{image1} Less than a year after Rudolph Valentino's restaurant opened on Brady Street, it faded to black, but recently, two of the three owners reintroduced the establishment as Club 728.
"We decided to change the name, bring the prices down, add live music and create a friendlier atmosphere," says Susanne Oliphant-Browning, who had been a silent partner with Rudy Valentino and Dominic DiSalvo in Rudolph Valentino's.
Valentino, who is the great-grandson of the Latin actor, is no longer involved in the venture. "We had a parting of ways," says Oliphant-Browning, who also owns East Shore Mortgage with DiSalvo.
Oliphant-Browning and DiSalvo, who formerly owned Café DiSalvo on Milwaukee's East Side, reevaluated Valentino's menu. They kept a few of the dishes but also added less expensive choices like salads, sandwiches and a Friday fish fry. Valentino's prices hovered around the $18 mark, but on average, Club 728's are about half of that, with the most expensive item priced at $14.
Drinks are also more affordable, according to Oliphant-Browning.
Club 728 will feature local, live music five nights a week, including D'Amore singing Frank Sinatra covers every Tuesday and Christopher's Quartet on Fridays. Oliphant-Browning says there are about 10 other bands scheduled to rotate and that many will have a wireless microphone and roam around the restaurant, both inside and outside on the patio during the summer months.
{image2}The new venture is going for a '30s and '40s nightclub feel, and has changed its appearance. Whereas Rudy Valentino's décor was primarily based on the actor, the new look is "3D and more music-oriented."
Club 728 will also feature happy hours, sporting events and will stay open five nights a week until bar time. According to Oliphant-Browning, customers often complained that Valentino's closed early, something she guarantees will not happen at her new club.
She also says that the complaints she overheard at the bar are what led her to make changes to Rudy Valentino's.
"I would sit quietly at the bar sometimes and listen to what people were saying. Many said the bar was too novel. I want Club 728 to be more than a place to go for a birthday or an anniversary, rather a place where people come in weekly to relax and listen to good music."
Club 728 is open Tuesday-Saturday, from 5 p.m.-bar time.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
