More restaurants close
AJ Bombers, Smoke Shack shut down for good at The Mayfair Collection.
AJ Bombers and Smoke Shack Express have permanently closed at The Mayfair Collection in Wauwatosa.
“We temporarily closed all of our spaces during COVID and just had to make business decisions without an understanding of the timing of this and when we can get back to full service at full capacity with all of our restaurants,” said Maddie Seymour, director of marketing and sales for Democracy Hospitality, which operates AJ Bombers, Smoke Shack and three other restaurants in Milwaukee. “So it just, unfortunately, was one of the decisions we had to make.”
Hospitality Democracy opened the original Smoke Shack in the Third Ward in 2012 and the original AJ Bombers on Water Street in downtown in 2009.
In 2016, the group brought AJ Bombers and Smoke Shack, along with Holey Moley Coffee + Doughnuts, to The Mayfair Collection, which features stores, restaurants and apartments at West Burleigh Street and Interstate 41.
Holey Moley’s original shop opened in the Third Ward in 2014.
Wauwatosa’s Holey Moley closed in fall 2018 to make room for an arcade space at AJ Bombers. In February of this year, Wauwatosa’s Smoke Shack switched from table service to counter service for speedier restaurant visits.
The Milwaukee locations of AJ Bombers and Smoke Shack will remain open, as well as the restaurant group’s other ventures, Onesto and Blue Bat Kitchen & Tequilaria.
Seymour said the downtown restaurants have had “a really strong response” as they’ve reopened for curbside pickup and dine-in.
The only downtown Hospitality Democracy eatery that hasn’t reopened yet is Holey Moley, she said, due to the size of the kitchen space and number of employees. A reopening date has not been set yet.
“We just want to make sure we’re really comfortable with the safety of our staff,” Seymour said. “That’s our first priority.