Busby's, a new pub on the southern end of Bay View, is set to open this week.
After receiving final approvals from the City of Milwaukee Tuesday morning, the new bar, which occupies the former Romans Pub, 3475 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., will open to the public at 3 p.m. on Friday.
A soft opening will be held in advance.
I stopped by this week to see the work that the Zellermayers have put into the place, which had been owned by the late Mike Romans since 1978. Romans died last July at the age of 69.
The Zellermayers purchased the property in March and named their new bar after one of their three dogs, a pitbull who is named in honor of famed Manchester United manager Matt Busby.
A full Urban Spelunking story, including the history of the building, a look around at the place and a chat with the Zellermayers will appear here at OnMilwaukee in the coming days.
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.
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