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Yahoo
3 days 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
3 days 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
6 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Kayaker rescued from Menomonee River; City of Wauwatosa moves to damage assessment
The City of Wauwatosa's first responders rescued a kayaker from the dangerously high Menomonee River on Aug. 11 following what's been classified as a 1,000-year flooding event, Wauwatosa Fire Chief Jim Case reported at an Aug. 12 media briefing. After the person's kayak flipped, they grabbed onto debris from the floods until they were rescued, Case said. The city urges residents to heed all closures and barricades. Wauwatosa first responders made 'numerous life-saving rescues' and responded to over 200 weather-related calls in the first 18 hours of the flash flood event, Case said. "At the peak, resources were tapped," Case said. No serious injuries or fatalities were reported in the city. 'Our crews did an amazing job responding,' Case said. After a slight delay caused by the removal of fallen trees from early morning storms, as of Sunday morning, the city has moved to damage assessment efforts on business, public property and private property. Hart Park experienced significant flooding and is closed to the public until further notice. Although the park is designed to act as a floodwater storage area for the Menomonee River, it took on significant damage, David Simpson, director of Public Works, reported. The closure includes all public traffic on, near or around the Rotary Stage, the playground and trails, because the area is a safety concern, according to the city. Additional closures in Wauwatosa include: Menomonee River Parkway at Charles Hart Parkway 70th Street at Menomonee River – Expected to be long-term 72nd Street at Hart Park Harwood Avenue at Dewey Avenue Pedestrian bridge at Menomonee River Find information on clean-up and recovery resources in Wauwatosa here. Liliana Fannin is a 2025 summer intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covering the Milwaukee suburbs. She can be contacted at lfannin@ This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kayaker rescued from Menomonee River in Wauwatosa Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Wauwatosa residents helped neighbors, family evacuate as waters rose in weekend storm
Wauwatosa residents along Menomonee River Parkway hauled soaked carpets, boxes of memorabilia and soiled furniture out to their curbs Aug. 11, parsing through belongings to see what they could salvage following the weekend's historic flash flooding. The river waters rose quickly overnight Aug. 9, forcing homeowners in the area to evacuate with the help of family or by rescue boat. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel spoke with some residents who live on the parkway near West Burleigh. Meteorologists calculated that the two-day storm caused a 1,000-year flood, meaning that there was a 1 in a 1000 chance of it occurring in any year. A box of baseball cards Eric Truss had collected over the last few years sat on his driveway as he and his wife Karly brought items out of their basement the afternoon of Aug. 11. They sheltered with Eric's mom in West Allis Aug. 9, and returned home to water that had risen to their basement ceiling and up the stairs. They had the basement's power turned off before going down to assess the damage. Computers, desks, a washer and dryer were among the belongings in the muddied basement that were wrecked in the storm. A homemade Father's Day card from the couple's 4-year-old child sat on a table. By the light of a phone flashlight, Karly could see the couple's wedding book on the muddy, wet floor in one basement corner. "No more feeling sad about a book of pictures," Karly said a moment after seeing the book. The one thing Eric wanted to recover? His wedding ring, which was somewhere in the wreckage, he said. "We'll find it," Karly told him. Son rescues his 84-year-old mother from flooding A few doors down, the children and granddaughter of 84-year-old Janet Mazzone were busy removing soaked carpets from the first floor rooms in hopes of avoiding mold growth. Her son Donald Mazzone helped his mom escape from the rising waters around their home in the early hours of Sunday, Aug. 10, but not before he himself almost nearly got trapped in his downstairs bedroom. Mazzone woke up around 1 a.m. to the sound of water flowing and came upstairs to tell his mom they needed to leave. "The basement's flooding again, like it did in '97," he remembers telling her. They quickly learned they had much less time to leave than they had during the last historic flood they'd experienced. Mazzone grabbed his wallet and phone and realized he needed to go back downstairs into the basement for the medicine he takes for his high blood pressure. He returned downstairs to about an inch of water and his wardrobe that held his medicine turned over in the pool of it, he said. "My medicine was floating away from me, and I was able to grab a couple bottles," Mazzone said. Then the room's egress window, which is meant for a safer exit in case of emergencies, broke from the pressure of the water outside, and more water flooded into the room. He tried to open the door to leave, but it wouldn't budge. "I was trapped," he said. The water kept rising, first up to his knees and then to his waist. Mazzone climbed through the window and went back into the house through the front door to help his mother evacuate through the back of the house. She pointed her son toward a small gap in the backyard fence, and they squeezed through it to get to safety up the hill on West Argonne Drive. Carrie Mazzone, Donald's sister, said her mom lived in the home for decades with her dad Robert Mazzone until he passed away June 1. Her dad canceled the home's flood insurance after being told one too many times that a flood like the one that brought basement damage in 1997 wouldn't happen again, Carrie said. Even as the siblings cleaned out the damaged house, signs of their dad remained. A picture he proudly photoshopped of himself as the pope was hanging on the fridge. His favorite recliner chair that he would sit in every day was wet, but still in the living room. "He loved his chair, I'm hoping we can save it," Carrie said. The Mazzone family called 211 to submit a damage report. Every company they've called to do recovery work is busy, Carrie said. Felt 'like watching 20 years of hard work disappear in 20 minutes' It was around 3 a.m. Aug. 10 when Latasha, Derek and their 21-year-old daughter Taniya Dula decided they needed to evacuate their home along the parkway. Their next-door neighbor, who is in her 80s, called to alert them that the homes were surrounded by about a foot of water. They looked in their basement and found it completely submerged. "All the water was up to the ceiling in the basement," Taniya said. "We just saw all our stuff floating." Derek jumped into action, helping his wife and daughter remain calm and grab the essentials ― passports, IDs, and money. They left through a window and got to safety. But their elderly neighbor was still in her home. They called 911 to help get her evacuated, and rescue crews came through on a boat. They attempted to get her out twice, but she was scared to get in the vessel, Latasha said. "I can't leave her," Derek said. He went back into the flood waters and drove a Jeep Wrangler over to pick her up himself. The car itself was filled with water, and the pair drove through flood waters and across neighbors' lawns to safety. They then took their neighbor to a hotel nearby. The Dulas' first floor was damaged along with the basement, where they spent much of their family time. When Taniya returns to college in the fall, Derek and Latasha will live in their RV while working on fixing up the house. "It's like watching 20 years of hard work disappear in 20 minutes," Latasha said. More: Flood debris pickups, drop-offs and more resources for Milwaukee County and suburbs As they cleared out their homes, residents wondered how much the damage would cost them Like his neighbors, Kevin Knitter wondered how much the damages will cost his family as they brought the contents of his basement and his daughter's first floor room onto his driveway. According to Knitter, he and his wife Katie's home was not located in a floodplain when they bought it, playing a role in their decision not to purchase flood insurance. But the maps changed in 2024, so their home is now technically located on a floodplain. They learned that when they Googled it after the flood. The Knitters evacuated through their front door and onto a rescue boat with their daughter, two dogs and goldfish. Their friend started a Go Fund Me to help offset recovery costs. More: Kayaker rescued from Menomonee River; City of Wauwatosa moves to damage assessment More: Not many people in Wisconsin have flood insurance. Here's what to know about how it works. Gov. Tony Evers declared a state of emergency Aug. 11 after several Wisconsin communities continue to recover from flash flooding and storms from over the weekend. Emergency declarations are made based on damage assessments and the request of local partners, according to the governor's office. That declaration is a major part of the process for the state to receive assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also known as FEMA. To receive federal aid once a state declaration is made, damage must exceed a certain threshold to qualify, which officials are still determining. The City of Wauwatosa is posting updates on its website about the city's recovery efforts. Bridget Fogarty covers Brookfield, Wauwatosa and Elm Grove for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be contacted at bfogarty@ This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'I was trapped': Tosa residents recount rescue efforts during flood Solve the daily Crossword
Daily Mail
10-08-2025
- Climate
- Daily Mail
Biblical flooding in Midwest shuts down state fair, closes airport and leaves residents trapped in homes
Flash flooding slammed parts of Wisconsin on Saturday evening, forcing an airport to close and left residents trapped inside their homes. Torrential rainfall battered the Badger State, with the National Weather Service (NWS) issuing a flash flooding warning for Milwaukee, West Allis and Wauwatosa. Images emerged of flood waters rising over cars in the state, in one clip a man is seen stranded sitting on the hood of a car as fast flowing water passes him. Other videos shared online show streets in the state flooded with rainfall totals exceeding six inches in some parts of the state, the NWS said. Residents near the Menomonee River were reportedly trapped inside their homes in the early hours of Sunday morning after severe flooding swamped the area. Mitchell International Airport said just after 3 AM on Sunday morning that all of their runways bar one was flooded. The brutal storms also forced the Wisconsin State Fair to close early and cancel their main stage performance, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Videos shared of the fairground captured the intense flooding at the event, with locals seen wading their way through high water to the nearest exits. TMJ4 also shared video footage they had of vehicles trapped in the flood waters at the fair. Fair officials announced the closure shortly before 10PM, saying: 'Attention Fairgoers! The State Fair Park is closing. 'Please use caution as you make your way to the nearest exit as safely as possible and follow the directions of the Fair Park staff and police as you exit.' According to the We Energies outage map, around 45,000 customers were without electricity as of Sunday morning. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the highest rain total was 10 inches in Butler. Rain monitors ran by Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District said that over 13 inches had fallen in the 8100 block of W. Florist Ave in Milwaukee. The outlet also reported that streets and creeks were flooded in Milwaukee, with some basements also underwater. Benjamin Sheppard, a meteorologist at the NWS office in Milwaukee, said that those in the city should expect more to come. He said: 'This first round of storms today has been to some extent unpredictable in terms of when and where they'll intensify and how fast they will propagate and move.' The heaviest of the downpours are expected to land on Sunday night. Sheppard added that some fallen trees had been reported in Menomonee Falls. In their latest warning for parts of Wisconsin, issued on Sunday morning, they said: 'At 619 AM CDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. 'Between 3 and 4 inches of rain have fallen. Muscoda and Boscobel had received over 3 inches of rain as of 615 am. 'Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches are possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly.' The NWS urges anyone caught in a flash flood to 'turn around, don`t drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles', they said.
