It was a June day seven years ago that Ray's Wine and Spirits, 8930 W. North Ave. in Wauwatosa, planted its flag in planet beer by opening Ray's Growler Gallery above the store.
Like so many other great things – the top-notch beer bar located a few yards above one of the city's best retail beer selections, known for a great selection of draft-only beers and special brews – closed due to the pandemic.
On Monday, the seventh anniversary of its opening, Ray's Growler Gallery announced that it is re-opening.
On June 30, it will host a grand re-opening event, the details of which will be announced soon.
Just mark your calendar for now to save the date and watch Ray's social media channels for the full pour.
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.
