Despite the fact that it looks from the outside like nothing much has happened at Red Dot, 6715 W. North Ave. in East Tosa, since a fire shuttered it in early May, a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page suggests something is in the works.
"We apologize that no news has come from the RD camp," reads the post, presumably penned by owner Martin Beaudoin.
"We owe the community more frequent updates. Its just that we have been enjoying our time off so much! World Cup at Café Hollander. Libations galore at BelAir Cantina. Late nights at Walters on North. Tons of ice cream at Fro Zone Wauwatosa! Many days on Bradford Beach listening to some new jams by our friend Twan Mack.
"Our goal is to plan something that builds on the momentum we had with Red Dot and activates North Avenue in a unique way. Stay tuned ... and thanks for all of the support and love. We appreciate it more than you know!"
That sounds a bit like a re-think of the bar and restaurant, which opened as the Sherbrooke in 2013 before rebranding as Red Dot just a few months later.
So, I asked.
"We want to keep everything that was great and improve on everything that wasn’t great," was the reply. "We have the opportunity to be a great bar and a great community resource."
In another reply, Beaudoin said, "We have momentum and our hope/goal is to keep it moving forward!"
We’ll find out what that means, specifically, in the coming months, I guess.
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.
