Its State Street patio is open. 'Our hearts are with the Village and everyone affected by the recent floods,' the Hollander post continued. 'Stay strong, Tosa!' The Mothership in Bay View closed temporarily after flooding The Mothership, a corner cocktail bar at 2301 S. Logan Ave. in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood, is closed temporarily after incurring excessive water damage to its basement. 'I have no clue what temporary means but the loss we endured at the hands of the flood Saturday is going to put us out of commission for a while,' owner Ricky Ramirez posted on the bar's Instagram account. According to the post, the bar's basement was flooded 'from floor to ceiling,' destroying equipment, its entire stock of merchandise, rare bottles of liquor and more. 'You name it, we lost it,' the post continued. The bar is located near the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Bay Street, an area of Bay View that saw significant flooding during the Aug. 10 storm. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wauwatosa's Cafe Hollander, Mothership closed due to flooding
