Baseball has been very, very good to Broken Bat Brewing, which opened its seven-barrel brewery at 231 E. Buffalo St., in the Third Ward, in 2017.
Thanks to a beer brewed with former Brewers hurler Tim Dillard, a partnership with the Lakeshore Chinooks and, above all, sales of its beer at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Broken Bat is moving up the standings and opening a 20-barrel system and an expanded taproom in a much larger space at 135 E. Pittsburgh Ave., in Walker's Point.
Kathy Flanigan reported the news in the Journal Sentinel, adding that professional magician Chris Ragaisis and Jennifer Higgins plan to take over the current Broken Bat space, where they will open a magic-themed brewery called Wizard Works Brewing, focusing on, "classic craft beers, British style beers and German lagers."
According to Flanigan, the two breweries are planning to open just days apart. Broken Bat expects to open April 1, 2020, with Wizard Works following two days later.
Broken Bat – owned by Tim Pauly and Dan McElwee – told the paper that it has supplied the Cubs' home park with 80 cases of Broken Bat beer in cans and another 15 half-barrels.
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.
