New Javino wine bar may help with Avalon renaissance

Lee Barczak and his wife Jane Schilz plan to open Javino, a concept store and wine bar, in approximately a month facing Catalano Square in the Third Ward at 330 E. Menomonee St. Another Javino location is also planned for Bay View.

Javino will offer wine, craft beer, coffee, and tea on premises plus over 350 kinds of wine for sale, said Barczak. He envisions wine and tea tastings. Small plates of light food including pastries, bread, cheeses, sausages, light sandwiches will also be offered, Barczak said, and the menu will change seasonally.

Each Javino location will employ 15-16 people, Barczak said. The Third Ward location should open first, but the Bay View location will also incorporate a bakery to be operated by Paul Piacentine, whose Piacentine’s Artisan Bread was formerly in the Milwaukee Public Market until last year. The bakery will supply items on the menu at both Javinos and also Sheridan’s Café in Cudahy, also owned by Barczak and Schilz.

Javino is the transformation of the owners’ Sheridan’s Finest Wine and Generous Spirits, a Milwaukee Public Market tenant through December 2008. 

Bay View Javino Location Uncertain

Barczak owns the property at 3056-58 S. Delaware Ave., formerly Calico Cat Antiques. He said the initial thinking was to open Javino in this location, but renewed discussions with banks about potential financing for the Avalon Theatre project have raised the possibility of Javino moving into the Avalon building.

“A couple opportunities have come up to revisit the Avalon building with financing,” Barczak said. “There are some things available that might be helpful.”

In 2005, Barczak purchased the Avalon Theatre-an atmospheric movie house designed by Russell Barr Williamson, completed in 1929, and once struck by lightning. But he has since been unable to secure financing to move forward on the estimated multimillion-dollar project.

Barczak’s original Avalon renovation plan was built upon a business model interlocking three elements-a revamped multi-screen theater, boutique hotel, and high-end restaurant.

“One of the things we’ve learned is banks are very nervous about any hotel concept,” he said.

In 2009, Barczak’s modified plan drops the hotel entirely and substitutes Javino as a moderately-priced restaurant in the Avalon building. The theater could be renovated in a subsequent phase, he speculated. Barczak is currently renting out the apartments on month-to-month leases and hopes to revamp them as apartments.

In downsizing his project, he termed the original vision as “too grandiose.”

Barczak said he recently met with 14th District Alderman Tony Zielinski and city officials, who he said reiterated their support for the Avalon project.

But it all still depends on securing financing. Barczak offered no timelines except that he hopes to learn if financing would actually be available for the revised vision within a month.

“We’re in a stage right now trying to determine how far we would go with that and what would be the chain of events,” Barczak said.

Despite the overall dour financial picture with banks generally reluctant to lend, Barczak pointed to the silver lining that many collapsed deals leave banks looking for really solid business developments. He said the Avalon’s prime location keeps it such a proposal.

He added that pent-up demand has benefited his business at Sheridan’s Café in Cudahy. “I can’t even imagine what the pent-up demand would be in Bay View,” he said.

The city has assessed the Avalon property at $1,119,300.

A Third Place

Regardless of the possibility of it jump-starting the Avalon, Barczak seems optimistic about Javino.

He described the wine bar as not a bar per se but “a relaxation place” or a “third place,” a sociological term referring to informal gathering places away from home and work.

Wine lovers who purchase two or more glasses of wine from the same bottle at Javino will have the option to buy that entire bottle to take home and finish, paying a corkage fee, Barczak said.

At press time, the Javino grand opening was not yet scheduled. It is anticipated to be open 6:30am-9pm Sunday-Thursday; 6:30am-midnight Friday-Saturday. More: sheridanhouseandcafe.com.

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