Brookfield's Mr. B's Steakhouse To Reopen For Business Wednesday

BROOKFIELD, WI – Like most restaurant owners that have spent months coping with business-related coronavirus concerns, Paul Bartolotta has been forced to remain cautiously optimistic about what the future holds.

But as the Milwaukee-based restaurateur prepares to reopen his third eatery, Mr. B’s – A Bartolotta Steakhouse in Brookfield – Wednesday night, he does so prepared to do things right. Mr. B’s is the third of Bartolotta’s restaurants to reopen after being closed for months due to the pandemic.

Ristorante Bartolotta, dal 1993 in Wauwatosa reopened in July before Harbor House in Milwaukee reopened on Aug. 20 – both of which provided Bartolotta a template for safely reopening his restaurants in a way that will ensure a safe environment not only for customers but for restaurant staff that have been away from work for months due to the pandemic.

To start, Mr. B’s will be open five nights a week, offering dinner service from 5-9 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday, and will limit reservations to ensure that guests can feel comfortable dining in an environment that has been overhauled to maintain safety protocols and social distancing guidelines.

Guests will be required to wear face-coverings when walking into the restaurant and while addressing wait staff or walking in common areas. Reservations will be limited to 90 minutes and touchless payment and menus will be available.

Guests with reservations after 8:30 p.m. will be able to order wine on a half-off basis.

“We’re just excited to get back to what got us in the (restaurant) business in the beginning, which is making customers happy, firing up those ovens, loading the ovens with wood and cooking all those great steaks,” Bartolotta told Patch on Wednesday.

In preparation for Wednesday’s reopening, Bartolotta said the patio at Mr. B’s has been redone and now offers seating for 65 customers and a fireplace and table linens to create more of a fine dining outdoor experience. Inside, 60 percent of the seating has been removed to allow for proper social distancing and new air filters have been installed as well as other safeguards that have been put into place to keep guests safe, Bartolotta said.

The first two re-openings have provided Bartolotta with a learning curve, which he said has been valuable in not only making sure guests are safe, but that add to the comfort level of restaurant staff members who – like everyone else – have found themselves in a different reality due to the pandemic.

“I think because people have been working from home, they really can’t go to a movie or go to a show or a concert or sporting event, we remain optimistic that one of the last bastions of entertainment will be, ‘Can I go to a restaurant?’” Bartolotta said. “Then it’s up to us to make sure that environment is as safe as possible.

“There’s no such thing as perfect. We have to live with this invisible enemy, but we’ve gone to great lengths to do our very, very best (to make things safe).”

While Bartolotta has been anxious to open more of his 17 locations across the region, he said safety has become his top priority. He said Wednesday that like others, staff members will need time to adjust to a new normal and that their comfort level has been part of his thought process in starting to reopen his restaurants.

That will certainly be the case with Mr. B’s as it relaunches its business in a new way beginning Wednesday night.

“When you do things right, it may not always be easy, but at least, you know you did them right,” Bartolotta said.

“I tell people, ‘We’re going to earn you back.’…In the restaurant business, when you’ve gone dark for three months and (people) have been able to eat to-go and in other places, the moment you don’t think as a restaurateur that you don’t have to earn people back, you are finished…People hold us to a high standard, but we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard.”