Sheenna Kleveno and Michael Taylor are getting married this year. But that’s not the only big project on the couple’s plate. Kleveno and Taylor are also planning on opening a gaming bar—stuffed with card games, board games, video games, tabletop games, and more—in a long-neglected space on Oakland Avenue on the city’s east side.
“We both love to game,” Taylor says. “So we said, ‘Do you want to open a bar? Let’s make a space where people can just come and play games and have a drink and socialize and engage in the gamer community.'”
That space is The Familiar Place, planned for 2856 N. Oakland Ave. Barring an ill-fated months-long stint as a bar called Baccara in 2023, the prime East Side location has been vacant since The Black Rose closed there in 2018. (An adjoining vacant space, formerly Oakland Trattoria, is not part of The Familiar Place.)
Kleveno and Taylor are aiming for an August opening, pending license applications and city approval.
Kleveno is a fourth-generation bartender who grew up in Oshkosh. She moved to Milwaukee about 10 years ago. Taylor studied culinary arts at MATC and subsequently worked in the food service industry for about 15 years. A mutual friend introduced them based upon their shared love of gaming.
“I had worked for Walgreens for 10 years, and I came home one day and was like, ‘You know what? Fuck it. I want to open a bar,'” Kleveno explains. “And he said, ‘Okay, I have the experience. Let’s do it.’ And I was like, ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.'”
Both Kleveno and Taylor cite the gone-but-not-forgotten downtown gaming bar 42 Lounge as one of the inspirations for The Familiar Place. They see their Oakland Avenue venture as a “spiritual successor” to 42 Lounge.
“Before COVID, the only place in town that was a central gathering space for gamers that wasn’t focused on sales of games was 42 Lounge, and then Oak & Shield,” Taylor says. “They didn’t make it through COVID, but we know the concept works.”
The Familiar Place will focus on card and board games, though it will also serve as a bring-your-own-game social space for other geek-friendly pursuits.
“We’ll have card games like Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh!,” Kleveno says. “We’ll have a small board game collection, but you can bring your own board games. Are you looking for a place to have a six-person board game night, but your dorm room isn’t big enough? Come on in, we’ve got the space.
“We want to bring in retro video games like N64, Sega, and Super Nintendo,” Kleveno continues. “We’ll have booths that specialize in that, and in part of the bar we’re going to have a large couch where you can play a Nintendo Switch and do all the motion stuff.”
“We’re going to do Friday night Magic and things like that,” Taylor says. “We’re also going to do tabletop stuff. I plan on running Dungeons & Dragons Adventurers League every other week, and then on opposite weeks another system that’s not as well-known. People can try things like Blades In The Dark, Torg, or Daggerheart.”
The Familiar Place will be an all-ages establishment, serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. On the non-alcoholic side of things, expect a “good mocktail menu” and a “robust selection of craft sodas,” says Taylor. For those 21 and over, expect plenty of themed cocktails, craft beer, and more.
“Like any other bar in Wisconsin, we’re going to have our own custom Old Fashioned that I’ll be bringing from Oshkosh, and a family recipe for a spicy and non-spicy Bloody Mary,” Kleveno says.
So what’s the deal with the name, The Familiar Place? Kleveno and Taylor explain that it has two meanings.
“We’re big cat people. We’re owned by five cats,” Kleveno laughs. “Our oldest one has always been the ‘familiar’ of the family. It loves my 15-year-old daughter, and it was my daughter who came up with the idea to have the cat be a mascot for the bar. So the ‘familiar’ in The Familiar Place represents the ‘familiar’ that is the cat. But it’s also a play on words, because The Familiar Place will be a place to familiarize yourself with and come back to.”
“We want the general vibe of the place to be your mom’s basement when you were in high school, or your dorm room where you used to play games,” Taylor adds. “That’s the kind of feel we want to go for: ‘Yeah, I feel like I’ve been here before.'”
When opened, The Familiar Place would be the second new gaming establishment on the East Side. Old Guard Games, a miniature-focused retail store and play space at 3132 N. Downer Ave., recently celebrated its first anniversary.
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