A bet on Milwaukee pays off for 2 brothers
3 Min Read
Today, The Bartolotta Restaurants encompasses 20 different businesses.The Bartolotta Restaurants
Paul Bartolotta was initially a bit skeptical when his older brother, Joe, called him one day in 1993 and asked for help opening a restaurant in their hometown of Milwaukee.
Paul was already an accomplished chef, having spent more than seven years training in Italy and France before moving to New York, where he helped open the famed San Domenico, and then to Chicago, where he ran the renowned Spiaggia.
He wasn’t sure if he would be able to do something similar in tiny Milwaukee.
“I was like, ‘Joe, I don’t really know if there’s a tremendous market for that,’” Paul recalled.
But Joe, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 60, saw a gap in the city for upscale Italian food, and he convinced his brother to get on board. They opened Ristorante Bartolotta in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa in March of 1993. Specializing in rustic Italian fare in a cozy setting, the restaurant debuted with a 4-star review.
After that, “we were sort of off to the races,” Paul said.
They followed up Ristorante Bartolotta in 1995 with Lake Park Bistro, a larger venue close to Lake Michigan, where they branched into French cuisine. The restaurant has been named one of the country’s most romantic by OpenTable.
From there, they would open a new restaurant virtually every other year, fueled by a pipeline of upstart chefs who worked under Paul at Spiaggia. The group expanded into steak in 1999 with Mr. B’s, pizza with Pizzeria Piccola in 2003, and modern American cuisine with Bacchus in 2004. Harbor House, opened on the lakefront in 2010, specializes in fresh, New England-style seafood, and in 2024, The Commodore transformed a historic hotel and resort in nearby Delafield into a dining and events venue that includes a members-only social club.
Today, The Bartolotta Restaurants encompasses 20 different businesses, including casual and fine-dining restaurants, airport outlets, food halls, and catering venues, all in the Milwaukee area.
Known for their focus on service, quality, and Italian and French cuisines, the restaurants have helped educate Milwaukee palates while also putting the city’s dining scene on the map.
“I realized there’s a real potential here, because of the training and background that I’ve had, [as long as] I don’t go too high-end and overshoot our market,” Bartolotta said. “If the market is going 60 miles an hour and we’re going 65, we will pull people along.”
The group’s reputation extends beyond the city, garnering a long list of national accolades, including multiple Awards of Excellence from Wine Spectator and three Distinguished Restaurants of North America (DIRoNA) honors.
The Bartolottas themselves have been regulars on the James Beard Foundation circuit, earning three consecutive Outstanding Restaurateur nominations from 2017 to 2019. Paul was nominated again in 2020 and has also won two Best Chef awards — in 1994 for his work at Spiaggia and in 2009 for the now-closed Bartolotta, Ristorante di Mare at the Wynn in Las Vegas.
Bartolotta said the secret to the group’s success has been prioritizing its people, with a keen focus on mentorship and career development.
“If you don’t have happy employees, you’ll never have happy customers,” he said. “So fundamentally, we focus our energy on our teams.”
The group has also strived to embed itself in the community via philanthropy and a presence at local events. A number of Bartolotta employees have gone on to open successful restaurants of their own, and Paul was instrumental in bringing Bravo’s “Top Chef” to Milwaukee in 2023, which helped highlight the city’s food scene.
And though Milwaukee is small, Bartolotta sees plenty of opportunity to continue growing here. Next month, the group will open High Stakes, a European-inspired steakhouse, downtown. Bartolotta described it as his “bet on Milwaukee.”
“I love the city. I grew up here. I see this as a growth moment,” he said. “I want to be part of that as best I can. And our hope is that this continues.”
