Jose’s Blue Sombrero to open Monday in Wauwatosa’s Village
The fourth location of Jose’s Blue Sombrero, in the works for more than a year, will open to the public Monday in Wauwatosa’s Village business district.
It’s taking the place of the Chancery, 7615 W. State St., which closed its Tosa location in January 2017 after 38 years there.
Both restaurant chains are owned by the DeRosa Corp., which also owns Parkside 23 in Brookfield.
The Tosa location of Jose’s has seating on two floors, including a balcony that overlooks the new streetscape in the village. Seating totals about 250.
The restaurant is using the second floor for private parties and overflow seating. It installed a lift for guests using wheelchairs as part of the renovation and remodeling.
Other changes as part of the remodeling:
An old bank vault from when the building housed Wauwatosa State Bank was turned into a tequila cave, which will be used for tequila dinners and samplings. It seats up to 14.
The veranda at the back of the building, which had been a canopied porch overlooking the Menomonee River, was opened up and booths and tables installed. It was enclosed in the 1980s.
Cream City brick walls were exposed.
Joseph DeRosa, owner of the DeRosa Corp., declined to discuss the reasons for the delay in the restaurant’s opening.
But he considered it a blessing, he said, considering that the village’s streetscape construction project was in full swing when the restaurant originally was expected to open last year.
After DeRosa decided to close the Chancery, he wanted to open another restaurant in the village because “Tosa has been a great area since we came here in 1978,” he said, and he was encouraged by the investments in the village.
He cited the recent remodeling of Ristorante Bartolotta and the construction of State Street Station, the retail and residential project by HSI Properties, in which his son, Anthony, is a partner.
The other Jose’s locations are in Fox Point, Brookfield and Racine. The Chancery operates in Mequon, Waukesha and Kenosha.