After nearly eight years of service, the Fuel Cafe at 630 S. 5th St. in Walker’s Point has closed. The cafe/restaurant was empty on Monday, and a phone call led to voicemail.
A thread on the Milwaukee subreddit says Fuel “closed for good” on Sunday. On Monday, owner Kristyn O’Laughlin confirmed the closure via OnMilwaukee.
“After much reflection and careful consideration, we have made the incredibly tough decision to close Fuel Café 5th Street,” O’Laughlin told OnMilwaukee. “This decision was not made lightly, and it comes after exploring every possible avenue to continue operations in a sustainable way.”
Leslie Montemurro and Scott Johnson, along with O’Laughlin and Noe Zamora, opened the 5th Street Fuel in March 2017. At the time, the original Fuel Cafe, opened in 1993 and located at 818 E. Center St. in Riverwest, remained. That original location eventually closed in 2020, a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic. (The Riverwest location is now The Daily Bird.) Montemurro and Johnson sold Fuel to O’Laughlin in 2022.
Back in November, CycleTrader included Fuel on its list of “8 of the Best United States Coffee Shops and Cafes for Motorcyclists.”
Milwaukee without a Fuel Cafe. Weird. (The sandwiches, however, remain…)
Want more Milwaukee Record? Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and/or support us on Patreon.
RELATED ARTICLES
• The new Fuel is nothing like the original Fuel, and that’s fine
• “Cory The Riverwest Sandwich Fixer” keeps Original Fuel Cafe favorites alive in his kitchen
• I created a tiny version of Fuel Cafe’s “Buttafuoco” sandwich for some reason
• My unsolicited copycat recipe for Fuel Cafe’s beloved “Buttafuoco” sandwich
• The Daily Bird is open now in former Fuel space in Riverwest
• Comet Cafe and Fuel Cafe Center Street to close “for the foreseeable future”
• Mandatory Milwaukee: Fuel Cafe has specialized in “killer coffee, lousy service” since 1993