The funky little empty retail space on Oakland and North that was meant to house The Quick Cup drive-up coffee shop, will begin to earn its keep as the home of Milwaukee Mini-Donuts.
Owner Lars Wicklund has signed a three-year lease for the modern space, according to Jim Plaisted, Executive Director of the East Side Business Improvement District #20.
"We are excited to have a unique business like Milwaukee Mini-Donut at our signature corner," Plaisted says. "We know that Lars will be extremely successful here. With the opening of the bike ramp this spring, our vision for the corner as an exciting gateway to the neighborhood is taking hold and we couldn't be happier."
Although there were snags, namely some last-minute changes to the lease's legalese and Wicklund must still face the zoning commission since the operating plan differs from that of the Quick Cup, for which the space was designed.
"I'm very excited that we have found an appropriate and, hopefully, popular use for the bus stop/kiosk building at North and Oakland," says Ald. Michael D'Amato. "I hope that many a donut fix is satisfied at this new location. All we need now is a good old fashioned newsstand on the corner and we'll be cooking with gas."
But in the meantime, the "for lease" signs have come down and Wickland plans to replace them with "opening soon" announcements.
The current building -- and an accompanying bus shelter (a second shelter across the street was later added) -- was built in 2001 to replace an old Fotomat building that was home to The Quick Cup. However, the coffee business decided against reopening in the space, which has been vacant since its completion.
Stay tuned for more news as it becomes available.
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.
