Fein Brothers, founded in 1929, is one of the city's top purveyors of foodservice and kitchenware for restaurants and retail customers.
Since 1967 it has occupied the original Schuster's building – which Ed Schuster opened in 1884 – at 2001-07 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. I toured the building and wrote this Urban Spelunking story about it a few years back.
Now, co-owners (and cousins) Ben and Todd Minkin have announced that they will open a new state-of-the-art showroom up the street at 2025 N. King Dr. in November.
"The main showroom (at 2007 N. King Dr.) is not owned by us, so the current owners of the building will be looking for a new tenant," says Fein Brothers Marketing Director Jamie Little.
"We do own 2001 N. King Dr. (the original Schuster's building; 2007 was an 1892 addition) which is our equipment showroom and we will keep that building for storage and equipment. The doorways connecting the two buildings will be sealed off."
Fein Brothers is collaborating with Retailworks and Raylyn Contractors and the design and build-out of the new showroom, which will continue to be open to the public.
A week-long grand opening event is expected to take place in December with sales and specials.
"We are very excited to stay in the Bronzeville neighborhood and continue our long-standing history on Third Street" says Todd Minkin.
"We’re in a unique position where we can now design a brand new showroom in an updated building while staying in the same neighborhood we know and love."
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.
