After chasing Heinemann's around town, the local restaurant chain has bailed on us. Back to square one for breakfast, I guess.
When we lived on the East Side and worked Downtown, we frequented the Whitefish Bay and Downtown (US Bank Building, Milwaukee and State) Heinemann's locations. Before that, when I was working Downtown in the '80s, I'd stop at the original place on Milwaukee Street.
When we moved west, we dined often at the Mayfair Road location. When that closed, we relocated to 76th and Bluemound, which has lately become a regular breakfast spot for us.
Today, Heinemann's -- founded Downtown in 1923 -- announced it's shutting all its locations, leaving us not only without grilled coffee cake, but also without oatmeal pancakes and turkey sausage.
Last week, we tried Bluemound Gardens for the first time and maybe that will become our spot -- there's always Ted's, which we like, too, but it's hard with a toddler on busy weekend mornings.
It's just too soon to tell.
And without my bottomless cup of coffee, I'm in no state to make that kind of decision.
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.
