Pizza Man will reopen, but almostcertainly at a new nearby location “so we can get back and running as quick aspossible,” said co-owner Deanna Amidzich, who already has a potential spot ortwo in mind.
“We were lucky, since we were able tosalvage quite a bit from our restaurant,” Amidzich said. “We were able to savethe bar and some booths and the arch above the bar. We’re hoping that if we canget the smoke smell out of it, we can do kind of a marriage of the old locationand the new location.”
It will likely be quite a bit longeruntil the charred property at the corner of North and Oakland avenues is rebuilt, though. Withinsurance and mortgage issues unsettled and zoning questions unanswered,officials estimate it will be at least a year until that prominent strip isredeveloped.
A Growing University
The Pizza Man fire follows a decade oftransition for the North Avenuearea. Columbia St. Mary's Hospital unveiled ambitious expansion plans. Afteryears on the wane, the quirky Prospect Mall shuttered. A towering Whole Foodsarrived in 2006. Condos have given the
neighborhood new density.
By far the biggest change in the area,though, has been the greater presence of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
After UWM created a real estatefoundation in 2005 to scout properties for student housing and expedite theirdevelopment, dorms began sprouting quickly. The Kenilworth Square Apartments,an upperclassmen complex at the corner of Farwell Avenue and Kenilworth Placethat holds 330 students, was first, opening in 2006, followed in 2008 by the475-student RiverView Residence Hall just west over the river. The area willreceive its thirdand biggestshot of students this fall, when the 700-studentCambridge Commons building opens on North Avenue just east of the river. Thecomplex will include a university-run coffeehouse and retail space.
“UWM is no longer the commuter college itwas 10 or 15 years ago,” said UWM Real Estate Foundation President DaveGilbert. “There’s now enormous demand for student housing, with 90% of our freshmenrequesting it, but each year we turn away thousands of students from residencyhalls because we can’t meet that demand. The foundation test-marketed potentialareas with student focus groups, and we found this was the area students mostwanted to live.”
It’s easy to see why. The neighborhoodhas long been one of Milwaukee’smost vibrant areas, rich with shopping and dining and near parks, bike paths,the river and the lake.
With those amenities, North Avenue was always a destination forstudents, but particularly in the last half-decade it has embraced the studentpopulation as never before, catering to them with a slew of new bars, shops,pizza places and other fast-dining options. The Kenilworth Square dorm, for instance,shares its block with student-targeted chains like Urban Outfitters, AmericanApparel and Toppers Pizza.
“It’s convenient,” UWM senior Jim Tindellsaid of living in the area. “If you want to go out, you have a lot of options.All the bars have their own character, and everything is just a short walkaway, so you don’t have to worry about parking.”
Tindell, a film studies major, believesthe area has become a selling point for the university.
“I do freshman orientation, and a lot ofincoming students are excited about all the restaurants and bars around here,”Tindell said. “It’s something a lot of them are aware of before they even movehere.”
Frank Vitucci, a third-generation managerof the 75-year-old Vitucci’s lounge on North Avenue, said the change in theneighborhood’s demographics is unmistakable.
“I’ve been managing Vitucci’s for threeyears, and just in that time we’ve seen the crowd has become younger, morevibrant and hip,” he said.
That crowd is bigger than ever, too.
“We never used to even open our back baron Thursday nights; now it’s one of our busiest days of the week,” he said.“We’re full staffed five to seven days of the week now.”
Night Versus Day
District 3 Alderman Nik Kovac, whorepresents the East Side, said that UWM’sgreater prominence has been a boon for business in the area, though the growthhasn’t been seamless.
“We’ve seen a lot of new businesses openup, which is a good thing, but the question is does North Avenue have the right balancebetween night activity and day activity?” Kovac asked. “It’s a greatentertainment district, better than Water Street, but the night-life amenitieshave become more visible than the daytime ones, and we want a balance.”
Kovac said the greater emphasis ondaytime businesses is particularly important since so many of the incomingstudents aren’t of legal drinking age, and because too much night life couldscare away potential older residents. There are already tensions between UWMand its neighbors closer toward campus over student house parties.
“I wouldn’t want North Avenue to be considered exclusivelya student-life district,” Kovac said. “You want to have businesses that appealto students, like bookstores, grocery stores and convenient, fast, affordablefood, but you also need to have small businesses, a little bit of fine diningand first-run movies, like the Oriental Theatre is currently offering. I thinkyou can do it all.”
Lynn Sbonik, co-owner of Beans &Barley, an independent natural-food store and restaurant on North Avenue since 1979, is more worriedabout the changes.%uFFFD
“When we first moved into the area it wasa really nice assemblage of really small, individual-owned businesses and acouple bigger businesses,” Sbonik said. “I think the trend, thoughand it’sdriven by real estateis that there are more national businesses coming in. Forcertain people, that’s a real coup for the neighborhood. For me, it’s a mix. Weused to know the owners of all the businesses here when we began in 1979, butthat’s not the case anymore.”
Sbonik fears that independent stores are beingpriced out of the area.
“One of the things we loved about thiscity is those small, funky stores,” Sbonik said. “I hope we can maintain thosesweet little spots. I’d like to see this be a street where people can afford toopen a small store.”
Many of the area’s used book and recordstores have closed over the past decade, as have some of the music venues thatonce made North Avenuea countercultural hub, including The Globe and Thai Joe’s. As college barsdominate the area’s night-life scene, North Avenue has ceded its reputation for live music toother neighborhoods, like Riverwest and Bay View.
Like a lot of Milwaukeeans who now preferto frequent those neighborhoods, Ryan Schleicher considered the East Side an artistic hotbed a decade ago, but says thearea no longer has much to offer him.
“I still take in shows at the Orientaland eat and shop at Beans & Barley, but never do I plan an entire North Avenueevening,” he said. “The personality of North Avenue just doesn't appeal to memuch anymore.”
A Nice Middle Ground
As executive director of theneighborhood’s Business Improvement District, Jim Plaisted pushes back againstthe notion that North Avenueis a student-dominated district.
“We want to highlight that anyone can dobusiness here,” Plaisted said. “Businesses like Beans & Barley and Alterrashow the types of people you can attract to this area that aren’t juststudents. Whole Foods didn’t pick this neighborhood as its only southeastern Wisconsin location for the student population. This isdemographically one of the most diverse areas in the city. There are older,single family homes just to the east of us, and we have over 30,000 peopleliving within a square mile.”
Plaisted said the neighborhood is beingsmart about the businesses it attracts.
“Before Urban Outfitters came in, we wentto some of the smaller clothing boutiques and asked, ‘Is this a threat?’ andthey said, ‘No, it can’t open soon enough,’ because it will draw in moretraffic,” Plaisted said. “The other thing we’ve always communicated is thatwe’re not looking for national food. Milwaukeedoes both affordable and upper-end restaurants better than anyone else. One ofthe biggest surprises we have down here is a wide array of local restaurants,and we want to keep it that way, though places like Toppers do sometimes slipin, since you can’t totally control the marketplace.”
Though there’s no consensus on exactlywhat the right balance should be, everyone in the area seems to agree that North Avenue needsa mixture of student and non-student businesses, including students themselves.
MilwaukeeArea TechnicalCollege student Dana Heitmanpreviously attended school in Madison,where “the whole city felt like one big campus.” He said he’s much morecomfortable living on North Avenuebecause it has student amenities but feels like a real city.
“I like the cafés and restaurants,” hesaid. “The whole area just has this really relaxed atmosphere. It’s a nicemiddle ground between the city and the university. You don’t have to be solelyassociated with one or the other. You’re not just a Marquette person, or a UWM person. You’rejust an East Sider.”
