Surely by now, after 88 years, almost everyone knows Bryant’s Cocktail Lounge, 1579 S. 9th St., history you can read about here.

But recently, owner John Dye stumbled upon a bit of Bryant’s hazy history.

In social media posts, Dye shared a photo of a matchbook advertising “Bryant’s Central Rafters” at 2218 W. Wells St.

“I discovered a fascinating piece of Bryant history,” he wrote. “For years, I had heard rumors of a second Bryant’s location, established by second owner Pat Malmberg with the Dimiceli family, who owned the beloved steakhouse Rafters on South 27th.

“Shirley Lafferty, our manager for over 45 years, once told us it was called ‘Bryant’s Rafters’ – although it didn’t last long. Despite our searches, we could never find any evidence of this short-lived second place. But then, I found this Rafters matchbook.”

Digging through the papers, I discovered that the place probably operated from early 1975 until that fall, before reverting to its previous name of Top O’ the Town (aka Top-Of-The-Town),

According to Malmberg’s daughter Patti, “Pat had worked for Frank (Dimiceli) at Top of the Town on Wells Street in 1957 and they remained lifelong friends.”

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During its short run, the partnership advertised an all-you-can-eat chicken fry on Wednesdays and Thursdays and an AYCE fish fry on Fridays.

Both included appetizers, potato pancakes, fresh Italian bread and butter, and while the $2.95 fried chicken came with macaroni salad, the fish fry (at the same price) also had potato salad.

When the restaurant opened, the earliest advertisements noted that it specialized in Italian and American cuisine. “Our tenderloins and ribs are prepared with care and charcoal roasted to your specifications.”

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Dye says Lafferty, who died in 2023, recalled that Malmberg “hated to spread his attention between two places.”

He adds, “I think the most interesting part of the history is before Bryant, when it was an upscale supper club in a little building on the near west side. The mom and pop clubs were such a unique thing.”

It’s true that the 1888 Queen Anne building, which had a retail box added to the front — all of which is long gone — had a long history of taverns and restaurants dating back even after the end of Prohibition.

In the early 1930s, the commercial space in the building housed one of the multiple locations of Economy Cleaners. When Repeal arrived in early 1933, George W. Schmitz applied for a tavern license but was denied, along with seven other applicants, because their locations were either too close to a church or school, or because they planned to opens to a second floor or a basement. At that time the Common Council only issued licenses for ground floor taverns.

Interestingly, one of the others denied that day was Joseph Dimiceli, who wanted a license for his place at 429 N. Jackson St. from the Third Ward.

However, the following April, Schmitz’s Club Cafe was opened, run by his son Phil.

(Side note: Around the same time the original license application was denied, Schmitz’s wife, Lucille, was wielding a shovel pioneering a brewery co-op on Milwaukee’s south side. You know I’ll be looking into that to find out more a lot. .Stay close.)

For the rest of the 1930s, the place was called the Balcony Club Cafe, and in the early 1940s it was run by Sidney Leet and Erich G. Bendler, whose license was revoked when Leet was accused of serving a minor. girl. However, the testimony about her age was found to be incorrect and the license was restored.

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However, on December 31, 1946, the “recently remodeled Top O’ the Town cocktail bar – food served” hosted a grand reopening, and it appears that by this time it was already owned by Dimiceli and, for a time, perhaps a partner on name Aaron Peckarsky.

Born in Italy, Dimiceli came to America and settled first in Chicago, where he opened a bar and restaurant in 1918. Three years later he arrived in Milwaukee and opened a place on Detroit Street (now St. Paul Avenue).

In 1927, it moved to the 429 N. Jackson St. space. for which he was denied a tavern license in 1933.

In 1960, Dimiceli opened the Rafters cocktail lounge, restaurant and motel at 7228 S. 27th St. in Oak Creek with his son Frank and operated concurrently with Top of the Town for many years despite the elder Dimiceli’s passing. 1963.

By 1973, with the Dimiceli matriarch still living upstairs, the family leased the Top O’ the Town space to Frank Trovato Jr., who opened an Italian restaurant.

At the same time, the Dimicelis also owned a bar called the Beverly Club at 2111 W. Wells St.

Trovato had experience working for Sally Pipia, first at her location at 431 W. Michigan St. in the 1960s. When that location was destroyed by fire, Pipia brought Trovato to her new place in the Knickerbocker Hotel.

Trovato’s Wells Street restaurant only had 36 seats, and when his “high-end” Italian joint became a Milwaukee hotspot, Trovato — who cooked alongside his mother Angelina — needed more space. That led him to move in late 1974 to 1550 N. Farwell Ave., where he leased from Frank LaGalbo the restaurant that Chico’s had vacated for the space that now houses Elsa’s. (Read more about it here.)

This is when the Bryants/Rafters experiment hit the scene. After its brief run, the space reverted to the name Top O’ the Town, continuing to serve food including a fishcake, homemade lasagna and spaghetti with sausage.

The last ad was in 1982 – by which time it had become Talk of the Town – and it would appear that the building fell not too long after that, although I don’t know exactly when.

Meanwhile, The Rafters held on until 2010, when it closed for good, despite suggestions it might reopen.

It would be great to know more about this short but interesting partnership, so if you know anything about it, please email me.

In the meantime, Dye will cherish the matchbook, which, he says, “opens a wonderful window into our past.”

Patti Malmberg’s commentary also opens a window…

“For as long as I can remember, you also know about the Live A Little club that Pat and his friend Kenny Johnson ran at the Stadium Club in West Milwaukee? Most of the members were clients of Bryant’s or the Stadium Club.

“Two or three times a year, Pat and Kenny would charter planes through United Airlines and fly to Vegas on a Monday and come back on a Thursday. Club members received their flight and hotel as a package. That was in the late ’60s and early ’70s.”

Adding that to the to-do list as well.