Lost Whale owners (or “taskmasters” as their business cards say) Daniel Beres and Tripper Duval chose their quirky namesake from an online April Fool’s fake news story that purported that a tribe of whales had been found living in Lake Michigan.
“It was amazing, and I was laughing the entire time I was reading it. And then as you do when you’re on Facebook, you start to read the comments,” Duval explained.
Some of the comments talked about how funny the story was, but others were left by gullible people who had fallen for the story hook, line and sinker. A Facebook group dedicated to the topic still discusses the fictional whale story, and the odd joke resonates with Duval and Beres.
“We’re both a little dumb but we like to have fun,” Duval said as Beres broke into laughter next to him. “Plus, we’re right by the beautiful lake so it all sort of makes sense—the name just clicked in my head one day.”
After weeks of long hours reworking the space on S. Kinnickinnic Avenue that formerly housed Boone & Crockett (which recently moved to a new location), Lost Whale celebrated its grand opening. Beres and Duval say Lost Whale will be “cocktail-centric” but they’ll specialize in “fast craft” drinks.
“Some people aren’t into watching their bartender pour seven ingredients into a drink and waiting 10 minutes for it, me being one of them,” Beres explained. “Some people love that show and we’ll still give it to them if they want. ‘Fast craft’ is a term being thrown around a lot and used in the industry now, so we have a cocktail tower with four tap lines dedicated to just cocktails and other things on our menu we are going to batch as much as we can. One, two touch cocktails with garnish and put them out quickly.”
Although Lost Whale is trying to distinguish themselves as not simply being a repeat of the building’s former tenant, Boone & Crocket, they admit the former bar “hit the nail on the head” by having a food truck on their back patio. After numerous discussions, they struck a deal with Iron Grate BBQ, who offers a menu of barbecue, seafood and vegetarian options. After this season, you can expect to see new seasonal food truck residencies on the back patio.
Another major goal for Beres and Duval—and one that will make whale lovers everywhere happy—is a conscious effort to run an eco-friendly business.
“We are two people who very much care about our community, our natural resources—I have a 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter, I want to make sure the planet is in acceptable enough condition for her,” Duval explained. “We’re going to strive to make as little impact as we can. When we have opportunity through events or cocktail sales or whatever it is, we’re going to be working with charities in the area.”
“Keeping our footprint on environmental impact as low as possible has been one of the biggest things for us,” Beres added.
Lost Whale is located at 2151 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Their website is lostwhalemke.com.
