A new bar and restaurant called 80 Proof Milwaukee is planned for 782 N. Jefferson St. in downtown Milwaukee. That’s the site of the former Experts Only bar and Barrel Burrito Company restaurant, both of which closed earlier this year.
License applications filed with the city list Kenneth Mays as the sole owner of 80 Proof. Mays opened Five Corners Fish Market at 6016 W. Lisbon Ave. in 2024. We’ve reached out to Mays for more information.
Alcohol would make up 60 percent of 80 Proof’s business, with the remaining 40 percent dedicated to food. Entertainment options listed on the applications include a single pool table, hookah, jukebox, karaoke, and the always popular “patrons dancing.”
A proposed opening date is listed as July 31. Hours are 2 p.m. – 1 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 2 p.m. – 2:30 a.m. on Fridays; noon – 2:30 a.m. on Saturdays; and noon – 12 a.m. on Sundays.
The proposed opening follows the sudden reopening of a nearby bar and restaurant, SportClub. SportClub, along with Experts Only and Barrel Burrito—the two of which shared a kitchen—were initially owned by Mike Eitel’s Caravan Hospitality Group. After their closure in January, a former SportClub manager, Henry Delcid Meza, along with two business partners, filed applications to open “Sports-Club” in the former SportClub, and Burrito Donkey in the former site of Experts Only and Barrel Burrito. Those applications were soon dropped, though they remain in the space’s window.
Then, in April, Delcid Meza and two different business partners, Drew Deuster and JJ Kovacovich of Wild Planet Hospitality Group, filed applications to simply reopen SportClub. Which is now open. Again. Phew.
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