Tony Wojtecki, co-owner of The Bottle, 1753 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., is pretty certain that prior to a month ago, his bar had the worst bathrooms in the city.
"The absolute worst," says Wojtecki, who's owned the bar for 16 years with co-owned Jennifer Heinen.
When forced to shutdown due to COVID-19, Wojtecki had a list of projects he wanted to tackle, but the abominable bathrooms were at the very top. Thus, he gutted both the men's and the women's room and replaced the toilets, stalls, vanities, sinks and countertops with new, upgraded versions of what had been there. He also replaced the fluorescent lighting with softer light sources.
He did, however, keep a few things in the restrooms for the sake of history.
"I left the urinals. Apparently, they are among the oldest, if not the oldest, urinals in the city," says Wojtecki, who even had a plaque made to honor the antiquated receptacles.
After removing the old wall coverings, Wojtecki also found a couple of historical gems behind the drywall. In the men's room, he found a man's name and the date January 9, 1934 carved into the original plaster, so he kept it exposed. In the women's room, he found a mural of a woman from when the bar was the goth bar, The Sanctuary, until the late 1990s.
"I had to keep it," says Wojtecki. "It's part of the bar's past."
Aside from getting brand new bathrooms, The Bottle also has new flooring, a new bar face (with technology ports), a repaired ceiling and – thanks to the removal of a massive, broken, ancient air conditioning unit – more space for social distancing and darts.
The Bottle will celebrate its 16th anniversary in July and Wojtecki says the mandatory shutdown allowed him the time to complete projects he wasn't even able to begin during the past decade a half.
"It was definitely a silver lining," he says.
Should Wojtecki celebrate his hard work and the reopening of his bar, there's plenty of space for safe hanging out. The Bottle has four large areas indoors plus outdoor seating. And any celebration at The Bottle will most likely include Malort, a controversial liquer that people either seem to love or hate.
"We've always sold a lot of Malort here," says Wojtecki. "Malort sponsored our 1oth anniversary. It's just one of the many signs that makes this place unique."
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.
